[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 186 (Wednesday, November 20, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6693-S6694]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Violence Against Women Act

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I am so pleased to stand with Senator 
Ernst and my colleagues today to talk about the 2019 Violence Against 
Women Act.

[[Page S6694]]

  Most women will tell you that they know of a female friend or 
acquaintance or relative who has experienced the horrors of sexual 
assault or domestic violence or even trafficking. Through my work with 
shelters back home in Tennessee, I have learned that the volunteers, 
the counselors, the advocates, and the attorneys who support these 
victims are of the utmost importance. They are who the victims need to 
see the minute they walk through that door, into their arms, and hear 
them say: How can we help you? This is a safe place.
  These are the people who come around them to empower them, and the 
one thing I hear over and over in the wake of one's attack is that 
these victims need that type of support. This is why, in addition to 
providing funding for both prevention and educational programs, this 
year's authorization will do some important things. It will increase 
funding for the court-appointed special advocates by $3 million. It 
will provide over $1 million per year for Federal victim counselors. It 
will also help to provide transitional housing to victims, which is 
something they will desperately need. They need to know they have a 
safe place.
  These resources--and this is important--are going to go directly into 
the hands of those who are providing these services, and this will have 
a direct impact on the lives of these women when they need it the most.
  Just for a moment, I would like to highlight a portion of the 
reauthorization on which I have spent a good deal of time working this 
year. It has to do with a particular violent sexual crime that is so 
grotesque that most Americans prefer not to even acknowledge it. They 
don't want to admit that this exists. Yet, for the victims of female 
genital mutilation, the pain and the humiliation are nearly unbearable.
  You would think that Federal prosecutors would be able to make short 
work out of such heinous charges, but due to a loophole in Federal 
criminal law, scores of victims have watched their abusers walk free. 
The Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2019, which 
is a separate bill that I sponsored earlier this year, is now a part of 
this year's reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. It will 
correct fatal constitutional flaws in the Federal statute that bans the 
practice of FGM. When this is done, under Federal law, prosecutions for 
mutilation and cutting will be able to continue.
  I would be remiss if I did not say that in a perfect world, we would 
not have to worry about allocating resources for safe houses and for 
victim counseling. We should not have to do this, but this is not a 
perfect world. So, yes, indeed, we do have to step up and do this for 
the sake of the thousands of women who fall victim to sexual violence, 
trafficking, and sexual abuse each year.
  I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come 
together and work on this. Let's pass the 2019 Violence Against Women 
Act.
  I yield the floor.