Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico), one of the first two Native women in Congress, spoke out against efforts to remove protections for Native women from the Violence Against Women Act at a hearing of the House Subcommittee for Indigenous People of the United States on March 14, 2019. Photo courtesy Natural Resources Democrats
'An abomination': Republicans try to strip tribal jurisdiction from Violence Against Women Act
Monday, March 18, 2019
By Acee Agoyo
A bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act is moving forward in a more partisan era after Democrats defeated a Republican effort to remove the landmark tribal jurisdiction provisions from the law.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York), the chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, was hoping to see "bipartisan" support when he brought H.R.1585, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, to a markup last Wednesday. But Indian Country didn't see much cooperation between the parties at the session on Capitol Hill.
Indeed, Republicans got behind an amendment that would have turned back the clock on efforts to protect American Indian and Alaska Native women, who suffer from the highest rates of violence in the nation. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) tried to strip all of the tribal jurisdiction provisions from the 2013 version of VAWA.
"In effect, the 2013 reauthorization ended up taking away the constitutional rights of someone who happens to have crossed a reservation line and ends up being accused of domestic violence," said Sensenbrenner in remarks that appeared to characterize crimes committed by non-Indians as accidents rather than intentional acts.
"I have been on this committee for forty years," added Sensenbrenner, who formerly served as chairman of the panel. "We have never had a hearing on whether we should take
away the constitutional rights of non-Indians who end up being charged in tribal court."
Indianz.Com on SoundCloud: Debate on anti-tribal jurisdiction amendment
Although VAWA requires tribes to protect the rights of defendants -- even non-Indians -- Republicans on the committee agreed with Sensenbrenner's complaint. Nine in total voted for his amendment, drawing a rebuke from a prominent tribal leader.
“I was disheartened, and frankly appalled, to see an amendment offered that would have stripped tribal governments of their inherent authority to hold non-Indians accountable for domestic violence crimes on tribal lands," said Juana Majel-Dixon, the Secretary of the National Congress of American Indians and the co-chair of a national task force to prevent violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women.
"With more than 4 in 5 Native women experiencing domestic violence in their lifetimes, now is not the time to go back to a system that allows non-Indians to prey on Native women with impunity," said Majel-Dixon, who is a leader from the Pauma Band of Luiseno Indians.
Democrats, who hold a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, overcame the Republican support for Sensenbrenner's amendment with 16 votes. But even though the proposal was defeated, that wasn't the end of the partisan sniping on VAWA.
Before the session was over, Republicans offered four more amendments that Democrats said would undermine efforts to protect all women from violence. All four were rejected by party-line votes.
And in the end, no GOP members voted in support of H.R.1585. The bill cleared the markup with 22 yes votes from Democrats and 11 no votes from Republicans.
Indianz.Com on SoundCloud: House
Subcommittee for Indigenous People of the United States - Unmasking the Hidden
Crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW): Exploring Solutions to
End the Cycle of Violence - March 14, 2019
A day later, the attempt to strip tribal jurisdiction from existing law was decried at a hearing of the
House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States that was called to address the crisis of missing and murdered Native women. One prominent advocate said the 2013 version of VAWA has saved lives.
"We know that tribal jurisdiction -- giving the government closest to the ground to Native women
to prosecute these crimes and protect them and their children -- is the best form of security a Native woman can have," said Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of Cherokee Nation who serves as legal counsel for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.
Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New
Mexico), one of the first two Native women in Congress, also spoke out against the efforts of some of the lawmakers across the aisle.
“For any Congressional leader to attempt to take away protections for not only women but indigenous women, at a time when we are just beginning to understand how deep-rooted and serious of an issue the severe lack of protections are for Native women, is an abomination,” said Haaland, who is a citizen of the Pueblo of
Laguna and is the first Native person to serve as vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Haaland is a co-sponsor of H.R.1585, which includes new language in Title IX that recognizes the inherent rights of tribes to exercise jurisdiction, for example, over non-Indians who engage in dating violence, sex trafficking and who commit crimes against tribal law enforcement. The bill also includes provisions to address the #MMIW crisis.
“Another critical improvement over current law is the expansion of jurisdiction of some tribal authorities over non-Indians who commit certain crimes, such as assaulting a law enforcement or corrections officer, obstruction of justice, sex trafficking, sexual violence, and stalking on tribal lands," Nadler said at the markup last week.
But even though Nadler later described H.R.1585 as "bipartisan" it is barely even that. Of the 91 co-sponsors, only one -- Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) -- is Republican.
" I am the co-lead on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and I will work day and night to see that this critical legislation gets across the finish line," Fitzpatrick wrote in a post on social media after the markup.
The lack of bipartisan support for the bill, as well as lingering doubts about tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians, are seen as troublesome signs to tribes and their advocates. In the days before the text of H.R.1585 was made public, leaders of the United South and Eastern Tribes were worried whether a new version of VAWA would even make it through the divided Congress, where Democrats control the House while the Senate remains in the hands of Republicans.
"As much as we believe we should get it all, we probably wont get it,” Chief Lynn Malerba of the Mohegan Tribe said during a discussion on the issue on March 5, two days before the bill was introduced. "It seems like everywhere we go, we are being questioned."
But USET members are seeing some progress because H.R.1585 recognizes that tribes in Maine can exercise jurisdiction over non-Indians in certain circumstances. In the 2013 version of VAWA, Maine was not specifically mentioned in the law, an omission left Native women there without protections due to restrictive language in the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act.
Additionally, H.R.1585 ensures that tribes in Alaska can take additional steps to protect their women. The 2013 version hadn't included Alaska either but up to 5 tribes in the state will be included in a VAWA "pilot project" that could eventually be expanded to all 220-plus tribes.
House Committee on the Judiciary: Markup on H.R. 1585, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019
Roll Call
The following nine Republicans voted in favor of an amendment to remove the tribal jurisdiction provisions from the Violence Against Women Act of 2013:
• Rep. Doug Collins (R-Colorado)
• Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin)
• Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
• Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado)
• Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana)
• Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) (Note: Sponsor of Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act)
• Rep. Tom McClintock (R-California)
• Rep. Ben Cline (R-Virginia)
• Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida)
Eight additional Republicans who serve on the House Committee on the Judiciary were not present for the vote on the anti-tribal amendment.
The following 11 Republicans voted against H.R.1585, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, at a markup session of the House Committee on the Judiciary on March 13, 2019:
• Rep. Doug Collins (R-Colorado)
• Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
• Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
• Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Colorado)
• Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona)
• Rep. Tom McClintock (R-California)
• Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Arizona)
• Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pennsylvania)
• Rep. Ben Cline (R-Virginia)
• Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-North Dakota) (Note: New member of Congress)
• Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida)
Six additional Republicans who serve on the House Committee on the Judiciary did not participate in the final vote on the bill.
