On May 23, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, the Girls Count Act (S. 802). On May 21, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved their versions of the Girls Count Act, S. 802, and H.R. 2100, respectively.

Kay E. Brown, director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security, Government Accountability Office (GAO), described the fraud uncovered in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). * See page 3

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), would authorize the secretary of State and the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support programs that "contribute to improved civil registration and vital statistics systems with a focus on birth registration." The bill finds that the lack of birth registration for girls can exacerbate women’s and girls' vulnerability to trafficking, child marriage, lack of access to health and education services, reduced unemployment, and can inhibit their ability to purchase or inherit land and other assets, among many other issues.

The bill would "promote programs that build the capacity of developing countries' national and local legal and policy frameworks to prevent discrimination against girls, and help increase property rights, social security, land tenure, and inheritance rights for women." The measure also would authorize the secretary and the administrator to cooperate with multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank and the United Nations, to promote such programs.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved S. 802, as amended by substitute amendment, by voice vote; the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved H.R. 2100 by voice vote.

House Committee Approves Commerce, Justice, Science Spending Bill

On May 20, the House Appropriations Committee approved, by voice vote, the FY2016 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered). The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies passed the measure on May 14 (see The Source, 5/15/15).

According to the committee report, the bill would allocate $51.4 billion overall for FY2016. This amount is $1.3 billion above FY2015, but $661 million below President Obama’s FY2016 request. Included in this amount is $27.5 billion for the Department of Justice (DoJ)

Citing increased instances of severe harassment, stalking, and threats transmitted via the Internet, particularly against women, the committee urges DoJ to increase its efforts to combat cyber-stalking and threat crimes (p. 31).

The committee" is concerned with the ongoing sexual assault kit backlog in jurisdictions across the country." The bill includes $41 million in the bill to address the backlog (p. 41).

The committee encourages the Office for Victims of Crime and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to examine ways to support nonprofits and other nongovernmental entities to administer successful prevention and early intervention programs for girls vulnerable to trafficking (p. 47).

Expressing its disappointment with recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports detailing sexual misconduct and harassment by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents while on overseas assignment, the committee noted that it expects the DEA and DoJ to “close the gaps” identified in the OIG report and address employee misconduct (p. 40).

The committee encourages the International Trade Administration to ensure that it is providing suitable support and services for women-, minority- and veteran-owned firms that are seeking aid in gaining access to foreign markets for their products and services (p. 5).

During the consideration of the measure, the committee adopted, by voice vote, two amendments by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). The first amendment would add $5 million to the Department of Justice Rape Survivor Child Custody Act (P.L. 102-393) program to terminate rapists’ parental custodial rights. The second amendment would designate $1 million in funding within Missing and Exploited Children Program to hire wounded warriors to assist with these cases.

The following chart details funding for program important to women and their families.