Jim Costa: “I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for yielding 2 minutes, and I want to thank her and the chairman, the gentleman from…”

“I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for yielding 2 minutes, and I want to thank her and the chairman, the gentleman from Virginia, for their hard work on this very important piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, as the lead Democratic cosponsor of the Justice for All Reauthorization Act and the co-chair of the Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus, along with my good friend and colleague Congressman Ted Poe, who I know wanted to be here and who has worked so hard on this legislation, we as the chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus want those groups out there throughout the country to understand how important this legislation is. The broad coalition of groups that are supporting this and the bipartisan group of lawmakers who worked tirelessly to get this legislation on the House floor today is making a difference. The Justice for All Reauthorization Act will improve our criminal justice system, and it will strengthen programs for victims of crimes. The healing process for the survivors of violent crime, as we all know, can be extremely painful and it can be difficult. This legislation also helps those survivors by providing resources to reduce, as has been noted already, the rape kit backlog. It also improves housing rights for domestic violence victims. We have these centers in our congressional districts that many of us are familiar with where spouses and children go to escape violence.…”