pbs高端访谈:国会投票重新修订妇女暴力防治法

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF:We turn now to the problem of domestic violence here in the United States and the end of a political battle over legislation about that issue.

　　It was the subject of long-delayed debate and a vote in the House of Representatives today.

　　WOMAN:The bill is passed. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:By 286-138, the House voted to renew the Violence Against Women Act almost a year-and-a-half after it lapsed¹. The bill extends the law's protections to gays and lesbians, immigrants, Native Americans on reservations and victims of sex trafficking.

　　Illinois Democrat² Mike Quigley:

　　REP. MIKE QUIGLEY, D-Ill.: Once again, we have to stand up and fight for equal protections for all victims. We are all in this together. These victims are not nameless, faceless members of some group of others. They are our friends, our neighbors, our family members. We are a nation built on justice, fairness and equal protection.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:The original 1994 law provided grants for legal aid and transitional housing for victims of domestic violence. It also created funding for law enforcement training and assistance hot lines.

　　But the statute³ expired in 2011, as House Republicans resisted efforts to expand its scope to other groups.

　　Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn argued today for a more limited alternative.

　　REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN, R-Tenn.: Making certain that, in a fiscally⁴ responsible, targeted and focused way, that those who need access to the help, the assistance, the funds are going to be able to receive the help, the assistance, the funds, the focus and the attention that they are going to need.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:But cracks in Republican ranks appeared after President Obama's strong showing among women voters in last year's election.

　　And, today, moderate Republicans joined Democrats⁵ in defeating the GOP bill and passing the Senate version. The legislation now goes to the White House for President Obama's signature.

　　For more on the political back-and-forth over the legislation and what it means for women and men going forward, we are joined by Ashley Parker, who covers Congress for The New York Times, and Cindy Southworth. She's a longtime advocate and she's vice⁶ president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

　　Welcome to you both.

　　Ashley Parker, the Republicans, when they originally objected to this legislation back a year-and-a-half ago, what objections did they have and were those objections accommodated?

　　ASHLEY PARKER, The New York Times: Well, the issues they had about a year-and-a-half ago were they didn't want to go as far as the Senate bill then had gone, which was extending protections to members of the LGBT community and to Native American women.

　　And, interestingly, these were basically the same objections that we saw this time around, although this time they obviously managed to work them out.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:So what happened wasn't that—so much that the language was changed, but that a number of Republicans changed their position?

　　ASHLEY PARKER:Well, what happened was Eric Cantor first started—the Republican leadership decided⁷ that, politically, especially after the 2012 elections, where they sort of took a drubbing with female voters, that the Republican Party didn't want to be on the wrong side, so to speak, of this issue. They didn't want to be responsible or seen as responsible, fairly or unfairly, for preventing the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

　　So they said they were not going to pass anything in the House that didn't have bipartisan support. Obviously, the House version of the bill didn't have bipartisan support. Democrats were united in their support against it. And so that's why they allowed this Senate version to come to a vote and ultimately pass.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Cindy Southworth, how much difference has the Violence Against Women Act made since it was enacted⁸?

　　CINDY SOUTHWORTH, National Network to End Domestic Violence: It's really been remarkable⁹.

　　Just since 1994, we have seen almost a 50 percent increase in reporting, when—and that's not 50 percent increase in incidents of domestic violence. It's more victims reaching out. They're calling the police. They know there are services available and they're getting help.

　　We have also seen almost a 30 percent—or a 34 percent even decrease in homicides of women, and even more startling, almost 60 percent less homicides of men, primarily by their female partners when they felt they had no other choice.

　　And now that we have shelters and resources, they're not having to resort to self-defense.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And you can directly connect that to this law, this act?

　　CINDY SOUTHWORTH:We can look at the time period and these remarkable things happening.

　　Some things, we can talk about in terms of housing units that we have created with Violence Against Women Act funds, hot lines that have opened because of Violence Against Women Act funds. So, some of it, we can directly connect to the Violence Against Women Act, and others of it is we can see what was happening before.

　　I started in this work before the Violence Against Women Act passed, and we ran a shelter on a tiny shoestring¹⁰ budget and turned more women away than we helped.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Ashley Parker, is that consistent with the debate you have been hearing in the Congress and among members about this?

　　ASHLEY PARKER:Well, the debate on the floor we heard today was basically -- no one came out against preventing the reauthorization of the bill.

　　It was House Republicans sort of arguing that their version of the bill went far enough. They said that their version of the bill did, in fact, protect—the phrase they always used was all women. So they were sort of arguing the same thing, but obviously the Democrats and a lot of women's groups and human rights groups disagreed, and they felt the Senate version did a better job of actually extending protections to everyone.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Ashley—I'm sorry—Cindy Southworth, how much difference does it make to extend these protections to these groups we mentioned, LGBT, the Native Americans and so on?

　　CINDY SOUTHWORTH:When it comes to victims on tribal¹¹ lands, it's huge, because what's happened previously¹² is, if you're a Native American woman injured on tribal lands by a non-Native, the tribal courts have no jurisdiction¹³.

　　And when it comes to misdemeanor domestic violence cases, the federal courts are overwhelmed. So they weren't taking these cases up, which meant you got off scot-free for harming a Native woman on tribal lands. Giving jurisdiction to the tribal courts means that we can hold them accountable. That's pretty significant in terms of extending protections to tribal—to Native women on tribal lands.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And just continuing with you on some questions about the law as it exists today and as it will exist, the new version, our staff here at the NewsHour talked today with several law professors who said, overall, the bill has had beneficial consequences, but they said there have also been some unintended consequences, namely, that it still leans in favor of having the perpetrator arrested, no matter whether the woman or the victim wants that to happen or not.

　　How do you see that issue?

　　CINDY SOUTHWORTH:First of all, the Violence Against Women Act doesn't require mandatory¹⁴ arrest.

　　What it does do, though, is train police officers on how to look at what's happening in the house, because if it's mandatory arrest, you might arrest the wrong person. Sometimes, a woman has been beaten and you can't see the bruises¹⁵, but you see scratch marks on the offender¹⁶ because of the self-defense wounds.

　　So the Violence Against Women Act doesn't have a mandatory reporting focus to it, but it has got a mandatory training focus to it, which is important for police on the scene to assess. And we have done a lot of work around issues beyond law enforcement within the Violence Against Women Act. There's housing provisions. There's a transitional housing grant program. There's a sexual assault services program.

　　So while we have spent a lot of time in the last 20 years working to change the justice system, we are really focusing more and more on issues beyond criminal justice.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And, in fact, that was another complaint we heard from those who support the law overall, but say that it still leans too far—it puts so much money into law enforcement and prosecution¹⁷, and not nearly enough money into those other areas that you mentioned.

　　CINDY SOUTHWORTH:I'm only smiling because I have yet to see the day where we have so much money in the violence against women movement. I would love that day.

　　What it really means is, we would—we would like more money in all those other service areas. We need more housing. We need more hot lines. We need more advocates. We need to beef up those services. We don't need to remove police officers from being able to respond. We have already seen that, in just one day in the United States, over 70,000 adults and children get help from local domestic violence programs.

　　And on the same day, 10,581 times, a phone rang and someone asked for a bed, a shelter, an attorney, a counselor¹⁸. They told a perfect stranger, and they couldn't get help.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Ashley Parker, how much of this came up in the House debate?

　　ASHLEY PARKER:You know, not a ton of that on the debate in the floor today.

　　A lot of the debate sort of focused on Democrats stepping up time and time again and asking for members to come together to reach bipartisan compromise and get this through, and also a lot of members, both Democrats and Republicans, coming and telling personal stories of a woman in their district who was beaten or faced domestic abuse and either who met a tragic¹⁹ end because they couldn't get the protections necessary, or in some cases were able to use these programs to get help.

　　So it was sort of a little bit more of a personal touch, as well as a plea to come together for something.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Well, at the end of it all, the House of Representatives voted to extend the Violence Against Women Act. And we look for the president to sign the legislation.

　　Cindy Southworth and Ashley Parker, we thank you both.

　　ASHLEY PARKER:Thank you.

　　CINDY SOUTHWORTH:Thank you so much.

1 lapsed   

adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失

参考例句：

• He had lapsed into unconsciousness. 他陷入了昏迷状态。
• He soon lapsed into his previous bad habits. 他很快陷入以前的恶习中去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

3 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

4 fiscally   

在国库方面，财政上，在国库岁入方面

参考例句：

• Nor will fiscally stretched governments pump more money into the political equivalent of a leper colony. 财政吃紧的政府也不愿将更多的钱投入这个避之唯恐不及的政治瘟疫区。
• We are more fiscally constrained, which forces us to work smarter and more efficiently. 与F-15相比我们资金上的限制更大了，美女类小游戏，这迫使我们更为精心和有效地工作。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

9 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

10 shoestring   

n.小额资本；adj.小本经营的

参考例句：

• In the early years,the business was run on a shoestring.早年，这家店铺曾是小本经营。
• How can I take the best possible digital pictures on a shoestring budget?怎样用很小投资拍摄最好的数码照片？

11 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

12 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

13 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

14 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

15 bruises   

n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was covered with bruises after falling off his bicycle. 他从自行车上摔了下来，摔得浑身伤痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pear had bruises of dark spots. 这个梨子有碰伤的黑斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 offender   

n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者

参考例句：

• They all sued out a pardon for an offender.他们请求法院赦免一名罪犯。
• The authorities often know that sex offenders will attack again when they are released.当局一般都知道性犯罪者在获释后往往会再次犯案。

17 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

18 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

19 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。