VAWA

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I, too, want to thank the Senator from New Mexico for organizing today's effort on this very important issue.

I rise today to join my colleagues in really shining a spotlight on a crisis that has brought terror and pain to Tribal communities across my home State of Washington and the Nation for far too long. It is an alarm that has been sounding, actually, for generations and one that has impacted literally countless families, robbing them of their mothers and grandmothers, their sisters, their aunts, their daughters.

``Family of missing Native woman demands answers in Wapato.''

In Yakima County:

A year after her body was found, officials are now officially calling the death of this young woman a homicide.

A year after.

In Toppenish:

16-year-old . . . disappeared after Christmas Eve in 1971. Her sister refuses to give up the search.

Those are just a few of the headlines that have appeared in news outlets in Washington State within just the last few months highlighting the scope of the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in our communities.

For far too long, our Nation has ignored or misclassified the terrible stories of violence against women and girls in Tribal communities, who have been reported missing or murdered at much higher rates than their non-Native counterparts or, worse, not reported at all.

It is a crisis that is particularly salient in Washington State, which ranks second among States with the highest number of reported cases of missing and murdered Native women. Even worse, Seattle ranks No. 1 among cities with the highest number of cases. But it isn't just Seattle; it is the Yakama Nation, Spokane, Tacoma. The epidemic of missing and murdered Native women isn't an urban problem or a rural problem. It is not an issue just for western Washington or eastern Washington. This is an alarming trend that is devastating communities every day throughout Washington State and across the country, one for which Native women and girls are paying the ultimate price.

Now, thanks to the determination of Native women who have spent years raising their voices to bring attention to this tragic pattern of injustice, we are beginning to develop the tools and resources we need to combat this epidemic.

I am very grateful for Native leaders and organizations like the Seattle Indian Health Board, which last November released a landmark new report--the first of its kind--on the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, collecting important data and insights. It is a major step toward removing a significant barrier that has burdened efforts to end the decades-long epidemic, but there is so much more we need to do to keep Native women and girls safe and seek justice.

As important as it is to bring awareness to this devastating crisis, more than awareness, we need action. Congress has to wake up to the crisis affecting Native women and recognize the Federal Government's responsibility and role in ending it, and that includes improving and reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act--a critical law which for years has worked to help communities decrease assaults against women and girls and which Republicans let lapse earlier this year.

This law has long garnered bipartisan support. In fact, we were able to come together just 6 years ago to pass an even stronger version of the law that strengthened protections and resources for our Tribal communities. I know there are champions for this issue on both sides of the aisle, Members who have listened to Native voices in their own States and understand why we have to equip Tribal communities with the tools and resources they need to protect Tribal members and hold others accountable when they cause harm or bring violence. There is no excuse to not get this done. We have done it before; we can do it again.

Now that VAWA has passed the House, know that I am going to keep working with my colleagues to push the Senate to get it over the finish line. In the meantime, I and others will continue lifting up the stories of Native women and girls, as well as Tribal leaders and members.

As a partner to Washington State's Tribal communities here in the Senate, I am going to keep fighting to strengthen Federal support for Tribal priorities and listening to Native voices as well, as we all work together to end the tragedy of this senseless epidemic.

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