Alan B. Mollohan: “the gentlelady offers an amendment to one of the grant programs in the Violence Against Women Office of the U.S.…”

“the gentlelady offers an amendment to one of the grant programs in the Violence Against Women Office of the U.S. Department of Justice. To give a little bit of context to the amendment, the Office of Violence Against Women was funded in fiscal year 2007 at $382.571 million. The President requested $370 million, about $12.5 million less than was funded in 2007. So the President's request for the office was decreased. He requested less money than was appropriated last year. In addition to that, the President wanted to eliminate all of the grant programs, including the one that the gentlelady seeks today to increase funding for specifically. The subcommittee increased funding over the President's request by $60 million. So the subcommittee looked at the Violence Against Women Office and looked at the scourge that office addresses and fights every day and the programs that the office administers, and we said not only do we need to increase the President's request from last year's level, we need to increase this program above the President's request, and we did by $60 million. We also rejected the President's request to eliminate all of the grant programs under Violence Against Women.”