Mr. Chairman, this is a good bill. Particularly, I am a strong supporter of the section renewing the Violence Against Women Act, and a new program I've worked on, the Jessica Gonzales Victim Assistance Program, to better enforce protective orders. Today, together, we are making a big leap forward in protecting women who are victims.

For many years domestic violence has been viewed as a woman's problem, but that is not the case. Domestic violence is a woman's problem, a man's problem, the community's problem. The time is long overdue for men to take a stand and say that domestic violence is unacceptable.

On June 27, in Castle Rock v. Gonzales, the Supreme Court held that the police did not have a mandatory duty to make an arrest under a court-issued protective order to protect a woman from a violent husband. The ruling ended a lawsuit by a Colorado woman who claimed the police did not do enough to prevent her violent husband from killing their 3 young daughters. The ruling said Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police enforcement of the protective court order against her husband.

The heartbreaking details of this case show the desperate need for legislation. That's why I have drafted the Jessica Gonzales Victim Assistance Program, which will restore some of the effectiveness of protective orders.

The Jessica Gonzales Victim Assistance Program would place special victim assistants in local law enforcement agencies to serve as liaisons between the agencies and victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in order to improve the enforcement of protection orders.

I support the underlying bill and the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.