On the recordApril 26, 2012
I thank the Senator. I would just say I have had a long record in this area. When I was a member of the State legislature, Texas passed the most far-reaching protection for victims of rape in the whole country. I was the lead sponsor of that bill. When we passed it in 1975, it then became the model other States used to strengthen the laws to help these victims. One day, just in this last year, I was at a grocery store in Dallas, TX. A woman came up to my truck I was driving, knocked on the window. I had no idea what she was going to say, but I rolled down the window. She said: Senator Hutchison, thank you for the bill you passed in Texas in 1975--because I was a victim of rape, and I would not have gone forward without your protections. But I did and that man was sent to prison. That is what we are here for, and that is why I have this strong substitute. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The junior Senator from Texas.
