Domestic Violence

Floor Speech

Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to address the persuasive and life-threatening challenges posed by domestic violence.

Mr. Speaker, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, as many as one in four women over the course of her lifetime will experience domestic violence. This is a crime that knows no geographical boundaries, a crime which knows no class boundaries, and a crime which does not come to the family from without but comes from within and transcends generations as children are scared and then replicate the behavior that unfortunately they saw in their families.

Mr. Speaker, around the United States and certainly in Connecticut. We've got wonderful organizations like the YWCA of Greenwich, the Center for Women and Families of Eastern Fairfield County, and the Domestic Violence Crisis Centers in Stamford and Norwalk doing wonderful work providing safety and comfort to victims of these crimes.

We should support those organizations, Mr. Speaker. But each and every one of us as fathers, as brothers, as community leaders, as Members of Congress should stand up and say we will put an end to this terribly destructive force.

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