A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Safe Digging Month.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his incredible, principled work in so many areas, and I want to note his hard work on combating mandatory sentences. I feel that he is right in many ways. But because this crime is so out of control, I am strongly supporting my colleague and cochair, Representative Wagner's bill.

We cochair the caucus on antitrafficking in the women's caucus, and this bill is designed to stop the advertising of children for exploitation in sex trafficking. And we have tried over and over to stop it.

I will now place in the Record a letter that Marsha Blackburn and I wrote addressing the online promotion of human trafficking, meetings, and letters. It went nowhere.

Congress of the United States

Washington, DC., April 3, 2012.

Larry Page,

Chief Executive Officer, Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA.

Dear Mr. Page: As Members of Congress committed to

combating all forms of human trafficking, we write to you

with concerns about reports of Google's advertising

practices. Recently, dozens of human rights groups called on

the National Association of Attorneys General to investigate

Google's advertising practices that these groups believe

contribute to the problem of human trafficking in America and

globally.

Whatever Google is doing or is not doing to prevent these

sorts of advertisements from appearing on their properties,

Google has not satisfied a significant number of human

rights organizations who have a specialized understanding of

how these ads contribute to the human trafficking of women

and girls. We are particularly concerned that these human

rights groups may have identified yet another area where

Google profits from illicit activities such as Google's

advertising of controlled substances for which your company

paid a $500,000,000 forfeiture to the United States last

year.

Accordingly, we request that you provide us with answers to

the following initial questions we have regarding these

developments:

1. Apart from Google's donations to large human rights

organizations, what is your company doing internally to

ensure that sexually exploitative advertisements do not

appear?

2. What is Google's stated internal policy regarding

exploitative advertising? What evidence do you have that

those policies are being complied with by both Google's

internal and external advertising sales teams?

3. What steps does Google take to instruct its advertising

sales managers, consultants, and other employees regarding

the evaluation of advertisers of such exploitative marketing?

4. If Google were to determine that it profits from such

advertising, what steps would you take to ensure those

profits were publicly disclosed and then disgorged? Would

that process require restating Google's earnings for past

securities filings?

Online markets provide traffickers with the ability to

reach untold customers across all political jurisdictions. As

a global leader and innovator in internet technologies,

Google is in a unique position to do its part to fight human

exploitation and trafficking, and we would encourage the

company to proactively address these concerns.

We look forward to your reply and to engaging with Google

cooperatively to stop human trafficking in America and around

the world.

Sincerely,

Marsha Blackburn,

Member of Congress.

Carolyn Maloney,

Member of Congress.

I will now place in the Record a letter that Congressman Nadler and I wrote to Web sites of the media trying to stop them from promoting our children as sex objects. They are still doing it.

Maloney and Nadler Call On Village Voice Media To Shut Down Website

Frequented by Sex Traffickers--May 7, 2012

New York, NY.--U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-

NY) and Jerrold L. Nadler (D-NY) today sent a letter to

Village Voice Media, LLC expressing concerns about the

frequency with which that company's Backpage.com website is

used to advertise minors and trafficked persons and urging it

to shut down its notorious ``adult services'' section.

In a statement accompanying the release of the joint

letter, whose full text is included below, Congresswoman

Maloney said: ``Law enforcement authorities and anti-

trafficking advocates agree that the adult services section

of Village Voice's Backpage.com is the single busiest online

marketplace for the sexual trafficking of minors and

trafficking victims anywhere in the United States. It is high

time the Voice lived up to its reputation as a beacon of

progressivism, and shut down this cesspool.'' Rep. Maloney

serves as Co-Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Human

Trafficking Caucus, which works to educate people about the

reality of the trade in human lives and toward its

eradication.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler said, ``The Village Voice must

ensure that it is not in any way assisting in the horrific

business of sex trafficking. Clearly Backpage.com has not

done enough to prevent human trafficking on its site. They

should shut down their adult services page immediately,

before it is used by criminals to further promote human

trafficking.''

Background:

The sexual trafficking of minors, which is illegal under

federal and New York State law, is on the rise in the United

States and around the world, with most knowledgeable

estimates of the number of domestic under-age trafficking

victims in the tens of thousands. The U.S. Department of

Justice estimates the average age at which minors begin to be

exploited by sex traffickers is between the ages of 12 and 14

for girls and between the ages of 11 and 13 for boys.

The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act

of 2008 established criminal penalties for those found guilty

of acting with ``reckless disregard'' for the sexual

exploitation of minors. In New York City alone, the District

Attorneys of Kings, Queens and Manhattan have all pressed

charges against alleged traffickers who used Backpage.com to

market sex to potential johns.

Nineteen United States Senators and 51 Attorneys General

have joined the growing chorus of calls from non-profit

advocates and organizations urging Village Voice Media to

remove the adult services section from Backpage.com. On April

25, 2012, S. Res. 439 was introduced expressing the sense of

the Senate that Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC should

eliminate the ``adult entertainment'' section of the

classified advertising website Backpage.com. A New York City

Council hearing on human trafficking held last month included

pointed questioning from several Council Members to

representatives of Backpage.com, as well as testimony from

local district attorneys about the use of the website by a

large proportion of the traffickers they have prosecuted.

Text of Letter from Representatives Maloney and Nadler to

Village Voice Media, LLC.

I don't know how to do it unless we have a concrete law. And this law is not without precedent. Congress has passed laws to criminalize the advertising of illegal goods. They have passed laws to criminalize the advertising of child pornography, of weapons of mass destruction, and of narcotics. Surely, we can pass a law that criminalizes selling children as sex objects. We have tried meetings, we have tried letters, we have tried sanctions, and we have tried press. We have tried everything. I don't know how we stop it unless we pass a law that says it is illegal.

I want to tell a story. I first got involved in combating sex trafficking because a company in my district called Big Apple Tours was advertising online, publishing pamphlets of going to Thailand, to the Philippines or upstate New York with pictures of children. You can have as many as you want. I wrote a letter complaining. This is how brazen they were. They took my letter and put it on the Internet along with their advertising and made fun of it. Why is she complaining about the parties we are having?

So it has been out of control, and this is a step towards bringing it into control. The attorney general of New York went after them and took down their site. It no longer is up. But it shows how brazen these exploiters are. And it is big business. It is the third most profitable form of organized crime in our Nation preceded only by the selling of narcotics and the selling of illegal guns. But the selling of the human body can happen again and again until the person is sick and dies. You sell a gun once, and you sell a drug once. You can sell a young child over and over again.

We really have to do everything we can to stop it. This act adds advertising to the types of conduct that constitutes sex trafficking. It is common sense that if they are advertising the selling of a young child, it is sex trafficking. And we can stop it. This is something we can do that will literally save lives.

The FBI ranks this type of rape as preceded only by murder in terms of the destruction of what it does to an individual, and often the inability of that individual to live a normal life afterwards. It is a horrific crime, the 21st century form of slavery. I can't think of anything more abusive. And it is what is happening now in Nigeria to those young women.

It is happening right here in our backyard. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the women's caucus have heard testimony of foster children--of American children--that have been captured, tricked, and drugged. We heard a story on the floor today of a constituent's child, a child in his neighborhood, that was exploited.

By passing this bill, we can stop this advertising. We can cut off this form of exploitation and this abuse. I think that it is an important bill, and I am supporting it with reservation on the mandatory sentencing, which I hope will be cut out in the Senate, but it is important that we take steps to prevent it.

If we pass laws to stop the advertising of child pornography, we can certainly pass a law that stops the selling of a child in sex abuse.

I could go on all day. My time is expired. I thank the gentleman for his leadership. I know that many others want to speak on this important issue.

I congratulate Congresswoman Wagner on her persistence on this bill, and I am proud to support her.

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

Madam Speaker, while I support the bipartisan efforts we are taking today with several bills to enhance our effort to prevent, investigate, and prosecute acts of sex trafficking, I must raise serious concerns about H.R. 4225, the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act of 2014, which I cannot support in its present form.

To be sure, the bill has the laudable goal of prosecuting those who knowingly facilitate sex trafficking by advertising certain prohibited sex acts. However, I must object to the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions which this new offense would trigger under existing statutes.

Under the sex trafficking statute, as amended by this bill, a conviction for advertising of sex trafficking would result in a mandatory penalty of 10 or 15 years of imprisonment, depending on the age of the victim and other circumstances of the crime.

While the acts prohibited by the legislation will usually warrant such long sentences, mandatory minimum sentences are the wrong way to determine punishment under this or any other criminal statute.

Regardless of the nature or the circumstances surrounding the offense, the role of the offender in the particular crime or the history or characteristics of the offender, H.R. 4225 will require a judge to impose a 10- or 15-year sentence.

Even if everyone in the case, from the arresting officer, the prosecutor, the judge, even the victim believes that the mandatory minimum would be an unjust sentence for a particular defendant in a case, this bill still requires the sentence to be imposed.

The imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence is particularly troublesome when one considers the possible scope of defendants who could be prosecuted under this bill.

Notably, the prohibition on advertising does not only apply to the sex trafficker who places the ad, but also applies to individuals and entities who facilitate or have a minor role in publishing the ad, such as someone who works for an Internet Web site which is involved.

Those who are employed by a venture that benefits financially from the ad, but whose role in the organization does not place them in the chain of command with respect to acceptance or publishing the illegal ads could therefore be prosecuted under the bill.

Specifically, there may be circumstances in which all of the employees of a communications company, including receptionists or computer maintenance workers, know that the venture publishes such advertising, but chose to look the other way.

They should be held liable under the provisions of this bill, but many of them would certainly not warrant a mandatory sentence, in certain circumstances, of 15 years, not all of them.

During the Judiciary Committee's markup of the bill, I offered an amendment to remove the application of the mandatory minimum provisions of this new bill and, instead, allow a judge to apply an appropriate sentence under the circumstances of the case, up to a statutory maximum of life imprisonment.

Given the complicated nature of the Internet communications networks and other forms of advertising which would be affected by this bill, the role of the judge in evaluating each case is particularly important. While long sentences may be appropriate under the facts of a particular case, Congress cannot know the facts of every case in advance.

Removing mandatory minimums, while still permitting the lengthy statutory maximum penalty of life imprisonment, as my amendment would have done, will provide the appropriate spectrum of sentences for culpability and proportionate punishment.

Mandatory minimum penalties are already a major issue of concern for our criminal justice system, and we should not make matters worse by passing a new one with this bill. Studies of mandatory minimums have concluded that they fail to reduce crime, they waste the taxpayers' money, and they often require judges to impose sentences that simply violate common sense.

Therefore, I am pleased that the Judiciary Committee's bipartisan Over-Criminalization Task Force is working diligently to assess our Federal criminal code and make recommendations for improvements. The penalties, including mandatory minimums, in the Federal code are among the issues the task force will consider. And while these issues are under review, we should not be passing new mandatory minimum sentences. In fact, if we ever expect to eliminate mandatory minimums from the code, we must first stop passing new ones.

Now, mandatory minimums did not get into the code all at once but one at a time, each in a bill that otherwise made good sense. So if we are going to stop increasing the number of mandatory minimums, we must oppose bills that contain them.

So while I strongly support the efforts to do more to combat the serious problem of sex trafficking by taking steps such as strengthening our laws and providing additional resources for law enforcement and victims, I must, unfortunately, oppose this bill in its current form because it creates new mandatory minimums which can be expected to require a judge in the future to impose a sentence that violates common sense.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster).

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney).

I yield the gentlelady an additional 1 minute.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, mandatory minimums have resulted in bizarre sentences being imposed today. Girlfriends of drug dealers are serving decades behind bars because their sentences were based on the weight of the drugs involved in their boyfriend's drug dealings. Many other people are serving times clearly longer than required because of mandatory minimums.

Under this bill, if a Web site is raided, this bill could require the judge to impose 15-year sentences on each and every employee, from the receptionist to computer maintenance personnel, no discretion, no consideration of an individual's role in the enterprise, everybody gets 15 years.

So if a sentence violates common sense, mandatory minimums require the judge to impose it any way, so if we are ever going to try to address the problems created by mandatory minimums, we have to stop passing bills like this one that can require sentences of at least 10- 15 years, regardless of the facts in an individual case, even when the bill is otherwise worthy.

This is how so many mandatory minimums got into the code to begin with, one by one, each one in an otherwise worthy bill. The only way to begin to put an end to mandatory minimums is to stop passing new ones.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman from Virginia, Chairman Goodlatte, for his wonderful leadership on this issue and so many others.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4225, the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation, SAVE, Act. But, Madam Speaker, I also rise today in support of all the good work done by my colleagues here in Congress on the issue of human trafficking.

Madam Speaker, as a former United States Ambassador, I was exposed firsthand to the horrors of human trafficking on an international level. I reported on the devastating consequences of human trafficking, where innocent women and children were dragged into the dark abyss of sex slavery. But never in my darkest moments did I ever think that human trafficking was so rampant right here in the United States of America.

Madam Speaker, the faces behind me are photographs of actual victims of sex trafficking. These young women and children were forced into sexual slavery by ruthless traffickers. Madam Speaker, right now there are young women being forced into prostitution in virtually every district across the Nation. In fact, I was shocked to learn that my own hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, has been identified as one of the top 20 areas for sex trafficking in the United States.

Madam Speaker, this problem is hiding, hiding in plain sight. However, there is hope. I take hope from the work done by the law enforcement professionals who are on the front lines every single day, protecting our Nation's children from those who would seek to exploit them; I take hope from those who work in victims' services and their tireless efforts to help survivors recover, heal, and forge new lives out of the horrors of sexual enslavement; but most importantly, I take hope from all the survivors of this hideous crime. Their strength gives us strength; their resolve gives us inspiration; and their steadfast commitment to ending sex trafficking gives us the courage to fight.

Madam Speaker, because of the efforts of many individuals and groups, I am happy to report that Congress has taken notice of this serious problem. Years of work by Representatives Smith, Poe, and Paulsen, and my cochair of the Human Trafficking Task Force, Congresswoman Maloney, among the so many others who have raised awareness of this issue, have laid the foundation for the long overdue action for Congress that they are presently taking.

I am grateful that many of my colleagues have held events in their home districts to raise awareness and education of this crime. Representatives Davis, Hudson, Roskam, Coffman, Huizenga, and Heck, along with so very many others, have all held human trafficking events in their districts to raise awareness and offer solutions to end sexual assault and human trafficking. I applaud these efforts and look forward to continuing this work for years to come.

However, Madam Speaker, there is much work to be done. As legislators, we have an obligation to come together and do something because we can, because we should, and because we must.

Over the last 10 years, prostitution has slowly but persistently migrated to an online marketplace. Classified services, like backpage.com and others, are the vehicles for advertising the victims of the child sex trade to the world. Pimps and traffickers blatantly advertise their victims' sexual services, with provocative photographs and unsubtle messages, complete with per-hour pricing. The traffickers pay Web sites like Backpage to display their messages. These Web sites reportedly reap enormous profits at the expense of the victims of sex trafficking. Revenue from U.S. online prostitution advertising totaled $45 million just in the year 2013. Many of these ads feature children and trafficking victims. This results in thousands of children every year being openly sold for sex on the Internet.

Madam Speaker, government intervention is necessary to end facilitation of sex trafficking by Web sites like Backpage and others who commercially advertise this criminal activity. Companies that base their business models off of the profits made by selling sex with children should not be allowed to operate. The SAVE Act seeks

to criminalize this behavior, thereby dramatically reducing the victimization of vulnerable children and women forced into sexual slavery in the U.S.

The protections included in the SAVE Act apply to two classes of victims: underage children and those who are being forced to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. The offense created by the SAVE Act applies to any form of advertisement. Online postings, newspaper classifieds, even billboards would be considered unlawful if the advertiser knew it would lead to sex trafficking.

Madam Speaker, there is well-established precedent for Congress to criminalize the advertising of illegal goods or services, including the advertisement of child pornography, weapons of mass destruction, illegal narcotics, and animal fighting. Surely--surely--advertisements offering sex with children should also be subject to the same restrictions. The penalties are 15 years to life if the victim, the child victim, is younger than 14 years old, 10 years to life if the child victim is 14 to 18 years old.

The advertisement of victims is the key link in the human trafficking chain. Businesses make millions of dollars every month connecting johns with pimps and their victims. This link needs to be broken. Criminalizing the advertisement of trafficking victims will stem the flow of money, resulting in a reduction of both demand and supply.

The victims of sex trafficking are not nameless, faceless children. They are our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and neighbors. They are the vulnerable youth of our society, the ones who should be protected the most, not exploited for money and greed.

I urge my colleagues to support the SAVE Act because it will provide the tools necessary for law enforcement to combat the sexual exploitation and enslavement of women and children in the United States.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4225) to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a penalty for knowingly selling advertising that offers certain commercial sex acts, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 4225, currently under consideration.

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

Unfortunately, while the growth of the Internet and smartphones has proved to be of great value in many aspects of our lives, it has also been used by criminals to facilitate the commercial exploitation of children and other victims by providing an easy way for pimps or traffickers to market minor sex trafficking victims to potential purchasers who seek to do them harm.

With the click of a button, individuals can now use Web sites to advertise, schedule, and purchase sexual encounters with minors, just like they would use these services to rent a car or order a pizza.

The SAVE Act, introduced by Congresswoman Wagner from Missouri, makes a technical correction to an existing Federal sex trafficking statute, 18 U.S.C., section 1591, to make clear that the law extends to traffickers who knowingly sell sex with minors and victims of force, fraud, or coercion through advertising, as well as to people or entities that knowingly benefit from the sale or distribution of such advertising.

While much of the growth in this terrible crime is on the Internet, this bill is technology-neutral and applies to all advertising of children for sex, regardless of the medium.

It is important to note that the bill clarifies the liability for the people or traffickers who place these ads, as well as the people and entities that knowingly profit from them.

It is also important to note that these advertisements, as with all ads and other speech promoting illegal activity, are not protected speech under the First Amendment.

Furthermore, in order to bring a case against a trafficker under this legislation, the government must prove that the defendant knew they were advertising and knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that the ad involved a minor or someone involved through force, fraud, or coercion.

However, this legislation raises the bar even higher for defendants who, while not directly placing the ads, do knowingly benefit from the placement of advertising. Specifically, the bill requires the government to show that these defendants knew the advertisement involved a minor or a coerced adult. Reckless disregard is not sufficient.

H.R. 4225 clarifies that people who advertise sex trafficking can face criminal liability. Under current law, there is the additional possibility of civil liability for defendants who violate the primary sex trafficking statute codified at section 1591.

However, under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, online publishers of third-party advertisements are generally immune from civil liability for such advertisements. H.R. 4225 does nothing to disrupt or modify the immunity already provided by section 230.

While this legislation will help put more child traffickers in jail where they belong, this is not a precedent-setting bill. Congress has regulated advertisements, including online advertisements, many times.

There are hundreds of references to advertising or advertisements in the Federal code, including in criminal provisions. Congress has even explicitly criminalized advertising on the Internet.

Just last year, in a bill cosponsored by 127 bipartisan Members of Congress, Congress amended the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a crime to ``advertise for sale'' certain fraudulent military medals.

During consideration of that bill, which passed the House by a vote of 390-3 and was signed into law, no Member raised a concern about the propriety of criminal advertising. Surely, saving young children from these horrors is no less deserving than fraudulent medals.

This legislation simply clarifies and modernizes Federal criminal law to keep pace with the evolving trend of exploiting the Internet for criminal gains. The bill has support from more than 90 bipartisan cosponsors and was reported out of the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 24-3.

I want to commend our colleague, Congresswoman Wagner, for bringing forth this important legislation.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner), the chief sponsor of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis).

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

Madam Speaker, at this time, it is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Ellmers).

Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).

Madam Speaker, at this time, it is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Herrera Beutler).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry).

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

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) to close the debate for our side of the aisle.

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

I thank the gentleman very much.

Again, this is a historic day, Madam Speaker, and it is a day, tragically, when we wish we had been able to stamp out this dastardly act, if you will, collective act of trafficking of our children, the advertising and the sheer slavery of it all, holding people against their will, using them over and over again.

I, too, have had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation of ones who have been trafficked and then ultimately feel that their life's career can only be in prostitution. These may be adults, but they started being abused

and exploited as children. Just about a year or 2 ago, we had Attorney General Holder in my district, with all of those who were gathered around the issue of trafficking, human slavery, and had a meeting in the district, and the outpouring of the crisis was enormously overwhelming.

This morning in a markup in the Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee, of which I am the ranking member, Madam Miller is the chairwoman, we discussed unaccompanied minors coming across the border, victims-to-be, if you will, 60,000 coming across our border, children who are unaccompanied who are clearly potentially victims in this horrible human trafficking.

So I am a cosponsor of the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act and am well aware of the heinousness of depicting and advertising for these sex acts with children under 14 and those over 14. And I know for a fact that this is the beginning of the end of many of their lives. We know that there are ultimate acts that are so terrible that a child cannot overcome, that the sexual acts that are being advertised, in whatever means, are life-ending in many instances. And so the idea of making this the kind of crime that shows the concern of the American public is important.

I would also say to you that I am one that is concerned about mandatory minimums, and I hope that as we make our way through, there will be further discussions of this legislation. But at this time I stand in support of it. I have always said that the weakness on the mandatory minimums for me is when you involve undermining, destroying, killing, using in an abusive sexual manner, trafficking, and holding against their will children. They are vulnerable. They are without the resources to help themselves. And let me say this. Many runaways in this country fall victim to this. Many unaccompanied children that come across the border fall victim to this. Many children who are in conditions where they do not have a family structure fall victim to this. But they fall victim to this because there are so many who will exploit.

I thank the gentleman again for his leadership.

But there are many who exploit, continue to exploit from the comfort of their home. How terrible it is to go into workplaces and find that individuals are using their computers to engage in this. How horrible it is to go into homes and find computers filled with this kind of trash, and how horrible it is to see that people will profit from the advertising and the selling of commercial acts in whatever way they do.

So I would thank the sponsors of this legislation and recognize that we have opportunities to look at how we construct this kind of remedy for these tragic and horrible acts that ultimately result in the death of our children, either at their own hand, tragically, or by those who would abuse them through commercial sex acts. This should be something that we should stamp out of our society, out of our system, and out of this Nation. We need to begin to do it as we make our way through these bills today.

Madam Speaker, this bill, of which I am a cosponsor, the SAVE Act, has a commendable purpose and I am convinced that it will help in our efforts to end exploitation of children.

H.R. 4225, the ``Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act of 2014,'' amends title 18 of the United States Code to impose a criminal penalty for knowingly selling advertising that offers certain commercial sex acts.

Specifically, it provides for criminal liability for the advertisements of commercial sex acts that are prohibited under existing 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1591 if the advertiser either: (a) benefits financially or receives anything of value from that advertising, or (b) distributes the advertising.

It provides for a statutory maximum of five years' imprisonment or a fine. It does not mandate a statutory minimum sentence or fine.

And while I strongly agree with the purpose of the bill--I do wish it had gone through regular order in the Judiciary Committee on which I serve.

It is critically important that the bill allows those who might have concerns because of certain unintended consequences to voice those issues before the full committee.

My wish is that going forward; we would assume regular order in the Judiciary Committee and yield to the conventions which have made our Committee a force and one with prestige and honor throughout its history.

I ask my colleagues to support this important legislation which helps end exploitation of our precious children.