Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to support the reauthorization of VAWA, Violence Against Women Act. This is extremely important.

I was a past president of a YWCA that has a domestic violence shelter in my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. I have witnessed firsthand the good work that they do and that other statewide advocates do in this area of sexual assault and violence against women, and I realize that this is way long overdue and necessary. In West Virginia, every 9 minutes a call is made about our domestic violence on the domestic violence hotline.

I'm really here, too, to talk about an incident that we never want to see happen again, and that's a little boy named Jahlil Clements, who was from my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. He was in a car with his mother and his mother's boyfriend, and his mother's boyfriend began beating his mother. And he got so afraid, and the car stopped on the interstate, that Jahlil got out of that car and started running across the interstate to get help for his mother. He was hit and killed in the interstate because he was witnessing firsthand one of the most horrible acts of domestic violence. His mother was in danger and he wanted to help her.

If we don't intervene, if we don't find help, if we don't end this cycle of violence for the Jahlil Clements of this country, we're doing a great disservice to our country. So I'm going to vote ``no'' on the House bill and ``yes'' on the Senate bill for Jahlil Clements and all the Jahlil Clements throughout this great country.

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