[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 217 (Thursday, December 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9232-S9234]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Violence Against Women Act

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I am pleased to be on the floor today 
with my colleagues, both the Senator from Iowa behind me and the 
Senator from California, because I want to thank them publicly for 
their leadership as they work to address these issues of domestic 
violence. They have been leaders in this arena for years, and I 
appreciate that.
  I am pleased to have worked with them on this framework that has been 
discussed by both Senators and to acknowledge the work of Senator 
Durbin as part of this initiative as well.
  I think as both of them have spoken, it is recognized that this is a 
matter of urgency. This is a matter for all of us, on a bipartisan 
basis. Domestic violence, unfortunately, knows no political bounds, and 
our response to those who are truly among the most vulnerable of us--
that response--should also be bipartisan.
  So I want to commend Senator Ernst, Senator Feinstein, Senator Durbin 
for their work in really coming to find common ground on this very 
important matter. It has been years----

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Permit me a moment to interrupt you.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Please.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. One of my great joys is to work on a bipartisan 
basis, and the Senator from Alaska has been just wonderful. She is a 
10, in my book.
  You have listened to us on this side. Our staffs have been able to 
work closely together, and I think, thanks to you, we have a workable, 
bipartisan product. So I just want to say thank you. I wish the Senate 
could be more like this all the time, but I think we made a great notch 
in the right track. So thank you very much.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Well, thank you.
  Again, it takes a lot of people, and the years that Senator Ernst has 
been working this initiative on this side of the aisle is something 
that, again, we want to build on, and we need to build on it together.
  It has been years in the making. The last time we had a VAWA 
reauthorization was VAWA 2013, and so we are high past time to be 
addressing this very significant matter.
  No compromise is perfect. I think everyone recognizes that. But what 
has been developed through this framework is a proposal that will 
really help to prevent violence, to support our survivors, and to hold 
perpetrators to account.
  The effort to be here where we are today on the floor, speaking to 
this, is one thing, but we all want to get to that next step, which is 
filing the legislation so we can get it moving through this process, 
and I look forward to doing that in the new year.

[[Page S9233]]

  I can tell you, as a Senator from Alaska, this is an extraordinarily 
pressing issue in my State. As the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs 
Committee, I can affirm that this is a very real need across Native 
lands, and it is the disproportionate victimization of Native people 
that I want to focus my comments on today.
  By now, I would hope that every Senator understands the crisis of 
missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. We refer to this as 
MMIW. That is why we passed Savanna's Act and the Not Invisible Act.
  I want to acknowledge my colleague, who has been working this issue 
with us for so long, Senator Cortez Masto.
  I think we recognize that we have made good progress there, but to 
fully address the root causes of this crisis--the high rates of 
domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking, the violent crime 
in Native communities--we have an awful lot more to do.
  The rates of violence experienced by Alaska Natives are particularly 
horrific, and the statistics should shock us all. I repeat them a lot, 
and they still shock me. According to a report prepared by the Indian 
Law and Order Commission, Alaska Native women are overrepresented by 
nearly 250 percent among female domestic violence victims around our 
country.
  Putting it in context here, a couple years ago, there was an 
investigation that was conducted by Anchorage Daily News that 
determined that one in three Native communities in rural Alaska has no 
local law enforcement that is physically present, leaving Native women 
and children at greater risk of violence. Think about what that means 
for just a minute, to live in a community where there is no one to turn 
to, no law enforcement presence to turn to. Maybe you are able to share 
your story with a local health aide there, but that is about as far as 
you can go.
  Beyond that, you have many Alaskan Tribes that lack the tools they 
need to address violence in their communities.
  A couple years ago, the Attorney General at the time, William Barr, 
was invited to the State and came up, and we said: We need to get you 
out to one of these remote villages.
  He saw firsthand, and he was so dramatically impacted after his just 
multiple hours on the ground there, he declared a law enforcement 
emergency--a law enforcement emergency--after hearing directly from 
those who had suffered due to lack of public safety. He said at the 
time that it was harder for him to imagine a more vulnerable population 
than the women and children he saw in rural Alaska. He took that back 
to DC with him and acted on it. His declaration was based on the fact 
that Alaska has the highest per capita crime rate in this country, and, 
of course, we face very unique geographic and jurisdictional 
landscapes.
  Then comes COVID-19, and you have a pandemic where you have to be in 
your social bubbles, you have to be inside, and you have to be where it 
is safe to be away from the virus, but that safe place was not a safe 
place for far too many people.
  Last summer, rural Alaska saw five domestic violence homicides in 10 
days. Again, these are small, rural communities--five homicides in a 
matter of 10 days; domestic violence. In the 5 weeks after the State of 
Alaska declared a public health disaster due to the coronavirus 
pandemic, calls to our domestic violence shelter increased by 52 
percent.
  You cannot let this go unaddressed. We have an opportunity here in 
this Congress to build on our previous work with VAWA 2013, where we 
have taken steps to resolve jurisdictional complexity when it imperils 
the safety of people. The jurisdiction issues should not deny justice. 
It just should not.

  In the 2013 reauthorization of VAWA, Congress recognized the inherent 
authority of Tribes to prosecute and punish certain domestic violence 
crimes committed by non-Indians against Indian people.
  At the time, that was described as unprecedented, and some Members of 
Congress and the media as well pushed a narrative that Tribal 
governments somehow were not going to be fair, that they would not 
safeguard the rights of non-Indian defendants. We knew that was going 
to be far from the truth, and nearly 8 years later, despite all of the 
horror stories that were predicted, the record shows that non-Indian 
defendants experienced a Tribal justice system that treats them fairly 
and in some ways with more attention than State or Federal systems.
  So I think now what we need to focus on, folks, we need to focus on 
the real horror story, and that horror story is the acts of violence 
being perpetrated against Native women and children. So I have set out 
to do that through the Tribal title that will be included in this 
larger VAWA reauthorization once it is introduced.
  Chairman Schatz, on the Indian Affairs Committee, and I have worked 
on this together. We posted our text to the committee website last 
week. Our title closes loopholes and builds upon the success of the 
2013 reauthorization, and we include specific solutions to protect 
Alaska Native people.
  The Tribal title will further restore and improve the implementation 
of the special Tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit 
violent crimes in Native communities, and it will do so by allowing 
Tribes that exercise this special jurisdiction to charge defendants 
with crimes that are adjacent to domestic violence, such as violence 
against children or assault on law enforcement.
  I think it is important to know that children were involved in 58 
percent of all incidents of domestic violence in these VAWA 2013 cases. 
This is according to a report by the Federal Government a couple years 
ago, in 2019. By empowering Tribal courts this way, we can help combat 
this major public safety issue.
  American Indians and Alaska Natives are the victims of rape, sexual 
assault, and domestic violence in numbers far out of proportion to the 
level these crimes are committed outside of Native communities. This is 
a moral imperative. It is a wrong that we must make right, and we also 
need to do it in a way that recognizes the unique situation we have in 
the State of Alaska.
  You are going to hear later discussion about ANCSA. Two days from now 
is the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. 
ANCSA created a new approach to Tribal land tenure that is very, very 
different from the lower 48 reservation system. While Alaska is home to 
almost 40 percent of the Tribes in the country, we have only one Indian 
reservation in the State.
  After the Supreme Court decision in the Venetie case in which the 
Court held that ANCSA lands are not ``Indian Country,'' it became the 
State's duty, largely alone, to provide for public safety and justice 
for Alaska Natives.
  The Tribal title that we have developed includes an Alaska solution 
to a complex jurisdictional situation. It includes an Alaska pilot 
program which builds on previous legislation that I have introduced and 
will empower a limited number of Alaskan Tribes to exercise special 
criminal jurisdiction over certain crimes that occur in villages in 
Alaska.
  Similar to how the pilot rolled out for the lower 48 Tribes, Alaskan 
Tribes will have to meet certain criteria, including having a Tribal 
justice system that can adequately and appropriately safeguard the 
rights of defendants.
  In addition to the provisions essential to bringing justice and 
safety to Alaska Native people, our critical legislation will ensure 
that VAWA's tools and resources will better serve the needs of 
survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and 
stalking.
  I am proud to have authored text that will help to address this 
ongoing epidemic that Alaska faces with violence, which has left long-
lasting trauma for too many of our women, our children, and our 
families. Congressman Young on the House side has introduced similar 
language to help in this. We simply cannot allow survivors and the 
needs of the most vulnerable to go unmet.
  Very quickly, I want to just outline a couple different provisions 
that are contained in this bipartisan framework that recognize some of 
the matters we have been working on in Alaska.
  There is a provision named in memory of an Alaskan, Breanna Moore. 
Bree's Law is what we call it. In 2014, Cindy and Butch Moore 
experienced a tragedy that no parents should ever have to experience. 
They received a call that their 20-year-old daughter had been shot by 
her boyfriend in Anchorage. In the wake of that devastation, 

[[Page S9234]]

they turned their energy to and they put their hearts and their passion 
into working around the State and now at the Federal level to ensure 
that education is provided to teens to prevent future tragedies. So 
Bree's Law drives education initiatives to enable youth, parents, and 
advocates to recognize, prevent, and mitigate teen dating violence.

  Another provision addresses support services for victims. We know it 
is difficult to access the necessary medical forensic services in 
Alaska. These allow for evidence collection and aid in a survivor's 
journey to justice.
  While we have very troubling statistics on sexual assault and 
domestic violence, Alaskans have also been on the frontlines of 
innovation, offering solutions. The Alaska Comprehensive Training 
Forensic Academy, which is a pilot program run through the University 
of Alaska Anchorage, is making a difference in the lives of Alaskans 
who have experienced interpersonal violence.
  Built on the belief that all victims of violence deserve evaluation 
and care from forensically trained healthcare providers, I have been 
able to secure some provisions in our VAWA proposal that will allow 
other universities and States to model the successful program and 
expand access to trauma-informed care.
  There is clearly a public safety crisis that we are dealing with in 
rural Alaska and across Indian Country, but we have an opportunity in 
this Congress to work together across the aisle to find solutions and 
to restore justice. I look forward to building strong, bipartisan 
support for VAWA reauthorization that will make a positive difference 
in the safety of Native communities and for victims of domestic 
violence and entire communities in Alaska and, of course, across the 
country.
  We must let our women, children, and families who have been affected 
by devastating violence know that you are heard and that we stand with 
you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I just want to join the comments of 
Senator Murkowski and Senator Ernst and Senator Feinstein. I want to 
thank them for allowing me to join a pretty power-packed team working 
on the Violence Against Women Act.
  Senator Feinstein is our lead sponsor on the Democratic side. I am 
happy to work with her all the time. I want to especially thank Senator 
Ernst on the Republican side, who has been designated as the official 
negotiator on the reauthorization of VAWA for the last 3 years, and, as 
you have just heard, a passionate supporter of our efforts, Senator 
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska--we worked closely together on other 
legislation, and this one is extremely important.
  This afternoon, Senators Ernst, Feinstein, Murkowski, and myself have 
announced that we have reached a bipartisan agreement and that we will 
be introducing an updated version of VAWA next month when we return. We 
are coming together in supporting the simple premise that VAWA will 
save lives. We need to ensure every survivor, whether they live in 
rural Alaska or urban Illinois, can reach out for a lifeline in a 
moment of crisis.
  We still have work to do. We still need cosponsors. We are going to 
be working individually, Member to Member, to make sure this important 
legislation passes.
  It is a statistic that should shock us all: Nearly one in three women 
living today--nearly one in three--has experienced some form of 
physical or sexual violence. That finding came from the WHO, surveying 
women in more than 160 countries across the globe. It proves that this 
crisis of sexual and domestic violence touches every community in the 
world. But our responsibility, first, is here at home, in all of the 50 
States, to make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect 
women who are vulnerable.
  Let me tell you about one of those survivors; her name is Meaghan. 
And she reached out to my office to share her story. Five years ago, 
Meaghan was brutally assaulted by her ex-husband. The beating was so 
violent that, today, she is still suffering from hearing loss.
  While Meaghan was being attacked, her 2-and-half-year-old son--who is 
on the autism spectrum--ran over to help her. Her ex-husband responded 
by throwing the child through a closet. Meaghan says the experience was 
so traumatizing that her son didn't speak for a full year after the 
attack.
  When Meaghan finally broke free from her ex-husband, she packed her 
bags, buckled her two children into the car, and fled for her life. But 
he continued tracking her, requiring Meaghan and her children to move 
10 times in the last few years.
  As Meaghan and her family have begun to heal from this horrifying 
ordeal, she says they have found much-needed compassion and support in 
the detectives and social workers that came to their aid.
  She wrote that service providers ``were patient with me and didn't 
push me, [they] only showed me they cared, and most of all didn't give 
up . . . with their support and guidance I found the light at the end 
of the tunnel and I fought my way out of the darkness that my ex-
husband had cast . . . on my life.''
  Meaghan's story illustrates how laws like VAWA have the potential to 
change--and even save--lives. In her case, VAWA provided critical 
resources to law enforcement and social service agencies that helped 
her and her family escape a perilous situation.
  And today, at a moment when sexual and domestic violence are on the 
rise in America, we need to do more than reauthorize VAWA. We need to 
build on its achievements--and we need to do it on a bipartisan basis.
  I thank the group for allowing me to join them.
  We have work to do, and I am looking forward to doing it with you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up 
to 10 minutes prior to the vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.