On the recordApril 26, 2012
I come humbly to the well today, under the ``E Pluribus Unum,'' to ask that there be swift bipartisan action in reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. VAWA's authorization, of course, lapsed at the end of the last fiscal year, on September 30, 2011. {time} 1100 Unfortunately, for every day that passes by, women pay the price. The annual National Census of Domestic Violence Services--a daily snapshot taken every year by the National Network to End Domestic Violence-- found that in one 24-hour period in the United States, over 67,000 victims were served through emergency shelters, transitional housing, counseling, legal advocacy, and more. Over 22,000 hotline phone calls were answered and over 26,000 people participated in domestic violence prevention and education training. For all these people who are served, unfortunately, in the same 24- hour period, there are nearly 11,000 unmet requests for services because these programs neither have the resources to help these victims nor the authorizations based on best practices on how we need to change VAWA in order to meet the needs of women. Our colleagues across the Capitol in the Senate are on the cusp of passing a bipartisan VAWA reauthorization bill that contains these provisions to strengthen our ability to combat not only domestic violence, but also sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.…
