[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 61 (Thursday, April 26, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H2143-H2144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I come humbly to the well today, under the 
``E Pluribus Unum,'' to ask that there be swift bipartisan action in 
reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. VAWA's authorization, of 
course, lapsed at the end of the last fiscal year, on September 30, 
2011.

                              {time}  1100

  Unfortunately, for every day that passes by, women pay the price. The 
annual National Census of Domestic Violence Services--a daily snapshot 
taken every year by the National Network to End Domestic Violence--
found that in one 24-hour period in the United States, over 67,000 
victims were served through emergency shelters, transitional housing, 
counseling, legal advocacy, and more. Over 22,000 hotline phone calls 
were answered and over 26,000 people participated in domestic violence 
prevention and education training.
  For all these people who are served, unfortunately, in the same 24-
hour period, there are nearly 11,000 unmet requests for services 
because these programs neither have the resources to help these victims 
nor the authorizations based on best practices on how we need to change 
VAWA in order to meet the needs of women.
  Our colleagues across the Capitol in the Senate are on the cusp of 
passing a bipartisan VAWA reauthorization bill that contains these 
provisions to strengthen our ability to combat not only domestic 
violence, but also sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. And 
I'm so proud to say that right here on this floor, 1 month ago, I 
introduced a companion bill to the Senate legislation that contains 
these badly needed updates to reflect the input of numerous 
stakeholders and lays a path forward for VAWA.
  The vision is to protect all victims, no matter what their gender, 
sexual orientation, immigration status, or whether or not they reside 
in sovereign territories or in States. These updates have garnered 
criticism from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle that offer 
fundamental, simple rights that ought to be guaranteed by the 14th 
Amendment.
  For example, this bill would recognize the tribes' authority to 
prosecute non-Indians or Indians who abuse their American Indian 
spouses or dating partners on tribal lands. Fifty-two percent of women 
who are beaten, battered, raped, or stalked on tribal lands are not 
prosecuted because tribes have no authority. And on tribal lands, there 
is no follow-up and no prosecution.
  The bill would also provide equal opportunity for areas that are in 
traditionally underserved areas, including those who have barriers 
because of their religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation. It's 
absurd to say that because you are a homosexual that you don't deserve 
protection from being beaten, stalked, or raped. And, of course, the 
Hippocratic Oath would have us scoop up a person who may be lying in 
the street, hit by a truck. We don't ask people for their immigration 
papers in order to intervene in a lifesaving intervention. Why would we 
demand this of immigrant women?
  We have got to ensure a more comprehensive response to the continuing 
problem of enforcement, reporting, and services for victims of sexual 
assault.
  In spite of the strides we have made toward a new and improved VAWA, 
just yesterday the House Republicans put their so-called ``clean'' 
reauthorization bill on the floor. Let me tell you this: it's clean, 
perhaps, because we don't want to sully our hands dealing with the 
beaten, stalked, murdered, and bullied butch-batterers, because we 
don't want to deal with homosexuality. We want clean reauthorization, a 
sleight of hand that keeps immigrant women in the shadows and keeps 
their pain and their battery and their victimization in the shadows and 
makes them invisible. We're actually sanctioning the abuse that occurs 
on tribal lands and providing a sanctuary for assailants who commit 
these crimes on

[[Page H2144]]

native lands by not providing this authority to tribal nations.
  I urge my Republican colleagues to work together with House Democrats 
to craft a truly bipartisan update of VAWA.

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