[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 39 (Monday, October 4, 1999)]
[Pages 1872-1873]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7230--National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 1999

September 30, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Most families provide a nurturing web of relationships where 
children learn to love and respect others and themselves and absorb the 
values that will shape them as adults and citizens. But for millions of 
Americans, family life has become a battlefield where women, children, 
and sometimes the elderly become casualties. The tragedy of domestic 
violence touches all our lives by weakening families, leaving emotional 
scars as devastating as physical ones, and creating a destructive cycle 
of violence where those who were abused as children may become abusers 
themselves.
    My Administration has taken important steps to reduce domestic 
violence by creating a system that punishes offenders and provides 
victims with the information and assistance they need to escape 
destructive family environments. The cornerstone of this effort has been 
the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was part of the historic 
Crime Bill I signed into law in 1994. This landmark legislation combined 
tough new penalties for offenders with funding for much-needed shelters, 
counseling services, public education, and research to help the victims 
of violence.
    We also have established a toll-free National Domestic Violence 
Hotline (1-800-799-SAFE) where staff responds to as many as 10,000 calls 
each month; worked to raise awareness in the workplace and among

[[Page 1873]]

health care providers about domestic violence; and more than tripled 
resources for programs to combat violence against women. To build on the 
success of the VAWA and the Crime Bill, in May of this year I unveiled 
my proposal for additional legislation--the 21st Century Crime Bill--
that will reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and toughen 
penalties for those who commit violent crimes in the presence of 
children.
    We have increased funding for State maternal and child health 
programs that include child protection and family preservation services. 
We have worked with the Congress to pass legislation that strengthens 
law enforcement, enhances child predator tracking and protection 
mechanisms, and supports child abuse prevention efforts in State and 
local jurisdictions. And, at the end of last year, we launched the 
Children Exposed to Violence Initiative (CEVI), designed in part to 
reform Federal and State laws to provide swift and certain punishment 
for those who commit child abuse and neglect. CEVI will also strengthen 
local programs in hopes of reducing the number of children who are 
exposed to violence or become victims of violence themselves; it will 
also encourage alliances that include government as a partner with 
schools, communities, parents, and other family members in an effort to 
prevent child abuse.
    We can take heart in our progress and at the outpouring of concern 
and compassion we see for the victims of domestic violence. Whether 
members of the law enforcement community, health care professionals, 
educators, religious and community leaders, policymakers, or concerned 
private citizens, Americans have united in the crusade against domestic 
violence. With increased awareness, strengthened prevention, and 
communities united in common cause, we are making the reduction of 
domestic violence a reality and the dream of ending it one day a 
possibility.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 
1999 as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I call upon 
government officials, law enforcement agencies, health professionals, 
educators, community leaders, and the American people to join together 
to end the domestic violence that threatens so many of our people.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day 
of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-fourth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., October 4, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
October 5.