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Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to once again ask the majority to immediately bring S. 2787, the Violence Against Women Act of 2000, VAWA II, to the floor for a vote.
Yesterday the President wrote to the Majority Leader urging passage of VAWA II this week. This is a top priority not only for the Administration but for the Nation. The President wrote: ``The Senate should not delay, and I urge you to pass a freestanding version of the Biden-Hatch VAWA reauthorization bill this week. The women and families whose lives have been scarred by domestic violence deserve nothing less than immediate action by the Congress.'' The President is right.
This Tuesday the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act by a vote of 415 to 3. I commend the House for finally acting on this important legislation. Many of us have been urging Senate action on legislation to reauthorize and improve the Violence Against Women Act for months. We have been stymied by the Republican leadership.
I also would like to thank my friend Senator JOE BIDEN, for his leadership on this issue. He has been a champion for victims of domestic violence for many years. He was pivotal in the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act almost a decade ago. He has been tireless in his efforts this year. It is time for the Senate to take up S. 2787, review and accept the consensus substitute and move to final passage. It could be done this week--today. Senator BIDEN has offered to proceed on a clean bill within 10 minutes and he is right.
I regret to have to remind the Senate that the authorization for the original Violence Against Women Act, VAWA, expires at the end of this week on Saturday, September 30, 2000. This is outrageous. This should be consensus legislation, bipartisan legislation. With a straight up or down vote I have no doubt that our bill will pass overwhelmingly. Playing partisan or political games with this important legislation is the wrong thing to do and this is the wrong time to be playing such games.
``Gotcha'' games have no place in this debate or with this important matter. The Violence Against Women Act II is not leverage or fodder but important legislation with 71 Senate cosponsors.
There is and has been no objection on the Democratic side of the aisle to passing VAWA II. Unfortunately, there have been efforts by the majority party to attach this uncontroversial legislation to the ``poison pill'' represented by the version of bankruptcy legislation currently being advanced by Republicans and to other matters.
I received today a letter from the Pat Ruess of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund that emphatically makes the point the VAWA is not ``cover'' for other legislation that hurts women. She is right. The bankruptcy bill as the Republicans have designed it is opposed by the National Partnership for Women and Families, the National Women's Law Center, the American Association of University Women and dozens of women's organization across the country. I hope that the rumors of such an effort by the Republican leadership will prove unfounded and that no such cynical pairing will be attempted. It is destined to fail and only delays and distracts the Senate from what we should be doing--passing VAWA II.
I believe the Senate can and should pass VAWA II as a clean, stand-alone bill, without further delay. That is what Senator BIDEN urged Tuesday.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, almost one-third of women murdered each year are killed by a husband or boyfriend. In 1998, women experience about 900,000 violent offenses at the hands of an intimate partner. The only good news about this staggering number is that it is lower than that of previous years when the number of violent offenses was well past 1 million. I have no doubt this drop in the numbers of victims of domestic violence is due to the success of the programs of the Violence Against Women Act. We should be working to lower that number even further by reauthorizing and expanding the programs of VAWA. The country has come too far in fighting this battle against domestic violence to risk losing it because the Senate does not pass VAWA II or someone wanting to score clever, political points for short term partisan gain.
There is no reason to make this a political battle. We must act now.
I ask unanimous consent to print in the RECORD the President's letter and the September 28 letter from the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund and a September 17, 1999 letter from the National Partnership for Women & Families, National Women's Law Center and other women's advocacy organizations.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, DC, September 27, 2000.
Hon. TRENT
LOTT,
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate,
Washington,
DC.
DEAR MR. LEADER: I am writing to urge you to bring the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to the Senate floor this week.
An estimated 900,000 women suffer violence at the hands of an intimate partner each year, demonstrating the urgent need for this legislation. Since VAWA was enacted, the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services have awarded approximately $1.6 billion in Federal grants to support the work of prosecutors, law enforcement officials, the courts, victim advocates, health care and social service professionals, and intervention and prevention programs in order to combat violence against women. We must reauthorize these critical programs immediately.
As you know, yesterday, the House overwhelmingly passed VAWA reauthorization by a vote of 415-3. In the Senate, VAWA has similar bipartisan support with over 70 cosponsors. If Congress does not act this week, however, VAWA's authorization will expire on September 30, 2000. The Senate should not delay, and I urge you to pass a freestanding version of the Biden-Hatch VAWA reauthorization bill this week. The women and families whose lives have been scarred by domestic violence deserve nothing less than immediate action by the Congress.
Sincerely,
BILL CLINTON.
--
NOW LEGAL DEFENSE
AND EDUCATION FUND,
Washington, DC, September 28, 2000.
DEAR SENATOR: The Violence Against Women Act runs out in two days. The Senate must act immediately! Do not let VAWA die--pass S. 2787, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The bipartisan VAWA renewal bill, sponsored by Senators Biden and Hatch, has 71 co-sponsors and virtually no opposition. The House passed a similar bill on Tuesday, 415-3. You must demand that this bill comes to the Senate floor today, freestanding and without harmful riders.
It is unacceptable for the Senate to attach VAWA to or partner it with any bill that the President has threatened to veto. One such bill is the Bankruptcy Reform Act, a bill that threatens women's economic security by:
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Making it more difficult to file bankruptcy and regain economic stability afterwards.
Pitting women and children who are trying to collect child support against powerful commercial companies trying to collect credit card and other debts.
Punishing honest low income bankruptcy filers while providing cover for individuals convicted of violating FACE (clinic violence protections).
We cannot support a bill that uses VAWA to provide cover for legislation that also hurts women. S. 2787 can be passed under Unanimous Consent today. Please just do it.
Sincerely,
Patricia Blau Reuss,
Vice President, Government
Relations.
--
National Women's Law Center, National Partnership for Women & Families,
September 17, 1999.
Re: S. 625, The ``Bankruptcy Reform
Act of 1999''
DEAR SENATOR: The undersigned women's and children's organizations write to urge you to oppose S. 625, the ``Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1999.''
Hundreds of thousands of women and their children are affected by the bankruptcy system each year as debtors and creditors. Indeed, women are the fastest growing group in bankruptcy. In 1999, over half a million women are expected to file for bankruptcy by themselves--more than men filing by themselves or married couples. About 200,000 of these women filers will be trying to collect child support or alimony. Another 200,000 women owed child support or alimony by men who file for bankruptcy will become bankruptcy creditors.
S. 625 puts both groups of economically vulnerable women and children at greater risk. By increasing the rights of many creditors, including credit card companies, finance companies, auto lenders and others, the bill would set up a competition for scarce resources between parents and children owed child support and commercial creditors both during and after bankruptcy. And single parents facing financial crises--often caused by divorce, nonpayment of support, loss of a job, uninsured medical expenses, or domestic violence--would find it harder to regain their economic stability through the bankruptcy process. The bill would make it harder for these parents to meet the filing requirements; harder, if they got there, to save their homes, cars, and essential household items; and harder to meet their children's needs after bankruptcy because many more debts would survive.
Contrary to the claims of some, the domestic support provisions included in the bill would not solve these problems. The provisions only relate to the collection of support during bankruptcy from a bankruptcy filer; they do nothing to alleviate the additional hardships the bill would create for the hundreds of thousands of women forced into bankruptcy themselves. And even for women who are owed support by men who file for bankruptcy, the provisions fail to ensure that support payments will come first, ahead of the increased claims of the commercial creditors. Some improvement were made in the domestic support provisions in the Judiciary Committee. However, even the revised provisions fail to solve the problems created by the rest of the bill, which gives many other creditors greater claims--both during and after bankruptcy--than they have under current law. The bill does not ensure that, in this intensified competition for the debtor's limited resources, parents and children owed support will prevail over the sophisticated collection departments of these powerful interests.
This Bankruptcy Reform Act will reduce the ability of parents to pay their most important debt--their debt to their children. It is for these reasons that we strongly oppose S. 625 and urge you to oppose it as well.
Very truly yours,
National Women's Law Center.
National Partnership for Women & Families.
ACES, Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, Inc.
American Association of University Women.
American Medical Women's Association.
Business and Professional Women/USA.
Center for Law and Social Policy.
Center for the Advancement of Public Policy.
Center for the Child Care Workforce.
Church Women United.
Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW).
Equal Rights Advocates.
Feminist Majority.
Hadassah.
International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (``IWIRC'').
National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW).
National Black Women's Health Project.
National Center for Youth Law.
National Council of Jewish Women.
National Council of Negro Women.
National Organization for Women.
National Women's Conference.
Northwest Women's Law Center.
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Wider Opportunities for Women.
The Women Activist Fund.
Women Employed.
Women Work!
Women's Institute for Freedom of Press.
Women's Law Center of Maryland, Inc.
YWCA of the U.S.A.
END