Political Quotes

“I rise today to again urge the Senate to bring up and pass, S. 2787, the Violence Against Women Act of 2000, VAWA II--we are quickly running out of time to reauthorize it. The authorization for the original Violence Against Women Act, VAWA, expires at the end of this week on September 30, 2000. There is absolutely no reason to delay this bill which has overwhelming bipartisan support. I have joined Senators from both sides of the aisle at rallies and press conferences calling for the immediate passage of this legislation. The bill has 70 co-sponsors and is a significant improvement of the highly successful original VAWA which was enacted in 1994. There is no objection on the Democratic side of the aisle to passing VAWA II. Unfortunately, there have been efforts by the majority party to attach this uncontroversial legislation to the 'poison pill' represented by the version of bankruptcy legislation currently being advanced by Republicans. I do not agree with stall tactics like this one and believe we should pass VAWA II as a stand-alone bill, without further delay.”