Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President.

I am on the floor today to speak my piece about the Violence Against Women Act. I speak to this body not just as a Senator, but I speak to this body as a survivor of rape and as a survivor of domestic violence.

For months--for months--the senior Senator from California and I worked together on a piece of legislation that would reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, a bipartisan effort, an effort that brought the Senator and I together to reauthorize the bill with as much support in this body as possible.

We were working together in good faith to make our way through the issues that affect so many women in abusive situations, partners in abusive situations, domestic violence situations where children are involved, to find a common path forward to have this bill reauthorized, again, with as much support as possible in this body at a time when America views us as so politically divided.

What could bring us together? The issue of violence directed at women and children and survivors of sexual assault should bring us together.

Months of bipartisan effort--but there was pressure to immediately introduce the House-passed version of the Violence Against Women Act. We were moving ahead with steady progress in a number of these areas, but, again, there was political pressure to introduce the House-passed version of the bill, not one that we could come together with on the floor of this Senate but one that even the Democrats--in their release, in their press gaggle addressing the House version of Violence Against Women--said would never make it through the Senate. Why on Earth would we introduce a piece of legislation that will not make it through this body? Shouldn't we be working together to find a path forward?

We should continue to work on it. I sincerely hope that by the end of this year we can come together as Republicans and Democrats and not present a Republican version or a Democratic version but produce a version that will pass this body and protect those who are in a very vulnerable state. I have been in that vulnerable state before, and I appreciated the assistance that was given to me by folks who were funded by this piece of legislation.

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I truly appreciate the remarks by the senior Senator from California. I truly have enjoyed working on this piece of legislation.

There were three markers that were laid down within the House version of the bill as outlined previously, but there was no consensus there. It was, ``Either accept these provisions or we don't work together.''

We need to keep finding a way to get to consensus on a bill moving through this body, and I am happy to continue working on legislation with the Senator. I think, by the end of this year, we should find something that would work to reauthorize this very important piece of legislation, and I appreciate her leadership on this very much. I truly have enjoyed working with her.

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, the Violence Against Women Act turned 25 years old this year. As many of us are aware, this law provides desperately needed resources to tackle domestic and sexual abuse in our communities. Folks, it needs to be reauthorized.

I wasn't in the Senate the last time this bill was passed back in 2013, and I wanted to be part of the process of getting the bill done this time around. As a woman, as a survivor, and as someone who volunteered at a women's shelter in college, I understand just how awful violence against women can be in terms of physical and mental well-being, self-image, our families, and security in the whole of society.

For months the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and I worked to develop a bipartisan proposal that I really thought could get across the finish line. Folks, as that old ``Schoolhouse Rock'' video says: Without passing the House, the Senate, and getting a signature from the President, all you have is a bill, just a bill, not a law. And no survivors are helped by a bill.

Here we are today, after months of work and mountains of effort that went toward working on a bipartisan bill, and at some point someone pressed the big red button of partisan politics, and the Democrats refused to work together any longer, walking away from the real progress we had made. Not only did they walk away from the negotiating table, but they did so by dropping a bill that is going nowhere, as they have acknowledged.

The Senate Democrats' bill is a nonstarter. It will not pass the Senate. It will not get the President's signature. Most importantly, it will not actually help the survivors who need it.

These politics are sad. We should be helping survivors, not engaging in the kinds of partisan antics that will never produce real results. We have seen this before. The Democrats will say that Republican women can't speak for women because we don't agree point by point with their leftist agenda. These are worn-out tactics, my friends.

However, despite the minority's decision to walk away and put politics ahead of survivors, I am leading our effort to continue getting a bill done that focuses on providing the resources and support survivors across the country need for women and children in urban and rural areas like mine.

My goal has always been to empower survivors, to punish abusers, and to enhance the overall purpose behind this very important law. That is why, this week, I plan to put forward a bill that puts survivors first. We have included a number of issues Senate Democrats failed to address. For example--and this should be so simple, folks--we are holistically addressing female genital mutilation. We have tripled the amount of funding that is available for education and sexual assault prevention. We also focus more on enhancing the penalties for abusers.

As a matter of fact, one of the most objectionable and unacceptable items in the Senate Democratic bill is that they allow accused abusers to go outside of the justice system and negotiate directly with their victim--with their victim--those women, those abused survivors who have already been manipulated and beat down. It allows those abusers to negotiate directly with their victims to avoid jail time; that is, of course, as long as the victim consents, as if an abusive relationship ever involved consent--outside of the justice system, folks, outside of the justice system. It is unimaginable that we would allow or fund such an abusive system or abusive situation and allow abusers to escape justice. I think abusers should face justice, and I am not sure why our Senate Democratic colleagues don't agree.

Coming from a rural area of our country, I made sure we prioritized rural resources in our bill. We are offering increased funding for housing assistance so that women and children can be safe from their abusers. When living in an area like mine--rural Montgomery County, Red Oak, IA--the nearest shelter is an hour away. You have virtually cut off a woman and her children from any job she might have, any family she might have, and it truly takes them out of their life. By offering these housing resources through voucher programs, our bill enables them to rent an apartment or home in their home community.

Imagine what we could do in this body if we worked with a single purpose instead of a dozen different motives. Imagine this entire body pulling together with a single purpose, focusing on assisting those survivors.

I welcome the support of all of my colleagues for my bill--Democrats and Republicans--and I hope we can all join together in this effort. How many more violent abusers can we put behind bars to keep survivors safe? How many more people would be alive today?

I want to thank my colleagues for joining me today to speak on the importance of the Violence Against Women Act. I want to send the message to the countless survivors across this country: We are with you. We hear you, and we are working for you.

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