Implementation of the Violence Against Women Act: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciar...

Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:10 p.m., in room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (chairman of the committee), presiding. Also present: Senator Kennedy. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH R. BmEN, JR., A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE The Chairman. The hearing will come to order. I apologize to the witnesses for a late start. There are a number of amendments that are being proposed on the floor of the U.S. Senate to various appropriations bills, several of which relate to somewhat in the scheme of things inappropriately, but relate to the Criminal Justice System that I thought we already acted on, but there are those who wish to relitigate some of that. So I apologize for being late. I was trying to determine the timing. After 4years of holding hearings and talking about violence against women in this very committee, and 4years after introducing the violence against women legislation, I am pleased to chair the first hearing on how to implement what we have done. It has been a long, hard fight. It has gotten wide bipartisan support. It started off 4V2 years ago with some of the women in this room being the only allies I had in the drafting of this legislation. In the beginning, even many of the womens groups were not enthusiastic about this. It is a testament to, I hope, sound judgment and perseverance that not only have we passed the bill, but with overwhelming support. Senator Hatch, the ranking Republican, being a prime cosponsor of the legislation, as well as the vast majority of Republicans and Democrats supporting it. Now, the second hard part begins. It would be a crying shame to have done so much and worked so hard and produced what all, even some critics, would acknowledge is landmark legislation in the area relating to violence against women and t
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)