Ed Royce: “my legislation that is here today, H.R. 2980, does three things. First it makes crossing a State line to stalk someone a…”

“my legislation that is here today, H.R. 2980, does three things. First it makes crossing a State line to stalk someone a felony and thus for the first time it defines in law, in Federal law, the crime of stalking, and it brings certain penalties, 5 years for the crime of stalking, 10 years if a gun is used and so forth. Second, it makes crossing a State line in violation of a restraining order a felony. And, third, it makes it a felony to stalk someone on Federal property such as a post office or a military base or a national park. The bill is needed because in each of these cases the victim loses the protection of their State laws. I was the author in 1990 of the first State antistalking law in the country, in California. The California legislature passed my bill after four women were killed in the space of 6 weeks in Orange County, CA. Each woman, fearing for her life, had sought police protection only to be told that there was nothing that law enforcement could do until she was physically attacked. One police officer told me at the time that the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life was to tell that victim 'there is nothing I can do until you're attacked' and subsequently she was killed. The law was passed by the California legislature defines stalking as an obsessive pattern of behavior and threats that would cause a reasonable person to fear for their life or fear for great bodily harm.”