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Senate reportedly voting on Violence Against Women Act next week

The Senate may take up a new version of the bill next week, after House Republicans blocked it last year

Topics: Violence Against Women, domestic violence, Violence Against Women Act, Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senate,

Senate reportedly voting on Violence Against Women Act next week (Credit: Facebook/SenatorPatrickLeahy)

The Senate will reportedly vote on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act next week, according to the Huffington Post.

HuffPo’s Jennifer Bendery reports:

The Senate will vote early next week to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, senior Democratic aides told The Huffington Post on Monday.

The Senate has been moving with lightning speed to get VAWA up and out the door. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced their bill last Tuesday and, a day later, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that he was expediting it to the floor and bypassing the committee process.

The latest version of the bill carves out protections for LGBT women, undocumented immigrants and Native American women. It stalled and expired in September 2011, for the first time ever, after House Republicans blocked it over the new protections, as well as procedural objections that have been stripped out this time around.

House Republican leadership have so far kept quiet on whether or not they plan to block the bill again, but, HuffPo reports, “there have been rumblings that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who chairs the House Republican Conference, may take the lead on the issue. Tribal groups met privately with McMorris Rodgers last week and had nothing but praise for the congresswoman’s openness to moving a broad bill.”

Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

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