By Craig Gilbert of the Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Democrat Gwen Moore, who took the lead in the House on renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, hailed its passage Thursday with lopsided, bipartisan support.
"There are just layers of this to celebrate," said Moore in an interview.
"This is personal to me. I hardly know a woman, it's a shame to say, who has not been a victim of violence," she said. "As a person who has been a victim and survivor of rape, I had to shed some tears for the nameless, faceless women who have not been fortunate enough to have someone at the other end of that phone call" asking for help.
With both the Senate and House now renewing the act, it goes to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature.
The law, first enacted in 1994, has provided services and protections to women victimized by domestic violence.
The measure adopted this year extends protections to gays and lesbians, women on tribal reservations and others.
The House passed it, 286-138, with all 199 Democrats voting in favor and 87 Republicans voting yes and 138 Republicans voting no.
Before final passage, the House rejected a GOP alternative to the bill that excluded some of those added provisions.
"It's a celebration of bipartisanship, something that doesn't happen very often around here," Moore said. "This was a victory obviously for the expansion (of the law) so that all women are considered."
Among other things, the new law allows tribal courts to prosecute men who aren't American Indians when they're accused of abusing or attacking women on Indian reservations.
"You can't beat a woman and rape her with impunity (now)" said Moore. "This was a real gap (in the law)."
Some Republicans objected to that, calling it an unconstitutional expansion of tribal authority.
The law also offers specific services and protections for other groups, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered victims of abuse.
"This is yet another victory for taking LGBT folks out of the shadows," Moore said.
The Senate passed an identical measure, 78-22, last month.
Before the final House vote, the House rejected, 166-257, the GOP alternative.
All three House Democrats from Wisconsin - Moore, Ron Kind and Mark Pocan - voted for the final bill and against the GOP alternative.
On the GOP side, Jim Sensenbrenner and Tom Petri voted against both versions of the legislation.
Reid Ribble voted for the GOP alternative but against the final bill.
And Paul Ryan and Sean Duffy voted for the GOP alternative and - when that went down - also voted for the final bill.
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