Tanzina Vega: Last week, the House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, and now it heads to the Senate where its future is unknown. The Violence Against Women Act was first put into place in 1994, and it established legal protections for victims of violent crime. While the act has been updated a few times since, it lapsed in 2019. Among many changes, the latest iteration seeks to ban those convicted of domestic abuse or stalking from being able to purchase a firearm. It also allocates money for tribes to address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.

Last week, 172 Republican House representatives voted against the reauthorization, and as the Act heads to the Senate, Republican senators are also expected to oppose it. With me now is Li Zhou, Congressional Reporter for Vox. Li, thanks for joining us.

Li Zhou: Thank you for having me.

Tanzina Vega: The Violence Against Women Act has been around and was signed into law in 1994. It has had different updates and reauthorizations. What have been some of the most significant changes to the legislation since it was renewed in 2019?

Li Zhou: A lot of the major changes have been to make the bill more accessible and more inclusive. For example, in one of the recent reauthorizations, the protections in it were extended to also cover same-sex couples. That was a key provision that lawmakers are trying to continue to build upon.

Tanzina Vega: We know that this reauthorization is coming at a time where-- it was reauthorized right around the time that the Atlanta shootings of multiple Asian women occurred. We also know that it's happening at a time when the global pandemic has exacerbated the rates of domestic violence because of people having to shelter in place. Let's talk a little bit about that. Was any of that sort of behind the impetus to reauthorize this bill?

Li Zhou: There definitely has been a sense of urgency in this reauthorization because of what we've seen during the pandemic and the reports about domestic violence rates spiking in this time. At the same time, Democratic lawmakers, in particular, have been pushing this change for basically a few years now. It's effectively been blocked repeatedly by Republicans, even prior to what we've seen with coronavirus and prior to the tragic shooting last week.

Tanzina Vega: Let's talk about how the vote broke down in Congress. 29 Republicans in the House joined Democrats in supporting the reauthorization. There were 172 Republicans in the House who voted against it. How do you explain that?

Li Zhou: It's only more recently that we've seen this Violence Against Women Act become more partisan. One of the biggest reasons is because the current version includes a provision that strengthens gun control protections. That's something that Republicans have spoken out against numerous times, and it's also something that we've seen the NRA lobby against very strongly. That particular issue has been a repeated sticking point.

Tanzina Vega: I'm wondering, this is something, Li, that on its face, the Violence Against Women Act sounds like something that anybody would get behind. Is the politics here getting in the way of protecting American women?

Li Zhou: It is. The new bill is intended to increase funding to a whole slew of programs, including programs aimed at rape prevention, programs aimed at helping survivors find new housing when they need it. The gun control provision really is intended to close a loophole that exists. Currently, if a person is convicted of domestic violence, they are barred from purchasing a firearm, but only if they are married to the person who was involved or if they lived with or shared a child with that person. What this bill would do would, would basically make dating partners also part of the group that's barred from holding a firearm.

Tanzina Vega: Is that the point of contention for Republicans that only people-- I'm just trying to understand why, particularly in an era where the NRA themselves have become a very weak political body, at least on the surface, at least their own organization has taken a bunch of hits, why this is still such an such a point of contention?

Li Zhou: Yes. That particular issue is of concern for Republicans because they argue that it would make that ban too sweeping. That it would include too many people and that this is really an infringement of Second Amendment rights, not just an attempt to protect violence against women. When actually, when you look at states that have implemented their own versions of this law, states that bar firearm ownership of dating partners see 16% less in homicidal crimes related to this issue. There is a direct correlation between what this law could do and the effect that you see.

The other issue that's come up for Republicans is that this law would also encompass more protections for transgender women. That's something that they've repeatedly raised as a problem that they have as well.

Tanzina Vega: Do the Republicans have competing legislation that they'd like to introduce that would protect the lives of women?

Li Zhou: The Senate is currently working on what lawmakers hope is going to be a bipartisan law. At this point, they haven't introduced a competing version yet. Last time this happened, one of the big things was just stripping out some of the provisions we've talked about. Less so, I think, making specific changes that they wanted to add and more so just narrowing down what the law would do.

Tanzina Vega: We should be clear that not all Republicans voted against the bill. What can you tell us about the Republicans who voted for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act?

Li Zhou: Brian Fitzpatrick is a Republican who sponsored the law last time around as well as this time. I think he is among those who's argued what we've talked about, that this is a bipartisan issue and that this is something that should be reauthorized on a bipartisan basis. There is a group of Republicans interested in doing that. Right now what we're looking for in the Senate is 10 lawmakers to join Democrats. At this point, it's unclear if they have that exact number.

Tanzina Vega: Li, talk to me a little bit about the changes on how violence against women will be handled on tribal lands.

Li Zhou: One of the biggest issues that's been experienced in tribal lands is that tribes are unable to prosecute crimes that take place there that are committed by non tribal members. What that means is that native American women have been one of the groups that's been most susceptible to sexual assault with no way of really following through on prosecuting those potential crimes. What this would do would enable tribes to prosecute sexual assault and expand their ability to hold offenders accountable on this front.

Tanzina Vega: In this legislation, $40 million is being allocated for programs that would assist communities of color with domestic abuse and violence. Tell us why that money is being allocated specifically.

Li Zhou: One of the biggest issues that the bill is trying to address is making sure that people who haven't had access to services are able to get them. Those grants specifically would go to programs that are helping groups that maybe aren't getting reached right now. Those are programs like language access for hotlines so people are able to report potential incidents, as well as support with things like immigration services because immigration status is an issue that survivors might need to navigate if they're trying to get out of a potentially abusive relationship,

Tanzina Vega: President Biden has called domestic violence a pandemic within a pandemic. We know that the rates of domestic violence have increased during this pandemic. What else is there available to victims of domestic violence right now? Does President Biden have other initiatives, or is this pretty much meant to address that?

Li Zhou: The upside of this being a reauthorization is that the programs that were established in the original Violence Against Women Act, so, grants for things like legal aid, for housing, for medical care, those are all still in place. What this law would change is update those, expand the funding, improve the programs. For people that need help right now, a lot of these organizations are still active and they're working in different ways during the pandemic. For example, a lot of them have switched to texting services so people who need help are able to use it in that way, versus having to make a phone call if they're in a situation where they feel they aren't able to use that method.

Tanzina Vega: This bill was introduced by then-Senator Joe Biden. Now, as president, obviously, this is something that has been a key focus of his politics for many years. Do we know why that is?

Li Zhou: Yes. At the time he had introduced it as part of this larger bill to tackle crime. He had said that a large piece of this was that there wasn't comprehensive legislation to address violence against women. I think more recently it's been politically beneficial for him to cite this law because it's a way for him to show how committed he is to gender equity and issues like that. I think over time, it's been an opportunity for him to try to spin a little bit of his work with the crime law and show also how he supported women as part of it.

Tanzina Vega: What happens next in the Senate, Li?

Li Zhou: Next step is that Democrats say that they are ready to have a vote on this bill, and we wait to see what that bi-partisan version we talked about looks like, and if it comes to fruition. Last time, there was an attempt at this. Those talks actually broke down and Democrats ended up introducing their version, and Republicans introduced their version. So, it remains to be seen if they'll be able to actually find a compromise that both can get on board with.

Tanzina Vega: Li Zhou is the Congressional Reporter for Vox. Li, thanks so much for your work.

Li Zhou: Thank you for having me.

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