[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 116 (Tuesday, September 26, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H8064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I take this time because today, we may 
have 40 minutes of a lot of to-do about nothing, because there are 
those who believe that the sky is falling on the Violence Against 
Women's Act. I want to read into the Record a letter that I sent to the 
Washington Post after one of their articles.

       Dear Editor: It would be inaccurate for your readers to 
     conclude that the Committee on Education and the Workforce is 
     holding up reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. 
     There are three committees with jurisdiction; one of those is 
     the Committee on Education and the Workforce. We have 
     jurisdiction over several components of VAWA, one of which we 
     just reauthorized last year, Runaway and Homeless Youth, 
     which was signed into law on October 12, 1999. There is no 
     need to deal with a program reauthorized that recently, since 
     there has hardly been enough time to determine if further 
     changes in the program are needed.
       We also have jurisdiction over the Family Violence 
     Prevention and Services Act, another component of VAWA, as 
     well as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which 
     my committee plans to reauthorize together next year, as we 
     always have. This tandem reauthorization has occurred ever 
     since 1988.

  Mr. Speaker, we have grants that go to battered women's shelters and 
services and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. I want to make it 
very clear that we have had increases of 24 percent in the Battered 
Women's Shelters and Services, and we have had a 40 percent increase in 
the National Domestic Violence Hotline as far as funding is concerned 
since 1998.
  I was an original cosponsor of FVPSA in 1984, and I have a long 
history of support for the programs. The programs are already funded 
for next year in the appropriation process as it goes through the 
different Chambers, well above the amount that they are funded for this 
year. So again, these programs will continue, these programs will 
continue at a higher expenditure than they have in the past; and, as I 
indicated, I am very proud that we have had a 24 percent and a 40 
percent increase in two of those programs since 1998.
  The sky is not falling on the Violence Against Women Act. The sky is 
even going higher and clearer without the necessity to do anything else 
at this particular time.

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