Vice President Biden wrote the original legislation and President Bill Clinton signed it into law
Today is the 19th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the landmark legislation to combat violent crimes against women that was authored by then-Senator Joe Biden and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
VAWA was reauthorized earlier this year, but only after a year of stonewalling by House Republicans who opposed renewing the act because it expanded its protections to even more women. And, as Biden put it last night, it made them look like cave men:
The vice president held "this sort of Neanderthal crowd" responsible for the delay, and credited women in the Senate for pressuring members of the House to accept expanded protections for gay, Native American and illegal immigrant women.
"It makes a difference with women in the Senate," Biden said. "It does. It does, man ... Because they go and look all the rest of those guys in the eye and say, 'Look. This is important to me.'"
And the best part is, they won—and the Neanderthals lost.