[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 130 (Thursday, September 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S6601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    OBSERVING THE 21ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, Sunday, September 13 marks the 21st 
anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, VAWA. I have zero 
tolerance for domestic violence. No woman in this Nation should live in 
fear for her safety or the safety of her children. These victims need 
to have access to resources that can provide them with help. That is 
why I was proud to cosponsor this legislation when it was first enacted 
in 1994, and I am proud to have fought for every single one of its 
reauthorizations since.
  The far-reaching impact of this legislation cannot be stressed 
enough. It has impacted the lives of millions of people--playing a 
crucial role in our communities by providing important services to 
those who are most vulnerable. Since the original VAWA legislation, 
millions of women have called the National Domestic Violence hotline 
who were desperate, who were fearful for their lives. When they called 
that number, they got help. I know that it saved lives.
  As vice chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the 
Commerce, Justice, Science, CJS, Appropriations Subcommittee, I fought 
to include $479 million in funding in the fiscal year 2016 CJS bill for 
the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women--the 
highest funding level ever for these programs.
  What is it that these programs do? They coordinate community 
approaches to end violence and sexual assault. They fund victims' 
services like shelters and a national toll-free crisis hotline. They 
provide counseling to victims of rape and sexual assault. They help 
prevent sexual assaults from happening on college campuses. They also 
fund legal assistance to victims to be able to get court orders to be 
able to protect themselves from the abuser or from the stalker.
  Domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking are 
crimes of epidemic proportions, exacting terrible costs on individual 
lives and our communities. Twenty-five percent of U.S. women report 
that they have been physically assaulted by an intimate partner during 
their lifetimes, one in six have been the victims of rape or attempted 
rape, and the cost of domestic violence exceeds $8 billion each year. 
These are numbers and statistics, but they also represent real people.
  In my home State of Maryland, VAWA programs have personally impacted 
people's lives. For example, ``Rita'' who was married to ``Jamie''--who 
was physically abusive to her, and then sadly to their four-year-old 
son, and had been arrested on several occasions for dealing drugs--was 
able to get important legal assistance through a VAWA-funded program.
  Rita obtained a protective order against Jamie, pressed criminal 
charges against him, and he was found guilty of assault. Jamie is now 
where he belongs, locked behind bars.
  The Sexual Assault Legal Institute, SALI, a program of the Maryland 
Coalition Against Sexual Assault, was able to represent Rita in her 
divorce proceedings and custody case. Although this case remains 
ongoing, through VAWA, the SALI program made it possible for Rita to 
get the important legal services she needed to protect herself and her 
son.
  This story is just one of the many reasons why it is so important 
that we continue to invest in programs to combat domestic abuse and 
sexual assault, and help enable victims to rebuild their lives. This is 
why I want to recognize 21 years of VAWA as law today, and remember the 
countless number of lives it has impacted throughout the country. VAWA 
has put into place so many invaluable programs that are effective and 
relied upon by so many women and their families in Maryland and across 
the nation. That is the reason why I will continue to fight for it.

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