Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank all of those who have been involved in getting this to the floor. This bill is a critically important bill and, unfortunately, its authorization expired last year. It is timely that we bring it to the floor. I am hopeful that it passes. Mr. Chairman, I was proud to be a cosponsor of the original Violence Against Women Act in 1994. It passed on a bipartisan vote in the House. It was reauthorized in 2000 with a vote--and everybody ought to note this--that passed 371-1. And in 2005, it was reauthorized and passed 415-4 and signed, of course, by President Bush. Democrats fought hard to expand the law's protections to immigrant women, Native Americans, and LGBT people, and we did so in 2013 with bipartisan support once more. We want to protect all of our women, whatever their particular difference. I was disappointed that the law's authorization expired at the end of fiscal year 2018. It is critical that we enact a long-term reauthorization of the law without further delay in order to provide that certainty that another short-term extension cannot. This legislation was introduced by Representative Karen Bass. It is a 5-year reauthorization. The gentlewoman from Texas, who just spoke, Ms. Jackson Lee, did a lot of work on this bill in the Judiciary Committee as well. I thank her for her leadership in this effort.…”