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Violence Against Women Act
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, for three decades, the Violence Against Women Act has been at the forefront of our efforts to support victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. This legislation provides survivors with access to programs and resources that promote safety and healing. It bolsters our criminal justice response through protections for survivors and provides critical training for law enforcement officials. It prioritizes programs and grants to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault from occurring in the first place.
I have been a longtime victims' rights advocate, dating back to my time as attorney general of my State, and I am a proud supporter of the Violence Against Women Act.
And I think that is a common sentiment in this Chamber. Republicans and Democrats alike agree we must do more to provide services and protection for victims of domestic violence, even though we don't always agree on just exactly what those changes should look like.
Unfortunately, like many good bipartisan ideas, this became a political football over time. When the time came to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in 2019, it was dragged through the gutter of Washington politics. Some of our friends across the aisle prioritized controversial partisan provisions over sound bipartisan policy. They even opposed a short-term reauthorization of the existing law when we couldn't agree. Ultimately, the Violence Against Women Act expired.
Here is the good news: For 3 long years, a bipartisan group of our colleagues has continued to work on a longer term reauthorization, and for a while it looked like we were making good progress.
Our friend from Iowa, Senator Ernst, is an unshakable advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and she has led efforts on this side of the aisle to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. She has worked with a bipartisan group of Senators to come up with something that is acceptable to both sides, but they have never been able to move past the controversial sticking points until now. Apparently, the tides have shifted, and I am grateful for that. After 3 years of waiting, we have seen real progress on efforts to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.
Last week, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced legislation to extend and modernize that legislation, and I am proud to be a cosponsor of that. Senator Ernst from Iowa and Senator Murkowski, our Alaska colleague, have led this effort on the Republican side, and I want to commend our colleagues for their leadership. They have put in countless hours over the last few years to reach this compromise. Obviously, it was not easy. The fact that this bill already has more than 20 bipartisan cosponsors speaks volumes about their success.
We couldn't have gotten to this point without the dedication of our friend, the senior Senator from California, Senator Feinstein, who has been engaged in these discussions from the beginning. I appreciate the hard work that she and Senator Durbin, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, have put into this bill and their willingness to make sensible compromises so we can, hopefully, get this signed into law without further delay.
Like all legislation, this bill is not perfect, but as the saying goes, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Throughout the negotiating process, I have raised concerns about some of the provisions, and I have seen our colleagues work in good faith with us to address many of those issues. There is no question, in my mind, that this is a good bill that will go a long way to modernize the Violence Against Women Act and ensure that it continues to serve survivors.
The VAWA Reauthorization Act extends this legislation through 2027 and builds on the advancements made in previous reauthorizations. It improves access to services, especially those in rural communities with fewer resources. It promotes partnerships with law enforcement and victim services organizations to provide victim-centered training for law enforcement officers. It improves grants that help school-based professionals connect students with victim services, and it strengthens existing campus grant programs for colleges and universities. It establishes a pilot program to support domestic violence victims seeking employment. It takes aim at relatively new threats, including cyber crimes, by establishing a national resource center on cyber crimes against individuals.
This legislation also invests in a broad range of grant programs, trainings, and resources to support survivors of domestic violence and prevent similar crimes from occurring in the future.
I am glad this legislation includes provisions from a number of bipartisan bills that I have introduced with colleagues here in the Senate.
One example is a bill that the Presiding Officer will appreciate, which I introduced with Senator Coons, called the NICS Denial Notification Act.
If someone attempts to purchase a gun--in other words, they lie about their legal qualification to purchase a gun--but is denied when the NICS background check system comes back with a hit, indicating that they are disqualified for one of a variety of legal reasons, right now, local law enforcement is not notified that somebody tried to buy a firearm and lied about it and was denied access to that firearm because of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Under current law, Federal officials are notified when individuals, including convicted felons and domestic abusers, fail a background check, but they are not required to notify State and local law enforcement--the people in the best position to actually be on the lookout for people who may be a danger to their communities and to themselves.
This legislation will change that. This legislation will require the Department of Justice to notify the relevant State and local authorities within 24 hours of a failed background check.
Now, there are some organizations that are disparaging this particular provision. They are basically misrepresenting what it does. So I want to be clear about what it does do.
What it does do is address somebody who lies in the course of filling out a background check, indicating that they are not disqualified, only to find out, when checking the system, that they, in fact, are. Obviously, these folks are up to no good if they are lying about their ability to purchase a firearm under current law. It just makes sense, in addition to Federal officials being notified of convicted felons and domestic violence abusers, that State and local law enforcement be notified as well. This notification would include the name of the individual as well as when and where they attempted to purchase a firearm. This information gives law enforcement the ability to investigate and intervene before a potentially deadly attack occurs. It should set off all sorts of alarms when a convicted felon or domestic violence abuser lies when attempting to purchase a firearm.
The Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act also includes legislation that I introduced with Senator Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is called Supporting Access to Nurse Exams Act.
Sexual assault nurse examiners, known as SANEs, are on the frontlines of our fight to support victims of sexual assault. These are the nurses who perform the forensic examinations on rape victims and who help to identify and convict sexual offenders.
This provision improves an existing grant program that funds sexual assault forensic exam programs. We don't have enough of these SANEs, or nurse examiners. This bill will put more money into the field in order to train more of these SANEs, to provide for their salaries, and to increase access in areas of the country that need SANEs more, particularly in rural areas.
These men and women are crucial to our efforts to deliver justice, and this is an important step we can take to address the nationwide shortage of sexual assault nurses.
Over the years, the Senate and the Congress have done a lot to eliminate the rape kit backlog, which at one point totaled a reported 400,000 in backlog rape kits. These rape kits are forensic examination kits that contain DNA, which is so essential in identifying the perpetrators of sexual assault and which has the miraculous ability--or seemingly miraculous ability--to actually exonerate some people who may be misidentified through visual identification.
It also helps, over a period of a long time, to identify people who may have evaded prosecution because of the statute of limitations. Many of these individuals who commit these sexual assaults will do so on a serial basis. So once we have been able to identify them through successful rape kit evaluations, we can bring them to justice.
Once again, I want to commend Senators Ernst and Murkowski for their tireless efforts, on behalf of victims nationwide, to get us to this point.
The Violence Against Women Act has changed the lives--improved the lives, actually--of countless survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. So it is time for us to come together and reauthorize this crucial program.
I am proud to support this legislation, and I hope Senator Schumer, the majority leader, can find time to put it on the Senate's calendar and vote it out without delay.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 30
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