Leading women’s organizations?  Sorry – groups that oppose this dangerous legislation include: the U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, National Network to End Domestic Violence, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, Break the Cycle, Legal Momentum, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority, YWCA USA, AAUW, Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, National Women’s Law Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, American Bar Association, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, Human Rights Campaign, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and National Congress of American Indians.

But the Republican rollback of VAWA received a special endorsement today from a group particularly attuned to victims of domestic abuse.

The Huffington Post – House VAWA Bill Picks Up Unhelpful Ally: National Coalition For Men

The House Republican version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, which has been decried by women’s rights groups as a dramatic rollback of protections for domestic violence victims, has picked up the backing of a group that may prove to be an unhelpful ally: the National Coalition For Men.

Talking Points Memo – National Coalition For Men Endorses GOP Version Of VAWA Bill

…the president of the National Coalition for Men, wrote to endorse the House GOP’s VAWA bill over a Senate-passed counterpart that extends the laws protections to same-sex couples, immigrants, and native American women (you can read the full letter here):

“The House has the opportunity to pass H.R. 4970, a victim-centered VAWA reauthorization bill, endorsed by women and men. Those opposing H.R. 4970 loudly assert that VAWA serves all people, which is absurd on its face given the name of the Act. Opposing versions, by omission and lack of specificity, generally exclude men, particularly heterosexual men, regardless of specious arguments to the contrary.”

It’s one testimonial that says it all.

Now is the time for the House GOP to take a cue from their friends across the Capitol and bring the bipartisan, Senate-passed VAWA to the House floor immediately:

Washington Post’s Plum Line – GOP Senator pressures House Republicans on Violence Against Women Act

It’s been widely reported that house Republicans are in a difficult spot over the Violence Against Women Act, at a time when the battle over the female vote has intensified between the parties.

Now, with a high stakes vote on a version of the measure set for later today, things could get a bit harder: A female Republican Senator is joining with Democrats to call on House Republicans to drop their opposition to the Democratic version of the bill, which extends protections to same sex couples.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has added her name to a letter signed by Senator Patty Murray and 11 other Democratic Senators calling on John Boehner to pass the Senate version of the bill, which passed the Upper Chamber already with an overwhelming majority of 68 votes…

The safety and security of American women depends on it.

On Sunday, the delegation met with President Karzai to discuss regional security and stability issues, including reconciliation and reintegration efforts.  The delegation also met with General John Allen, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan and U.S. Forces and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on counterinsurgency operations and the transfer of security responsibilities to the Afghan people.

Leader Pelosi on her visit to Afghanistan:

Sunday marked the third phase of the transfer of lead security responsibility to the Afghan forces.  On every occasion, our delegation stressed the importance of Afghan women being involved in security decisions, especially in light of the upcoming NATO summits in Chicago and Tokyo.

Recognizing the significant role that our troops play in Afghanistan, we were pleased on Mothers’ Day to travel to Helmand and Kandahar provinces to hear directly from regional commanders on the ground and their coalition partners in the most critical areas in Afghanistan.  Our delegation was also honored to participate in a celebration in honor of Mothers’ Day at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province with many mothers serving in our Armed Forces.

Photos from Afghanistan:

President Obama and Congressional Democrats support extending tax cuts for America’s middle class, but Republicans are threatening to raise middle class taxes unless the wealthiest Americans are excused from paying their fair share.

Leader Pelosi already responded last week to Speaker Boehner: “…when we talk about the tax cuts for the millionaires expiring at the end of the year, Democrats are saying we want tax cuts to expire for people making over $1 million a year and that money will be used to reduce the deficit, not to increase spending.  The Speaker has said he wants all of these to be renewed.  We simply cannot afford that.  We cannot afford people making over one million dollars a year to get [more tax breaks].” [Press Conference, 5/10]

This afternoon, Speaker Boehner will try to trick the American people with smoke and mirrors in a speech laying the groundwork for the GOP scheme to protect millionaires by threatening to harm the full faith and credit of the United States government – setting up another manufactured crisis.

House Speaker John A. Boehner plans to demand deep cuts in government spending in exchange for raising the federal debt limit, setting the stage for another tense standoff with Democrats over the soaring national debt…Higher taxes, however, are still off the table, a Boehner aide said. [Washington Post, 5/15]

House Democrats have consistently stood up for seniors, small businesses and the middle class against GOP attacks.  That won’t change with the with the next round of hoaxes from Congressional Republicans.

Wait. What?

From the moment Republicans took charge of the House, they’ve had no shame jeopardizing the health and economic security of middle class families while advancing their ideological agenda that rewards millionaires, companies that ship jobs overseas and Big Oil:

Showering the rich and famous with tax cuts

Jeopardizing the payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans

Raising Costs for Seniors on Medicare in order to give more tax cuts to millionaires

Rolling back critical protections for America’s women

Reducing student loan interest rates only at expense of women’s health

Refusing to vote on a job-creating bipartisan Senate transportation bill  

Threatening a government shutdown

Bringing America to the brink of default

This week it is more of the same as House GOP leaders bring to the floor what they call their bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act instead of the bipartisan Senate-passed version.

Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein put it best when they wrote recently:

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges… [Washington Post, 4/27]

It’s time for the GOP to put aside their extreme agenda to protect millionaires, Big Oil and corporations that ship jobs overseas and work with Democrats to pass legislation to strengthen America’s middle class families and small businesses and protect women, seniors and students.

New York Times – Editorial: Backward on Domestic Violence

In an all-too-rare show of bipartisanship, 15 Senate Republicans joined with the Democratic majority last month to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the landmark 1994 law that is key to efforts against domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.

Unfortunately, the lopsided 68-to-31 Senate vote halted G.O.P. opponents only temporarily. The House Judiciary Committee last week approved its version of the reauthorization bill, which not only omits improvements the Senate bill made to the law but also removes existing protections for immigrant women, putting them at greater risk of domestic and sexual abuse.

The Senate’s measure ensures that victims are not denied services because they are gay or transgender. It also strives to ensure that domestic violence crimes committed by non-Indian men in tribal communities are prosecuted…

The regressive House alternative removes these and other improvements, including new protections for students on college campuses. The House measure would eliminate a confidentiality requirement in current law that protects the identity of immigrant women who file domestic violence complaints against a spouse who is a citizen or legal resident and allows the women to apply for legal status on their own.

House Republicans claim there is a big fraud problem in this area, but there is no hard evidence of that. And their plan to end the centralized handling of these issues by a Vermont-based office would undermine the government’s ability to detect untruthful stories.

House members on both sides of the aisle who are serious about combating domestic violence must work to defeat this atrocious bill…

With the safety and security of women at risk, the time is now for Republicans to end this partisan gridlock.

Voted to begin implementing their out-of-touch budget that puts millionaires ahead of the middle class while ending the Medicare guarantee.

…the Republican-dominated House of Representatives approved, with no Democratic support, a federal budget plan that would slash popular domestic programs while sparing defense. [McClatchy, 5/10]

Blocked a Democratic budget alternative that offers a balanced approach to reduce our deficit and strengthens the middle class.

House Democrats offered an alternative bill that would replace the $109 billion sequester by raising taxes on the wealthy, ending oil company tax loopholes and cutting farm subsidies, but it was rejected. Republicans are determined to protect millionaires and defense contractors, no matter the costs to the country. [New York Times, 5/11]

The Democrats had crafted their own plan, but House GOP leaders wouldn’t allow it to come to a vote, saying the proposal wasn’t in compliance with a House rule. The Democrats would have saved an estimated $116 billion, with more than two-thirds of it coming from higher taxes on millionaires, ending some tax breaks for big oil and cutting agriculture subsidies. The rest would come from spending reductions. [McClatchy, 5/10]

Protected the Congressional pensions of Members of Congress who become lobbyists making more than a million dollars.

Former congressmen now making a fortune in the lobbying industry, take heed: Your government pensions are safe…

House Democrats…failed in an attempt to amend the Republican-backed Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act with language banning ex-members from receiving benefits from either the Civil Service Retirement System or Federal Employees’ Retirement System so long as they worked as registered lobbyists and made $1 million annually from their activities.  [Politico, 5/10]

Jeopardized the bipartisan, House-passed reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank that would create jobs and help keep our nation competitive.

[Leader Harry] Reid accused “the far right, the Tea Party wing” of the Republican party of refusing to cooperate on a bill that traditionally has had bipartisan support and is backed by both business and labor groups. [Reuters, 5/10]

Refused to move forward on the bipartisan Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that passed the Senate, instead passing in the House Judiciary Committee a partisan version that weakens current protections.

Republican leaders in the House have taken a different approach, with the introduction of H.R. 4970, a bill authored by Rep. Sandy Adams (FL-24), that actually rolls back protections for victims of domestic violence… [White House Blog, 5/11]

And, of course, Republicans promised to keep the obstruction streak alive in the coming months by manufacturing another crisis and threatening to raise middle class taxes unless the wealthiest Americans are rewarded.

“The House is prepared to extend all the current tax rates … All,” [Speaker John] Boehner said… [The Hill, 5/8]

When Republicans are finally ready to clean up their track record, Democrats stand ready to work with them to create American jobs, responsibly reduce the deficit, and strengthen the middle class.

[Biggert] said the Adams legislation is cosponsored by almost all other female House Republicans because “leadership wanted the women to do that.”

Just how bad is the House Republican version? Well one group lobbying the GOP to restrict provisions helping immigrant victims of violence employs the president of an “international matchmaking company” who has a history of covering up domestic abuse claims. In fact, the House Republican bill rolls back protections that were created and extended in previous VAWA laws for some of the most vulnerable in our country–the Huffington Post:

The House Republican version of the new Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) would dramatically roll back confidentiality protections for abused immigrant women, make it more difficult for undocumented witnesses to work with law enforcement officials, and eliminate a pathway to citizenship for witnesses who cooperate with police on criminal cases.

In addition to hurting undocumented victims, the House Republican bill also removes key provisions from the bipartisan Senate-passed bill improving protections to Native American women and ensuring all victims are assisted regardless of religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Here’s what advocates for millions of Americans have to say about the GOP bill:

National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women

The National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women, a coalition representing thousands of organizations, service providers, researchers, educators, religious leaders, law enforcement, advocacy groups and victims all across the nation, continues to have grave concerns about this legislation that contains punitive provisions that will harm victims and exclude key communities.

National Network to End Domestic Violence

It weakens or deletes entirely some of the vital improvements in the Senate bill, including the strong provisions that are designed to increase the safety of Native women and the needs of the LGBT community. The bill also contains extremely dangerous provisions that would jeopardize the safety and often the lives of immigrant victims seeking to report crimes by eliminating important confidentiality protections, undermining effective anti-fraud protections, and rolling back years of progress to protect the safety of immigrant victims. Finally, it grows excessive and costly bureaucracy that will divert resources which could be used for victim services.

Human Rights Campaign

This VAWA reauthorization bill is fundamentally flawed and ignores key priorities identified by service providers and victim advocates.

National Organization For Women

The bill imposes cruel new reporting restrictions on immigrant survivors of violence — eliminating confidentiality, putting victims in grave danger and empowering abusers. These provisions would be thrown out if the cases involved legal residents or citizens. Frankly, this second class treatment of women of color smacks of willful ignorance of the problem and hostility toward the victims.

National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project at American University

“This bill is a direct roll back of VAWA laws,” said Rocio Mollina of the National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project at American University. “It fails to protect victims that are vulnerable, that are too traumatized, too scared to report and who face barriers.”

Feminist Majority

Before the Cantor/Adams bill, VAWA Reauthorization legislation, ever since it first passed in 1994, has always expanded coverage and services for the purpose of reducing violence. This is the first time a VAWA bill has been approved that narrows or restricts protections.

Instead of punishing women and victims of assault, House Republicans should bring the bipartisan Senate bill—which passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 68-31—for a House vote immediately.

Republicans are standing on the wrong side of history. Just yesterday, a Republican-backed amendment to ban same-sex marriage passed in North Carolina. Here in the House, Republican leaders refuse to bring up a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act that includes critical domestic violence protections for the LGBT community, and they are using taxpayer funds to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act in court. These actions only serve to advance fundamental unfairness in our society.

Throughout American history, we have worked to live up to our values of liberty and freedom, and to end discrimination in all of its forms. Today, we took another step forward in our march toward equality.

H.R. 4970, the “Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2012″, seeks to reauthorize certain grant programs while simultaneously undermining the safety of some of the most vulnerable victims of violence. The bill would roll back important protections for immigrant victims — putting them in a worse position than under current law, and excludes other vulnerable populations such as tribal women, college students experiencing abuse, and LGBTQ. In short, this legislation seeks to fight domestic violence, but only if the sponsors agree with the race, immigration status, sexual orientation, or gender identity of the victims.

Leader Pelosi on today’s vote:

Today, House Republicans again decided to pursue a partisan, ideological agenda at the expense of the safety of America’s women, children, and families.

Rather than take up the bipartisan, Senate-passed reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, Republicans voted along party lines to roll back critical protections in the law and limit its provisions to certain classes of individuals. The Republican effort to politicize this issue does a disservice to our nation’s women.

House Democrats have put forward a different path, proposing legislation that mirrors the measure passed by the Senate. Our bill extends defense against domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking; includes provisions to expand the classes of victims who would be protected – including Native Americans and the LGBT community; and ensures protections for immigrants affected by domestic violence.

For 19 years, the Violence Against Women Act has taken violence against women and children out of the shadows and shone bright sunlight upon it. The legislation has strengthened communities, saved lives and money, and advanced the security of all Americans. And we must reauthorize and strengthen it without further delay.

Learn more about who is opposed to H.R. 4970»

Obama’s wish list includes a number of proposals that he has outlined previously but have failed to gain traction in Congress. They include eliminating tax incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas and promoting new tax credits for small businesses and for companies to develop clean energy.

From the New York Times:

…The components of his challenge to Congress — and to the Republican-led House in particular — will be a feature of his appearances throughout the spring, aides said…

…The president’s pitch on Tuesday, at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the State University of New York, will underscore the obstructions he has faced from Republicans, and at a time when critics across the political spectrum are assailing a “do-nothing Congress.”…

Congressional Democrats support President Obama’s job-creating initiatives and join his call for Republicans to stop obstructing economic growth and act.  Leader Pelosi:

President Obama’s ‘to do list’ shines a bright light on the failure of the House Republicans to address middle class economic security – the ability to get a job, start and expand a business, or own a home.  The American people get up every morning facing these challenges and ready to work; now, the Republican Congress must do the same.

Americans don’t have the luxury of taking breaks every two weeks as they seek a job and care for their families, and neither should the Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.  It’s time for Republicans to abandon their agenda of obstruction and work together with Democrats to act on the President’s proposals to create jobs, strengthen the middle class, and grow the economy.  Americans can’t wait.

The White House Blog outlines President Obama’s “To Do List”:

1. Reward American Jobs, Eliminate Tax Incentives To Ship Jobs Overseas: Attract and keep good jobs in the United State sby passing legislation that gives companies a new 20 percent tax credit for the cost of moving their operations back to the U.S. Congress should pay for this credit by eliminating tax incentives that allow companies to deduct the costs of moving their business abroad.

2. Cut Red Tape So Responsible Homeowners Can Refinance:  Pass legislation to cut red tape in the mortgage market so that responsible families who have been paying their mortgages on time can feel secure in their home by refinancing at today’s lower rates.

3. Invest in a New Hire Tax Credit for Small Businesses:  Invest in small businesses and jumpstart new hiring by passing legislation that gives a 10 percent income tax credit for firms that create new jobs or increase wages in 2012 and that extends 100 percent expensing in 2012 for all businesses.

4. Create Jobs By Investing In Affordable Clean Energy: Help put America in control of its energy future by extending the Production Tax Credit to support American jobs and manufacturing and expanding the 30 percent tax credit to investments in clean energy manufacturing (48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit).

5. Put Returning Veterans to Work Using Skills Developed in the Military:  Honor our commitment to returning veterans by creating a Veterans Job Corps to help Afghanistan and Iraq veterans get jobs as cops, firefighters, and serving their communities.