Blake Moore: “Thank you, distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I've listened very carefully and very patiently to…”

“Thank you, distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I've listened very carefully and very patiently to all of my colleagues in the House, and it seems that everyone in the Chamber is against violence against women. It's just which women we want to protect that remains the question. For the last 18 months, it appears that I have lived in some sort of twilight zone, like that program on TV, ``Sliders,'' where there are alternate realities. This debate recalls that alternate reality when we hear support of the House amendment over the Senate amendment, and we hear that all women are protected. For example, the Senate bill supports LGBT victims but the House bill strikes LGBT women as underserved communities. It also strikes the language that would have them as a protected group to not be discriminated against. The distinguished floor leader has asked us to find areas in the legislation that are wanting, and I would submit that that is one area that is wanting. The distinguished floor leader has asked us to find ways that the substitute is wanting and the Senate bill is superior. We give lip service to wanting to support tribal women. But when you stop and think about it, in 1978, the Supreme Court in the Oliphant case decided that Federal laws and policies divested tribes of criminal authority over non-Indians, and the substitute seeks to affirm that, even though that was modified and overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v.…”