1-1 By: Moncrief, Brown S.C.R. No. 15 1-2 (In the Senate - Filed January 12, 1995; January 16, 1995, 1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on Health and Human 1-4 Services; January 25, 1995, reported favorably by the following 1-5 vote: Yeas 8, Nays 0; January 25, 1995, sent to printer.) 1-6 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-7 WHEREAS, Eighty-two national toll-free telephone hotlines 1-8 provide assistance to victims of crime and disease but there is no 1-9 such hotline for victims of domestic violence, who may not know 1-10 whom to call or how to find a shelter; and 1-11 WHEREAS, A national hotline for battered women was in 1-12 operation from September, 1988, until June, 1992, receiving 1-13 approximately 10,000 calls a month in its last months of operation; 1-14 and 1-15 WHEREAS, After the hotline closed for lack of funding, 1-16 national women's organizations and statewide family violence 1-17 coalitions reached a consensus that the Texas Council on Family 1-18 Violence should lead a project to reestablish the hotline; and 1-19 WHEREAS, The Texas Council on Family Violence has developed a 1-20 plan to reestablish the national hotline after first establishing a 1-21 pilot project in Texas; and the Texas Council on Family Violence 1-22 has received more than $200,000 for the implementation of the Texas 1-23 Pilot Hotline and has hired a hotline specialist who has worked on 1-24 a detailed plan for the project; and 1-25 WHEREAS, The Texas Council on Family Violence has developed a 1-26 budget summary regarding the costs of the National Domestic 1-27 Violence Hotline as well as the Texas pilot project; and 1-28 WHEREAS, Since 1978, the Texas Council on Family Violence has 1-29 worked closely with the Texas Legislature, Texas state agencies, 1-30 and Texas elected officials and has consistently demonstrated their 1-31 organizational capacity and the requisite expertise to run a 1-32 domestic violence hotline and has secured a portion of the funding 1-33 to implement and maintain a statewide hotline for domestic violence 1-34 victims and is poised to receive grant funding from the federal 1-35 government to set up the nationwide 1-800 hotline for victims of 1-36 domestic violence; and 1-37 WHEREAS, Section 316 of the Family Violence Prevention and 1-38 Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10401 et seq.), as added by Section 40211, 1-39 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Pub. L. No. 1-40 103-322), signed into law by President Clinton on September 13, 1-41 1994, provides funds for a National Domestic Violence Hotline Grant 1-42 to fund a 1-800 hotline for victims of domestic violence; and the 1-43 Texas Council on Family Violence has worked for two years to obtain 1-44 private and public money to establish such a hotline; now, 1-45 therefore, be it 1-46 RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas 1-47 hereby petition the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award 1-48 to the Texas Council on Family Violence the National Domestic 1-49 Violence Hotline Grant to set up a national hotline for victims of 1-50 domestic violence; and, be it further 1-51 RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official 1-52 copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, 1-53 the president of the senate and speaker of the house of 1-54 representatives of the United States Congress, all members of the 1-55 Texas delegation to the congress, and to the Secretary of Health 1-56 and Human Services with the request that this resolution be entered 1-57 in the Congressional Record as a petition to the Secretary of 1-58 Health and Human Services. 1-59 * * * * *