With Senate Democrats poised to pass a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that extends the laws protections to same-sex partners, immigrants, and Native Americans, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is in no hurry to help the Republicans past their less far-reaching alternative.
“We’ll see what the Senate passes today,” she told reporters at her weekly Capitol briefing. “I think if there’s bipartisan support for the Senate version that speaks to why — why would we want to support a bill that we don’t want to have violence against women, except certain women it’s ok…. We want our bill to look very much like the Senate bill.”
Pelosi didn’t go as far as to say Democrats would vote as a bloc against the House GOP bill — in the House, it’s probably the only reauthorization bill that will receive a direct floor vote. But it suggests Dems believe they have the upper hand in the fight, and will press the GOP — hard — to get behind the expanded provisions when House and Senate negotiators meet to iron out the differences between the two measures.
