The Violence Against Women Act expired more than a year ago and Congresswoman Gwen Moore is pushing to reauthorize it right away.
"I'm really, really disappointed because it means we have to start all over and it's been a very difficult process," Moore said on Jansing & Co. Friday.
However, Congress isn't known for moving quickly—even big deals, like the fiscal cliff agreement, didn't come together until the final hours. There's even less of a rush to deal with the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because its programs continue to operate under the guidelines last updated in 2005.
Moore still hopes the Violence Against Women Act will pass for the 113th Congress and include more protections for women than those outlined eight years ago.
"We have to be hopeful, we have more women, we have a historic number of women in the Senate and of course, the bill did finally clear the Senate. But it had a lot of hurdles in the Senate and perhaps we won't have as many of those hurdles. We'll have more Democrats in the House," Moore said.
She's hoping to engage the public to put pressure on Congress to act.
"This bill really looked at best practices and decided it was really time to take care of those women who were most marginalized, communities of color, immigrant women, LGBT communities and Native American women. These tribal reservations have become a veritable free land for sexual assaults and domestic violence because the tribal authorities don't have authority to prosecute non-native people on their land," Moore said on Jansing & Co.
Majority Leader Eric Cantor's office has pledged to move the bill forward.