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On Wednesday, the Democratic-led House is expected to pass two measures with a nod to Women’s History Month. One measure aimed to protect women from domestic violence and the other to remove the deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The White House announced its support for the bill that would reauthorize the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act). It is designed to reduce domestic and sexual violence and improve the response to it through a variety of grant programs. The White House said, “VAWA reauthorization is more urgent now than ever, especially when the pandemic and economic crisis have only further increased the risks of abuse and the barriers to safety for women in the United States”. Point to be noted that US President Joe Biden introduced the original Violence Against Women Act in June 1990.

A subsequent version was eventually included in a sweeping crime bill. But, President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law after four years. Since then, US Congress has reauthorized VAWA 3 times. The bill created the Office on Violence Against Women within the US Department of Justice which has awarded more than $9 billion in grants to state and local governments, nonprofits, and universities over the years. It is noteworthy that the grants fund crisis intervention programs, transitional housing, and legal assistance to victims were among other programs. A Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee says the bill leaves no victim behind. The legislation would also prohibit persons formerly convicted of misdemeanor stalking from possessing firearms. It is a provision that generated opposition from the National Rifle Association and resulted in most Republicans voting against the measure in the last US Congress.

The other measure would remove the 1982 deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. It was a decades-long effort to amend the US Constitution to expressly prohibit discrimination based on sex. The fight over the Equal Rights Amendment started almost a century ago. The amendment finally passed with the requisite majority in each chamber when President Richard Nixon was serving his first term. Republican Tom McClintock said, “This measure is brazenly unconstitutional. If the majority were serious, they would reintroduce the ERA and debate it openly and constitutionally as Ginsburg suggests”. The ERA also experienced bitter opposition from conservatives. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler said the Constitution places no deadlines on the process of ratifying constitutional amendments and Congress has the authority to extend or remove any deadlines it chose to set previously.