[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14767]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

  (Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, this week I and over 60 
of my colleagues will introduce a comprehensive reauthorization of the 
Violence Against Women Act. VAWA is set to expire on September 30 of 
this year, so it is vital that this Congress quickly consider and pass 
the reauthorization.
  Since its passage in 1994, VAWA has been a great success. It has 
provided over $5.5 billion in Federal funding to improve our criminal 
and community responses to domestic violence. But the statistics remain 
alarming. One in every four women will experience domestic violence 
during her lifetime. Last year, California law enforcement received 
198,000 domestic violence calls, with weapons involved in over 136,000 
of those cases.
  The reauthorization that we are putting forward this week will go a 
long way to stop this troubling reality. And I want to acknowledge 
particularly the hard work of my colleagues who worked on this bill. It 
is truly a collaborative effort that includes prevention, not just 
response. And we must, we must approve reauthorization before the 
expiration on September 1. It needs to be broad, and it needs to be 
this bill.

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