[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               A CALL FOR SOLUTIONS TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentlewoman from Maryland 
[Mrs. Morella] is recognized during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues this 
morning for this special order or morning hours.
  Whether walking alone down city streets late at night, driving to 
work in quiet suburban neighborhoods, or even home alone with their 
loved ones, for women and girls in America, violence is an everyday 
fact of life.
  In this country, every 5 minutes a woman is raped, every 15 seconds a 
woman is beaten by her husband or companion, and every year 4,000 women 
are killed by their abusers. Street and domestic violence costs our 
Nation 5.3 billion health care dollars annually. More than 30 percent 
of women in emergency rooms are their because of domestic violence, and 
more than 60 percent of the women in mental health wards are there 
because of ongoing abuse.
  The Violence Against Women Act, now before a House-Senate conference 
committee, must be passed promptly and funded fully.
  For almost 2 weeks, the country has been riveted by the story of one 
woman victimized by a police force, a court system, and a society that 
looked the other way. Her terrible story is typical however, of many 
American women who would rather walk down dark city streets at night 
than stay at home with their loved ones.
  Congress has an opportunity to begin to change all that--to help 
prevent the battering of 4 million American women and to protect the 
3.5 million children who witness these attacks every year.
  VAWA will help fund a national domestic hotline, more emergency 
shelters, and community education programs; provide training for police 
and for judges; provide for the interstate enforcement of orders of 
protection; and provide help for battered immigrant women. It will 
declare crimes of violence committed because of gender to be civil 
rights violations.
  VAWA unequivocally sends the message that domestic violence, rape, 
and sexual assaults are crimes that we will not tolerate in our 
society.

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