[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 164 (Tuesday, September 22, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                  SAVANNA'S ACT AND NOT INVISIBLE ACT

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                           HON. GREG STANTON

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 22, 2020

  Mr. STANTON. Madam Speaker, I offer my stanch support for Savanna's 
Act and the Not Invisible Act. It is a horrific fact that Native 
American women face a murder rate ten times higher than the national 
average, with eighty-four percent experiencing some form of violence in 
their lifetime. To make matters worse, without a dedicated federal 
database designated to collecting information on the number of how many 
Native women go missing or are murdered every year, we do not have the 
whole picture--this is completely unacceptable. Savanna's Act and the 
Not Invisible Act begin to address the crisis of Missing and Murdered 
Indigenous Women and Girls.
  In Arizona, a state home to 22 Native American tribes, we recognize 
and know the horrors of this crisis. We know that it is a misconception 
that Native women only go missing on Tribal lands. Studies have shown 
that the majority of Native Americans and Alaska Native people now live 
in urban communities, where they also go missing. Violence against 
Native women spans beyond tribal lands and thus so must the solutions.
  I am encouraged to see these bills come to the House Floor for 
consideration because it has taken us too long to act on this issue. It 
has taken us too long and lives have been taken and lost. We cannot in 
good conscience continue with inaction. I support the passage of these 
bills and hope they are signed into law as soon as possible--we owe it 
to the Native American women who we have lost and those who are still 
with us today and worry they might be next.

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