Ted Poe: “I want to commend Judge Green for working with me on this issue. He did make one mistake, however. He said we have known…”

“I want to commend Judge Green for working with me on this issue. He did make one mistake, however. He said we have known each other for 20 years. I'm sorry; it has been 30 years since we were young buck lawyers in the courthouse doing battle in Houston, Texas. So it has been a long time. But he is correct, this is an issue that must continue to come to the awareness of the American people, that domestic violence is something that is, unfortunately, continuing in this country. Thirty-five percent of the murder victims that were killed in 2008 were killed at the hands of people they knew. Intimate partners, 35 percent of them, murdered by people that were close to them. In 2007, crimes by intimate partners accounted for 23 percent of all crimes against women. In a single day in 2009, 65,000 victims were treated by domestic violence programs; but, due to lack of resources and funding, almost 10,000 were turned away because there were no resources to take care of them. We have a growing need and presence of domestic violence shelters throughout the country, and they have fewer and fewer resources to take care of these women who seek refuge from someone that they knew who has been trying to assault them or has succeeded in assaulting them. Congress must, of course, pass the reauthorization of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act.”