[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6732-6733]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to join my 
colleague, Senator Menendez, and I think some of our other colleagues 
who will be here soon, to reaffirm our commitment to the 
reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. That act recently 
passed out of the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote that recognizes 
our bipartisan commitment to end domestic and sexual abuse, stalking, 
and dating violence. The House of Representatives will soon be taking a 
vote on their proposed counterpart to the Violence Against Women Act, 
and I want to address some of the concerns I

[[Page 6733]]

have with the bill that is on the floor in the House.
  What we have seen in this country is that domestic violence has a 
significant impact on families, on victims. It comprises the very 
stability of our towns and communities. The Violence Against Women Act 
provides essential resources for victims and for law enforcement. I was 
pleased to see so many of us in the Senate put politics aside and 
support this important reauthorization.
  Unfortunately, the House version of the reauthorization of the 
Violence Against Women Act does not provide the same level of 
protection for victims, and it does not include some resources that 
have specifically been requested by law enforcement.
  In the House bill protections are diminished for college students, 
for lesbian, gay, and transgender victims, for immigrants, and for 
Native Americans.
  The Senate bill strengthens the Violence Against Women Act to provide 
more protections to more women and their families. The House bill 
weakens the law by failing to state that same-sex couples will have 
equal access to services, by decreasing protections for immigrant 
victims, and by declining to expand the jurisdiction of tribal courts.
  One example of some of the changes in the House bill, where I think 
it fails, is around protections the Senate bill provides to women 
students on college campuses.
  The Senate bill provides strong protections that have been omitted in 
the House bill. The Senate bill includes a provision requiring a 
university to implement prevention programs, teaching all students, 
male and female, how to help prevent sexual violence and dating 
violence, including bystander education.
  The Senate bill also requires a university to make reasonable 
accommodations for students who need to change their living, working, 
or academic situation as a result of being victimized. For example, if 
a young woman is the victim of an assault and her attacker lives in her 
dorm, what the Senate bill would do is require the university to help 
that young woman find another place to live. Unfortunately, these kinds 
of protections are not included in the House bill.
  The Department of Justice recently estimated that 25 percent of 
college women will be victims of rape or attempted rape before they 
graduate within a 4-year college period, and women between the ages of 
16 to 24 will experience rape at a rate that is four times higher than 
the assault rate for all women.
  There is no doubt this is a serious problem. The safeguards we 
implemented in the Senate bill must be preserved if we are to provide 
the protections that young women and men in college deserve.
  When we were working on our reauthorization in the Senate, I had a 
chance to meet with case workers at crisis centers and with some of the 
victims of domestic violence in New Hampshire.
  I heard from one woman who said if it had not been for that 24-hour 
hotline and her caseworker at the Bridges Crisis Center in Nashua, she 
would never have been able to leave her abuser. She was finally able to 
stand up for herself and end the terrible cycle of abuse because of the 
Violence Against Women Act.
  All victims should have equal access to these important resources, 
and it is imperative this bill provide that.
  So I urge my colleagues in the House to insist on these essential 
components so we can move forward on this reauthorization and we can 
protect all of the victims of domestic violence.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.

                          ____________________