House GOP's Domestic Violence Act decried Vice President Joe Biden speaks at an event highlighting the need to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. on April 18, 2012. House Republicans want to reauthorize their own version of the Act. WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- Advocacy groups and Democrats ripped a U.S. House Republican bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, saying it could cause more harm. "House Republicans have again decided to pursue a partisan, ideological agenda at the expense of the safety of America's women, children and families," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., posted on her Web site Tuesday. Lisalyn Jacobs, an official with the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women called the measure "an extremely dangerous bill" that victims' rights advocates should avoid, Roll Call reported Wednesday. The White House has threatened to veto the House bill. The Republicans' concerns got a boost by a Congressional Research Service report stating that under a Senate-passed version of the bill the "Constitution will not apply" for prosecutions of U.S. citizens for domestic violence crimes committed on tribal lands. The tribal issue is the trickiest of three main concerns voiced by a coalition of advocacy groups, Roll Call said. The two other concerns are that the House bill would change provisions in current law concerning domestic abuse of illegal immigrants and it would not include new provisions for protection for gays, lesbians and transgenders that are in the Senate bill. At issue stake on the tribal issue is a loophole for crimes committed on tribal lands that prevents some domestic violence perpetrators from being prosecuted. On tribal land, tribes have jurisdiction over crimes only if the perpetrator is an American Indian. Most states have jurisdiction only when neither the victim nor the perpetrator is American Indian. "Perpetrators can commit these crimes and know that they won't be held accountable," said Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. To close the loophole, the Senate bill would "recognize and affirm" the "inherent" authority of tribal courts to prosecute non-American Indian domestic violence perpetrators. CRS said the Senate language, specifically the reference to "inherent" authority, would overturn a 1978 Supreme Court case and void several constitutional protections for U.S. citizens prosecuted under the new rules. Since tribal lands are considered legally sovereign, prosecutions under the "inherent" authority aren't bound by the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights, Roll Call said. The CRS report said the Senate version's affirmation of the "inherent" tribal authority to prosecute domestic violence crimes would categorize the prosecutions as sovereign prosecutions of American Indians. O'Neill said the GOP objections showed an unwillingness to "trust Native Americans to uphold the Constitution," adding that there's "no evidence" that would occur