[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3903]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      RECOGNITION OF THE RAPE, ABUSE, AND INCEST NATIONAL NETWORK

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise today to thank everyone involved with 
the Rape, Abuse, Incest, National Network, RAINN, for giving me the 
Congressional Crime Fighter Award. This is a great honor.
  I have worked in public service, in one way or another, for about 40 
years now. During my career, I have become aware of the horrible 
effects of sexual assault and child abuse--on the victims, but also on 
our community as a whole. It is a silent epidemic that is shattering 
lives across America.
  We have made progress in helping abuse victims, and that is largely 
because of the hard work of your organization. Since 1994, more than 
970,000 people have called your National Sexual Assault Hotline. More 
than 5,300 of them were Nevadans. Your work makes an incredible 
difference in people's lives.
  But too many victims are still suffering in the shadows. We need to 
do more to strengthen laws to fight sexual assault, to provide law 
enforcement with the tools and funding they need, and to support 
victims.
  I have always been a strong supporter of the Violence Against Women 
Act. As you probably know, VAWA was landmark legislation that expanded 
the Federal Government's commitment to eliminating violence against 
women. I was a cosponsor of the original act back in 1990, and I have 
voted for it every time it has come up for reauthorization.
  As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have worked to 
get funding for sexual assault prevention programs and victims aid 
programs in Nevada and around the country.
  I was also happy to work with RAINN last year to get funding to help 
victims. I hope some of this money will be used specifically to help 
the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. We set aside 
$500,000 in last year's Federal budget. I think it should have been 
more the Senate approved more, but the House did not--but I am happy we 
were able to get the funding.
  I know there is a lot more work to be done, and I look forward to 
working with all of you in the future. Thank you again for this honor.

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