Bill Pascrell: “While I'm glad that we will have the opportunity to vote on Senate passed version of the Violence Against Women Act…”

“While I'm glad that we will have the opportunity to vote on Senate passed version of the Violence Against Women Act today, I can't believe that we have to stand here playing partisan political games with legislation meant to protect the most vulnerable among us. Since the Violence Against Women Act first passed in 1994, it has had strong bipartisan support. Instead of passing the bipartisan Senate bill, a bill that received 77 bipartisan votes, including the vote of every woman Senator, the majority has decided instead to turn women's safety and security into another partisan political fight by offering their substitute. The statistics tell the chilling story. According to the CDC 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, on average 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States. In New Jersey alone, there were 70,311 domestic violence offenses reported by the police in 2011. The Violence Against Women Act has made great strides when it comes criminal justice and community-based responses to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking in the United States. It shouldn't matter if a woman is an immigrant, or a member of the LGBT community, or a Native American. All women deserve the protections provided by VAWA.…”