Political Quotes

“I wish to commend my colleague from Texas, Senator Hutchison, for offering her substitute amendment to the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization bill. I am pleased to cosponsor her amendment. This amendment is vitally needed. The Violence Against Women Act has always been reauthorized in the past on a bipartisan, consensus basis. It would have been so easy to do so again. All of us who support the amendment of the Senator from Texas are in agreement with 80 percent of the bill that is before us. But the majority has decided to place a higher priority on scoring political points than on passing another consensus reauthorization of the law. Recently, Vice President Biden asked what kind of message it would send to women if VAWA were allowed to expire. He implied that a crisis would be at hand that must be avoided at all costs. But the actual answer to his question is clear. The majority party has already allowed VAWA to expire. VAWA's reauthorization expired last October. There has been no crisis of any kind because the appropriations for VAWA programs have kept flowing. It is the majority, not us, that is responsible for the lapse in VAWA's authorization. The way that the Judiciary Committee handled reauthorization this time has been very disappointing. The majority insisted on including--and retaining--provisions that appear designed to provoke partisan opposition.…”