Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this bipartisan amendment addresses the needs of Native Americans living in urban areas by making victim advocates available in State courts for urban Indians under the STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program for States. In 2018, the State STOP grant program awarded 56 awards totaling over $154 million to State programs to provide funding for victim services to address sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking through State initiatives to enhance existing programs and fill gaps in services. Currently, the State STOP grant program is used to strengthen partnerships between Tribal and non-Tribal stakeholders to improve responses to Native American victims, but there is no requirement for State grant activities to prioritize the hiring of in-court victim advocates for urban Indians. Frequently, the subgrantees of this program are community-based organizations, which are chronically underfunded, short-staffed, and not able to specifically address the needs of urban Indian victims. This leaves urban Native victims without any resources, which are severely needed within State courts and which could easily be remedied by hiring in-court State victim advocates. This is especially true in light of the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, to break the cycle of generational trauma and violence.…”