House OKs anti-violence against women bill

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans set up a showdown yesterday with the Senate and President Barack Obama over legislation to protect women from domestic violence, a fight that's become as much about female voters this election year as cracking down on abuse.

The House voted 222-205 to reauthorize the 1994 Violence Against Women Act for five years, as the Senate already had done. But big differences remain: Obama, other Democrats and a long list of advocacy groups say the House bill doesn't go far enough to protect abused immigrants, Native Americans or gays. Republicans say their bill does more to protect taxpayers from fraud and maintains the constitutionality of law enforcement procedures on Indian land.

It's unclear whether the differences will be reconciled before the November elections.

A pair of domestic violence survivors who fell on opposite sides of the debate reminded their House colleagues that for them and other abused women it's about far more than politics.

"The man I married had a penchant for drinking and was very violent when he drank," the bill's sponsor, freshman Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) said during floor debate.

Wisconsin Democrat Gwen Moore recalled what it was like to try to press charges against her rapist in the days before the law's passage.

"I took him to court [but] indeed, I was on trial," Moore said. "I had to prove, as a victim, that I was not being fraudulent in my accusations."

In Washington this election year, every issue is pressed for political advantage, even the government's main domestic violence-fighting law twice reauthorized with broad bipartisan support. Women account for the majority of voters in presidential election years and a critical bloc Democrats have tried to maintain in 2012 by accusing Republicans of waging a "war against women." -- AP