[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1168 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1168
Supporting the goals and ideals of October as ``National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 1, 2020
Mr. Green of Texas (for himself, Mrs. Wagner, Mr. Larsen of Washington,
Mr. Olson, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Cuellar, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr.
Sires, Mr. Price of North Carolina, Mr. Rush, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Mr.
Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Casten of Illinois, Mr. Malinowski, Mr. Welch,
Ms. Lee of California, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mrs. Lee of
Nevada, Ms. Norton, Mr. Hastings, Ms. Titus, Mr. O'Halleran, and Mr.
Grijalva) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Labor
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting the goals and ideals of October as ``National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month''.
Whereas intimate partner violence affects people of all ages as well as all
racial, ethnic, gender, economic, and religious backgrounds;
Whereas women are disproportionately victims of domestic violence, as 1 in 4
women and 1 in 7 men ages 18 and older will experience domestic violence
at some point in their life;
Whereas survivors of domestic violence are strong, courageous, and resilient;
Whereas, on average, more than 3 women are murdered by their husbands or
boyfriends in the United States every day;
Whereas women ages 18 to 34 experience the highest rates, per capita, of
intimate partner violence;
Whereas about 1 in 5 women who experience rape, physical violence, or stalking
by an intimate partner first experienced some form of intimate partner
violence between 11 and 17 years of age;
Whereas nearly 1 in 3 college women say they have been in an abusive dating
relationship;
Whereas 1 in 3 Native American women will be raped and 6 in 10 will be
physically assaulted in their lifetimes;
Whereas African-American women experience intimate partner violence at a rate 35
percent higher than that of White women, and about 2.5 times the rate of
women of other races, but African-American women are less likely than
White women to use social services or battered women's programs or to go
to the hospital because of domestic violence;
Whereas, in an Asian and Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence survey,
21 to 55 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander women reported
experiencing domestic violence (physical, sexual, or both) during their
lifetimes;
Whereas, according to the National Intimate and Sexual Violence Survey, 37.1
percent of Latinx females are victimized by intimate partner violence in
a lifetime, defined by rape, physical assault, or stalking;
Whereas noncitizen victims of domestic violence report heightened concerns with
accessing law enforcement and services due to uncertainty arising from
changing immigration policies and heightened immigration enforcement;
Whereas the average cost of intimate partner violence over a victim's lifetime
for medical and mental health care services is $103,767 for women and
$23,414 for men;
Whereas of women killed with a firearm, almost two-thirds were killed by their
intimate partners;
Whereas one-quarter to one-half of domestic violence victims report that they
have lost a job due, at least in part, to domestic violence;
Whereas some landlords deny housing to victims of domestic violence who have
protection orders or evict victims of domestic violence for seeking help
after a domestic violence incident, such as by calling 9-1-1, or who
have other indications that they are domestic violence victims;
Whereas COVID-19 restrictions have had some hospitals see a near-doubling of the
proportion of domestic abuse cases that resulted in physical injury in
comparison with previous years, and the injuries were also dramatically
more severe, prompting concerns that victims had delayed seeking care
even as the violence against them escalated;
Whereas 92 percent of homeless women experience severe physical or sexual abuse
at some point in their lifetimes;
Whereas 81 percent of women who are stalked by a current or former male partner
are also physically abused by that partner;
Whereas 99 percent of abusive relationships include financial abuse, causing the
survivors to stay or return to the abusive relationship;
Whereas more than 8,000,000 days of paid work each year are lost due to domestic
violence issues;
Whereas 96 percent of employed domestic violence victims experience problems at
work due to abuse;
Whereas 1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year and
90 percent of these children are eyewitnesses to such violence;
Whereas at least 15,500,000 children live in families in which domestic violence
occurred at least once in the past year;
Whereas children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to attempt
suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, and become victims
of human trafficking;
Whereas one large study found that men exposed to physical abuse, sexual abuse,
and adult domestic violence as children were almost 4 times more likely
than other men to have perpetrated domestic violence as adults;
Whereas 1 in 10 high school students experienced physical violence from a dating
partner in the past year;
Whereas half of youth who have been victims of both dating violence and rape
attempt suicide, compared to 12.5 percent of nonabused girls and 5.4
percent of nonabused boys;
Whereas there is a need for primary schools, secondary schools, and
postsecondary schools to educate students about the issues of domestic
violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking;
Whereas a recently released multistate study shows that the Nation's domestic
violence shelters are addressing victims' urgent and long-term needs and
are helping victims protect themselves and their children;
Whereas a 2019 survey by the National Network to End Domestic Violence reported
that 77,226 violence victims were served by domestic violence shelters
and programs around the Nation in a single day;
Whereas an additional 11,336 requests for services went unmet that day due to
lack of resources;
Whereas domestic violence advocates provide lifesaving, essential services;
Whereas there is a need to increase--not reduce--funding for programs aimed at
intervening in and preventing domestic violence in the United States;
and
Whereas October would be an appropriate month for the observance of ``National
Domestic Violence Awareness Month'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ``Original National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month Resolution of 2020''.
SEC. 2. SUPPORTING NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH.
The House of Representatives--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of ``National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month''; and
(2) expresses the sense of the House of Representatives
that Congress should continue to raise awareness of domestic
violence and its devastating effects on individuals, families,
and communities, and support programs designed to end domestic
violence in the United States.
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