Political Quotes

“I thank my friend from North Dakota (Mr. Armstrong) for yielding to me on this important issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support a bipartisan piece of legislation that will finally foster progress toward addressing the crisis that we know is plaguing our Native communities across the country. Despite unparalleled rates of violence, there is still no reliable way of knowing how many indigenous women go missing each year nor whose fate hangs in the balance of an unsolved murder case. My congressional district in central Washington has been particularly affected by this crisis. Since the year 2013, there have been 13 cases of missing or murdered indigenous women on or around the Yakama Reservation alone. This number accounts only for the land surrounding one of the 29 federally recognized Tribes in Washington State, let alone the hundreds of others across the country. This information is available only due to the efforts and activism of local communities. Tribal and community leaders have held multiple marches, vigils, and community forums to raise awareness and demand action. The diligent reporting of the Yakima Herald-Republic, our local newspaper, has highlighted the response and activism on the ground by creating an online hub to list open cases involving missing and murdered women and providing resources for the community to report such disappearances.…”