Lois Frankel: “I want to thank Mr. Poe and Ms. Jackson Lee for leading this debate today. And, of course, I want to thank Susan Brooks…”

“I want to thank Mr. Poe and Ms. Jackson Lee for leading this debate today. And, of course, I want to thank Susan Brooks, my co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, for her support. This is an example of bipartisanship at its best. And, of course, I also thank Dianne Feinstein over in the Senate, whose bill we are taking up, our companion bill. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act. It is a long name, but it is important. It came about on the heels of reports of sexual abuse at the highest levels of USA Gymnastics. Me Too has come to the Olympics, and we have heard from more than 150 very brave young women, extraordinary not only in their talent but in their courage, who have shared their harrowing stories of sexual abuse at the hands of a doctor, Larry Nassar, who they were told to trust. One of these stories is from Mattie Larson, who was a budding young gymnast and a future Olympic medalist. At age 14, she hurt her hip and was sent to Dr. Nassar, the well-known and now disgraced doctor who cared for hundreds of athletes like Mattie. Instead of healing her hip, he crippled her mind. For 5 years, this doctor molested this young woman. She became so desperate at one point that she feigned a slip and fall and a concussion just to try to get out of ever going back to the Olympic facility. Mattie said: ``. . . I just couldn't take any more abuse. I was broken.…”