Bipartisan Violence Against Women Act will get a House vote'if the GOP version fails

At long last, the Senate's bipartisan, expanded Violence Against Women Act has a chance for a vote in the House of Representatives'if the weakened, exclusionary House Republican bill, a bill the White House has said it "cannot support," fails. The plan is this: On Thursday, the House will vote on the Republican bill, which excludes LGBT victims of violence and weakens a provision allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indian abusers of Native American women. If that fails, as is widely expected to happen the Senate bill gets a vote.

TPM's Sahil Kapur writes:

The big admission implicit in this latest move is that House GOP leaders don't believe they have the votes to pass their version of the bill but that the Senate version is likely to pass the chamber. So this way they'll give House conservatives the first bite at the apple as a way of saving face and still resolve an issue that has hurt them politically.

Nineteen Republicans have signed a letter pressing House leaders to bring the Senate bill to a vote.

Tell Congress to pass the expanded, bipartisan Violence Against Women Act.