Thread by @jbendery

Good morning! ☕️

ICYMI last night: After years of ugly partisan fights and failures, the Senate introduced a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act that could actually pass and become law.

VAWA's authorization expired 3 YEARS ago. huffpost.com/entry/violence…

It’s been an embarrassingly bumpy road for VAWA reauthorization in Congress.

Once upon a time, this was legislation that passed unanimously in both chambers. How can you not support $ and updates to programs credited with stopping violence against women + saving people’s lives?

But it's been 3 years since Congress let VAWA's authorization expire.

That doesn’t mean the 1994 law expired. It means there’s been uncertainty for its grant programs + no ability to update the law with new protections that domestic violence advocates say are badly needed.

The main reason VAWA's authorization lapsed is because most Senate Republicans wouldn't support any bills to address this -- even their own bill.

What finally got GOP senators on board with the new bill?

The bill sponsors stripped out a gun safety provision opposed by the NRA.

This provision would have banned people who have been *convicted* of abusing their dating partners from owning firearms, closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole.”

This was a major concession. Even the bill's 2 GOP sponsors, Murkowski and Ernst, fought to keep it in. No deal.

The trade-off is that this VAWA bill was introduced with 10 GOP cosponsors.

That means it already has the votes to pass.

For the first time in 9 years, Congress looks positioned to get a VAWA reauth bill to the president's desk to be signed into law.
huffpost.com/entry/violence…

It looked like the bill had 9 GOP cosponsors yesterday, but at the very last minute, a 10th one quietly joined.

We see you Richard Burr.

So what's new in here? What are things that domestic violence prevention advocates have been saying are badly needed updates to VAWA?

One update is new jurisdiction to tribal courts to go after non-Native perpetrators of violence on tribal land.

In other words, this bill would expand the ability of tribal courts to go after white men who think they can get away with sexual assault, child abuse, stalking and sex trafficking on tribal land with no repercussions.

This is a serious problem.

Timing of Senate action on VAWA is unclear.

"We’re perilously close to 60 votes," Durbin told reporters yesterday.

He acknowledged the absence of Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), who had a stroke recently. Lujan is expected to return in 4 to 6 weeks. huffpost.com/entry/violence…

Angelina Jolie was the VAWA press conf yesterday. I get that that makes for a good photo opp, but she's actually been working behind the scenes to help move VAWA -- for months.

“There was a Republican cosponsor she helped get on the bill,” one aide told me. Wow.

Jolie, like other speakers, became quite emotional at the press event.

She choked up and ended her remarks by saying, "I want to acknowledge the children who are terrified and suffering at this moment, and the many people for whom this legislation comes too late."

Jolie also had a message to senators listening:

“This is one of the most important votes you will cast this year in the Senate." huffpost.com/entry/violence…

Link to full bill text in that story if you really want to see what senators are doing to update VAWA.

This law has already provided billions of dollars in grants for lifesaving programs.

Rates of domestic violence declined by 50+% between 1993 and 2008 after VAWA became law.