[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 130 (Wednesday, August 1, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5564-S5565]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           TRIBUTE TO CHRISTINE McLEOD PATE AND NIKOLE NELSON

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is the end of the week on the Senate 
floor, and it is my favorite time of the week. I think it is the pages' 
favorite time of the week, too, because we get to talk about the 
Alaskan of the Week. This is a speech I give every week. The whole 
purpose is to talk about somebody in my community, somebody in my great 
State, who has done something important for their fellow Alaskans or 
maybe their fellow Americans. Sometimes it is someone very famous. 
Other times it is somebody who is working hard every single day and 
doesn't get a lot of recognition. What we like to do is come and talk 
about them. We like to brag about them.
  I like to brag about my State. We all like to brag about our States. 
When it comes to size, beauty, grandeur, and majestic nature, I think 
Alaska takes the cake of all the other States, but others might 
disagree. I know the Presiding Officer loves his State very much.
  What we want to encourage people to do is come on up to Alaska, see 
it for yourselves. Spend some time there. We are getting ready for a 
little recess. Some of my Senate colleagues will be coming up and 
seeing our great State in the next week.
  I guarantee you, if you are watching, it is going to be the trip of a 
lifetime. You will love it, absolutely love it. More than anything, it 
is truly the people of Alaska who make it such a special place. We like 
to celebrate these people. They are individualistic, rugged, tough but 
very community-oriented. We call them our Alaskan of the Week.
  I am going to break a little rule on the Alaskan of the Week this 
week because it is going to be the Alaskans of the Week, not one but 
two--two people who are doing great things and, in many ways, 
reinforcing each other's great work in Alaska.
  I am going to talk a little bit, though, about one of the challenges. 
We like to brag about how wonderful our States are. Let's face it, all 
States in our great Nation have challenges and problems. One of the 
ones that a number of us back home in Alaska are focused on is a really 
big challenge and a really problematic issue in my State; that is, the 
very high rate of domestic violence and sexual assault we have in 
Alaska. We have some of the highest rates in the country. This is 
horrible, and it impacts families and, of course, victims and 
survivors. Of course, it is not just a problem in Alaska; it is a 
problem all across the country. In Alaska, it is an acute problem. It 
is a big problem.
  The good news is, we have hundreds, if not thousands, of people in 
Alaska who have recognized this as a big problem and have banded 
together in using their energy, creativity, and drive to have turned to 
the survivors of this abuse and turn to help them and help them break 
out of what oftentimes is generational violence--family victims after 
family victims.
  Today, I recognize two such Alaskans, who are literally leading the 
way on this very important issue of helping the survivors of these 
heinous crimes: Sitka, AK, resident Christine Pate, who is the legal 
director for the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual 
Assault, and Anchorage resident Nikole Nelson, who is the executive 
director of Alaska Legal Services.
  These two women, for decades, have been leading the effort to bring 
legal services and other services to survivors of domestic violence and 
sexual assault in our State. They work together. They are leaders. They 
have helped hundreds, if not thousands, of victims and their families--
think about that--over the last 20 years.
  Let's talk about them a little bit. Christine has done a great job 
with the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, 
ANDVSA, which is an umbrella organization for 25 domestic violence and 
sexual assault programs across the State.
  Christine is a cum laude graduate of the New York University School 
of Law. She came to Alaska in 1993, clerked for Sitka Superior Court 
Judge Larry Zervos, and after that, she worked for Alaska Legal 
Services in Fairbanks and then has been with ANDVSA for 20 years doing 
this very important work.
  Her demeanor was once described by a reporter as ``Clark Kent-like,'' 
which I would agree with if that means she has superpowers that are 
used to fight bad guys and help the good guys. Those who know her just 
call her wonderful, and I certainly would agree with that.
  At ANDVSA, she directs the coalition's statewide civil legal services 
program, which also includes both staff attorneys and approximately 60 
active volunteer attorneys--again, to help survivors and victims of 
these heinous crimes. She also oversees legal training and technical 
assistance for program advocates. As a matter of fact, I was home a few 
months ago and went to one of her training programs. She does a 
phenomenal job.
  Nikole Nelson is her compatriot-in-arms. She made her way to Alaska 
20 years ago, fresh out of Willamette University's College of Law, and 
her first job in Alaska--still doing it--was to work for Alaska Legal 
Services Corporation. She rose up through the ranks, and now she is the 
director. She, too, in my view, has superpowers, and she channels those 
powers to serve in the righteous cause of justice for the too many 
victims in my State who need it and don't have access to an attorney to 
help them.
  I cannot stress how important both the Alaska Network on Domestic 
Violence and Sexual Assault and the Alaska Legal Services Corporation 
are for victims and survivors of these heinous crimes.
  I have had the opportunity and really the honor of working with both 
Christine and Nikole and their organizations very closely over the 
years. I am still a huge supporter of all they do and have watched them 
year after year doing the great work they do to stomp out the scourge 
of domestic violence in our State. Let me tell a little story of how we 
all worked together.
  When I was attorney general of the State, we had a big campaign 
strategy called the Choose Respect strategy, and one of the elements of 
that was to get more lawyers to help victims; to get more lawyers, pro 
bono attorneys, to come out and help victims, survivors of domestic 
violence and sexual assault.
  Think about this: If you are an accused rapist, you get a Sixth 
Amendment right to counsel. That is in our Bill of Rights. If you are 
the victim, what do you get? You don't get anything. And far too often, 
the victims don't have any legal representation. They don't know how to 
use the justice system as a sword and a shield.
  What we were trying to do--what Nikole and Christine have been doing 
for decades--was to say to the survivors and victims: Wait a minute. We 
can get you a lawyer. We can help you. We can empower you.
  We held these pro bono legal summits throughout the State of Alaska, 
and dozens of lawyers came out of the woodwork and said: We will help 
you. We will be your sword and shield in the justice system.
  That is what we have done. That is what they have continued to do, 
and this makes a huge difference. As a matter of fact, of all the 
studies throughout the country on how you change this culture of 
abuse--in every study, one of the most important things is to get 
victims and survivors an attorney. So that is what they have been 
doing.
  We actually recently took that idea here to the Senate floor in a 
bill that Senator Heitkamp and I cosponsored called the POWER Act, 
which would create another layer of pro bono attorneys. The idea is to 
create an army of lawyers by the thousands in America to provide legal 
services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. That 
passed the Senate, passed the House, came back over here, trying to 
hotline it, and it looks as though we hit a little glitch today. But I 
can't imagine any Senator who doesn't want to do this, so we will 
probably get this done after we are back from recess, and that will 
help take this idea nationwide.
  The leaders in our community in Alaska have been Nikole and 
Christine.
  As I mentioned, there are no simple solutions on this, but when an 
abused victim is represented by an attorney, their ability to break out 
of the cycle of violence increases dramatically.

[[Page S5565]]

Just one study found that 83 percent of victims represented by an 
attorney were able to obtain a protective order versus almost 30 
percent of victims without an attorney.
  But here is the problem: There was a recent report by a national 
group that focuses on these issues. In 2014, in 1 day, there were over 
10,000 victims who went without services, like legal services. So there 
is a desperate need. Christine and Nikole have been the ones leading 
the charge. I talk about an army of attorneys to do this kind of pro 
bono legal work in Alaska--they are the captains leading this charge.
  Christine likes to quote one of the advocates she works with when she 
talks about her work. She says: ``It is so satisfying to see the relief 
wash over a person's face when they realize that there's an end in 
sight and they don't have to live like that in a cycle of violence 
anymore because they have an attorney representing them.''
  Nikole has been traveling the globe with her daughter the past month 
thanks to a much needed sabbatical grant from Alaska's Rasmuson 
Foundation.
  Nikole, I hope you are having a much needed rest.
  Let me end with a quote written by her about the work Alaska Legal 
Services does, the work she leads in our great State. She said: ``In 
any given day, the people who come seeking our services may be moms 
that have been abused by their spouse, oftentimes in front of their 
children, and they come to us because they do not have the financial 
means to leave that abuse.'' They help them with that. ``We may have a 
grandfather who is struggling to care for his grandchildren and he 
fears he is going to lose his home. . . . For all of these problems, 
there is a civil legal solution. But unlike in criminal cases where a 
defendant is guaranteed a court-appointed attorney if they cannot 
afford one, in civil cases''--in these kinds of domestic violence and 
civil action cases--``there is no [right to an attorney].'' And what 
they do is they provide it, particularly to victims of these heinous 
crimes.
  Christine and Nikole lead organizations that are doing great work not 
only in Alaska, but nationwide, Legal Services Corporation does this 
work, and I am a big supporter of them here in the Senate.
  Christine and Nikole, thank you for all the great work you have done 
over the years. Thanks for your tremendous spirit of generosity and 
kindness. I know I can thank you on behalf of so many survivors of 
these crimes whom you have helped, and their families. Thanks for being 
our joint Alaskans of the week this week in the U.S. Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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