House to debate Violence Against Women Act reauthorization

Tuesday, May 15, 2012  

The House is expected to take up H.R.4970, a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act tomorrow, according to the House majority leader's schedule.

The Senate passed the bill by a wide margin last month. However, the version that's being considered by the Republican-controlled House does not contain provisions to restore tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit domestic violence offenses on reservations.

"American Indian women do not have the same protections as non-Indian women. Federal law ... has a large gaping hole in it for abusers who are non-Indian," Diane Millich, an Indian woman whose non-Indian ex-husband was never prosecuted for assaulting her, said at a Capitol Hill briefing, the Associated Press reported.

The Obama administration supports the tribal jurisdiction provisions.

Get the Story:
Native American women seek protections from abuse (AP 5/14)
In Graduation Speech to Women, Obama Leaps Into Gender Gap (The New York Times 5/15)

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