[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 141 (Thursday, October 3, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12325-S12326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      APPROPRIATIONS IMPORTANT TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ABUSE

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, there are a few matters contained 
within the omnibus appropriations bill that I would like to highlight. 
In the overall context of a multibillion dollar bill, these may not be 
significant to some, but they are to me and to the people of Vermont.
  First, I note that we have been able to include an amendment to the 
Family Violence Prevention and Services Act that doubles the amount 
that Vermont and other small States will receive annually. This change 
completes the increase that we have been trying to accomplish since 
enactment of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 
to provide small States with $400,000 a year in Federal funding for 
family violence prevention programs. It is appropriate that in October, 
which is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we finally 
conclude this amendment.
  Domestic violence remains the leading cause of violent death in 
Vermont. Over 50 percent of homicides in the State last year reportedly 
arose from domestic violence situations--and this is down from the 
percentages in prior years. Also contained in the omnibus 
appropriations bill is legislation making conviction of a crime of 
domestic violence a disqualification from gun ownership. Too many women 
and children are threatened by domestic violence and too many become 
victims of that violence.
  I commend the Vermont Network Against Domestic Violence and Sexual 
Assault, the Vermont Center for Crime Victims Services, and all of the 
local community organizations that work so hard and provide such 
essential services to those at risk of domestic and family violence. I 
note that Vermont established its own statewide domestic violence 
hotline and sexual abuse hotline almost a year before the national 
hotline was finally created this spring. I expect that Vermont will 
also lead the country in terms of developing services and programs to 
confront the problems of rural domestic violence.

  We were also able to increase funding for the Violence Against Women 
Act programming to $197.5 million this year. Because of Vermont's 
outstanding advocates and programs, ours was the first State to receive 
a VAWA grant 2 years ago and I am confident that Vermont will remain on 
the leading edge in these important programs. This year Vermont 
received over $700,000 for VAWA programming.
  We have also been able to protect the Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention Act programs that sends important funding to 
Vermont and other States to assist in efforts to prevent crime and 
delinquency. I want to thank, in particular, Ken Schatz and the Vermont 
Children and Family Council for Prevention Programs and Shirley Martin, 
Vermont's JJDP Specialist, for their help in working to protect and 
preserve the Juvenile Justice Program and avoid the loss of as much as 
$187,500 from the nearly $800,000 that Vermont receives annually. 
Vermont could not afford the loss of such Federal assistance. In the 
omnibus appropriations bill, we were able to include $170 million for 
national juvenile justice programming this year, which is a significant 
increase from last year.
  Finally, we were able to include in the appropriations bill is a much 
needed adjustment to the Victims of Crime Act to extend for an 
additional year the time in which the State and victim assistance 
grantees may retain and use

[[Page S12326]]

grants from the Federal Crime Victims Fund. This is important in years 
in which collections of fines and penalties at the Federal level are 
exceptionally large, as they were this past year. Through this 
amendment we are trying to ensure that State grants from the crime 
victims fund can be used wisely over a more extended period of time. 
This amendment will augment the increase in the minimum victim 
assistance grant to small States from $200,000 to $500,000 per year 
that I was able to include in the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, 
which passed earlier this year.

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