{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://stanton.house.gov/2021/10/stanton-presses-attorney-general-on-efforts-to-combat-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-epidemic", "Stanton Presses Attorney General on Efforts to Combat Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Epidemic", "2021-10-21", "2021", "2021-10", "Democrat", "House", "AZ", "Greg Stanton", "S001211", "stanton.house.gov", "stanton", "https://stanton.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Rep. Greg Stanton sharply questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland about the lack of adequate Department of Justice efforts to combat the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) at a House Judiciary Committee hearing today.\n\nStanton said that President Joe Biden made commitments regarding making MMIW cases a higher priority during his campaign for president that have not been carried out by the Justice Department.\n\n\u201cIt does not appear that you have used your platform to help make this a top priority, nor has DOJ really moved the needle on this issue since your confirmation,\u201d Stanton told Garland.\n\nDuring the hearing, Garland acknowledged that the Justice Department has not considered growing the FBI\u2019s Indian Country Program, which has fewer than 150 Special Agents who serve 574 federally recognized Tribes and 326 Tribal reservations.\n\n\u201cI can see why so many Native American families feel like their missing or murdered loved one does not matter to the federal government,\u201d Stanton said. \u201cWe have unique trust responsibilities to our Tribal Nations and rarely, if ever, has our federal government delivered.\u201d\n\nStanton went on to press the Attorney General to account for the difference in the scale of federal law enforcement\u2019s response to missing and murdered white women and women of color, which has become a topic of national conversation since the disappearance of Gabby Petito.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any excuse for not giving equal treatment to native and indigenous missing persons,\u201d Garland responded.\n\nArizona has the third-highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The Justice Department has reported that Native American women face murder rates more than 10 times higher than the national average. Four out of five Native women are affected by violence in their lifetimes.\n\nStanton has been vocal on the topic and questioned FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on the Bureau\u2019s efforts at a hearing in June of this year.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://stanton.house.gov/2021/10/stanton-presses-attorney-general-on-efforts-to-combat-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-epidemic"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6963658854365349, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}