Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I came to the floor yesterday to talk about the important work on this bill that has been done by Senators on both…”

“I came to the floor yesterday to talk about the important work on this bill that has been done by Senators on both sides. Republicans and Democrats agree that we should reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and that we should have the very best legislative product possible. This should be done with input from both parties. That is what our Chamber does. We deliberate and then we produce legislation. Yesterday I was talking to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, talking about what his bill does, and I want to say clearly today that the amendment I am producing with Senator Grassley and many other cosponsors builds on the sentiments the chairman expressed yesterday. It seems very simple to me that what the Republicans are asking is that our substitute, which has many cosponsors--we believe it improves on the underlying bill. And one amendment by Senator Cornyn adds much to the bill, helping to get the backlog of these rape kits put forward so that we can stop people who are perpetrating these crimes from being out loose doing it again, when we have the proof that has not yet been tested because of the backlog. There are some things that can be done to improve this bill. Senator Mikulski and I worked together on funding the Justice Department. In our bill, we do add to the capability for the Justice department to give the grants that would make that backlog smaller. Senator Cornyn's amendment even improves upon that.…”