S.Res. 672Senate118th Congress (2023-2025)Passed Congress

A resolution recognizing and supporting the goals and ideals of National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

AI-Generated Summary

Updated January 20, 2026 at 4:21 PM UTC

The Senate adopted a resolution that officially recognizes April as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. It urges the nation to use the month to educate people about sexual violence, promote prevention, improve support for survivors, and increase prosecution of perpetrators. The resolution also commends survivors, volunteers, organizations, and professionals who work on these issues.

Key Provisions

The Senate declares the month an opportunity to educate the public and encourage prevention, better treatment of survivors, and prosecution of offenders
It acknowledges and honors survivors of sexual assault and the volunteers and professionals who assist them
It calls for recognition of national, community, and private‑sector groups that raise awareness, provide services, and help secure convictions
It praises public safety, law‑enforcement, and health professionals for innovative strategies to hold perpetrators accountable
The Senate formally supports the goals and ideals of National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

Legislative Activity

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SenateFloor Latest Action

Submitted in the Senate, considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S3368; text: CR S3320-3321)

May 2, 2024

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SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

May 2, 2024

SenateFloor

Submitted in the Senate, considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S3368; text: CR S3320-3321)

May 2, 2024

Floor Debate

2 members

What members said about S.Res. 672 on the floor

2 Democrats

Sen. Jeanne ShaheenD-NH · May 2, 2024

Madam President, I rise today as chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship to recognize National Small Business Week and honor the more than 33 million small businesses that drive…

Across the Nation, small businesses contribute to about half of our economy's GDP and create about two-thirds of new jobs. They even produce 16 times more patents than large businesses. There is no American economy without the small business economy.

In my home State of New Hampshire, 99 percent of our businesses are small businesses. They employ about 50 percent of Granite Staters and are led by some of the most determined and creative individuals I know.

Take, for example, Counseling Associates, a women-owned small business filling the mental health services gap in the Granite State. Susan Borchert and Betsy Harrison, cofounders of Counseling Associates, received the 2024 New Hampshire Small Business Persons of the Year award. Congratulations, Susan and Betsy.

After years of working together and motivated by a shared passion for expanding affordable healthcare, Susan and Betsy leveraged their combined 40 years of clinical experience and founded Counseling Associates in 2004.

Thanks to support from the Small Business Administration and years of consultation from New Hampshire's Small Business Development Center, they have expanded to employ over 85 professionals in five different locations. Like Counseling Associates, small businesses across the country depend on the resources provided by the Small Business Administration.

Congress must continue to extend these resources to more parts of the country. We must ensure entrepreneurs in every community, including those in rural areas, have a fair shot at starting and growing their small businesses, and we must continue to support an environment where small businesses can succeed. This means addressing the drivers of inflation, providing affordable housing, developing the workforce we need, and dealing with America's childcare crisis.

Now more than ever, expanding small business services is critical to keep up with the historic rise in entrepreneurship. An unprecedented 17 million new business applications have been filed under the Biden- Harris administration, including substantial growth in women-owned small businesses.

To all of America's small businesses, whatever your calling to entrepreneurship may be: Thank you for all you do, this week and every week.

You make America strong. You ensure our communities stay vibrant, and it is because of you that we will strengthen our local economies and continue to move America forward.

Sen. Brian SchatzD-HI · May 2, 2024

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 652 and the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the…

Sen. Brian SchatzD-HI · May 2, 2024

I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Bill Text

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Agreed to SenateIssued May 2, 2024

III

118th CONGRESS

2d Session

S. RES. 672

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 2, 2024

Mr. Grassley (for himself, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Tillis, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Smith, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Heinrich, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Luján, Mr. Fetterman, Ms. Collins, Ms. Klobuchar, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Hirono, and Mr. Marshall) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to

RESOLUTION

Recognizing and supporting the goals and ideals of National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

Whereas the Senate is committed to the awareness, prevention, and deterrence of sexual violence affecting individuals in the United States;

Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men experience sexual or physical violence, or stalking, by an intimate partner;

Whereas, according to the 2022 Child Maltreatment Report of the Department of Health and Human Services, child protection service agencies throughout the United States substantiated, or found strong evidence to indicate, that 59,044 children under 18 years of age were victims of sexual abuse that year;

Whereas, according to the 2016/2017 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men who have experienced a completed or attempted rape experienced it for the first time between the ages of 11 and 17;

Whereas sexual violence is a burden for many individuals who serve in the Armed Forces, and the Department of Defense estimates that approximately 35,900 members of the Armed Forces, including approximately 19,300 women and 16,600 men, experienced some form of contact or penetrative sexual assault during 2021;

Whereas sexual assault does not discriminate on any basis and can affect any individual in the United States;

Whereas sexual violence may take many forms, including—

(1)

acquaintance, stranger, spousal, and gang rape;

(2)

incest;

(3)

child sexual abuse;

(4)

elder sexual abuse;

(5)

sexual abuse and exploitation of underserved communities;

(6)

commercial sex trafficking;

(7)

sexual harassment; and

(8)

stalking;

Whereas studies have suggested that survivors of color face unique challenges and more should be done to better understand the impact of sexual violence on communities of color;

Whereas studies have suggested that the rate at which American Indians and Alaska Natives experience sexual violence is significantly higher than for other populations in the United States;

Whereas, according to the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, in addition to the immediate physical and emotional costs, sexual assault has numerous adverse consequences, which can include post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, major depression, homelessness, eating disorders, and suicide;

Whereas, according to a 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey, the average cost of rape is $122,461 for each victim over the lifetime of the victim, totaling a $3,100,000,000,000 economic burden for survivors of rape in the United States;

Whereas, according to the 2022 National Crime Victimization Survey, an average of only 21 percent of rapes or sexual assaults in the United States were reported to law enforcement agencies between 2021 and 2022;

Whereas many sexual assaults are not reported to law enforcement agencies, and many States have restrictive criminal statutes of limitations, which enable many perpetrators to evade punishment for their crimes;

Whereas advances in deoxyribonucleic acid (commonly known as DNA) technology have enabled law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute the perpetrators in tens of thousands of previously unsolved sexual assault cases;

Whereas incarceration of sexual assault perpetrators can prevent perpetrators from committing additional crimes;

Whereas, according to a 2023 survey by the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, 48 percent of rape crisis centers lack a therapist on staff, and 70 percent of programs had an increased demand for services in the past year;

Whereas national, State, territorial, and Tribal coalitions, community-based rape crisis centers, culturally specific sexual assault organizations, and other organizations across the United States are committed to—

(1)

eliminating sexual violence through prevention and education; and

(2)

increasing public awareness of sexual violence and the prevalence of sexual violence;

Whereas thousands of volunteers and staff at rape crisis centers, State coalitions against sexual assault, culturally specific sexual assault organizations, and nonprofit organizations across the United States play an important role in making crisis hotlines and other services available to survivors of sexual assault;

Whereas important partnerships have been formed among criminal and juvenile justice agencies, health professionals, public health workers, educators, first responders, and victim service providers;

Whereas free, confidential help is available to all victims and survivors of sexual assault through—

(1)

the victim service programs of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (commonly known and referred to in this preamble as RAINN), including the National Sexual Assault Hotline—

(A)

by telephone at 800–656–HOPE; and

(B)

online at https://hotline.rainn.org; and

(2)

more than 1,500 local rape crisis centers across the United States;

Whereas the victim service programs of RAINN, including the National Sexual Assault Hotline, help more than 300,000 survivors and their loved ones each year on average;

Whereas the Department of Defense provides the Safe Helpline, Safe HelpRoom, and Safe Helpline mobile application, each of which provide support and help to members of the Department of Defense community—

(1)

by telephone at 877–995–5247; and

(2)

online at https://SafeHelpline.org;

Whereas individual and collective efforts reflect the dream of the people of the United States—

(1)

for individuals and organizations to actively work to prevent all forms of sexual violence; and

(2)

for no victim of sexual assault to be unserved or feel that there is no path to justice; and

Whereas April 2024 is recognized as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month: Now, therefore, be it

That—

(1)

it is the sense of the Senate that—

(A)

National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month provides a special opportunity—

(i)

to educate the people of the United States about sexual violence; and

(ii)

to encourage—

(I)

the prevention of sexual assault;

(II)

improvement in the treatment of survivors of sexual assault; and

(III)

the prosecution of perpetrators of sexual assault;

(B)

it is appropriate to properly acknowledge survivors of sexual assault and to commend the volunteers and professionals who assist those survivors in their efforts to heal;

(C)

national and community organizations and private sector supporters should be recognized and applauded for their work in—

(i)

promoting awareness about sexual assault;

(ii)

providing information and treatment to survivors of sexual assault; and

(iii)

increasing the number of successful prosecutions of perpetrators of sexual assault; and

(D)

public safety, law enforcement, and health professionals should be recognized and applauded for their hard work and innovative strategies to ensure perpetrators of sexual assault are held accountable; and

(2)

the Senate supports the goals and ideals of National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.