[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 25 (Friday, March 8, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1706-S1707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Kennedy, Mr.
DeWine, and Mr. Bayh):
S. 2002. A bill to ensure that victims of domestic violence get the
help they need in a single phone call, and for other purposes; to the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, today along with Senators Collins,
Kennedy, DeWine and Bayh, I am proud to introduce the National Domestic
Violence Hotline Enhancement Act. Modeled after the Day One project in
Minnesota, the Act would create a web site that would allow National
Domestic Violence Hotline operators, shelter based advocates and
relevant State and local domestic violence service providers around the
country to more quickly and easily find the most appropriate shelter
for families seeking safety from abuse. The highly secure and
confidential web site would keep a continuously updated, nationwide
list of available shelter for victims of domestic violence and their
families. It would also make available to the Hotline and to advocates
information about services and facilities offered by these shelters,
such as language, disability, transportation and children's services.
In doing so, the new site would ensure that whenever a woman calls
the Hotline or a shelter seeking help, the operator can immediately
check the web site, get an up-to-the-minute listing of available
shelters and services around the country, then, place the caller in the
most appropriate shelter to meet her family's needs for safety,
location, language and other services without the caller ever having to
hang up the phone. The web site will ensure that during one of the most
stressful and dangerous times of their lives, victims of domestic
violence and their families can get the help they need in a single,
easy phone call.
Minnesota's Day One Program, which is the model for this bill, has
run a highly successful, confidential web site that links every shelter
in Minnesota. Day One has shown what profound benefits this new
technology can bring to the lives of battered women and their children.
It has broken down barriers families face in their first attempts to
find safety, resulting in faster, more appropriate placements. In fact,
Day One reports that 90 percent of women and children who call are
assured services and shelter in a single call. In other words, when and
where they need them most. This is critical since needing to make and
receive multiple followup calls to find the most appropriate shelter
has been a major barrier for women trying to escape an unsafe
situation.
The website helps ensure that women and children are placed in
shelters that are best for them, whether that means shelters that are
near transportation or a school, shelters that provide language or
disability services, or shelters that have special programs for
children. Finding shelter in a place where families can get the unique
supports that they need also overcomes more of the traditional
obstacles to safety.
Having an online network of shelters also allows survivors and their
children to relocate to a broader number of areas in the state so that
they can be as safe as possible from their batterer, if that is
necessary.
The Network also benefits families because it benefits the service
providers who help families. The new technology has saved staff time by
reducing the number of calls staff has to make to find the best
placement for clients. The web site has also opened lines of
communication between shelters in Minnesota and has allowed a better
sharing of needs and ideas which has led to better relationships and
cooperation between shelters. Further, it has led to expanded
documentation of occupancy rates and services needed and provided in
Minnesota. In a survey of Minnesota shelters, 95 percent of respondents
said that their experience with Day One is ``excellent.'' All of this
means better service for battered women and their families.
We have used the most advanced technology to improve education,
science, medicine and almost every aspect of our lives. None of us can
have failed to recognize the powerful change the Internet has brought
to our society. None of us can deny that we must embrace this change
and use it to our greatest advantage. The National Domestic Violence
Hotline Enhancement Act now will apply America's newest and best
technology to help solve one of our nation's oldest, most confounding
and brutal problems, domestic violence. This move is long overdue. The
National Network to End Domestic Violence estimates that only 43
percent of shelters in the United States have Internet access, leaving
well over half of all shelters without services the rest of us have
come to think of as routine. In linking the shelters on an electronic
network, this bill would help every shelter in the country have
Internet access. It gives us the opportunity to use one of the
century's greatest advances to save the lives of women and children.
Last year at least 32 women and 10 children were murdered as a result
of domestic violence in Minnesota. Across the Nation, a woman is
battered every 15 seconds. Three to 10 million children nationally are
estimated to witness domestic violence each year, 70 percent of whom
are abused themselves. Domestic Violence is in all of our communities.
Despite its pervasiveness, there is still nowhere where violence is
more isolated from view, more difficult to combat and more far reaching
in its impact than violence in the home. It is a problem we cannot
afford to ignore. People who will try to keep family violence quiet and
hidden behind the walls of the home ignore its tragic echoes in our
schools, in the workplace and on the streets.
I do not want to hear one more story about a woman being murdered by
her husband or by her boyfriend. I do not want to hear one more story
about a woman being beaten, or her child fighting in school because he
saw fighting in his home.
If we are going to put an end to this horrible pattern, we must put
an end to the pattern where women seek shelter, but give up in
frustration when they find none. We must put an end to the pattern that
one quarter of homeless people on any given night are victims of
domestic violence and their children. This bill is one step in that
direction.
[[Page S1707]]
Over the past six years, the National Domestic Violence Hotline has
received over 500,000 calls from women and children in danger from
abuse. If we ensure that a web site similar to the one in Minnesota
were made available to all of these families seeking help, so that
women can get shelter and services when and where they need it, we
could take a strong step to ensuring the safety and well being of
hundreds of thousands of families fleeing domestic violence around the
country. Technology gives us the tools to help undo one of the greatest
wrongs we confront as a society. We cannot turn our backs on this
opportunity. I urge my colleagues' support of this important
legislation.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, today I join Senators Wellstone, Kennedy,
DeWine, and Bayh in introducing the National Domestic Violence Hotline
Enhancement Act. This legislation would authorize the Department of
Health and Human Services to oversee the creation of a secure web site
that would link every domestic violence shelter and service provider in
the United States and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
The objective is to enable victims of domestic violence and their
families who are seeking safety from abuse to more quickly and easily
find the shelter and other services they so desperately need. The
secure and confidential web site would keep a continuously updated,
nationwide list of available shelter and services, such as
transportation and children's services, for victims of domestic
violence and their families.
Once the web site is operational, whenever a woman calls the Hotline,
a shelter or other domestic violence project, the operator can
immediately check the site and get an up-to-date listing of available
shelters and services around the country. With a single phone call, a
victim of domestic violence and her family can be placed in the most
appropriate shelter to meet their needs or more quickly obtain the
other services that will enable them to escape a dangerous situation.
Domestic violence is the number one cause of injury to women in the
United States. In this country, a woman is battered every 15 seconds.
It is estimated that one in five women admitted to emergency rooms is
there due to battering. Almost one-third of the American women murdered
each year are killed by their current or former partners, usually a
husband. In the State of Maine, the overall crime rate dropped by 12
percent in 2000, but domestic violence reports increased by 12.5
percent. It is the leading cause of murder in Maine, resulting in over
half the state's homicides.
Even when children aren't the target of family violence, those who
witness abuse in their homes do not escape unscathed. Tragically, they
too are victims, with effects that can include physical, psychological
and behavioral problems. Moreover, many of the millions of children who
suffer or witness abuse in their homes grow up to perpetuate the legacy
of family violence. A report by the American Psychological Association
found that a ``child's exposure to the father abusing the mother is the
strongest risk for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to
the next.''
According to one estimate by the American Medical Association,
domestic violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in
medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care,
sick leave, absenteeism, and nonproductivity. Add the untold costs in
suffering and destroyed lives caused by domestic abuse, and the need to
more effectively intervene and break the cycle of violence becomes even
more compelling.
Information technology has improved many aspects of our lives in
recent years, and it is time we used advances in technology to help
victims and break the cycle of domestic violence. The National Domestic
Violence Hotline Enhancement Act will do just that by more effectively
helping women and children escape unsafe and violent situations.
To achieve the goal of linking the National Domestic Violence Hotline
and every domestic violence shelter and service provider on an
electronic network, the legislation authorizes the use of funds to
provide Internet access and training to shelters that currently do not
have the necessary technology. This is a critical element of the bill
because only 43 percent of shelters in the United States have Internet
access, leaving over half of all shelters without services that many of
us now take for granted.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline Enhancement Act would create a
national domestic violence website and secure network, and it will give
service providers the tools to both contribute to and benefit from that
network. By doing so, the bill would help ensure that hundreds of
thousands of women and children in need of help to escape violence will
find the safety and well-being they deserve. I urge my colleagues to
support this important legislation.
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