Thread by @jbendery

Lot of behind-the-scenes activity happening this week on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization.

At long last, a bipartisan Senate VAWA bill was supposed to be introduced today. But numerous people tell me it's now been stalled until early next year.

Angelina Jolie was on Capitol Hill yesterday lobbying Republican senators to support the new bipartisan VAWA plan. Portman and Graham among them.

Dems need 10 GOPers to support a VAWA bill in order to pass it. Really looks/looked like this bipartisan plan was gaining stream.

The last time Congress reauthorized VAWA was 2013.

Its authorization expired 2 years ago.

The House has passed bills to reauthorize it, but it keeps going down in the Senate, where Republicans won't support the House-passed bill or Senate Dems' bill. Or their own bill!

I've been following VAWA for years. The reason Congress has failed to reauthorize it is because some Senate GOPers have opposed new protections 1) for Native women being abused by non-Native men on tribal land 2) for LGBTQ people and/or 3) relating to gun safety.

This time around, the tribal piece looks strong/bipartisan and I haven't heard much about the LGBTQ piece.

The gun safety provision appears to be the hold-up.

The tribal piece used to be such a racist, ridiculous hold-up for VAWA.

I remember some GOP lawmakers all but saying they didn't want to give tribes new jurisdiction to prosecute non-Native men (read: white men) who abused Native women b/c they thought tribes wouldn't be fair.

As in, they suggested that new VAWA protections for Native women would translate to retribution time against white people for all the bad shit the U.S. govt has done to tribes.

Versus just giving tribal courts the ability to prosecute domestic abusers.

Tribal govts, of course, did not take out 400 years of oppression/racism/stolen land on white domestic abusers that landed in their courts.

They just followed the laws. And finally had some ability to crack down on rampant domestic abuse on their land.

As Sen. Lisa Murkowski put it last week in a hearing on expanding tribal VAWA provisions, "The parade of horribles that so many have predicted did not happen."

"Despite all the horror stories, non-Indian defendants experience a Tribal justice system that treats them fairly and perhaps, in some ways, with more attention than the state or federal system," said Murkowski.

Regardless of the never-ending delays on a Senate VAWA bill, the fact that there's bipartisan support for strengthening tribal protections in VAWA is a major sign of progress re: lawmakers understanding/caring about the horrific levels of violence facing Native women.

Anyway, per a Senate Dem aide, the status of VAWA reauthorization for now is 1) bipartisan Senate bill being introduced next month and 2) a possible "discussion draft" coming out today.

Lotta disappointment today among people who have been working on/lobbying for a VAWA bill.

Here's a bit more detail on the obstacles that have prevented a bipartisan Senate VAWA bill from coming together. huffpost.com/entry/violence…