Make it a House of Representatives hat trick: Congress, which couldn't write its own viable "fiscal cliff" plan and didn't bother to approve emergency aid for Superstorm Sandy victims, also failed to renew the Violence Against Women Act.
The act, first passed in 1994, has been renewed two other times and was co-sponsored this time in the Senate by Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo. Crapo took some flack over the some of the new bill's expansions — toward gays, undocumented immigrants and Native Americans — but the bill still passed comfortably in the Senate. (More about the act here.)
While Washington Sen. Patty Murray has said she'll bring the Senate bill back up in 2013, there seems to be no word yet from House leaders on whether it will get a vote.
Former Inlander staffer Jordy Byrd last June wrote about the horrors of domestic violence and the troubles protecting women here in Spokane. If America ends up moving backward on domestic violence public policy, The Inlander will, regrettably, continue to find such tragic stories to tell.
