Dick Chrysler: “within the Violence Against Women Act programs is a special program that is very dear to me and the people of the eighth…”

“within the Violence Against Women Act programs is a special program that is very dear to me and the people of the eighth District of Michigan. I am referring to the battered women's shelter programs administered through the Department of Health and Human Services. Although the committee has increased the dollars for battered women's shelters, my amendment would give the program an additional $2.4 million to fully fund the program at the President's request. In my home town in Michigan, the LACASA women's shelter provides hundreds of abused women and their children shelter, food, and counseling. For many years, my wife Katie and I have worked arm in arm with the dedicated workers and volunteers of LACASA to find the scarce resources to keep their shelter operations continue. I am now in a position to do more as a congressman, and I intend to. It's time for this abuse to stop. These women and children need our help, and they need our help now because there is simply no tomorrow for some of them. Even with the hard work and dedication of groups like LACASA that are working for women around the country, the need for more services and more Federal dollars continues to increase. In Michigan, for instance, the nights of shelter provided each year to abused women has increased 23 percent since 1991. However, even with these increased services in Michigan, the number of domestic violence victims denied shelter since 1991 has increased 25 percent.”