[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 188 (Tuesday, October 26, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H5878-H5879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
        FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND SERVICES IMPROVEMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to stand in support 
of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Improvement Act. I want 
to start by, of course, thanking Congresswoman McBath for her work to 
reauthorize this bill and wisely using this moment to strengthen 
protections for our communities with bipartisan support.
  Domestic violence, unfortunately, impacts every community in the 
United States. It impacts every community in New Mexico. In fact, over 
540,000 New Mexicans experience intimate partner violence in their 
lifetimes. It is so sad that children witness

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this violence in too many cases and are, themselves, victims.
  Our Native American and Latino communities are the most impacted. 
While Native people, especially Native women, have the highest need for 
medical and legal services, the current law does not provide them with 
equitable funding or resources.
  This bill takes the steps to fix these inequities. It authorizes a 
Tribal domestic violence hotline, discretionary resource centers on 
Alaska Native populations, and direct funding for Tribal coalitions.
  These changes will provide much-needed help to our communities so 
that we may properly respond to their needs.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.


                        Build Back Better Agenda

  Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the 
Build Back Better agenda. I would note that it is a women's agenda, 
Build Back Better. It is because we will be investing in those things 
that all women need to succeed in life because we began with our 
children.
  The Build Back Better bill would expand and continue the child tax 
credit, which began under the American Rescue Plan. We cannot tell 
those families who finally received the child tax credit that the clock 
has struck midnight and they can no longer receive it. We must continue 
this tax credit so that all children in all families receive that 
benefit.
  The Build Back Better agenda also makes sure that we provide pre-K so 
that there is universal pre-K. We know the biggest benefit we can 
provide our children is ensuring that everybody has quality pre-K 
education. When doing so, we must ensure that we pay the teachers of 
our children what they deserve and give them the respect they need.
  In that sense, we will also be investing in our workforce development 
so that we can have the qualified workers who will be able to care for 
our children, who will be able to teach our children. The workforce 
development and workforce innovation investments in this bill are very 
needed.
  I come from a State where we will need to transition away from oil 
and gas. In order to ensure a just transition for energy communities, 
we must ensure that there are new jobs for those workers.
  Build Back Better will allow the creation of new jobs, both for 
plugging abandoned wells and for addressing the legacy pollution that 
we have seen that needs to be cleaned up.
  Madam Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support the Build Back 
Better agenda. It is good for our families. It is good for our women. 
It is good for our planet.

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