Providing for Consideration of H. Con. Res. 112, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013
Floor Speech
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Ms. DeLAURO. I was just saying to the previous speaker that I have a 98-year-old mother. Let's hand her a voucher and say, Go figure it out. That's precisely what you want to do. Go figure it out on Medicare. Unbelievable. She could really figure it out.
Chairman Ryan and the House majority have put together a lopsided budget, tries to break the middle class, gouges deeply into our commonsense national priorities and ends the Medicare guarantee.
According to estimates, more than 4 million Americans would lose their jobs because of this budget, but they provide a $150,000 tax cut to the richest 1 percent of people in this Nation.
The Republican budget would slash the social safety net cutting the food stamp program by over 17 percent, or $133.5 billion. That's more than the amount of food stamp funds going to 29 States and territories. Over 8 million men, women, and children would go hungry. If their plan to turn food stamps into an underfunded block grant goes through, even more damage is done. Coming out of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, food stamps help to feed 46 million Americans, 21 million children. Seventy-five percent of the program participants are families with children.
This is Robin Hood in reverse. It takes from the middle class, gives to the rich. I urge my colleagues to oppose this disastrous budget.
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Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gen tle lady.
In 21st century America, three women die every day at the hands of their husbands, boyfriends, or former partners. Domestic violence causes 2 million injuries a year. Sadly, it is something that one out of every four women will experience in their lifetimes.
This is particularly a difficult problem for young women today. Women between the ages of 16 and 24 have the highest rates of relationship violence, and one in every five women will be sexually assaulted while they are in college. Even more worrisome, we know that when couples are experiencing economic difficulties, domestic violence is three times as likely to occur.
Victim service providers have seen an increase in demand since the recession began while also seeing their funding cut. More than 70 percent of shelters credited ``financial issues'' for increases in abuse that they have seen in communities across the country.
In 1994, our now-Vice President Joe Biden wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act. In 17 years it has cut the rate of domestic violence in our country by over half. It is past time to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act again, and my colleague's amendment would allow us to act now. This bill reauthorizes the programs that have been proven to work to stem domestic violence and to help law enforcement and prosecutors do their jobs.
This reauthorization enjoys bipartisan support in the United States Senate, with 59 cosponsors. In addition, over 200 national organizations and 500 State and local organizations have urged us to pass this bill, including the National Association of Attorneys General, National District Attorneys Association, National Sheriffs' Association, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. Why do they want us to do this? Because it helps to make their jobs easier, and it gives women the tools to be able to protect themselves.
Everyone, everyone in this Chamber wants to see an America where no woman ever has to endure the scourge of domestic violence. The Violence Against Women Act is helping us realize this vision. We must reauthorize the law so it can continue to help our constituents.
And I am also proud to tell you that the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform legislation, now says that if a woman is a victim of domestic violence, her insurance company can no longer say that that is a preexisting condition, and she can get the kind of health care coverage that she needs. That's the value of reauthorizing this legislation and the value of the Affordable Care Act.
I urge you to support this amendment so we can act now. Let's move forward. Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act once again.
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