From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/07/biden-and-cantor-in-talks-to-un-stall-violence-against-women-act/
By David Ferguson
Friday, December 7, 2012
Jurisdiction over sexual assaults committed on Native American lands may be the final sticking point in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which has been stalled on Capitol Hill since it expired in September of 2011. According to Huffington Post, Vice President Joe Biden and House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) are meeting in an attempt to re-start negotiations on the provisions that were rejected by House Republicans.
Neither Biden’s nor Cantor’s offices would go on the record saying that talks are underway until Wednesday, when Cantor said in remarks on the House floor that he and the vice president are hopeful of reaching a deal.
“I am speaking with the vice president and his office and trying to resolve the issue of the differences surrounding the VAWA bill,” Cantor said. ”This week I’ve actually been encouraged to see that we could very well see agreement on VAWA, and I’m very hopeful that that comes about. But I am encouraged about the discussions that my office is having with the vice president’s office right now, that bill being a high priority of Vice President Biden.”
The VAWA has historically been an uncontroversial policy that both parties have renewed without incident every 5 years since it was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. In 2011, however, the Act was modified to include protections for undocumented immigrants, LGBT people and women on Native American reservations who are assaulted by non-Native American men.
Republicans balked at the changes and the Act was left to expire. Now, in the wake of stinging defeats in the November elections, particularly at the hands of women and minorities, the GOP may see renewing the VAWA as a way of making inroads with women voters.
Continue reading at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/07/biden-and-cantor-in-talks-to-un-stall-violence-against-women-act/
