Paul Tonko: “Representative Courtney, you talk about the reducing of VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act. If the spirit and letter…”

“Representative Courtney, you talk about the reducing of VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act. If the spirit and letter of that law has been to protect women, why would you weaken certain protections? There's this order of meanness and selectiveness and insensitivity that has abounded in this House, where they reduce efforts that have been championed over the decades, hard-fought efforts, bipartisan efforts, bicameral efforts, the executive branch working with the legislative branch, making certain that the heart and soul of this reform through the ages has been about making America stronger. You know, it's we, the people, working toward a more perfect Union, a more perfect Union. We've made such wonderful progress. We have acknowledged the needs of women, where they were ignored in legislative or statutory concepts. We go forward. And now it's like, as you suggest, rolling the clock back, being insensitive to so many needs out there and reducing the fabric of our government. It's like trying to speak to an archaic sort of quality that's driven by extreme thinking. It's the tail wagging the dog in the conference where this extreme thinking has taken over the majority and this do-nothing Republican Congress is not responding, not stepping up to the plate at a time that it's very, very critical.…”