On the recordApril 4, 2019
Today, we finished one stop of a journey, and that is the journey to pass the Violence Against Women Act. I have had the privilege to see and shepherd this bill throughout my congressional tenure, having stood alongside senior Members many years ago in the first reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. This bill was started today in 2016. We began to work and reach across the aisle to do what is right for the victims of so many horrific crimes. We wanted children to be protected, immigrant women to be protected. We wanted to make sure that Native American women were protected. We wanted law enforcement and prosecutors to have the tools. We wanted to stop the backlog in rape kits that had not been processed. We did that today with a collective group of Republican and Democratic Members on a bill that should be nonpartisan. We worked hard, and I was gratified that we wound up giving a bill to the Senate and that they must ask the question: Are they not going to support a bill that was bipartisan? Madam Speaker, I thank Monalisa Dugue, Milagros Cisneros, Joe Graupensperger, Amy Rutkin, and Chairman Nadler. I thank Karen Bass and all those women who worked together, including the outstanding work that was done on the MTR with Debbie Dingell. Madam Speaker, we are thanking them because we are moving forward to protect women in this country, including against sex trafficking, which was in the bill. ____________________
