[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 17, 2021)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D258-D261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                        House of Representatives


Chamber Action
Public Bills and Resolutions Introduced: 43 public bills, H.R. 1953-
1995; and 8 resolutions, H. Res. 243-250, were introduced. 
                                                      Pages H1497-H1500
Additional Cosponsors:                                   
  Pages H1501-02
Reports Filed: There were no reports filed today.
Removing the deadline for the ratification of the equal rights 
amendment: The House passed H.J. Res. 17, removing the deadline for the 
ratification of the equal rights amendment, by a yea-and-nay vote of 
222 yeas to 204 nays, Roll No. 82.             
  Pages H1419-32, H1475-76
  H. Res. 233, the rule providing for consideration of the bills (H.R. 
1620), (H.R. 6), (H.R. 1603), (H.R. 1868), and the joint resolution 
(H.J. Res. 17) was agreed to yesterday, March 16th.
Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021: The House passed 
H.R. 1620, to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, by a 
yea-and-nay vote of 244 yeas to 172 nays, Roll No. 86. 
                                               Pages H1432-75, H1476-79
  Pursuant to the Rule, an amendment in the nature of a substitute 
consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 117-3, modified by the 
amendment printed in part A of H. Rept. 117-12, shall be considered as 
adopted.                                                     
Page H1432
Agreed to:
  Nadler en bloc amendment No. 1 consisting of the following amendments 
printed in part B of H. Rept. 117-12: Burgess (No. 1) that requires the 
DOJ and HHS to issue guidance and best practices on strategies to 
improve coordination of sexual assault forensic examination training 
and program sustainability; Bush (No. 2) that ensures that survivors 
can access transitional housing and be protected from unfair evictions 
and denial of service; Bush (No. 3)

[[Page D259]]

that requires the Attorney General shall make publicly available on the 
Department of Justice website reports involving police sexual 
misconduct; Case (No. 4) that ensures the inclusion of Native Indian, 
Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian groups; requires a review and 
subsequent Department of Justice report of Native Hawaiian interactions 
with the criminal justice system and related crime prevention programs 
to add to pre-existing data on Native Indians and Alaska Natives; 
Connolly (No. 5) that adds the right to be informed of the status and 
location of a sexual assault evidence collection kit to the rights of 
sexual assault survivors; Crist (No. 6) that clarifies that STOP grants 
can be used to cover the fees associated with replacing driver's 
licenses and birth certificates for survivors and their children; will 
provide survivors and their families with life-saving assistance as 
they take steps to build a safe and independent life; Rodney Davis (IL) 
(No. 7) that requires the Department of Health and Human Services to 
include in their Study and Report on Barriers to Survivors' Economic 
Security Access (Sec. 704), the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on such 
survivors as it relates to their ability to maintain economic security; 
Delgado (No. 8) that adds to the findings on Economic Security for 
Victims that individuals living in rural areas facing intimate partner 
violence often face barriers to accessing resources, ranging from 
health care to the criminal justice system; Delgado (No. 9) that 
requires an analysis of the unique barriers faced by survivors in rural 
communities in the study on barriers to survivors' economic security; 
Dingell (No. 10) that establishes pilot program grants (up to 10) 
through the Department of Justice to state and tribal courts, offering 
them the opportunity to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of 
serving protection orders electronically; Kaehle (No. 11) that ensures 
appropriate consultation and inclusion with indigenous groups to 
support the tailored needs of indigenous women; Lamb (No. 12) that adds 
training for sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE nurses) to VAWA's 
Rural Programs, to expand access to and retention of quality SANE 
nurses in rural areas; Lawrence (No. 13) that amends Section 102 
(Grants Encouraging Improvements and Alternatives to the Criminal 
Justice Response), to authorize grants to also be used for the purpose 
of better identifying and responding to domestic violence, dating 
violence, sexual assault, and stalking against individuals who have 
been arrested or have contact with the juvenile or adult criminal 
justice system, and for developing or strengthening diversion programs 
and to ensure they receive comprehensive victim services; Lawrence (No. 
14) that incentivizes states to adopt laws prohibiting the prosecution 
of minors for prostitution; Leger Fernandez (No. 15) that directs the 
Office on Violence Against Women to report on actions taken to prevent 
suicide amongst survivors and to consult with SAMHSA to establish best 
practices to prevent suicide amongst survivors; Leger Fernandez (No. 
16) that requires that services provided pursuant to grants to support 
families in the justice system are provided in a culturally relevant 
manner and requires DOL's public outreach and education campaign to be 
conducted in a culturally relevant manner; Levin (MI) (No. 17) that 
amends Sec. 101 (STOP Grants) to add ``implementing a vertical 
prosecution system'' to the list of permissible uses for STOP grants; 
Meng (No. 18) that ensures family-focused programming for prisoners--
from intake through reentry--to support the prisoners' familial needs, 
as well as provide appropriate training for correctional staff to 
engage with prisoners' families; Meng (No. 19) that ensures clear 
distribution and accessibility of sanitary products to prisoners and 
provides that no visitor is prohibited from visiting due to the 
visitor's use of sanitary products; Moore (No. 20) that authorizes a 
study on the intersection between domestic violence, sexual assault, 
dating violence, and stalking, and maternal mortality or morbidity; 
Moore (No. 21) that authorizes and expands programs offering sexual 
assault medical forensic exams and sexual assault victim services in 
tribal communities; Newman (No. 22) that requires grant applicants of 
the National Resource Center on Workplace Responses to include 
microbusiness in their outreach to qualify; Omar (No. 23) that includes 
credit history in the GAO economic barrier study; Omar (No. 24) that 
includes barriers of legal costs and jurisdictional challenges in the 
GAO economic study; Phillips (No. 25) that establishes a pilot program 
to identify and make immigration relief available to immigrants who are 
dependent upon their abusers for immigration status and have been 
subject to battering or extreme cruelty and have already been 
authorized for employment; Plaskett (No. 26) that establishes a civil 
cause of action against a person that discloses an intimate image of an 
individual without the depicted individual's consent, if the person 
disclosed the image with knowledge of or reckless disregard for such 
lack of consent; Pressley (No. 27) that establishes LGBTQ+ specific 
grants and services to LGBTQ+ victims of domestic violence, dating 
violence, sexual assault, and stalking; Ross (No. 28) that revises the 
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act to allow grants to be used 
to for the development of statewide databases with information on where 
sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE nurses) are located; Ross (No. 29) 
that creates a statutory mandate that a victim's safety should be 
central to the housing and housing-related decisions that covered 
housing

[[Page D260]]

providers make when implementing VAWA to not evict survivors, keep 
their information confidential, and do not deny assistance; Scanlon 
(No. 30) that provides legal representation to individuals for post 
conviction relief proceedings; Scanlon (No. 31) that creates a pathway 
for providing legal services through the Department of Veterans Affairs 
to address unmet needs such as elder law, child custody, and housing 
disputes; Speier (No. 32) that adds the Stopping Harmful Image 
Exploitation and Limiting Distribution Act (the ``SHIELD Act'') to the 
bill, which addresses the malicious sharing of private, intimate 
images, known as ``nonconsensual pornography'' or ``revenge porn''; 
Speier (No. 33) that directs the Secretary of Education to make 
available a climate survey for institutions of higher education to 
administer to students on their experiences with sexual assault, sexual 
harassment, domestic violence, stalking, and dating violence; Speier 
(No. 34) that establishes an Interagency Task Force on Sexual Violence 
in Education to provide pertinent information to the government, 
public, and educational institutions on campus sexual violence 
prevention and response, as well as how to better assist survivors; 
Speier (No. 35) that builds on the unanimous passage of the Survivors' 
Bill of Rights Act establishing rights for survivors of federal sexual 
assault offenses by incentivizing states to ensure that survivors have, 
at a minimum, the rights guaranteed by the federal law; includes the 
right to be informed if the government intends to destroy or dispose of 
a sexual assault evidence collection kit, the right to be informed of 
any result of a kit, and the right to have a sexual assault evidence 
collection kit or its probative contents preserved without charge for 
the maximum applicable statute of limitations or 20 years, whichever is 
shorter; Torres (CA) (No. 37) that requires the Attorney General, in 
consultation with the Secretary of HHS, to conduct a study 
investigating whether abused victims who raise evidence of domestic 
violence are more likely to lose primary custody of their children to 
an abusive partner or to the State, including reviewing and providing 
recommendations on restructuring relevant state laws, regulations, and 
practices; Torres (CA) (No. 38) that requires the Attorney General, in 
coordination with the Secretary of HHS, to conduct a study on the 
direct and collateral economic costs and risks of divorce from an 
abusive partner to a victim of domestic violence, including payment of 
alimony, legal fees, spousal support, or the division of property; 
Torres (NY) (No. 39) that mandates state and local governments submit 
to the Attorney General a report on the number of sexual assault 
response teams at hospitals and their average victim response times to 
be eligible for certain federal funds; and Williams (No. 41) that 
ensures any study conducted under this bill includes an assessment, to 
the extent practicable, of any disparate impacts of the matter studied, 
by race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity (by a 
yea-and-nay vote of 228 yeas to 197 nays, Roll No. 83); and 
                                               Pages H1463-72, H1476-77
  Wagner amendment (No. 40 printed in part B of H. Rept. 117-12) that 
enhances VAWA's transparency and accountability measures by making 
entities found by the Attorney General to have intentionally misused 
VAWA grant funds ineligible to apply for future grants for up to 5 
years, after reasonable notice and opportunity for a hearing (by a yea-
and-nay vote of 242 yeas to 174 nays, Roll No. 84). 
                                               Pages H1474-75, H1477-78
Rejected:
  Stefanik amendment (No. 36 printed in part B of H. Rept. 117-12) that 
sought to strike all and replace the text with the Violence Against 
Women Extension Act of 2021 (by a yea-and-nay vote of 177 yeas to 249 
nays, Roll No. 85).                               
Pages H1472-74, H1478
  H. Res. 233, the rule providing for consideration of the bills (H.R. 
1620), (H.R. 6), (H.R.1603), (H.R.1868), and the joint resolution (H.J. 
Res. 17) was agreed to yesterday, March 16th.
Suspensions--Proceedings Resumed: The House agreed to suspend the rules 
and pass the following measures:
  Awarding three congressional gold medals to the United States Capitol 
Police and those who protected the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021: 
H.R. 1085, amended, to award three congressional gold medals to the 
United States Capitol Police and those who protected the U.S. Capitol 
on January 6, 2021, by a \2/3\ yea-and-nay vote of 413 yeas to 12 nays, 
Roll No. 87;                                                 
  Page H1480
  COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act of 2021: H.R. 1651, amended, 
to amend the CARES Act to extend the sunset for the definition of a 
small business debtor, by a \2/3\ yea-and-nay vote of 399 yeas to 14 
nays, Roll No. 88; and                                   
  Pages H1480-81
  VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021: H.R. 1652, 
amended, to deposit certain funds into the Crime Victims Fund, to waive 
matching requirements, by a \2/3\ yea-and-nay vote of 384 yeas to 38 
nays, Roll No. 89.                                       
  Pages H1481-82
Clerk to Correct Engrossment: Agreed by unanimous consent that in the 
engrossment of H.R. 1620, the Clerk be authorized to correct section 
numbers, punctuation, spelling, and cross-references and to make such 
other technical and conforming changes as may be necessary to reflect 
the actions of the House.                                    
  Page H1482

[[Page D261]]

Committee Election: The House agreed to H. Res. 244, electing a certain 
Member to a certain standing committee of the House of Representatives.
                                                             Page H1482
Quorum Calls--Votes: Eight yea-and-nay votes developed during the 
proceedings of today and appear on pages H1475-76, H1476-77, H1477, 
H1478, H1479, H1480, H1480-81, and H1481-82.
Adjournment: The House met at 10 a.m. and adjourned at 9:53 p.m.