Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEFANIK. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, more than one in three women in this country have experienced some form of physical violence by their partner; and each year, millions of our mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends are victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Tragically, new evidence shows that lockdowns, social isolation, and economic insecurity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a hidden surge in domestic violence and abuse. So now, more than ever, we must come together to combat this crisis.

In fact, Congress has a history of doing so on a bipartisan basis. The enactment of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 and the reauthorizations that followed were noncontroversial and overwhelmingly bipartisan. Congress worked together to establish a coordinated community response to support victims and equip the justice system with the necessary resources to address these heinous crimes.

Yet, in 2019, House Democrats allowed VAWA's authorization to lapse when they shunned the bipartisan history of VAWA and advanced a bill filled with controversial provisions, rejecting Republican offers to work in good faith and prioritize the well-being of women and children.

At the time, I led the Violence Against Women's Extension Act of 2019 to extend the law and provide certainty to victims, survivors, families, and crisis centers, but House Democrats put scoring political points ahead of the interests of vulnerable women and refused our efforts to prevent VAWA's programs from going unauthorized.

This year, here we are again. Democrats are rushing their controversial bill back to the floor, bypassing committee consideration, and ignoring opportunities to work with Republicans to address the problematic provisions. They have denied new Members the opportunity to contribute to the bill, including a record number of new Republican women, Representatives whose own lives and districts have been deeply affected by these issues.

So, once again, this House, rather than pursuing bipartisanship, is again considering a bill that promotes unproven methods of supporting victims, infringes upon Second Amendment rights without adequate due process, and imposes new barriers to prosecuting domestic violence cases.

My amendment is simple. It provides a clean extension of the Violence Again Women Act programs for the upcoming fiscal year without the controversial provisions added by Speaker Pelosi. Most importantly, it will ensure funding for critical programs that fight domestic violence and sexual abuse for the American people. A clean extension provides us the opportunity to work together to pass a truly bipartisan, long-term reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEFANIK. Madam Speaker, make no mistake, VAWA's authorization lapse last year is due to House Democrats' choice to ram through their partisan version of this bill rather than work on a bipartisan basis.

When my colleague across the aisle talks about conversations with the Senate, we know last year that there were no effective bipartisan conversations with the Senate, which is why they didn't take up the Democrats' partisan version.

My amendment is a clean extension of VAWA. It ensures that there is certainty and funding for these programs. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' for this amendment.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STEFANIK. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source