[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20626-20628]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   ARMED FORCES DOMESTIC SECURITY ACT

  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 5590) to amend title 10, United States Code, to provide for the 
enforcement and effectiveness of civilian orders of protection on 
military installations.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 5590

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Armed Forces Domestic 
     Security Act''.

     SEC. 2. FORCE AND EFFECT OF PROTECTIVE ORDERS ON MILITARY 
                   INSTALLATIONS.

       (a) In General.--Chapter 80 of title 10, United States 
     Code, is amended by inserting after section 1561 the 
     following new section:

     ``Sec. 1561a. Civilian orders of protection: force and effect 
       on military installations

       ``(a) Force and Effect.--A civilian order of protection 
     shall have the same force and effect on a military 
     installation as such order has within the jurisdiction of the 
     court that issued such order.
       ``(b) Civilian Order of Protection Defined.--In this 
     section, the term `civilian order of protection' has the 
     meaning given the term `protection order' in section 2266(5) 
     of title 18.
       ``(c) Regulations.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
     prescribe regulations to carry out this section. The 
     regulations shall be designed to further good order and 
     discipline by members of the armed forces and civilians 
     present on military installations.''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the 
     beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting after the 
     item relating to section 1561 the following new item:

``1561a. Civilian orders of protection: force and effect on military 
              installations.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Hayes) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. 
Tauscher) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes).


                             General Leave

  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from North Carolina?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  First let me thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Tauscher) 
for her presence, her leadership, her good humor and tremendous 
contribution to a very, very serious issue that a group of us from 
Congress traveled to Fayetteville to try and help provide some 
solutions.
  Mr. Speaker, domestic violence is currently one of the greatest ills 
in our society. In both the civilian and military sphere, spousal abuse 
remains one of the most underreported and difficult crimes to detect 
and prosecute. Often victims are at a loss as to where to seek help, 
refuge and comfort.
  Unfortunately, this past summer at Fort Bragg in my district in North 
Carolina, there were several homicides that resulted from domestic 
violence. Four military wives tragically lost their lives, Mr. Speaker. 
One case of domestic violence is one too many.
  In order to address this grave problem and help stop domestic 
violence in all sectors of our society, four members of the House 
Committee on Armed Services and I recently spent the day at Fort Bragg 
and Fayetteville, North Carolina, in order to hear from many different 
individuals regarding this tragic problem. We met with military 
leaders, chaplains, civilian law enforcement, health care providers, 
advocacy organizations and women's groups, to name a few. We also met 
with victims.
  One of the most salient things we heard during this session with 
survivors of domestic abuse is that safety is hard to come by. Finding 
resources to help one out of a desperate situation is an arduous 
challenge, and often victims feel trapped. For those who are able to 
come forward and take action, enforcement mechanisms within our legal 
system often remain inadequate.
  We heard from local officials, notably Judge Beth Keever of 
Fayetteville, North Carolina, that presently there is a legal loophole 
that does not require protective orders issued by civilian courts to be 
enforced on military facilities. This means the victim could be without 
necessary, extra physical protection while on Federal property.
  Mr. Speaker, today we help make sure that we provide safety and 
resources to victims of domestic violence. This legislation takes a 
step forward, moving our society in the direction to help stop domestic 
violence. Making protective orders enforceable on military 
installations will protect both civilian and military individuals on 
Federal property. They will know that no matter where they are, Fort 
Bragg, Fayetteville, the supermarket or the PX, the individual from 
whom the victim is protected will not be allowed to come near.
  The recent murders at Fort Bragg are truly a tragedy. Domestic 
violence is wrong, and we must do everything we can to prevent it. This 
important legislation represents a small, initial step to address this 
problem. It is important that we close this loophole. This act was 
inspired by the courageous stories of former domestic violence victims, 
insight from those who have experience in the area, and others. Passage 
of this bill will appropriately honor the courage of these individuals 
and the dedicated work of their advocates.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 5590, the 
Armed Forces Domestic Security Act, and take a step forward in 
protecting the lives of individuals, both on and off military property.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. TAUSCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this summer in the aftermath of news reports of murders 
in Fort Bragg, I wrote to the chairman of the Committee on Armed 
Services, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), requesting the 
opportunity for us to start to understand exactly what impact domestic 
violence and other issues were having on our military families. The 
gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh), chairman of the

[[Page 20627]]

Subcommittee on Military Personnel, who is a great leader, and others 
traveled with me to Fort Bragg this past few weeks on a fact-finding 
mission which I hope will begin what I think will be very important 
work of our subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services.
  In this time of asymmetrical warfare, this time of great uncertainty 
for military families and, frankly, for reservists around the country, 
where we have a war on terrorism where we have extreme PERSTEMPO and 
extreme OPSTEMPO, where families are double deployed around the world, 
it is important for us to understand what the trauma of this deployment 
means to military families, and I think it is very important for us to 
understand that the American people are not only supporting our 
military with the best training and the best leadership and the best 
materiel that we can possibly have, but we are also supporting the most 
important component of military families, the families themselves, by 
making sure that we have the kinds of programs that are found in the 
private sector. They are called employee-assisted programs.

                              {time}  1600

  And they do everything from helping families find child care, to 
helping to find elder care, to find hospices when they have a sick 
family member, but also in the area that is very troubling, of domestic 
violence, to find a way to make sure that families are protected with 
anonymity and respect, to make sure that spouses of families do not 
have to worry about the chain of command when they are considering what 
they do about family violence in their own family.
  So I thought it was very, very important that we took this trip to 
Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg was just a part of the problem. It is not about 
Fort Bragg or the Army. It is about the military. And I am very proud 
of the leadership that the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) has 
shown, and I am very proud of my friendship with the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Hayes), the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
McIntyre), and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Jeff Miller) who took 
this trip, because I think that it is important that we focus on what 
we can do for these military families. And that is why I rise in strong 
support of the Armed Forces Domestic Security Act H.R. 5590.
  While the 1994 Violence Against Women Act requires certain protection 
orders to be enforced across State and tribal lines, it does not allow 
such protection orders to be enforced on Federal property or military 
installations. As a result, there is a gaping hole in our protection 
system. Military installations have become a place where there are no 
penalties for violating a protection order issued by a State or tribal 
court. The Armed Forces Domestic Security Act is intended to address 
this obvious oversight.
  When a civilian order of protection is issued against, or to protect, 
a service member, there needs to be a system in place to enforce that 
order when the service member resides on a military installation. That 
system must be effective whether the order is issued by the State, 
tribe, or territory where the service member resides. It also must work 
in instances where the military installation lies in overlapping 
civilian jurisdictions.
  Mr. Speaker, domestic violence is a complex and tragic issue, and 
this bill is not intended to be a cure-all or any kind of instant-fix 
measure for domestic violence; however, while there is no single 
solution to this problem, closing this loophole that has essentially 
made military installations a free zone for batterers is a necessary 
and commonsense step. A judge in North Carolina recently wrote that 
closing this loophole would certainly be beneficial nationwide but 
would be particularly helpful for judicial districts that are closely 
associated with a Federal facility like Cumberland County in North 
Carolina is with Fort Bragg.
  Mr. Speaker, it would be irresponsible to allow a loophole like this 
to continue. I urge my colleagues to support the Armed Forces Domestic 
Security Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from California 
(Mrs. Tauscher) for her leadership and her wisdom and her input.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he might consume to the gentleman 
from New York (Mr. McHugh), the distinguished chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Military Personnel. He made the trip possible, and his 
input and leadership were instrumental in getting us to this point; and 
he will take us further with the passage of time.
  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this 
time. I particularly thank him for his leadership and deep sense of 
concern on this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that the key question we should ask 
ourselves as Members of this House anytime we rise to ponder the 
proposal of legislation is simply, Is this bill needed? By now, as we 
have heard in the comments, far too many of us unfortunately have 
become personally acquainted with the tragic events surrounding the 
acts of domestic violence that occurred at Fort Bragg over this past 
summer. In a matter of days four military wives lost their lives and in 
a matter of days eight children lost a parent. Four of those children 
actually lost both parents. It is truly a tragic, tragic loss, one that 
certainly touched not only the Fort Bragg and Fayetteville communities 
but Army and military communities wherever they may be found.
  In response, again as we have heard, Mr. Speaker, on September 30 the 
Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the Committee on Armed Services 
traveled with five of its members to try to learn a bit more firsthand 
about this tragic series of events. I want to pay particular respect 
and thanks and appreciation to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Hayes) who, along with the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre) 
who also joined us that day, represent the Cumberland County, Fort 
Bragg, and Fayetteville community; the gentlewoman from California 
(Mrs. Tauscher), who has been a very early and very staunch proponent 
of addressing the demands of domestic violence in the military, who 
spoke so eloquently on this measure just moments ago; and also the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Jeff Miller), who traveled with us that 
day, giving up their personal time for this extracurricular event that 
all of them collectively felt was so demanding and so deserving of our 
attention.
  Simply put, today's military is a much different structure than it 
was even a few years ago. Particularly as a result of the volunteer 
force, we now have generally a much younger military, in this case of 
course a much younger Army, many more families than perhaps we have 
seen in the past. And when coupled with the fact that across military 
installations of all the services, some 70 percent of those families 
routinely live off base, we have found ourselves with a very, very 
difficult situation, that of addressing the concerns and demands of 
acts of domestic violence across the border of that specific military 
installation and the adjoining civilian community.
  The Members have heard about the loophole. I happen to have been here 
in 1994 when I think the Congress took a very necessary, very bold, and 
a very appropriate step in passage of the Violence Against Women Act; 
but it did, as the speaker heard, create I think an unintentional, 
certainly a very unnecessary and very unworthy loophole, that of 
enforcement of civilian protection orders as issued outside the bases 
and their applicability on those military installations. And in our 
discussions with the victims, particularly of military violence, a very 
emotional, nearly 3-hour meeting that we held with previous victims in 
the Fort Bragg community, one of the primary concerns we heard about 
was that lack of continuity, that lack of guidance and clear legal 
authority to enforce domestic protection orders that were secured 
within the civilian community on the military base. And this 
legislation is intended to be, I might add, a first step, a first step 
towards erasing

[[Page 20628]]

those boundaries and those barriers that exist.
  The gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Tauscher), I think, very 
appropriately noted that this is not just a Fort Bragg problem, it is 
not just an Army problem. She noted it is a military problem. I would 
respectfully suggest, as she knows, and I am not correcting her by any 
means, that this is a societal problem; and when we have a circumstance 
as we do here where the societal approaches, the civilian approaches, 
to domestic violence are not coordinated adequately enough with the 
military community, people suffer; and as happened at Fort Bragg this 
past summer, people lose their lives.
  So we are intending to continue forward with this effort to initiate 
a series of legislative remedies to ensure that these kinds of 
circumstances are not allowed to go forward into the future, but for 
now I think this is a very, very appropriate step, a very, very 
important initial step toward protecting those who sadly are least in a 
position to protect themselves.
  So a final word of thanks to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. 
Tauscher) for her leadership; to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Hayes) and his deep, deep concern and for his initiative on bringing 
this measure to the floor at this moment; and to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Jeff Miller); and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
McIntyre) for joining us that day and to I hope all of the Members of 
this House for their vote in support of this very, very worthy piece of 
legislation.
  Mrs. TAUSCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may 
consume.
  I really appreciate the comments of my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle. I want to thank again the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Hayes) for his leadership and for opening his community to us. I 
specifically want to take a moment of personal privilege to thank the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) for setting up this first meeting 
and encouraging us to work together on future meetings.
  When we were in Fayetteville, we had a jam-packed day, a day that was 
meant to be a day at home with our constituents. We had all traveled in 
late Sunday night, and we were going to be literally hitting the ground 
running; and what I was most impressed with was we found ourselves with 
the opportunity to talk to victims of domestic violence, and there were 
meant to be five or six women that were meant to come, and in fact 
eight showed up, and each one of them I thought deserved the respect to 
have themselves heard.
  I really appreciate my colleagues, the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
McHugh) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes), facilitating 
that. It took 3 hours for us to sit there. Very painful stories, very 
emotional stories, very, very private stories; and I was I think 
honored not only to hear those stories and to understand what we could 
do as legislators on the Federal level to help support these spouses 
and their families, but I was very proud to sit with the gentleman from 
New York (Mr. McHugh) especially since a lot of those women felt, I 
think, that they did not want to tell that story to strangers or to 
perhaps a man that they did not know.
  But I think it really speaks a lot for his leadership on the 
committee and what we can do in the future because I think that they 
were very thrilled to talk to him and to me to make sure these stories 
are out so that this does not happen again. I think we all agree this 
is a societal problem. But the military in this country has led the 
country in many different ways, specifically in an area of civil 
rights. It was the military that led the ability for blacks and whites 
to work together in the military. And I am hoping on this issue of 
domestic violence, where we have so many families at risk in this 
country day to day, that our military families can lead, that we can 
find good programming for them across the military, not just one 
branch, that we can find the best practices, that we can work together 
to make sure that it is not only authorized but appropriated and that 
we can do the best for them because we know that they are trying to do 
the best for us every day.
  And with that I urge my colleagues to support the Armed Forces 
Domestic Security Act.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HAYES. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) who also, if I might add, 
celebrated his birthday in Fayetteville last Sunday night. So we 
appreciate his sacrifice in that regard too.
  Mr. McHUGH. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and 
pointing out to the Nation that I am older. I appreciate that.
  I just wanted to very briefly say, first of all, I deeply from the 
bottom of my heart thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. 
Tauscher) for her gracious comments and to state for the record two 
things: first of all, this Nation should know that she intended to go 
to Fort Bragg on her own if that was necessary. Fortunately for us who 
gained from her participation, we were able to put together a 
subcommittee visit; but her concern is unequaled, certainly unsurpassed 
with respect to the cherished feeling she has towards the military and, 
in this instance, towards those who are the victims of violence.
  I should also note, as she did, that we had more spouses show up that 
day than had been scheduled. It was a very tight schedule. It began at 
6:30 in the morning with the first event that some of us were scheduled 
to do and went through until we left that early evening. She was very 
insistent and very appropriately so that we stay and listen to all of 
those spouses who again as she had noted had made the very painful 
decision to come and to share with us their stories that were so 
emotional. I have rarely, in my much older life including that recent 
birthday, spent a more moving, more emotional 3 hours. And thanks to 
her, we were able to hear all of them. So I just wanted to rise again 
and to underscore my deep admiration for her and to underscore as well 
the fact that military families have a real hero in the gentlewoman 
from California (Mrs. Tauscher).
  Mr. HAYES. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute for closing 
remarks.
  Let me again thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Tauscher) 
for her very well put, meaningful words; and I identify myself with her 
remarks. I would too like to take a brief moment to identify with and 
to thank personally the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre), 
my geographic Congress mate in the seventh, and myself in the eighth, 
for his participation and his consistent and constant service on behalf 
of our military in our State of North Carolina.

                              {time}  1615

  The moving testimony of these women, I cannot begin to tell my 
colleagues how heartwarming, but also how moving this testimony was. As 
I recall, one lady came on her own expense all the way from Kansas 
City. And in particular, one lady, Laura Sandler, I would like to pay 
particular tribute and thanks to her, whose written testimony I think 
burned a real moving, heartfelt impression on all of our hearts as she 
had the courage, along with her other colleagues, to come forward and 
bring us into a much clearer understanding of this problem.
  Again, thanks to the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) and all of 
those involved, and I would strongly encourage unanimous support of 
this legislation.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5590.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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