Political Quotes

“I take this time because today, we may have 40 minutes of a lot of to-do about nothing, because there are those who believe that the sky is falling on the Violence Against Women's Act. I want to read into the Record a letter that I sent to the Washington Post after one of their articles. Dear Editor: It would be inaccurate for your readers to conclude that the Committee on Education and the Workforce is holding up reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. There are three committees with jurisdiction; one of those is the Committee on Education and the Workforce. We have jurisdiction over several components of VAWA, one of which we just reauthorized last year, Runaway and Homeless Youth, which was signed into law on October 12, 1999. There is no need to deal with a program reauthorized that recently, since there has hardly been enough time to determine if further changes in the program are needed. We also have jurisdiction over the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, another component of VAWA, as well as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which my committee plans to reauthorize together next year, as we always have. This tandem reauthorization has occurred ever since 1988. Mr. Speaker, we have grants that go to battered women's shelters and services and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.…”