New York Daily News columnist S.E. Cupp responded to the House’s decision to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act today on Now with Alex Wagner, calling it “an example of federal overreach and redundancy.”
“If I came to you and I said, ‘I have this new piece of legislation, and I’m going to call it the Stealing From Men Act,’ you’d say, ‘That’s preposterous. Stealing from men is a crime in all 50 states.’ So is violence against women. [It’s] a crime in all 50 states,” Cupp argued, adding that the new version of VAWA was bizarre because it also included protections for men.
“It’s redundant,” Cupp added. “Violence against men and women is already a crime.” (Video after the jump.)
However, VAWA’s sole purpose is not to criminalize violence against women.
The Violence Against Women Act was first passed in 1994 and provided taxpayer money for protection of domestic abuse victims and other programs and services to support victims, including community violence prevention programs, funding for victim assistance services such as rape crisis centers and hotlines, and legal aid for survivors of violence. The Act also allocates money to investigate and prosecute violent crimes against women.
The bill has largely been seen as a bipartisan issue, and was reauthorized by Congress in 2000 and again in 2005, but has been a point of contention in the House this year when the Senate’s version expanded those protections to same-sex couples, illegal immigrants, and those living on Native American tribal lands.









