Violence Against Women Act Expires: Democrats in New Congress Hope to Reauthorize Despite Republican Objections

Amid the manufactured chaos of the fiscal cliff deal, the nineteen-year-old Violence Against Women Act quietly expired without renewal by the House of Representatives.

Supporters of the bill are not being so quiet.

Along with a Hurricane Sandy relief bill, the Violence Against Women Act was held up by Republicans in the House who were loathe to authorize any more spending after dirtying their hands with the fiscal cliff deal that saw tax rates on the wealthy return to Clinton-era levels.

The Violence Against Women Act mostly provides funding for organizations that aid victims of domestic violence, and it is credited with reducing domestic abuse in America by 60 percent over the last two decades.

Without funding, time is running out for those organizations. "We have no state money that supports domestic violence or sexual violence programs," said Nancy Neylon, executive director of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network.

"The money already in the pipeline is running out," she said.

But a new Congress was sworn in on Thursday, so there should be a renewed push to reauthorize the Act, as has happened without much fanfare or vitriol every year since it was passed in 1994.

Both chambers of Congress have larger Democratic memberships than before, and a record 20 women now hold seats in the Senate.

"It is an early priority for us," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. "Since it passed the Senate last time, with two more Democrats in the Senate, we hope that it will have an easy path there and a doable path there -- and a successful one in the House."

Aside from general cantankerousness on both sides of the aisle, the bill's renewal faces other challenges.

The Senate approved a slightly updated version that expanded the protections in the Act to gays and lesbians, Native Americans and immigrants.

In response, House Republicans offered their own update which didn't include those changes, as well as rolling back some of the initial provisions. The White House threatened to veto the Republican bill and time ran out.