[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H1005-H1006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, today is International Women's Day, a day we 
honor women and their contributions to the American way of life. 
American women, from the frontier era to the

[[Page H1006]]

space age, have steadily blazed the trails and stayed the course to 
bring recognition of the accomplishments of women not only in the 
United States but across the world and across the seas.
  Each of us can identify at least one woman who forever marked our 
life in a positive way. My grandmother lived to her late nineties and 
was always the most influential person in my life. In the 1950s, after 
my grandfather was killed by a drunk driver, she went to work as a 
clerk in the ladies' ready-to-wear section of a department store; and 
while she would have continued to work there, they forced her to quit 
at the age of 75.
  She taught me the values of public service, and this is why I have 
dedicated my life to public service. She was the most influential woman 
in my life. All of us have people like that, women who have influenced 
us in a positive way. Those American women, they are a rare breed.
  In other countries, like Iraq, where I recently traveled on a fact-
finding mission, women recount the decades of torture and execution and 
oppression they experienced under the tyrant and dictator Saddam 
Hussein. For most women it has only been since our toppling of that 
vicious and murderous tyrant that they have been allowed to pursue 
opportunities that we take for granted, like employment. On the 
historic election day, which I was privileged to observe this year, for 
many Iraqi women this was their first chance to ever vote.
  Yet as encouraging as these illustrations are, millions of women are 
victims to a destructive force known as domestic violence. In fact, in 
the United States alone, according to the National Domestic Violence 
Hotline, nearly one-third of American women report being physically or 
sexually abused by a boyfriend or a husband at some point in their 
life. Moreover, the Department of Justice's statistics show that in 
2003 alone 9 percent of all murder victims were killed by their spouse 
or their partners. Eighty percent of those victims were females.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. Speaker, this is a serious problem, not just for our Nation's 
women but also for our Nation's families. It is a serious problem for 
children, children that live in those homes with all of that serious, 
serious turmoil.
  Domestic abuse scars children through the images of violence and 
fighting; the ramifications if they try to intervene; the emotional 
anguish they suffer for years. Domestic abuse in some cases results in 
withdrawal or unhealthy perfectionism, and in other cases they act it 
out.
  The American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on 
Violence and the Family concluded in 1996 that a child's exposure to 
the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for 
transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next. In 
addition, the American Medical Association has calculated that family 
violence costs taxpayers in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion a 
year in medical expenses.
  It is not only a family problem and a criminal problem; it is a 
health issue. Domestic violence costs us in police and court costs, 
shelters, foster care, sick leave, and nonproductivity.
  As a former judge and founder of the Congressional Victims' Rights 
Caucus, this epidemic is of great alarm to me. I believe we must work 
to eliminate this domestic abuse while protecting the victims that have 
already resulted from this trend.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that all of us on this day, as we recognize the 
worth of women, are determined to make sure that they live in a safe 
environment in their homes.

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