Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Violence Against Women Act and as with the last vote on the bill in 2019, all three of West Virginia’s representatives voted against the legislation.

244-172: House votes to reauthorize and update the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which expired two years ago. 29 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting Yes. Bill now heads to the Senate. pic.twitter.com/bxW2Jlxgjl

— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) March 17, 2021

The Washington Post provided details:

The House voted on Wednesday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, legislation originally authored by then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1994 that aims to strengthen protections for women from domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.

The landmark law was reauthorized several times since, but lapsed in 2019 after the Democratic-controlled House voted to renew it, but it stalled in the Republican-led Senate. Democrats are hopeful it will find the support this time although the latest version still faces potential obstacles in the evenly-divided Senate.

The vote was 244-to-172, with 29 Republicans breaking ranks and joining Democrats in backing the reauthorization.

Most news sources credit the National Rifle Association’s opposition to the bill for its lack of Republican support. From NPR:

The most contentious issue in the House-passed bill is a provision that expands the criminal threshold to bar an individual from buying a gun to include misdemeanor convictions of domestic abuse or stalking. It would also close the so-called boyfriend loophole to expand the definition of who is affected by existing gun prohibitions to include dating partners.

As with previous votes on the VAWA legislation, this morning’s Intelligencer did not cover the vote. (It did cover the Atlanta shootings in which six women and two men were murdered.) Additionally, I could not find any explanation by Representative McKinley for his vote.

My previous coverage of VAWA is here and here.