Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLINE. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment, which increases the authorization of STOP grants from $40 million to $60 million. The amendment does not have an offset from any other account.

We had a hearing on this important legislation in committee. The gentlewoman is correct in stating that domestic violence is a problem and we must take action to confront it. It was disappointing that the legislation was taken from what was a bipartisan consensus and turned into a partisan document that went far beyond the underlying legislation which was allowed to expire.

We had a hearing, and no witness that I recall advocated, during committee, for increasing the authorization level for STOP grants.

STOP grants do perform a vital service. In fact, one of my first jobs out of law school was prosecuting under a STOP grant, prosecuting domestic violence cases in Rockingham County in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

In the markup in committee, not a single Democrat offered any amendment to increase the authorization level by an additional $20 million. There has been no reason given to add an additional 50 percent to this specific program as opposed to any program. So I would urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

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Mr. CLINE. Madam Chair, I would state to the esteemed chairman of the committee that we have proceeded without offsets for many, many years on many, many things, and that is one of the reasons why we are over $20 trillion in debt right now.

This House must exercise fiscal restraint and bring its budget back into some semblance of order and exercise responsibility. And so an offset is responsible, is appropriate, does not exist, and was never discussed.

The chairman talks about experts. We heard from no expert at the committee level as to the need for the additional $20 million in STOP grants.

Madam Chair, I ask my colleagues to oppose the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. CLINE. Madam Chairwoman, I would answer the gentlewoman by saying that we are in agreement that domestic violence is a problem, and regardless of who you are in this country, you deserve protection if you are a victim of domestic violence. No matter, woman, man, gay, straight, you deserve protection if you are a victim of domestic violence, and we need to provide adequate protection.

Unfortunately, this bill does not provide that protection when you are allowing environments to be created where victims are at risk of being revictimized, whether it is through the legal process, or through the shelter process. We have problems with this bill overall. But I commend the gentlewoman for her amendment, because it does ensure that the laws regarding immigration in this country are complied with.

I wish that we had gone further. I offered an amendment on another bill at committee to ensure that ICE was notified whenever an illegal immigrant committed a crime involving a firearm so that they could be deported quicker. I wish that that had been attempted in this legislation as well. ICE deserves to be notified when someone is convicted of a crime of domestic violence if that defendant is illegal.

So while we could not go further, I thank the gentlewoman for offering the amendment. I do not oppose it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. TORRES SMALL of New Mexico. Madam Chairwoman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Speaker of the House.

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