Providing for Consideration of H. Con. Res. 112, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. I want to thank the gentlelady from New York for the consistent leadership she has given to this important legislation since it was passed. It took us a number of years to get it passed in the first place, and it's never been off her radar screen.

I especially want to thank my good friend from Wisconsin, who has come forward in a very compelling way to ask that we vote ``no'' on the previous question so that we can consider the Violence Against Women Act, which may well expire, making it--I fear--a real target for the Appropriations Committee because the law will not have been reauthorized.

Mr. Speaker, I visited a safe house last week in my district because I wanted to hear why a woman would make the decision to stay at home with an abuser rather than leave. I'm not sure I understood in my heart why she would assume the risk rather than leave. I'm glad I went. There were eight women there, different ages. Some had children. For the first time, when I heard the stories of these women, I understood in the most poignant and practical way what a ``hotline'' actually means, what a ``rape crisis center'' means. After that experience, the notion that when this legislation expires, the Appropriations Committee would have before it unauthorized appropriations, which become a target in and of itself, was just too much to bear. Yet the reauthorization bill has gone nowhere here. At least in the other body, the bill has been passed out of committee. It is a bipartisan bill, with several Republicans as well as Democrats on it.

Ms. Moore's amendment essentially does no more than incorporate the Senate bill, which is tailor-made for our consideration, because in keeping with the way in which reductions are taking place--20 percent is very painful--but there is a 20 percent reduction in the reauthorized act, even though with any reauthorization you would expect an increase. Yet even with that reduction, we cannot get the bill on this floor. So we must do what we're doing this afternoon.

If you want to talk about a bill that is worth the money, there are very few bills where we can show the kind of cause-and-effect that we can show here. There has been a 50 percent drop annually in domestic violence. And the reason for that is there's been over a 50 percent increase in reporting. Women are not afraid to come out because they know that if they report it, go to the police station, the police will tell them where there is a safe house.

Don't leave women out on the streets. Don't leave their children with no place to go. Vote ``no'' on the previous question in order to allow the House to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which I think would receive bipartisan support if it were heard this afternoon.

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