End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2219) to increase the role of the financial industry in combating human trafficking, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material on this bill in the Record.

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

Mr. Speaker, this legislation is on human trafficking, which, put another way, is modern-day slavery. It continues to devastate the lives of millions of people; and whether we are talking about trafficking, labor trafficking, which is indentured servitude or, basically, slavery, or whether we are talking about underage children that are frequently trafficked for sexual exploitation by these criminal syndicates, the results are the same.

The results to these broken lives, due to these perpetrators of these disgusting acts who prey on these vulnerable and defenseless people, leave in their wake the broken lives of these children and of those who are trafficked for labor.

These are not faraway crimes, as the Members here know from their own districts. These are crimes in the United States; and if you go to Los Angeles and ask the District Attorney, or you ask the District Attorney in Orange County, what is the average age that children are trafficked into these brothels or into these syndicates, they will tell you the average age now is 14.

When you ask them why, they will tell you because a 14-year-old or 15-year-old is much less likely to put up resistance once she has been kidnapped or enticed by some Romeo into this kind of conduct.

I think of the survivors when I think about this, the ones that many of us have met who share their stories with us, and I think of Angela Guanzon. She was labor-trafficked, working in an abusive workplace day- in, day-out, 16 hours, 18 hours, never seeing the light of day, sleeping on the hallway floor. Survivors have taught me that the horror of trafficking lies not in the statistics that we talk about here, but in the stolen lives of these people.

Why is this so common? How can it be that we have so many instances of this?

It is common because it is profitable and because these people, these children and others who are trafficked, have very little resistance. That is why.

The International Labor Organization estimates that it is a $150 billion business in illegal profit made from forced labor each year, making human trafficking the third most valuable criminal enterprise in the world.

And guess what? If your gang is involved in this instead of in drug crimes, they are much less likely to experience violence themselves because their victims cannot really fight back. They are in a line of work where they can lord their violence over their victims.

Traffickers are laundering their money through financial institutions that they can access with the click of a keyboard; and cutting off their access to the banking system is critical to putting an end to these illegal operations once and for all.

The End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018 will help law enforcement and financial institutions identify and report suspected human traffickers so that they can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

In California, by the way, we had, a few years ago, put a new law on the books that allows us, if we can catch them, to put them away for over 20 years.

I want to thank my colleagues on the Financial Services Committee, especially Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Maxine Waters, for their important contributions to this legislation.

This legislation will not only bolster our efforts to combat human traffickers' use of our domestic financial institutions, but it is going to encourage other countries to cut off traffickers from their global financial system.

This bill is going to update the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report to require a country-by-country assessment of whether foreign governments have a framework in place to prevent financial transactions involving the proceeds of severe forms of human trafficking.

Now, these annual reports, as we know, which the State Department uses to rank countries' efforts to combat trafficking, are taken very seriously in foreign capitals. They have helped to reinforce global norms of responsible behavior.

I say that because when we first introduced this some years ago, we have seen 120 governments now enact national anti-trafficking laws in order to try to comply with the reports that we do through our audits through our State Department in these other countries. They do not want to be shamed. When we name them, we shame them, and so we get compliance. This will assist on that as well. It is a critical first step for enforcement.

So, as the center of the global financial system and the leading country in terms of combating human trafficking in the world, the United States must take all possible steps to address this crime and, for this reason, this bill, H.R. 2219, deserves our unanimous support.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

I would just begin here by recognizing Representative Bill Keating, who brings to this issue--I just want to acknowledge this. We don't have that many District Attorneys, former District Attorneys in this body who have the experience of law enforcement in terms of dealing with the types of criminals that go into this line of work, and he brings that expertise and has assisted greatly in this. I just wanted to acknowledge that before the body today.

I acknowledge also the contribution of Congressman Chris Smith, who, I think it was in 2000, as I recall, originally brought before us this very idea of how to combat human trafficking internationally. He has worked on many, many issues, the International Megan's Law, and many others.

But this idea of how we could hold governments around the world to account, this idea of the TIP Report, and then, on top of it, the enforcement, so that it meant something; the idea that he would get on a plane and go and make certain that our consulates and our embassies overseas were carrying out that audit, and that the victims had someone to explain this to; that NGOs had someone to talk to about what was going on in-country, so that, country by country by country, he could identify situations where underaged children were being trafficked or being exploited.

I just wanted to acknowledge that the gentleman has really been dogged all of these years in moving this issue, and thank him again for what he has done for humanity, frankly.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

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

Mr. Speaker, with Chairman Smith present, I want to speak on the legislation which he previously brought up, the legislation prior to this bill. I want to join him--I am a cosponsor of his legislation--in support of H. Res. 128.

He and Karen Bass and other Members have worked together as cosponsors of this legislation, and I want to say the Ethiopians are a very proud people. They have a very rich heritage and a very rich history.

Ethiopia is a very important partner for the United States. It has asserted regional influence through rapid economic growth, as we know, and strong cooperation with us on our security initiatives in the region. It has that commitment that it constantly shows towards combating radical jihadist extremism, and it has made notable strides to address domestic challenges of health and child survival and food security.

We have both made trips out there to see that progress, and we celebrate these accomplishments. Ethiopia has come a long way from the devastating famines of the 1980s, and it has achieved much of the benchmarks. Most of the benchmarks that the Millennium Development Goals have set out for it to date have been met.

This resolution recognizes the need to continue a close partnership between the United States and Ethiopia to continue that momentum. But it is because of these important bilateral ties that we must ensure that Ethiopia is respecting good governance and democratic values.

Deeply ingrained ethnic divisions, marginalization, and years of conflict provide unique governance challenges for the country. Advancing democratic values is never easy, but they are the best way to further Ethiopia's progress and to further our robust bilateral relationship.

Reports of widespread human rights abuses and crackdowns on freedom of expression and excessive force against peaceful protestors are unacceptable.

The Government of Ethiopia has released thousands of political prisoners in the last few months, and this is a welcome development. However, the recently reimposed state of emergency criminalizes peaceful assembly and allows state security forces to arrest citizens without charge. This state of emergency must be lifted immediately, which is what this resolution also calls for.

The United States must hold the Government of Ethiopia accountable to the peaceful voices of their citizens, while allowing for inclusive political participation and respecting human rights and freedom of expression.

All parties must come to the table in order to advance democratic principles and chart the course for a prosperous, inclusive, and peaceful Ethiopia; otherwise, stability and economic progress will suffer over the long term.

There is cause for hope, and I commend Dr. Abiy Ahmed for his recent appointment as Prime Minister. I am so encouraged by his call for increased political competition and in defense of fundamental human rights. We hope that, under his leadership, the government will enact meaningful political and social reforms.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank my colleague Representative Coffman for his work on this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, returning to the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act, I want to again thank my colleagues, the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Engel, Chairman Hensarling, Ranking Member Waters of the Financial Services Committee, and, of course, Bill Keating for their support of this important legislation. And I thank Mr. Chris Smith again.

I have seen some real reasons for hope that I think, when we are talking about a topic that is this grim, it is good to remind ourselves of how awareness can lead to coordinated action and how that, then, can lead to freeing people from this bondage, especially freeing children from this bondage.

In southern California, we have had great involvement from concerned citizens, certainly from our NGO community, the local law enforcement. I have a trafficking task force that I put together some years ago to bring all of these forces together and work also with victims-- survivors, as they refer to themselves--working together to drive these forms of exploitation out of our community; and I have seen some of the effectiveness, especially last October, with the good work of the FBI shutting down, across this Nation, so many of these rings.

But if we are going to be successful in ending this horrific trade, not just here but worldwide, we have got to cut traffickers off from the financial system. These criminals are laundering profits through that financial system far too easily. This bill will help end that easy access, and it is certainly going to strengthen the tools for law enforcement to fight these crimes against human dignity.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this measure. As an original cosponsor of the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018, I would like to first thank my coauthors, Chairman Royce, Representative Maloney, and Representative Love. I am proud of our bipartisan work on this important issue.

This issue represents actions that are abhorrent, coercive, actions that constitute modern-day slavery. They also are sustained because they are among the most lucrative criminal activities we have in the world right now.

This is ranked as the third most lucrative international crime in the world. And it is a unique one in the sense that, unlike drugs, where they will market their poison to individuals and they will be ingested and consumed and that ends the transaction, tragically, you see, time and time again, that these young women, many of them children, over and over again are used by these financial purveyors of criminality in their actions to redundantly gain profits at the expense of destroying and taking away years of innocent lives.

This legislation is a testament to how important our bipartisan collaboration is here in the House, as well as among our colleagues in the Senate. When we have the opportunity to work together, we take meaningful action to address real harms being suffered by

innocent people here and around the world. And this is, indeed, not only an international issue where we need cooperation, but it is a domestic issue as well.

In 2012, the International Labor Organization estimated that there were 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. In the United States alone, over 8,500 human trafficking cases were reported just last year, and those are cases where the investigation was fruitful and the prosecution commenced, an understatement by multiple effects of what the actual incidence of this crime is.

While there are current laws to combat the practice of human trafficking by criminalizing perpetrators and providing support for victims, the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018 works to dismantle the economic framework that enables it and sustains it. It empowers the Secretary of the Treasury with the ability to assist and directly get involved to a greater extent with all the other agencies involved. I know, from my own experience, that the importance of that coordination will more easily lead to good cases and more effective prosecutions and bringing people to justice.

I come at this issue from many perspectives; one of them being my position, as with Chairman Royce, on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where we look at the international factor that we are trying to work cooperatively throughout the world and here at home to better prosecute, better bring to justice.

I also represent the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence in the Homeland Security Committee, and it is important to note that this criminal enterprise is one of the most prominent ways that terrorists fund themselves.

While we have had effect trying to eliminate the caliphate and the taxing that goes with that, we have seen terrorists lose those opportunities to raise money. However, what we have seen is them move even further into other areas to sustain their terrorist activity; and primary among them is the use of human trafficking and the funding for their terrorist activity through that criminal enterprise.

Another way I have come to view this is as a former District Attorney myself. I worked with the regional task force in the Boston region in Massachusetts to try and work to coordinate activities to seek out, to investigate, and ultimately prosecute human trafficking.

There is one thing I did know through my term as a District Attorney and looking at this issue as well, more specifically: If we are going to be effective, one of the best tools we have in terms of investigating, seeking out this activity, and bringing it to justice, is to follow the money, and that is what this act does. It follows the money. It uses the economic tools we have here, through the Secretary of the Treasury, among many other assets we have in this country, and it seeks out and will find out, from the money laundering standpoint, just who is involved, where this is occurring, and how we can attack it.

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry. Its perpetrators rely on banking and financial systems to fund and profit their crimes against innocent men, women, and children, and this bill will strengthen our work to target, prosecute, and to bring to justice those who reap financial rewards from this abhorrent criminal practice.

This Congress, the House passed a number of important bills dealing with anti-trafficking measures. This is one of the most important, and it strikes it at its heart, where we can find out where this is occurring, where we can investigate further everyone that is involved in this. It is not just limited to the people that we find in the initial investigations with these reports, we will be better able to bring everyone involved in this activity to justice.

So let's continue this momentum by passing the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, first off, I would like to say, as the chairman mentioned in the previous resolution that we discussed, Mr. Royce is leaving us at the end of this term, and I would like to thank him for the real bipartisan effort we have shown--Mr. Smith typifies that as well--on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

This is an important committee that has broad responsibilities, as this bill indicates; and, in a Congress where, too often, there are divides and bitterness, that committee stands out as a committee of members who work together, who accomplish solutions to very complex international problems that affect us here at home. I know, going forward, I believe very strongly, we are going to have an even larger role in issues to come.

Mr. Speaker, modern-day slavery destroys the lives of far too many innocent people. Today, in 2018, this should no longer be a topic of discussion, yet it is becoming increasingly more problematic.

The solutions are within reach, and that requires coordination and cooperation. This bill does both. We have the information; we have the expertise; now we must act decisively to put the best tools in the right hands to end this injustice once and for all. And by focusing on the financial mechanism that enables this and sustains this, we will be best able to combat it, not just in seeking it out and destroying it, but making sure, in a comprehensive way, we deal with all those wrongdoers that are involved, not just a few at the bottom rung of the ladder.

This bill will give the right people around the table the opportunity to better equip themselves to combat human trafficking and break down the financing that supports and enables this heinous crime.

Mr. Speaker, I again thank my coauthors for their efforts, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, today the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a markup of very important pieces of legislation. I wish to commend Chairman Royce and the Ranking Member for the bipartisan approach to advancing a number of important measures.

Briefly, I want to comment on the Chairman's H.R. 2219 on increasing the role of the financial industry in combatting human trafficking.

This bill will force an appraisal of best practices to stop the flow of funds from human trafficking and integrate the Treasury Department into a whole-of-government effort to combat the scourge of human trafficking. In this regard, it echoes provisions in H.R. 2200, which passed the House earlier this year.

Wisely, it takes a ``follow the money'' approach, and asks the question, why do traffickers traffic? Because that is where the money is. Unlike hard to transport drugs, which are sold only once to end users and then consumed--human traffickers cynically see people as a commodity which can be bought and sold, used and exploited, over and over again. This will help staunch the flow of funds from such exploitation, and thereby disincentivize those whose greed drives them to reduce their fellow human beings as a means to an end.

Last week our subcommittee held a hearing on Advancing Human Rights to Combat Extremism. One of the takeaways underscored the need on supporting key allies in the Muslim world who bravely stand up against the extremists. In this fight, we have no more important an ally than Jordan. I, therefore, strongly support the Chairman's ``United States- Jordan Defense Cooperation Extension Act.''

The War Crimes Rewards Expansion Act, an amendment to the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956, is yet another effort to provide for the means to punish those who engage in genocide or war crimes. Since we continue to see such crimes committed in countries such as Syria, Iraq and the Central African Republic, we must continue our efforts to apply justice to those who so heartlessly take the lives of entire groups of people.

While there is an International Criminal Court, and regional tribunals have been established to punish these criminals in countries such as Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, these criminals too often manage to escape punishment. Russia or China often block our efforts to engage the ICC, and even when the court is empowered to move forward, very little is accomplished.

That was why I introduced the concurrent resolution in the last Congress to create a special court for Syria. Unfortunately, while the House overwhelmingly passed that measure, the Senate declined to consider it.

Nevertheless, we must continue to press forward with efforts to make it easier to bring perpetrators of genocide and war crimes to trial-- both to bring justice for their victims and as a warning to others that their actions don't provide for impunity. That is why I support Representative Foxx's bill.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me thank Chairman Royce for his very kind remarks. I want to thank him for his extraordinary leadership on combating human trafficking for so many years.

This bill is just another example of that ironclad commitment to the victims and to trying to bring to justice the perpetrators of this offensive and really abject cruelty perpetrated by human traffickers.

H.R. 2219, authored by Chairman Royce and, of course, joined by Mr. Keating, Mrs. Maloney, and Mrs. Love as original cosponsors of the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018, will make an enormous difference when enacted into law. It recognizes the very important role the Secretary of the Treasury has to play in the detection and eradication of human trafficking, and it ensures that the Secretary is included in the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking.

As we all know, Mr. Speaker, profits drive human trafficking. Profits drive human traffickers to do unspeakable harm to their fellow human beings. Trafficking victims suffer unspeakable cruelty that scars, if they are rescued and are the lucky ones who are rescued, scars that they carry on for the entirety of their life.

This bill goes after the traffickers' profits by turning the Treasury's watchful eye on the traffickers' system for moving and hiding money. The Royce bill will ensure that those working at the Treasury's anti-money laundering and terrorist financing units are ready, willing, and able and empowered legally to detect signs that money may by tied to traffickers and to report their findings to law enforcement.

The bill asks the Secretary of the Treasury to review the Department's systems and tell Congress if any additional legislative changes are needed so that the Department can be effective in the fight against human trafficking.

Finally, the bill adds, as the chairman pointed out in his opening comments, to the minimum standards to combat human trafficking by which we evaluate every country in the world, including our own, whether a government is keeping a watchful eye on financial transactions, putting the issue on the map for countries that have never thought about it and may be unwittingly providing financial cover to the traffickers.

This bill will reduce profits of the traffickers and, again, will set an example for other countries of the world to follow.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud Chairman Royce for his bill and hope this body will strongly support it.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present for the vote on H.R. 2219, the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018 (Roll no. 130), which would increase the role of the financial industry in combating human trafficking, I would have voted ``aye.''

Additionally, had I been present for the vote on H.R. 4203, the Combat Online Predators Act (Roll no. 131), which would amend title 18 of United States Code with regard to stalking, I would have voted ``aye.''

Finally, had I been present for the vote on approving the Journal (Roll no. 132), I would have voted ``aye.''