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.