#ENDTRAFFICKING

Taking on Human Trafficking—Again

Human Trafficking is the most common form of modern day slavery worldwide and a growing problem in the United States. As many as 300,000 American youth are vulnerable to becoming sex trafficking victims, and it is estimated child sex trafficking is a $9.8 billion industry in the U.S. 

This week, the House passed several bills to hold perpetrators responsible for their heinous crimes, protect exploited children and provide victims with the necessary services to recover. The House passed many of these same bills in the last Congress, but Senator Harry Reid did not allow a vote in the Senate on these largely bipartisan bills. I am hopeful the Senate will vote on these bills in this Congress and ensure we fulfill our chief responsibility – protecting Americans. 

H.R. 181, Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015: Boosts support and protection for domestic human trafficking victims by increasing and streamlining law enforcement resources, enhancing victims’ services, and strengthening our laws to ensure both buyers and sellers engaged in sex trafficking are held accountable for their crimes.

H.R. 159, the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act: Provides incentives to states to adopt safe harbor laws that treat trafficked minors as victims, rather than as criminals or delinquents.

H.R. 4225, the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act: Criminalizes knowingly advertising or profiting from advertisements that offer the commercial exploitation of minors and trafficking victims.

H.R. 350, the Human Trafficking Prevention, Intervention, & Recovery Act: Launches a review of all federal and state trafficking prevention laws by the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking.

ICYMI: Select Committee on Benghazi Hearing 

Our responsibility at the Select Committee is to produce the definitive report on what happened before, during and after the attacks in Benghazi so we can help keep our fellow Americans safe. We cannot do our job without obtaining a complete record of the events.

The State Department has provided the Committee with 25,000 pages of documents previously provided to Congress, but now with fewer redactions, and 15,000 pages of previously- unreleased documents.  This is a start, and reinforces the fact no previous standing committee compiled or had access to a complete record of the events.

Watch the statement below for more information on the hearing or visit Benghazi.house.gov.