Houston police chief urges action on Violence Against Women Act

Houston police Chief Art Acevedo is calling on lawmakers to pass the Violence Against Women Act following the death of a police sergeant who was killed while responding to a domestic violence call.

Before a procession for Sgt. Chris Brewster Monday morning, Chief Acevedo urged lawmakers to take action.

“We need to get in a room. I don’t want to hear about how much they support law enforcement. I don’t want to hear how much they care about lives and the sanctity of lives, yet, we all know in law enforcement one of the biggest reasons that the Senate and Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and others are not getting into a room and having a conference committee with the House and getting the Violence Against Women Act, is because the NRA doesn’t like the fact that we want to take firearms out of the hand of boyfriends that abuse their girlfriends," Chief Acevedo said. "And who killed our sergeant? A boyfriend abusing his girlfriend.”

Sgt. Brewster was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call in east Houston on Saturday night. The suspect’s criminal history includes a prior charge for assaulting a family member.

RELATED: Houston gym remembers Sgt. Brewster as being energetic, loving

Two months after it let the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) lapse, the House voted in April to renew the 25-year-old law that extends protections for victims of domestic violence.

While no one in the House disagreed with the goals of the bill, Republicans accused the Democratic majority of dressing it up “like a Christmas tree” with liberal amendments that could doom it in the Senate. The amendments included provisions to take guns from abusers - a move the GOP said violated the Second Amendment, drawing an angry reply from Democrats who accused the other side of bowing to the National Rifle Association.

Following Chief Acevedo’s comments, Sen. Cornyn responded saying VAWA is still fully funded and he has asked Democrats to come back to the negotiating table.

Sen. Cornyn says he introduced a plan that has 10 percent more funding than the Democrats’ bill, extends the Violence Against Women Act for 10 years as opposed to the Democrats’ bill which is five years, and triples the support for rape prevention and education from current levels.

“As a long-term victims' rights advocate myself, I’m a proud supporter of the Violence Against Women Act, and I’ve consistently fought not only to continue it, but to strengthen it as well," Sen. Cornyn said. “For many months now, Senator Ernst has been working with Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senator from California, to find ways to make improvements that both sides can agree on. That's the way things get done around here.”

Click here to view the full press conference. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

RELATED: Papa John's Pearland donating profits to family of fallen HPD Sgt. Chris Brewster