Political Quotes

“Well, thank you. Again, it takes a lot of people, and the years that Senator Ernst has been working this initiative on this side of the aisle is something that, again, we want to build on, and we need to build on it together. It has been years in the making. The last time we had a VAWA reauthorization was VAWA 2013, and so we are high past time to be addressing this very significant matter. No compromise is perfect. I think everyone recognizes that. But what has been developed through this framework is a proposal that will really help to prevent violence, to support our survivors, and to hold perpetrators to account. The effort to be here where we are today on the floor, speaking to this, is one thing, but we all want to get to that next step, which is filing the legislation so we can get it moving through this process, and I look forward to doing that in the new year. I can tell you, as a Senator from Alaska, this is an extraordinarily pressing issue in my State. As the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, I can affirm that this is a very real need across Native lands, and it is the disproportionate victimization of Native people that I want to focus my comments on today. By now, I would hope that every Senator understands the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. We refer to this as MMIW. That is why we passed Savanna's Act and the Not Invisible Act.…”