Supporting the Goals and Objectives of Choose Respect Day

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I am here on the floor today to ask unanimous consent to pass a very important resolution that I try to move forward every year. It is my Choose Respect Day resolution.

I want to thank Senator Schiff, my lead cosponsor on the other side of the aisle. And it is to kick off also Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

As a former AG like myself, this is really important to me and my State. I come down on the floor a lot to brag about the great State of Alaska in so many different areas, but this is one area where I don't like to brag about Alaska because there is not much to brag about. We have some of the highest rates of domestic violence and sexual assault than anyplace in the country--really bad.

So when I was attorney general a number of years ago, the Governor and I launched this big initiative called the Choose Respect Initiative. We changed the laws. We made perpetrators really pay if they were going to commit these heinous crimes in Alaska.

We got funding for lawyers and resources. We got different services, and we had ads all over TV in Alaska about choosing respect--real Alaska men choose respect; they don't commit these heinous acts; they don't hit their girlfriend; they don't do any of that kind of horrible stuff.

And it started to work in my State, to change the culture, which wasn't a good culture in Alaska. We are still doing that. So when I came to the Senate, I really wanted to continue this work. It is really important work--it has been bipartisan--to try to change the culture in our country.

We have very, very high rates--too high rates--of domestic violence and sexual assault in many places in America. We should all be focused on making sure the next generation of young men don't do that.

So one of the ways in which we have done that is my POWER Act, which has been to get pro bono legal services for domestic violence survivors and victims. This is an innovative idea that we started in Alaska and brought here to the Senate.

The POWER Act now has had over 61,000 attorneys across America provide pro bono legal assistance to survivors--61,000. That was from a bill here we had on the Senate floor. These are the kind of things we can do in the Senate, in the Congress, to address this very significant challenge in my State and across the country.

So this resolution builds on what we are doing across the board on many of the different Choose Respect initiatives that I have brought to the Congress in a bipartisan way over the years. It calls upon all of us to mark Choose Respect Day by teaching our youth about healthy relationships, supporting survivors, honoring those we have lost, and recommitting ourselves to the fundamental truth that every person deserves to live in freedom from violence and fear.

The call to choose respect is simple but powerful: If we live by it not just on October 1, as the resolution calls for, we can break the cycle of abuse, strengthen families, and build a safer, more respectful country.

I think, at this point right now in our Nation's history, we could all use that. I urge my colleagues to join me in passing this resolution. Together, let's honor survivors, remember victims, and choose respect in all we do.

Res. 431, which is at the desk.
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