John Kerry: “I particularly thank the Senator from Delaware, Senator Biden, for negotiating on our behalf on this side of the aisle…”

“I particularly thank the Senator from Delaware, Senator Biden, for negotiating on our behalf on this side of the aisle, his conversations that he has had with all of us, the dialog that he engaged in an effort to try to achieve a sensible strategy to save some of the programs in a bill that to many of us is still flawed. The truth is that family violence, as we have all learned, is the No. 1 cause of all kinds of physical injury to women in this country. And when you translate the effect of family violence into the impact on several million young children, that impact plays out in a way that diminishes the capacity of those children to be able to learn, to be able to go to school, to be able to carry on normal relationships, and that flows into their adolescence and subsequent adulthood in ways that simply diminish the capacity of people to be able to participate as good citizens. Finally, with the Violence Against Women Act, we gave people hope that a particular kind of behavior was going to be properly singled out and treated.”