BREAKING NEWS: House Passes Inclusive VAWA

Today, the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan, inclusive Violence Against Women Act as passed by the Senate.

The House of Representatives voted 286-138 to pass the Senate version of VAWA that included protections for students, the LGBT community, immigrants and Native Americans. This came after a bipartisan decision to reject a gutted substitute bill proposed by the House leadership that rolled back the provisions expanding protection.

Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority, said "The House passed by a wide margin (286-138) the strong, bipartisan Senate version of VAWA which was supported by the Feminist Majority and scores of women's rights, civil rights, labor, and domestic violence and sexual assault groups and organizations. ... Women's groups and their allies acted as one and created a massive grassroots lobbying campaign to pass a strong VAWA despite the Republican House leadership opposition. We cannot forget that 138 Republicans and no Democrats voted against final passage of the real VAWA. Nor can we forget those that voted to roll back full protections of VAWA for college students, immigrants, the LGBT community, and Native Americans as well as to weaken of the Office of Violence."

Media Resources: Feminist Majority 2/28/2013; House.gov 2/28/2013

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