Thursday, September 13, 2012
Floor Speech: Senator Coons calls for VAWA reauthorization on 18th anniversary of enactment
As Delivered on September 13, 2012
I rise today in honor of the 18th anniversary of the signing of the Violence Against Women Act into law.
And as my good friend and colleague, the Senator from California, has just reminded all of us, it is my home state senator, now our vice president, Joe Biden, whose leadership in getting the Violence Against Women Act signed into law in the first place moved us in this country towards a society that is more just, that is more safe, that is more welcoming, and it is in my view incredibly discouraging that we are fighting today here in the Congress a battle that he made such great early progress on and that should have been won decades ago.
Why must we fight, Madam President, in 2012 such a protracted legislative battle to maintain, strengthen and secure the rights of more than half the population of this country, and to extend the lifesaving programs supported by VAWA to those who need them of every background all across our country.
It's cannot be that it’s because those who oppose VAWA's reauthorization believe that violence against women is no longer a threat. In my home county, New Castle County, Delaware, earlier this year a man was arrested after a horrifying assault on his ex-girlfriend committed in front of all five of her children.
The victim's teenage son called 911 in a panic, terrified. This incident, one of, sadly, many in my home community is just another stark example of how domestic violence continues to hurt and harm not just its victims but entire families, not just the women or occasionally men who are the victims of domestic violence but the children who witness it and whose lives are changed by it.
In a world where this sort of violence, Madam President, continues to happen in all our communities we still need the Violence Against Women Act. And we need it to be reauthorized, we need it to be reauthorized and strengthened, we need it to be reauthorized, strengthened, and broadened. It has been a full year, Madam President, since VAWA expired. And still we do not have a reauthorization signed into law.
Reauthorization is a real opportunity one built into the initial act that requires us as a body, the House and Senate together, to sit down and sift through the data and to examine how these programs can be better, stronger, more efficient, more effective. Every five years we have to take a hard look at where we're failing and where we're succeeding in this important work against domestic violence, a scourge that lives in the dark throughout our community.
Here in the Senate, we've done that work. The House sadly has not. And in my view, we must not let them be a roadblock in the critical progress we've been called upon to make.
This is our time to make the necessary changes to improve VAWA and to reauthorize it and we will not back down.
In this year's reauthorization we had a number of critical changes, positive changes, and two that are particularly important to me. First, ensuring every victim of abuse in this country is able to count on the law to protect them regardless of who they are, where they live or whom they love. And second, ensuring that we reduce bureaucracies and strengthen accountability to ensure taxpayer dollars authorized through VAWA are spent wisely and responsibly and effectively.
The Senate reauthorization moves us forward by adding protections for victims of domestic violence regardless of their sexual orientation. The reality is, Madam President, as we learned in reexamining VAWA in the experience of the last five years, sadly the reality is lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Americans experienced domestic violence at the same percentage as relationships in the general population, a shocking 25 to 35 percent of all relationships. Yet nearly half of LGBTQ victims are turned away from domestic violence shelters and a quarter are unjustly arrested as if they were the perpetrators. The Senate reauthorization makes plain that discrimination is not the policy of these United States. It says no program funded by federal VAWA dollars can turn away a domestic violence victim because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity, whether the victim is gay or straight, American Indian, white, black or Latino, in my view, Madam President, and in the view of so many in this chamber, they deserve protection from abuse and justice for their abusers.
There are two other important changes in this VAWA reauthorization as passed through the Senate. Both of which help ensure we bring perpetrators to justice no matter who their victims are or where their crimes are committed. These provisions support victims of crimes committed on tribal lands and help law enforcement to secure needed testimony from victims who are unwilling to come forward due to reasonable fears of deportation. So in total, all three of these important changes to the substance and scope of VAWA I think strengthen it, I think carry forward its initial spirit and I think are completely appropriate things for this Senate and the House to do in our every five year reconsideration and reauthorization of VAWA.
It is important to remember, Madam President, that VAWA goes beyond against basic justice for our fellow citizens. It supports the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes. Delaying this reauthorization means denying essential tools to law enforcement officers in my home state of Delaware, in your home state of North Carolina and all across our country. As someone who used to be directly responsible for a county police department that worked in close partnership with all the different elements, all the different nonprofit groups and civic and community groups, all the elements from corrections to law enforcement to advocates to providers of services that are brought together in a positive and cohesive way by VAWA. I know how important this is to a holistic approach to combating domestic violence.
If we are to tackle a problem this large, this pervasive, this dangerous, we need well-trained and dedicated law enforcement officers. We also need support from a whole community to provide the whole broad range of services that can continue to make progress in pressing back on this evil in our country.
In Delaware, that's exactly what we've done. In Delaware, VAWA has fostered a community of those dedicated to reducing violence, allowing each group to reinforce the other and adding value that individual programs alone could not create. VAWA touches on everything from transitional housing to national hotlines, from the safe exchange of children, to increased awareness on college campuses, from law enforcement grants in rural communities to sexual assault service programs in urban communities not only for women, for men, for children, for whole families and whole communities.
VAWA is an important piece of legislation. And that it sits unauthorized in the other chamber of this
Congress is to me a great shame and a great tragedy. We must not allow this anniversary of its initial signing into law to pass without redoubling our efforts and redoubling our commitment. My colleagues who oppose this reauthorization put all this progress at risk. Their insistence on excluding some of our friends and neighbors, just because of their background or their sexual orientation, is unconscionable. We will keep fighting to secure VAWA reauthorization this year because the safety of our communities depends on it and simple justice calls for it.
Thank you, Madam President.
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