Orrin Hatch: “I join Senator Biden this afternoon. We passed the original Violence Against Women Act in 1994. He deserves a great deal…”

“I join Senator Biden this afternoon. We passed the original Violence Against Women Act in 1994. He deserves a great deal of credit for that. I would like to move forward with the passage of the violence against women reauthorization this year. For almost 10 years, I have stood with my colleague from Delaware, Senator Biden, on this particular issue. He and I have worked for almost a year now to try to resolve any disagreements regarding specific provisions in our respective bills on this issue, S. 245 and S. 51. What we want to do is combat violence against women. I believe we have a good product. It is the Biden-Hatch Violence Against Women Act of the year 2000. I have committed to Senator Biden that we plan to move this legislation in the Judiciary Committee. I plan to have it on the committee markup for next week. Now, any member of the committee can put it over for a week. I hope they will not. Before the Fourth of July recess, I hope we can pass the bill out of the Judiciary Committee. Hopefully, the leadership will allow us some time on the floor to debate it. It is a very important piece of legislation. Millions and millions of women, men, and children in this country will benefit by the passage of this bill. I am going to do everything in my power to help Senator Biden in getting it passed.”