[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4922-4923]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH

  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, April is actually Sexual Assault 
Awareness Month, and I rise to speak about two extraordinary women who 
were accepted into their dream colleges and then after they arrived on 
campus were sexually assaulted. They tried to seek help from their 
school, and they were blamed for their assaults by their school's 
administrators.
  A couple of years ago, these two young women walked into my office. 
They didn't have an appointment. They didn't have any connections on 
Capitol Hill. They certainly didn't have an expensive lobbyist to lead 
them in. Annie and Andrea had heard about my work to fight sexual 
assaults in the military, and they simply wanted to help.
  The same crisis was unfolding on college campuses across the country. 
When they tried to report their rapes, they were not believed. They 
were actually retaliated against. For them, justice seemed impossible. 
But instead of doing nothing, Annie and Andrea joined together and they 
created an organization called End Rape on Campus. They took their 
stories to college campus after college campus to be heard, to help 
other survivors like themselves, to make a difference, to achieve 
justice, and to hold these schools accountable.
  Together, Annie and Andrea have helped many other sexual assault 
survivors file dozens of title IX complaints for how their schools 
mishandled their sexual assault claims. These young women are changing 
lives. They are helping their peers find justice. They took a risk to 
raise their voices, and now we are closer than ever to passing a 
comprehensive, bipartisan piece of legislation to make sure campus 
sexual assault cases are handled with the professionalism and fairness 
all our students deserve. We are closer than ever to passing a bill 
that would finally give our colleges and universities an incentive to 
solve the problem of sexual assault rather than stay silent and pretend 
it doesn't exist because they are worried about application numbers or 
press releases.
  I urge all of my colleagues in the Senate to support this bipartisan 
bill, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, because when surveys 
keep confirming that one out of five of our women in college are 
sexually assaulted before they graduate, we know we have more work to 
do. We need to follow the example of Annie and Andrea and speak out 
about this crisis.
  I am going to use this moment to tell one story--the story of Andrea, 
what actually happened to her. She wrote a book with Annie called ``We 
Believe You.'' It is an incredible compilation of survivor stories. It 
is quite heartbreaking and very tough to read, but it is one of the 
most inspiring books I have ever read. There are thousands of stories 
just like hers. I have others to tell on the Senate floor, but now I am 
going to tell you Andrea's in her own words:

       After I publicly came forward as a survivor, I learned that 
     the biggest triggers aren't actually the nightmares of my 
     assault, but the nightmares of the betrayals that I've had to 
     survive.
       When the media tells your story, it feels like open season 
     on your truth. It's exposed to commentary, and a part of you 
     loses control over it, and the vulnerabilities that you 
     intended to share.
       When you tell your story to the media, you're at the mercy 
     of their portrayal, and the portrayal of others.
       I've been betrayed by friends who struggled to understand 
     what happened to me, and to accept that the same person who 
     put forth strength and composure could fall apart.
       I wish I could have said the right things to get them to 
     understand that I was broken, and that my confidence was a 
     lie to both of us.
       I've been betrayed by the university that I love so dearly, 
     whose seal I wear around my neck, and whose quads and bricks 
     hold pieces of me--pieces of who I was before, and of who I 
     am today.

  Andrea is one of many young men and women whose lives have been 
shattered by a violent sexual crime and then shattered again by a 
second betrayal when their schools chose not to believe them or to 
offer justice. These survivors deserve better. They need Congress to 
act. We have to do the right thing. We have to be their voice. We have 
to stand for them. The bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act 
does exactly that. Please, let's all do our jobs and pass the bill.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  (The remarks of Mr. Nelson pertaining to the introduction of S. 2843 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.

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