Vice President Joe Biden pushed for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act which is up for renewal in Congress in an op-ed in McClatchy Newspapers. Biden argues that whereas protecting victims of domestic violence was once considered above partisan politics, today “even that precept is being challenged.”
Biden, who authored the original Violence Against Women Act in 1994, has called it “[w]hat I’m most proud of in my entire career.”
Support for the Violence Against Women Act runs broad and deep. It includes law enforcement, prosecutors, victims’ advocates, faith groups, and Democrats and Republicans alike. So this should be easy – and beyond politics. Instead, the clock is now running out for the more than 23,000 women who call our national domestic abuse hotline every month and for all women who may one day be the victims of violence.
Congress should pass the bipartisan version approved by the U.S. Senate.
I know there are fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans, and I don’t expect those to disappear. But on this issue of basic decency, where there remains so much agreement between us, Republicans and Democrats ought to leave politics at the water’s edge. Because women everywhere are counting on us, and they can’t wait any longer.
As TPM reports today, Senate Democrats have so far rebuffed efforts to by House Republicans to modify the expanded version of VAWA they passed earlier this year.
