Time to Reauthorize FVPSA

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Thompson, and, indeed, it is my pleasure to join him in cosponsoring the reauthorization of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act of 2018.

Mr. Speaker, I am so very, very pleased that this is a piece of bipartisan legislation introduced by Glenn Thompson, Elise Stefanik, and Lisa Blunt Rochester.

Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we have found the need to stick together in a bipartisan manner because violence against women and children, unfortunately, is not a partisan issue. It is not an issue that is relegated to one race of people and to one economic class. It is pervasive, and it is a detriment to our entire American community.

But fortunately, Mr. Speaker, since 1984, Congress has passed the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act as the primary Federal funding source to support emergency shelters and related assistance for victims of domestic violence and their families. We have updated it based on best practices that we have seen, and the monies are available to community-driven solutions and a network of programs and services dedicated to responding to domestic violence across the country.

This reauthorization would follow current authorization levels for fiscal years 2019 through 2023. FVPSA, is, of course, at the heart of the Nation's response to domestic violence, ensuring, Mr. Speaker, that these shelters and programs are able to keep their lights on and their doors open to serve more than 1.3 million victims of domestic violence and their children every year.

Again, it serves nearly 1,600 community-based programs through State- formula grants.

Not only do they serve shelters, the hotline, and crisis intervention, but they also provide legal assistance and police services as well. It is a multistate strategy, and we are very proud of its effectiveness.

In fact, the National Institute of Justice funded a multistate study, and it shows conclusively that the Nation's domestic violence programs address not only the most urgent safety needs of victims to protect themselves and their children, but it also asserts that, if this funding did not exist, the consequences for the victims would be dire, including homelessness; serious losses, as in mothers losing custody of their children; and continued abuse.

As Mr. Thompson has pointed out, the abuse is not simply confined to physical abuse, but the emotional abuse and economic abuse as well, and even, sadly, death of some of these women.

Each year, the National Network to End Domestic Violence releases a report called ``Domestic Violence Counts: A 24-hour National Census of Domestic Violence Services.'' Sadly, it reports that in just 1 day last year, 2017, 72,245 victims of domestic violence were happily receiving services.

But you know what, Mr. Speaker? Another 11,441 requests for services were left unmet because of the lack of funding and resources.

So we do a pretty good job with this program, but there are always, always, always a dearth of resources.

I appreciate Mr. Thompson providing me with the time, and I have examples, if time will allow, for me to just share some of the stories, just to give some face, Mr. Thompson, to some of the people who are served by the local shelters, programs, coalition, funding for Tribal governments to provide essential services to survivors.

In the State of Washington, we have Inez, who was 14 years old and the only survivor of a fire that killed her entire family. She was taken in by relatives, only to be raped by her uncle at age 15, as so- called ``payment for her care.''

She gave birth to a son, Manuel, who was never allowed to call her ``Mother.'' At 16, she met Tomas, thinking this would be an escape for her and Manuel. He promised her a life of love and security but, in reality, that security meant a locked closet where she and Manuel were routinely starved and sexually assaulted. When her second son, Miguel, was born, Inez decided that she just had to get a way before she and her two sons were further victimized.

Inez learned of the domestic violence hotline from women she had worked with in the orchards, and a coworker called and helped Inez and her children go to a local YWCA shelter. She lived there for 2 years to get back on her feet while she gained her U visa and rebuilt her life. Inez now has her green card and a home of her own, and her boys are thriving in school and preschool.

You know, there are many, many stories that I can go on with. I just want to say that the #MeToo movement has given all of these survivors a renewed hope and courage to come forward to tell their stories.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Thompson so much for his time, for his stewardship over this important legislation, and I urge my colleagues to stand with these survivors by cosponsoring H.R. 6014, the FVPSA Reauthorization Act, and to push for the passage of this bipartisan legislation in this 115th Congress.

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Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, if I just might add, Mr. Thompson, it is because of us. I mean, as legislators, we get a bum rap sometimes. We don't know Inez necessarily, but it is because of us and this funding that there is someone on the other end of that telephone who can answer the call. It is because of the work and this authorization that there is a place for Inez to go.

This did not always exist before 1984. And while we can't end every single act of violence, we do deserve the credit for creating the space and the opportunity for these victims to be able to come forward and, when they gain the courage, to leave these domestically violent situations.

The most dangerous moment for any of these women is that point in time when they decide to do something about their situation, and that is the point in which there has just got to be a resource there.

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