Sean Patrick Maloney: “over 900,000 women suffer violence each year at the hands of an intimate partner. We need the Violence Against Women Act…”

“over 900,000 women suffer violence each year at the hands of an intimate partner. We need the Violence Against Women Act to be reauthorized. It has provided over $1.6 billion in Federal grants to prosecutors, to law enforcement officials, and to victim assistance programs; yet it was allowed to expire this past weekend. Last week, this body passed it overwhelmingly. There is deep support in the Senate, with over 70 co-sponsors. Yet the Senate is holding this important piece of legislation up. Meanwhile, women fleeing domestic violence and children who live in violent situations wait and wait and wait. I urge the other body to pass this bill immediately. Women and children around this Nation are counting on us. We should have passed it in the other body last week. We should not have allowed it to expire.”