Jerry Nadler: “Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is urgently needed, for reasons we have already heard. It is…”

“Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is urgently needed, for reasons we have already heard. It is disgraceful not only that consideration of the reauthorization of this bill has been delayed until only days before it expires, but also that some Members of the other body have stated that VAWA will be attached to controversial bankruptcy legislation as a sweetener to get Members who object to that bill to vote for a combined bill. Joining these two bills would be a cynical and desperate ploy to try to obtain enactment of a bankruptcy bill that injures women and their families, injures consumers and small businesses, and which no longer will have a provision that would prevent those who use threats and violence to harass women and their doctors from using the Bankruptcy Code to evade their lawful fines under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. We cannot make an anti-woman and anti-family bill like that acceptable by attaching a popular and worthwhile measure, which should easily have passed on its own months ago. As Joan Entmacher, of the National Women's Law Center, has put it, 'This is not a sweetener, it's extortion.' I call on the other body to do the right thing and pass the Violence Against Women Act on its own stand-alone bill. Let us continue to debate the many flaws of the proposed bankruptcy bill separately.”