Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. CROWLEY. I thank my friend and colleague from Detroit, Michigan, for yielding me this time.

Madam Speaker, it has been over 500 days since the Violence Against Women Act expired--500 days--and every day that has passed without a vote, my colleagues and I have been asking ourselves, What are we waiting for? Are we waiting for our colleagues in the Senate to have a strong, bipartisan vote and send us a bill worth voting on? Oh, wait a minute. They've already done that. But maybe we're waiting for a bill that strengthens the Violence Against Women Act. Sorry, the Senate has already done that, as well. Or maybe we're waiting for support of hundreds of State, local, and national organizations. Oh, but wait. We've already had that with the passage of the Senate bill.

My colleagues, it's time to end this wait for our mothers, for our daughters, and for our friends so they can get the protection and the service that they deserve because, let me tell you, the abusers are not waiting.

Today, we have the chance to pass the actual Senate bill, the bipartisan, commonsense legislation that has been waiting for a vote. So let's vote ``no'' on the substitute amendment, support the underlying bill, and send this to the President's desk.

I don't believe my colleagues, if they saw a lesbian woman being beaten by their neighbor, that they would not want to have that violence stopped. I don't believe that my Republican colleagues, if they saw an undocumented person, even an illegal alien, being beaten by her husband, that they would not want that stopped. I don't believe that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, if they saw a Native American woman being beaten or abused, that they would not want that stopped.

Why do they not have it specified in their legislation? The Senate bill does. Let's stop this back-and-forth and pass the Senate legislation.

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