Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from California, Senator Feinstein, for her longtime advocacy, and our colleague from Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar, for leading the effort to reauthorize this critically important bill to protect women in this country from violence. I was very proud to be here with the Senator from California back in 1994 when we first passed the Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA, as we call it. We created a national strategy for dealing with domestic violence, and since we took that first historic step, VAWA has been a great success in coordinating victims' advocates, social service providers, and law enforcement professionals to meet the immediate challenges of combating domestic violence. This law has helped provide lifesaving assistance to hundreds of thousands of women and their families. It has been supported by Democrats and Republicans, along with law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, victim service providers, faith leaders, health care professionals, advocates, and survivors. VAWA has attained such broad support for one reason: It has worked. Since it became law 18 years ago, domestic violence has decreased by 53 percent. And while incidents have gone down, reporting of violence and abuse has gone up. More victims are finally coming forward and more women and families are getting the support and the care they need to move themselves out of dangerous situations. As a result of the language in this law, every single State has made stalking a crime.…”