By:  Moncrief                                          S.C.R. No. 2
                             SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    1-1        WHEREAS, Eighty-two national toll-free telephone hotlines
    1-2  provide assistance to victims of crime and disease but there is no
    1-3  such hotline for victims of domestic violence, who may not know
    1-4  whom to call or how to find a shelter; and
    1-5        WHEREAS, A national hotline for battered women was in
    1-6  operation from September, 1988, until June, 1992, receiving
    1-7  approximately 10,000 calls a month in its last months of operation;
    1-8  and
    1-9        WHEREAS, After the hotline closed for lack of funding,
   1-10  national women's organizations and statewide family violence
   1-11  coalitions reached a consensus that the Texas Council on Family
   1-12  Violence should lead a project to reestablish the hotline; and
   1-13        WHEREAS, The Texas Council on Family Violence has developed a
   1-14  plan to reestablish the national hotline after first establishing a
   1-15  pilot project in Texas; and the Texas Council on Family Violence
   1-16  has received more than $200,000 for the implementation of the Texas
   1-17  Pilot Hotline and has hired a hotline specialist who has worked on
   1-18  a detailed plan for the project; and
   1-19        WHEREAS, The Texas Council on Family Violence has developed a
   1-20  budget summary regarding the costs of the National Domestic
   1-21  Violence Hotline as well as the Texas pilot project; and
   1-22        WHEREAS, The Texas Council on Family Violence has the
   1-23  requisite expertise and has secured a portion of the funding to
    2-1  implement and maintain a statewide hotline for domestic violence
    2-2  victims and is poised to receive grant funding from the federal
    2-3  government to set up the nationwide 1-800 hotline for victims of
    2-4  domestic violence; and
    2-5        WHEREAS, Section 316 of the Family Violence Prevention and
    2-6  Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10401 et seq.), as added by Section 40211,
    2-7  Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
    2-8  (Pub. L. No. 103-322), signed into law by President Clinton on
    2-9  September 13, 1994, provides funds for a National Domestic Violence
   2-10  Hotline Grant to fund a 1-800 hotline for victims of domestic
   2-11  violence; and the Texas Council on Family Violence has worked for
   2-12  two years to obtain private and public money to establish such a
   2-13  hotline; now, therefore, be it
   2-14        RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas
   2-15  hereby petition the Congress of the United States to award to the
   2-16  Texas Council on Family Violence the National Domestic Violence
   2-17  Hotline Grant to set up a national hotline for victims of domestic
   2-18  violence; and, be it further
   2-19        RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official
   2-20  copies of this resolution to the President of the United States,
   2-21  the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of
   2-22  Representatives of the United States Congress, and all members of
   2-23  the Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this
   2-24  resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a petition to
   2-25  the Congress of the United States.