Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act of 2014

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4058) to prevent and address sex trafficking of youth in foster care, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today to urge the support of H.R. 4058, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act.

This is a bipartisan bill that I strongly believe will help end sex trafficking, especially of children in foster care.

Madam Speaker, I don't know if you know or the other Members who may be listening today or anyone else who may be listening know that, if you are driving down the street and you see 10 young girls standing on the street corner, that six of those 10 young girls who are in human trafficking, six of those are in foster care--six out of 10--and those are young children that the State, that the taxpayers, that we as citizens of this community--of our communities--are responsible for, and they are on the street.

I am pleased to have worked with my colleague and ranking member on the Human Resources Subcommittee, Mr. Doggett. There are many colleagues who have also supported this legislation.

Today, I am here. This is the beginning of my 10th year in Congress. Prior to that, I was in law enforcement, for 33 years, in the King County Sheriff's Office in Seattle, Washington.

For 19 of those years, there was a team created to go after the most notorious serial killer that this country has ever seen. His name was Ridgway. My quest in that case, to find Gary Ridgway, started in 1982. I was a 31-year-old detective.

One body on August 12, two more bodies on August 15; I found a third body on that same day, going down to the riverbank to recover the other two bodies. These were 16-year-old girls.

This is a topic that we should be talking about here in Congress.

When I was 32 in 1982 and I started working on this case--and we finally arrested Ridgway in 2001, so 1982 until 2001--Ridgway said he killed 60 to 70 women. He pled guilty to 49. We closed 51 cases. I collected the bodies. I collected the bodies of 15 and 16-year-old girls.

They were buried in shallow graves or thrown in a river to drift away. Madam Speaker, some of these victims were pregnant, thrown in a grave along with their unborn child, their life cut short and taken. In some weeks, we collected six bodies.

Can you imagine the horror of the children when they were abducted and drawn into this killer's car or taken to his home? They knew they were being killed. They were strangled, and they fought for their lives.

Can you imagine the horror of the parents, the grandparents, the aunts

and uncles, the brothers and sisters, and the children lost forever, their life ripped away?

That is why we are here today. That is why we are discussing these bills. This is about life; it is about death, and we can save lives. Some Members here have mentioned that we can save lives today. I hope the Senate has the courage to follow through on these bills. We are doing our work here in the House of Representatives.

When I was on the banks of the Green River in 1982, I wondered who in the world is there who cares; and after 15 years of working the case, who cares, who cared about these young girls?

I can tell you, after talking to a number of those young women on the street and girls and children, they were wondering, too: Does anybody care? Does anybody even know I exist? Does anybody even know I am here and what I am going through? I need love. I need help.

One of those girls that I found in early 1982, that was found in 1982, was a young woman named Wendy Coffield. Wendy Coffield was a foster child. She had run away from home before; and this time, when she ran away from home, nobody was looking for her. No one cared. She disappeared, and no one cared, and then she was found, she was found dead.

These are the kids we have to help. My bill focuses on foster kids. Six out of 10 involved in human trafficking today are foster kids.

We had some hearings, of course, over the past few months, and there were some courageous young women who came forward to tell their stories in our subcommittee, and I want to mention their names because it took a lot of courage to come forward and tell their stories about their lives and what they went through and the feeling of nobody caring.

Withelma ``T'' Ortiz Walker Pettigrew is a sex trafficking survivor who experienced 14 foster care placements and was exploited into the sex trafficking trade as a child. This year, though, she was recognized by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in 2014. Talk about turning around your life and having an impact and influence on other people. ``T'' Ortiz Pettigrew has done it.

Noel Gomez, Seattle Organization for Prostitution Survivors, Gomez survived 15 years in the sex trafficking trade and is working to help kids stay out and to get out of the sex trafficking trade.

Mandy Urwiler, she entered foster care at the age of 15 and had remained in care throughout her extended foster care program. She testified about her personal experience in foster care and her exposure to the sex trafficking world.

Talitha James, a former foster youth from California, was able to leave the system at age 14 after her aunt gave her a stable home.

After hearing from her and many other experts, Mr. Doggett and myself introduced bipartisan legislation to help every State better protect youth in foster care from sex trafficking. This bill requires States to identify victims and to provide them with the services they need to heal. It would also improve data on instances of child trafficking.

On a preventative front, the bill makes sure that the youth can participate in age appropriate activities so they are less vulnerable to trafficking. It encourages States to move forward, moving children out of foster care and into permanent, loving homes.

The approach we are taking is practical. It is bipartisan. It is based on the State's experience. This bill incorporates a wide range of ideas gleaned from bills introduced by members of the Ways and Means Committee like Mr. Paulsen, as well as ideas from over 150 pages of public comments that we received from our December discussion draft.

I am confident that this legislation will ensure that all States take real steps to better understand the problem and keep kids safe while in foster care. I urge all Members to support this legislation.

I want to thank Mr. Doggett, who joins me on the floor today. I want to thank Chairman Camp for his support, Ranking Member Levin for his support, and all those others who have signed on to the bill.

We are here today, as I said, to protect vulnerable children in foster care and work to find them loving homes. That is why we are here. We are here to save lives. Both parties have worked together.

We have received support for this bill from the American Bar Association, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the American Public Human Services Association, Children's Defense Fund, the Human Rights Project for Girls, National Children's Alliance, and eight others. They proudly indicated their support for this important legislation.

I invite all Members to join us in supporting this important bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Doggett for his support.

Just as we were listening to each other and talking to each other regarding the issue that existed prior to bringing this bill to the floor, I am interested in continuing to work with Mr. Doggett on the other issues that he has mentioned in his opening statement.

Now I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black).

Madam Speaker, I should have also mentioned that Mrs. Black is a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Now I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam), also a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen), who has introduced his own bill connected to this issue, H.R. 3610, Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act. Mr. Paulsen is also a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler).

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga).

Madam Speaker, in closing, I do believe that this bill can help end sex trafficking, especially when partnered with all of the other legislation that we have been talking about today. It is a holistic approach, and it touches on almost every one of the intricate issues surrounding protecting young children from being victims of human trafficking.

After we are done today, there will still be another bill, presented by Mr. Smith, that will add to the power of the movement that we are making today and that will add to the voice that we are expressing today in support of young children, in support of families--in support of protecting lives. We are going to save lives.

With these bills today, somebody does care. As I said in my opening statement, when I was 31 years old and was on the banks of the rivers, collecting the bodies of teenage girls, I wondered if anybody cared, and their families wondered.

Today, that question has been answered. We care. All the way to the United States Capitol, we care. We can make a difference. Our daughters are not for sale, and the time is now.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3610) to stop exploitation through trafficking, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 3610, currently under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

There is no more vulnerable segment of this country's population than its children. For far too long, jurisdictions across the country have failed to adequately protect and support minor victims of commercial sex trafficking by treating them as the criminals. This must stop.

Unfortunately, according to FBI statistics, the commercial sex trade is the fastest-growing activity of organized criminal groups. The number of children facing sexual exploitation, rape,

emotional trauma, and in many cases criminal prosecution grows every day.

Despite the fact that Congress has long recognized that minor participants in commercial sex acts are victims, the majority of States maintain statutes criminalizing minor prostitution, directly conflicting, in many instances, with other State laws regarding statutory rape and child abuse.

Acknowledging this conflict, the Texas Supreme Court held in 2010, that ``because a 13-year-old child cannot consent to sex as a matter of law, the child cannot be prosecuted as a prostitute.'' Further illustrating this inconsistency, one Dallas police officer observed that ``if a 45-year-old man had sex with a 14-year-old girl and no money changed hands, she was likely to get counseling and he was likely to get jail time for statutory rape. If the same man left $80 on the table after having sex with her, she would probably be locked up for prostitution and he would go home with a fine as a john.''

The bill before us today, H.R. 3610, the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act of 2014, is designed to encourage the States to treat victims as victims.

Recognizing the need for protection and support for the growing number of child victims of commercial sex trafficking, an increasing number of States have taken steps to establish so-called ``safe harbor'' provisions that either decriminalize minor prostitution or divert minor victims to the services and support needed for recovery.

H.R. 3610 attempts to continue that trend by encouraging States, through preferential treatment in the grant-making process, to enact safe harbor legislation, ensuring that these victims are treated as victims, not criminals, and are directed to support services, not detention facilities. The bill also codifies a National Human Trafficking Hotline, ensures young victims are eligible for enrollment in the Job Corps, requires the Attorney General to report on sex offender convictions, and clarifies the authority of the U.S. Marshals Service to provide assistance in sex trafficking cases.

The Judiciary Committee's Crime Subcommittee recently held a hearing titled ``Innocence for Sale: Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking'' in which we examined the effects of criminalizing minors under these circumstances. A victim of minor commercial sex trafficking, Ms. ``T'' Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, testified regarding her repeated traumatization at the hands of her trafficker and the criminal justice system:

Isolated, tired, and helpless at the age of 15, the

concrete box that represented my cell in the largest of the

juvenile facilities in Las Vegas, Nevada, seemed no less

invasive than the horror of the streets. It wasn't all too

different than the mental confinement I endured from my pimp.

The re-victimization of minors engaged in commercial sex trafficking by criminal justice systems must stop. Nelson Mandela once observed that:

There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than

the way it treats its children.

This legislation demonstrates that we choose to protect and support our children.

I would like to recognize the efforts of my colleagues, Mr. Paulsen and Ms. Moore, for the introduction of the original legislation, as well as the many Members who have signed on as bipartisan cosponsors. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge Chairman Kline from the Education and the Workforce Committee for his support regarding the Job Corps provision of this bill.

This bill is an important tool in the fight against the growing scourge of minor sex trafficking.

I urge my colleagues to join me in support, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Committee on Education and the Workforce, House of

Representatives,

Washington, DC, May 13, 2014.

Hon. Bob Goodlatte,

Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing to confirm our mutual

understanding with respect to H.R. 3610, the Stop

Exploitation Through Trafficking Act of 2013. Thank you for

consulting with the Committee on Education and the Workforce

with regard to H.R. 3610 on those matters within the

committees jurisdiction.

In the interest of expediting the House's consideration of

H.R. 3610, the Committee on Education and the Workforce will

forgo further consideration of this bill. However, I do so

only with the understanding this procedural route will not be

construed to prejudice my committee's jurisdictional interest

and prerogatives on this bill or any other similar

legislation and will not be considered as precedent for

consideration of matters of jurisdictional interest to my

committee in the future.

I respectfully request your support for the appointment of

outside conferees from the Committee on Education and the

Workforce should this bill or a similar bill be considered in

a conference with the Senate. I also request you include our

exchange of letters on this matter in the Committee Report on

H.R. 3610 and in the Congressional Record during

consideration of this bill on the House floor. Thank you for

your attention to these matters.

Sincerely,

John Kline,

Chairman.

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 4 minutes to

the gentleman from Minnesota, Congressman Paulsen, the chief sponsor of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor), the majority leader, and to thank him for his leadership on this series of bills that deals with this serious issue.

Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson).

It is my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Brooks).

Madam Speaker, at this time, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Holding), a member of the committee.

Madam Speaker, now it is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Mrs. Noem).

Madam Speaker, I have only one speaker remaining, myself, if the gentleman is prepared to close.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time.

I join the gentleman from Virginia in urging my colleagues to support this important legislation.

I want to congratulate Congressman Paulsen and Congresswoman Moore for their great work on this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I join in supporting this bill to combat sex trafficking of children that are in the foster care system. When children come into foster care, they are at risk for exploitation because of the abuse and neglect that they have already suffered in their original family and because of the sense of isolation that they often feel when they have suddenly been removed from their home. Those who prey on children, especially sex traffickers, know this and they take advantage of these youth.

Children are removed from their home; they are bounced around from one place to another often; and then, in my State, when they reach 18, they are told they are on their own. That is a situation that invites, especially for young women, the dangerous sex trafficking in which they are exploited.

There is bipartisan support for this bill. It originated from a thoughtful hearing, with some very strong witnesses describing the problem. It is bipartisan. It is also a modest step forward. It is redirecting our welfare agencies, our child welfare agencies around the country, in what they do. I think that it will provide some modest help in saving lives.

It would do even more if, instead of just new requirements for these States, it were adding new resources. It adds very little in the way of resources, but I think it will be helpful in directing the attention of each of these agencies in the various States to focus on this very serious problem, to give us the data to make the argument to do more in the future.

Because so many of these young people will eventually age out of the system after having been moved around from one home to another, it is important that we help them be able to move into the workforce. In that regard, there was a problem with the bill when one particular provision was removed from the bill because it cost about a million dollars in additional administrative expenses and there was apparently no way found to cover that cost.

I believe that providing a young person who ages out at age 18 from the foster care system with a birth certificate and a Social Security card is a worthwhile thing to do. Chairman Reichert promised to work with us on this in committee. He has. That provision has fortunately been restored here in this bill. It has been restored, however, in a way that really borrows from another provision that is also important to our foster youth, and that is a provision called Family Connections.

The Family Connection grants program is designed to try to connect children with grandparents, with other family members to help in the search for relatives of the foster children who might provide them a home. It provides only about $15 million a year, which is hardly enough to cover the need across the entire United States to provide better connection. If this measure were fully adopted, there would no longer, under the Republican budget rules, be a way to pay for the Family Connections program, which is another vital way that we protect these foster youth.

The Children's Defense Fund, which does support the bill, wrote to us in committee to find a way to restore the provision that cost about a million dollars a year and pointed out that the same day that the committee would not provide a million dollars extra per year, it did find a way under the same budget rules to find not a million, but $310 billion to cover corporate tax breaks.

I believe that this measure is helpful. It is a good step forward. It is a modest

step forward that would have benefited from not taking from one in order to help the other when it comes to foster children. We need to be doing more for our foster youth, not only on sex trafficking, but in other ways, more than we are able to accomplish under the strict budget rules today. There is a real inconsistency in saying we cannot find additional revenues to pay for something as serious as this when we can afford to borrow up to $310 billion for various corporate tax breaks, the first of which has already been approved here in the House in our last week.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to our colleague from California (Ms. Bass), the chair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, who worked so diligently on this around the country.

I yield an additional minute to the gentlewoman from California.

Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), who has already spoken eloquently this afternoon about this problem in connection with another bill, to address the issues raised by this bill and the serious problem of sex trafficking.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), my colleague.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Reichert for his leadership on this measure.

In this place, we need to make what progress we can under the conditions that exist and make as much of it as possible. I hope that the Senate will respond to this measure. But in order to provide an effective response, we need to have the revenues to provide the resources along with the requirements to meet the needs of our foster youth.

A few weeks ago, I met with a number of attorneys in San Antonio who work with foster youth, particularly those who are aging out, as well as a number of community service groups, religious and nonreligious in their orientation. They describe immense problems that our foster youth face. When they age out at age 18, only about 2 percent of those young people in the San Antonio area ever end up in college.

Many of them do get a substantial taxpayer subsidy over their lives. Unfortunately, it is a subsidy in our jails and in our penal system after they are engaged in some harmful conduct.

This bill is one step that we can take to address the exploitation of these young people, particularly of young women. There are broader problems out there that need our attention, but I favor moving forward with the progress that we can make today to address this one critical problem.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership as chair of the committee.

Members, it is really easy and comfortable to think that human trafficking or sex trafficking only happens outside of the United States. The truth is that it is happening right here, in our own communities and right in our own backyards.

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to a girl named Dayanna. Dayanna tells me the story of how she is the oldest in a family of a single mother, with brothers and sisters, and her mother had no interest in caring or in giving her or her siblings love and attention.

So Dayanna is looking for love and attention, and she is seduced by a man who promises to treat her and to respect her the way she deserves. He even calls himself her boyfriend. At age 13, within days of running away, Dayanna finds herself in Philadelphia and in Chicago, being trafficked and separated from her family.

Sadly, this is happening to too many young girls in America, and I use the word ``girls'' for a reason. The majority of these victims are not old enough to have graduated from high school. They are not old enough to have voted in an election. They are not even old enough to have passed their drivers' tests because we are talking about 12- and 13- and 14-year-old girls.

Those most at risk of victimization are the vulnerable. They are lured under the false promise of better lives, and then they are forced into prostitution. These girls are victims, and they should be treated as victims, so that they come out of the shadows.

Right now, they fear coming out of the shadows because they view their traffickers as the only means of survival or they fear retribution. They don't feel they can trust law enforcement because most States say they should be incarcerated instead of being treated as victims.

One of the best ways to help these young girls is to remove the fear of prosecution and provide an avenue for them to escape and then to get the services they need, to get the counseling they need. That is what the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act does. It incentivizes States to adopt those safe harbor laws that have worked in other States.

This is not only the right thing to do to help these girls, but many in law enforcement will also tell you that treating them as victims makes them more likely to assist in investigations, resulting in longer sentences for the traffickers and the bad guys.

Now, while there are many issues that divide us here in Washington, this is an area in which there is agreement and in which there is bipartisan and bicameral work being done.

I really want to thank my colleague, Gwen Moore from Wisconsin, for her work on this legislation. I want to thank Louise Slaughter for her work on other legislation.

In the Senate, I want to thank Senator Klobuchar for helping move this legislation forward. I also want to commend all of the Members who are working on these five bills that we will be voting on later today.

Most importantly, I want to thank law enforcement and victims' advocates, who have worked with us to share their thoughts and to share their expertise.

This isn't a problem that is going to be solved by one group that is working alone. It is going to take all of us working together, learning from each other, coordinating efforts, and then coming together as a community.

This legislation, by the way, is endorsed by the National Fraternal Order of Police, by the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, and by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Madam Speaker, I would like to enter into the Record several letters of endorsement for this legislation.

National Fraternal Order of Police,

Washington, DC, 20 May 2014.

Hon. Erik Paulsen,

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Dear Representative Paulsen: I am writing on behalf of the

members of the Fraternal Order of Police to advise you of our

support for H.R. 3610, the ``Stop Exploitation Through

Trafficking Act.''

The bill, which was favorably reported by the Committee on

the Judiciary, would establish a national strategy for

combating human trafficking and encourage integration of

efforts among local, State, tribal and Federal agencies. The

legislation includes the appointment of at least one U.S.

Attorney in each district dedicated to this issue,

development of new strategies and district-specific plans as

well as other efforts to train and educate all levels of law

enforcement on human trafficking issues. This coordination

and cooperation is essential to fighting this problem.

The bill also establishes a grant program to create a

national hotline for victims of trafficking. The hotline will

enable law enforcement officers to direct the victims of

these crimes to a knowledgeable and compassionate service

provider, as well as a way for victims to get help before

coming into contact with law enforcement.

On behalf of the more than 330,000 members of the Fraternal

Order of Police, I want to thank you for your leadership on

this issue. We are proud to support this legislation. If I

can be of any additional assistance, please do not hesitate

to contact me or Executive Director Jim Pasco in my

Washington office.

Sincerely,

Chuck Canterbury,

National President.

Members, this is an opportunity to save lives and to give hope to thousands of sex trafficking victims in America. There is more work to be done, and in working together, we can put an end to the sex trafficking.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4058. I am proud to have worked with Chairman Reichert and have become an original cosponsor of the bill. I also want to acknowledge the leadership of Chairman Camp, as well as Ranking Members Doggett and Levin, to pass this important legislation, especially during National Foster Care Month.

As cochair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, I have traveled throughout the country as part of a national listening tour. It has been devastating to learn the children involved in the child welfare system, particularly those who experience multiple placements, are especially susceptible to coercion and manipulation by traffickers.

In Los Angeles, where I am from, the Probation Department reports that hundreds of young people, all minors, have been identified as victims of sex trafficking. Sixty-one percent have been identified as foster youth. The Los Angeles STAR Court, which specializes in serving commercially sexually exploited youth, reports an even higher percentage: 80 percent of the young people have been foster youth.

Unfortunately, the child welfare system as a whole has not truly recognized trafficking as a crisis within the foster youth population, nor incorporated protocols and systems to address the problem. Few child welfare employees have been adequately trained and prepared to identify or respond to child victims of trafficking. Fewer still have incorporated policies, protocols, and case management techniques to serve this population. Child welfare agencies are not documenting the prevalence of trafficking within the foster care population. Therefore, the scope of the challenge nationwide is unknown.

To address these gaps, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act requires States to develop plans to provide services to child victims of trafficking, as well as to train case workers on how to identify victims and coordinate these services. The bill would also ensure that agencies using existing data collection mechanisms provide a national and State-by-State understanding of the prevalence of this problem.

These are tremendous steps forward, and I look forward to continuing working with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to move legislation that will further prevent exploitation and protect foster youth and all children from trafficking.

It is also significant that this bill helps to empower foster youth by giving foster parents more authority to make day-to-day decisions regarding their foster child's participation in age-appropriate activities. Many foster youth can never attend a prom, can't participate on a sports team, can't go

to sleepovers--normal activities that all of our children do. The bill encourages States to more quickly move kids out of foster care and into permanent families, provide older children with a greater say in the development of their own case plans, and ensure that older foster youth have access to critical documents.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, as well as next week welcoming nearly 70 foster youth to the Hill for the third annual Foster Youth Shadow Day.