Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about an overwhelmingly bipartisan piece of legislation. I had hoped to be on the floor today to celebrate the passage of the Survivors' Bill of Rights; however, as is the case far too often here in Washington, political gamesmanship is taking precedence over sound policy.

The Democratic leadership is holding up this bill for purely political reasons. The Democratic leadership is delaying passage of this noncontroversial bill despite the fact that it enjoys broad bipartisan support. They are holding up this bill despite the fact that it is critical to help victims of sexual violence. They are holding up this bill despite the fact that the same language passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously. They are holding up this bill despite the fact that it passed the Senate 89 to 0 and the House of Representatives 399 to 0.

The Survivors' Bill of Rights has been championed by a courageous rape survivor named Amanda Nguyen. Amanda is the founder and president of an organization that goes by the acronym RISE, a group that worked closely with me on the development of this survivors' rights package to establish new rights for survivors of sexual assault.

Amanda was the victim of sexual assault as a college student. Her struggle with the criminal justice system in the aftermath of this event transformed her into a tireless young advocate for survivors of sexual violence.

Sexual violence, as you know, impacts millions of American women and men in our country every year. Victims of such crimes should not face an uphill battle in their pursuit of justice, as Ms. Nguyen did, and that is why I included this language in the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act. That bill, which makes grants available to help States track convicted sex offenders, unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate just a few months ago.

I am very proud to have shepherded this bill through the Judiciary Committee. It is a commonsense piece of legislation. For months, I urged the House Judiciary Committee to pass this very bill. Thankfully, that committee and the full House passed this bill just a few weeks ago. Now the Senate must act, of course, so we can send it to the President. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership has chosen partisan politics over helping victims of sexual violence.

Since the House passed this legislation, Amanda has been checking in with my office nearly daily on the status of when the Senate will pass this bill. While Republicans are poised to move forward on this bill, Democratic leadership has continued to stall Ms. Nguyen's efforts.

Among other things, this bill ensures that each and every survivor of sexual assault should have equal access to all available tools in their pursuit of justice. This includes proper collection and preservation of forensic evidence.

The Survivors' Bill of Rights also secures a package of new rights for sexual assault survivors. Amanda Nguyen has been working with both political parties to help fellow survivors.

It has been an honor to work alongside Ms. Nguyen on this critical piece of legislation. I will fight for Amanda and every survivor of sexual assault until this bill passes.

I call on the Democratic leadership to stop delaying this bill immediately. We have an important bipartisan opportunity to improve the criminal justice system for survivors of sexual assault.

Today I ask the Democratic leadership to simply put the victims of sexual violence on the highest of priorities. Put these courageous individuals above partisan politics. We have done this before, and we should do it again, particularly in this environment of today's speeches from the other side of the aisle, decrying the fact that there might be too much partisanship in this body. This is a chance to demonstrate not only bipartisanship but also unanimity in the U.S.

Senate that has already been demonstrated on this piece of legislation and get it to the President so we can help these courageous people who are fighting to help victims of sexual assault.
I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source