phxated_gratehouseA slightly edited crosspost from Democratic Diva.

This past Wednesday the House of Representatives passed an amendment to HR 725, which would enable authorities on Indian reservations to coordinate with Federal authorities to gather evidence to investigate and prosecute non-native rape suspects, while providing assistance to rape victims. For some reason, 92 members saw fit to vote against it, all of them Republican. The nay votes included our very own Reps Flake, Franks, and Shadegg. All five Democrats from the AZ Congressional Delegation voted for it.

Amnesty International published a report in 2007 describing the enormity of the situation on tribal lands. American Indian and Native Alaskan women are at a substantially higher risk of sexual assault due to bureaucratic hassles that nearly guarantee that non-native perpetrators walk away scot-free. The amendment fixes that. No problem, right?

I’ve been searching the internet and not finding any reason for so many Republicans voting against it. Recall that 30 Republican Senators (including our own Kyl and McCain) voted against the Franken Amendment, which disallows federal contractors from forcing employees who are raped or assaulted into arbitration clauses and was inspired by the brutal rape of KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones in 2005. the justification was that it was an unbearable imposition upon the poor, dear corporations to open them up to the risk of expensive lawsuits for failing to protect their workers from rape.

HR 725 doesn’t appear to jeopardize precious corporate profits and is not larded with $20 in pork for unrelated projects. It allocates $1 billion to provide tribes and the Feds with the resources they need to coordinate efforts and assist rape victims. Given the extent of the problem it’s not an unreasonable expenditure. But Republicans have a newfound concern with the deficit now and government spending, particularly if it’s going to little people (women, even!), so even something you would think would be as uncontroversial as going after rapists is not something they can get behind.

I certainly hope the local news media take note of this and ask Flake, Franks, and Shadegg to explain their vote against Native rape victims, especially in light of the large number of tribes in Arizona.

Seriously.