By: Moncrief S.C.R. No. 15 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, Since 1978, the Texas Council on Family Violence has 1-23 worked closely with the Texas Legislature, Texas state agencies, 2-1 and Texas elected officials and has consistently demonstrated their 2-2 organizational capacity and the requisite expertise to run a 2-3 domestic violence hotline and has secured a portion of the funding 2-4 to implement and maintain a statewide hotline for domestic violence 2-5 victims and is poised to receive grant funding from the federal 2-6 government to set up the nationwide 1-800 hotline for victims of 2-7 domestic violence; and 2-8 WHEREAS, Section 316 of the Family Violence Prevention and 2-9 Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10401 et seq.), as added by Section 40211, 2-10 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 2-11 (Pub. L. No. 103-322), signed into law by President Clinton on 2-12 September 13, 1994, provides funds for a National Domestic Violence 2-13 Hotline Grant to fund a 1-800 hotline for victims of domestic 2-14 violence; and the Texas Council on Family Violence has worked for 2-15 two years to obtain private and public money to establish such a 2-16 hotline; now, therefore, be it 2-17 RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-18 hereby petition the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award 2-19 to the Texas Council on Family Violence the National Domestic 2-20 Violence Hotline Grant to set up a national hotline for victims of 2-21 domestic violence; and, be it further 2-22 RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official 2-23 copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, 2-24 the president of the senate and speaker of the house of 2-25 representatives of the United States Congress, all members of the 3-1 Texas delegation to the congress, and to the Secretary of Health 3-2 and Human Services with the request that this resolution be entered 3-3 in the Congressional Record as a petition to the Secretary of 3-4 Health and Human Services.