Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) sponsored the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act and called for swift action on the legislation Wednesday.
The act was originally passed in 1994 and expired in 2011. It funds a number of programs, including victim assistance services, enforcement of protection and transitional housing aid for victims.
Last year, the act passed in the Senate but was never brought to a vote in the House. Republicans, which passed their own version of the bill in House, objected to the increased protections for American Indians, gays and immigrants, The Washington Post reports.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told The Post that 158 Democratic Congressman have co-sponsored the bill.
“I worked as a prosecutor for seven years and I saw the horrible violence women are subjected to on a daily basis in this country," said Swalwell, who worked in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. "It’s unconscionable that women are still victimized like this in our civilized society."
Swalwell added that the act has made great strides in protecting women and that it "is of paramount importance and we should pass this bill without delay.”
Also this week, Swalwell was named as a ranking member on the Energy Subcommittee.
“The East Bay is a center of energy research and technological innovation. In particular, the Livermore and Sandia National Labs located in my congressional district are doing innovative work and world-class science to develop new, clean energy sources," Swalwell said. "Serving as the ranking member on the Energy Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over these issues of energy research and development, is a tremendous opportunity."
Do you support the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act? Let us know why or why not in the comments section.
To many that haven't been affected by Domestic Violence, this may seem in our economic times to be yet another unnecessary use of taxpayer money . To those of us that have been affected by Domestic Violence, it is not only a lifeline and often the only way out, but it may also be all we can do to protect ourselves and our children. Thank you, Rep. Swalwell, for taking this on. Godspeed.
We know the IQ's at LLNL are some of the highest in the world, so there must be really, really smart, logical reasons why they have devised a medical facility to tune-up aging nuclear bomb cores in a highly urbanized area that is beyond my ability to understand. Their Kafka-like thinking only makes sense to me, when I look at the composition of their supervising Board of Managing Directors. Let's turn a blind eye and move on. Surely they have this atmospheric science thing well under control too, with all their great atmospheric models run on super computers that support spraying toxic aluminum based Chemtrail aerosols day and night globally to make us a nice artificial sun shield, poison the people, soils and water, and reduce our agricultural yields forcing farmers to use patented gene modified seeds immune to aluminum toxins. While it looks to me as though they really don't know what the hell they are doing or how bad the side effects are, I'm sure the nuances of the Kafka world logic is above my level of thought and I will soon enough some day realize the truth of what they are doing to us. Part 1
Such a group may not want to break away from a hydrocarbon based energy economy or the nuclear power industry, and instead do achievable things like put on and help sponsor a Zero Point Energy device demonstration fair using LLNL scientists along with department heads from our Bay Area universities to explain how we really can integrate new clean Zero Point Energy sources into our civilization. Devices that power 3000-foot+- diameter craft perched at 125,000 feet with a mass of 10^3 that of an aircraft carrier might be worth demonstrating here on earth. My little brain tends not to trust much of the mainstream anything any more, including a Board of Directors beholding to nuclear power and military industrial complex. http://tinyurl.com/87n23fx End of Part 2 of 2
How about: CONGRESSIONAL REFORM ACT 2013!?! 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term's, then go home and back to work.
We probably aren't going to change this Zebra's stripes, so to speak, but we might be able to use it best in the traces hauling the wagon its been assigned: Energy. LLNL is run by corporate managers, not the people out at the lab, not those directors, the other tier of "outside" managers that have taken over from University of California, that tier. That tier of management is so deeply enmeshed in nuclear energy management and the military industrial complex, that we just do not ever demand of our elected officials to call the Lab to task publicly. The corporate managers expect the Energy Committee to be compliant, which is fine, as far as it goes. But in this world today, Congressman Swalwell could be the one outspoken person pushing for changes at LLNL in two areas: (a) Energy Research, the lab's touted strength. A growing number of us are anxious to find an influential elected official at least open to listen to the proposition there exist real free energy devices. Free Energy has the potential to liberate our entire civilization with clean energy. (b) A sane weapons monitoring system that does not bring bomb cores into our highly urbanized community at LLNL, for re-certification. http://tinyurl.com/87n23fx
So this is what it means to have super computing power that alleviates underground testing. We just bring the safe and really hard to mess with bomb cores to town and look them over here. What could possibly go wrong with this much safety awareness and training? I'm obviously not smart enough to appreciate the brilliance of this concept. I try so hard but I just don't get it. http://tinyurl.com/a89tw2h Has anyone ever tried to commit suicide at the lab? I'm sure I worry needlessly. (repost from accidental removal)
"Rich - There are no 'bomb cores' at the lab. They are at Los Alamos and Pantex Plant in Texas."
http://tinyurl.com/a3snstz