How the first votes of the new Congress show what Hill Republicans think about women
By Michael Jones
The first bill President Donald Trump is likely to sign into law is the Laken Riley Act, a bill that would require the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants who have been charged with theft-related offenses.
It’s one of several early measures congressional Republicans claim is designed to protect women and girls against violence from criminal undocumented immigrants and so-called “woke culture” run amok.
The House also passed bills that would withhold federal funds from K-12 schools that allow trans students to play on girls’ sports teams and require that undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of sex offenses or domestic violence be deported or blocked from admission to the country. And this week, the House will consider the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would criminalize health care providers who fail to give care to an infant who survives an attempted abortion even though they’re already required by law to do so.
With a Republican-controlled Senate that requires just a handful of Democrats to reach across the aisle in support of politically charged bills and Trump back in the White House presumably ready to sign, there’s a chance these could become law.
But while these bills seem righteous on the surface, they do little to address the issue most Americans, including women, rank higher than immigration or LGBTQ+ rights: The economy. Hill Republicans have yet to offer a solution to close the gender wage gap, make child care more affordable, address the Black maternal mortality crisis, or pursue any other policies that would level the playing field for women.
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), the new chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, who said Republicans wasted little time revealing their anti-woman agenda. Leger Fernandez added that the bills reflect Republicans’ views about what women should be, do, and look like and betray voters who entrusted the GOP to focus on kitchen-table priorities.
“None of these actions lower costs or make the lives of America’s women or families better. In fact, they seek to put women and girls in danger,” she said in a statement. “Meanwhile, Democrats will continue to call out Republicans’ betrayal of women and continue to fight to lower costs and protect programs like Social Security and health care.”
Democratic critics say the Laken Riley Act politicizes the bill’s namesake for political points. Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered last February while she was jogging at the University of Georgia by a 26-year-old Venezuelan man who had unlawfully entered the country and had previously been arrested on theft and shoplifting charges.
Republicans argue Riley would still be alive had the man convicted of her murder not been released on those charges. But the legislation calls for the detention of undocumented immigrants merely accused—not convicted—of theft-related crimes and lacks protections for Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status recipients, which some Democrats described as a red line for their support.
Not to mention, the Senate version of this bill that’s expected to pass as early as this evening is more far-reaching than the House-passed bill due to an amendment that would require undocumented immigrants who attack police officers to be detained.
Several justice-minded members told me a section of the bill that would allow state attorneys general to sue federal immigration authorities for alleged violations of the federal law would be weaponized by Republican state AGs to force deportations, block visas and tie federal courts up with controversial litigation that disregard existing immigration processes. Democrats offered an amendment last week to strike this section but all Republicans who voted opposed it.
Though the trans sports ban is entitled the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” Democrats renamed it the Child Predator Empowerment Act because they say it would enable invasive surveillance and physical examinations of all women and girls—exposing them to abuse and harassment. Critics of the bill also say it endangers all women because it subjects them to patriarchal standards of femininity to determine who is or isn’t a “real” woman.
Meanwhile, House Republicans characterized the Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, which is the full name of the Laken Riley Act, as a necessary step to reverse the Biden administration’s immigration policies, which GOP members argue have made it harder to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in American communities.
However, the majority of House Democrats who voted against the measure did so because of the potential consequences it would have on survivors of domestic violence. They argued it unfairly targets victims who acted in self-defense or were wrongly accused, putting their legal status at risk. The fear of deportation could discourage immigrants from reporting crimes of domestic violence. (And the DWC noted that bill sponsor Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and 171 other Republicans voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, proof it demonstrates the GOP is uninterested in protecting women from harm.
Democrats argue that congressional Republicans’ anti-women agenda extends beyond the bills they’re bringing to the floor: Up until last week when Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) was named chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, each of the other 21 committee chairs were occupied by men.
They say House rules are hostile to young moms too.
Rep. Brittany Petersen (D-Colo.) is expecting her second child in a few weeks and is prohibited from flying due to medical and travel restrictions. The second-term member is leading the call to allow proxy voting for new parents to allow them to vote and represent their constituents in Washington, D.C. Democrats allowed remote voting during the pandemic.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has expressed sympathy for pregnant and birthing people but says proxy voting is unconstitutional. He’s also blocked consideration of a bill backed by one of his own members—Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.)—that would allow remote voting. Luna is expected to initiate a process to force a vote on her bill, on which Pettersen is one of the lead sponsors, in the upcoming weeks.
“It’s unreasonable that the House refuses to make any accommodations for people who are pregnant or welcoming a new child,” she said. “We will continue to fight to bring our resolution to the floor for a vote and will work on measures like this to make Congress more accessible to young families.”
Michael Jones is an independent Capitol Hill correspondent and contributor for COURIER. He is the author of Once Upon a Hill, a newsletter about Congressional politics.
