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G_j

(40,367 posts) Tue Dec 18, 2018, 05:47 AM Dec 2018

A Single GOP Congressman Is Blocking A Bill To Help Abused Native Women

http://huffp.st/K4MNEMo

WASHINGTON ― A bill to combat the appallingly high rates of missing and murdered Native women has stalled in the House, despite sailing through the Senate, because a single Republican congressman is mysteriously holding it up.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is blocking the bill, called Savanna’s Act, aimed at helping the federal government respond to the grim reality that 84 percent of Native women experience violence in their lifetime. They are murdered at 10 times the national average.

The bill would require the Department of Justice to train law enforcement agencies to record tribal enrollment information in crime information databases. It would also require the attorney general to seek recommendations from tribes to improve access to local, state and federal crime information databases, and it would create locally developed guidelines for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native Americans.

The bill sounds like a no-brainer. The Senate unanimously passed it last week, and it was expected to easily pass the House this week on the suspension calendar, which expedites votes on bills with broad support. But Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has indicated he has concerns with the bill, so it’s stopped moving.

With Congress set to adjourn for the year as soon as Friday, the bill is on the verge of expiring without action. If it did, that would mean Congress would have to start all over again next year, sending the measure through committee hearings and votes in both chambers.

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