How they voted: Simpson, Fulcher split on Violence Against Women Act renewal

The House voted Thursday to reauthorize a 25-year-old law that helps victims of domestic and sexual violence, despite complaints by Republicans that Democrats were politicizing the popular law by expanding gun control.

The bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act includes a provision making it easier to take away guns from violent offenders even if they are not a spouse or domestic partner. The amendment closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by barring those convicted of abusing, assaulting or stalking a current or former dating partner from buying or owning a firearm.

Idaho’s representatives were split on the issue. Congressman Mike Simpson voted in favor of reauthorizing the legislation, while Congressman Russ Fulcher voted against it. Both are Republicans.

“While this is not the reauthorizing bill I would have written, the programs authorized by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) are critical to preventing crime, supporting victims, and facilitating collaboration between the justice system, social services, healthcare providers, and more,” Simpson told the Statesman via email on Thursday. “I know that ultimately this bill will be conferenced with the Republican led Senate’s version of VAWA, and I am confident that this bill will be improved during that process.”

Simpson’s spokeswoman Nikki Wallace said Simpson would like to see the bill improved, including adding protections for faith-based grant recipients and taking a second look at language that increases the number of misdemeanor offenses that could deny Second Amendment rights or threaten due process.

Simpson wanted more hearings and markups on the bill, Wallace said, which was rushed through only one of the seven committees it was referred to and then passed out of that committee on a party-line vote.

VAWA has a bipartisan history, and Simpson is disappointed the Democrats didn’t attempt to work with Republican members on the reauthorization, Wallace said. Republicans attempted to reauthorize VAWA multiple times last year as part of must-pass spending legislation, but then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blocked it every time, allowing VAWA to expire and become a political football, Wallace said.

Fulcher said he voted no, in part, due to Second Amendment concerns.

“Although a bill called the ‘Violence Against Women Act’ sounds like an effort everyone can support, upon looking further into this legislation, I found several provisions that concerned me,” he said in a statement issued Thursday.

“The bill expands the list of misdemeanor convictions that can result in a permanent ban on an individual being able to purchase a gun,” Fulcher explained.

It also, “creates a new lifetime prohibition for person’s convicted of ‘stalking’ crimes, that could include emotional distress as adequate evidence for a gun purchase ban.”

Fulcher said the bill also “expands tribal jurisdiction over ‘non-tribal people.’”

“These include giving tribal government law enforcement authority over non-tribal individuals when in regard to ‘domestic violence, dating violence, obstruction of justice, sexual violence, sex trafficking, stalking, and assault of a law enforcement or corrections officer.’ In the past, any legal concern by a tribal law enforcement authority has meant working with non-tribal law enforcement to investigate, arrest, etc. This should continue to be a joint effort.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 3:37 PM.