Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia.

Mr. President, I know there is a lot of competition for the time right now, and I feel badly that I finally got to the point where, in order to get the message out--it is a message many people think is not significant, but I assure you that this is of grave importance not just to a country but to the entire continent of Africa.

The House of Representatives, just last week, passed H. Res. 128 to chastise one of our closest allies on the African continent, Ethiopia. Although the legislation claims to support Ethiopia, the reality is that the resolution is outdated. It was written years ago and was blindly passed without consideration for the current situation in Ethiopia. It was also passed under a voice vote so that no one member of Congress would have to carry the stigma of being on the record voting for it.

I know the House passed it because most of them have never been to Ethiopia and don't really know the miracle we have seen in that country. I know the transformation Ethiopia has made in economic and social development alongside their ongoing commitment to establishing security in the Horn of Africa.

Since 2005, I have visited Ethiopia 18 different times, engaging and developing relationships with Prime Ministers, with Cabinet Ministers, legislators, businessmen, aid workers, and everyone else in between. There isn't another Member of Congress who has traveled in Ethiopia, engaged with the Ethiopian Government and the Ethiopian people more than I have.

I say this for a reason. It is to show that I know something about Ethiopia. I know we have been here before. What happened last week has happened before. People don't even know it. So they passed a negative resolution on Ethiopia by voice vote. The resolution fails to understand the history of Ethiopia. I want to talk about that.

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in all of Africa, but one that is newly democratic. It is all new to them.

There is also a Christian history to the nation, which nobody else has on the continent of Africa. Ethiopia is featured in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

In the New Testament, we hear about Philip. This is in Acts 8. Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Damascus. We find out later that the eunuch was actually the treasurer of the country of Ethiopia at that time. Philip told the eunuch about Jesus. He talked about the Old Testament and the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. There are over 50 of these mentions in the Bible. They had long conversations about Jesus.

Philip was making these comments. Before the conversation was over, he baptized the eunuch. The eunuch went off to Ethiopia and took the first word of Jesus to Ethiopia. That is very significant.

Coincidentally, while Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia, there was a time when Aksum was the capital. That was many years ago. During the time of the Queen of Sheba, that was the capital of Ethiopia.

Coincidentally, I happened to be in Ethiopia when a farmer in a field ran into some old relics, and they started excavating. They found out that was the palace of the Queen of Sheba. There had been discussion as to whether or not the Queen of Sheba was from Yemen or Ethiopia, but that was concrete proof they had discovered that it was the case. The story goes on and on.

We all know about the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. Solomon had all the wealth in the world, and she wanted to meet Solomon. She went down to the Red Sea to see Solomon. Well, she got to Israel and she met Solomon. They were engaged very closely together. I think we all know that they ended up having a son who went back to his country.

By the way, the part of the Old Testament I am quoting right now is in 1 Kings 10:1. That is about the trip between Israel and Ethiopia. Sheba and Solomon had a boy. The boy was Menelik. He was a very smart person. As he was growing up in years, before returning to their home country in Ethiopia, he actually took the Ark of the Covenant back to Ethiopia, where it is today in Aksum.

A lot of people don't know that. If anyone questions what I am saying right now, there is a book written that was called ``The Sign and the Seal,'' by Graham Hancock. It is very well-documented. When you read that, you come to the conclusion that this is where the Ark of the Covenant is. I have been to the Ark of the Covenant with many Members of the Senate here--certainly, Senator Boozman from Arkansas, Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming, Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota, and many others. We have been up there and we have actually seen where this has taken place.

I say this because there is that very rich history. It is all documented in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The current controversy, and why we are here today, started back in the 1970s with a man named Mengistu. From 1974 to 1991, Mengistu was the leader of the communist Derg. This was the controlling party at that time. It is a communist party. They ran Ethiopia. It was a terrible time for Ethiopia. That was during one of the worst famines they had, which killed over a million people--perhaps the most significant famine in history in terms of deaths.

Many Ethiopians fled during that time and relocated in the United States. That is understandable. The communists were booted out. A lot of the people, during the time they were still in, came to the United States.

It is interesting because the Ethiopians are very outstanding people. They are the kind that get things done when other people don't. That makes them different from all the other countries in Africa.

So a lot of these Ethiopians came to America, and they have made great, really remarkable contributions to America, building organizations and getting involved. Rightfully so, they were outspoken against the brutal regime, but they haven't changed their outspokenness to reflect the changing conditions in Ethiopia.

At the time that this took place, one person who was responsible, to a large extent, for getting rid of the communists and the communist threat in Ethiopia was a guy named Meles. He ran, he came from the bush, and he won. He ended up as Prime Minister. This is really the election that a lot of people don't like, and they forget about the fact that he was the Prime Minister who actually got rid of the communists in Ethiopia.

So he became a Prime Minister. He started to build democracy. He died in 2012. I got to know him quite well during that timeframe, and I saw the progress that he made and the advances they made.

He was then replaced by another Prime Minister, whose name is Hailemariam. Now, he became Prime Minister, and he continued to push for democracy. Hailemariam worked diligently to improve things.

Under his tenure, Ethiopia established the independent Ethiopian Human Rights Committee to report on violence and human rights problems and abuses. They didn't just establish

it; they acted on it. They came out with a report and acted on it to hold perpetrators accountable and to make the improvements that were being made. Our relationship wasn't just government to government; it was brother to brother.

In February of 2017, Prime Minister Hailemariam suggested that, since the provinces were all fighting at that time--there were nine provinces in Ethiopia. Each province has a Governor. We suggested on the phone, with the Members of the Senate here and the House at a Prayer Breakfast, that what we ought to do is that we ought to follow the recommendation of Eisenhower. He said--in fact, this is right after World War II: The problems of this world are so great that we will never resolve the problems until we learn to sit down and pray together. So we decided: Let's get all the Governors, the Prime Minister, the Members of the House, the Senate, and the rest together, and we will pray for them.

We did this. In fact, I had five Senators with me at that time, and we went over. The problem was only two Governors showed up. So 8 months later, we came back and put together the same thing and talked to them to let them know what this is all about. And it happened 8 months later. We were just talking about it just recently.

We had nine Governors who had been fighting. Hailemariam and we all prayed together.

Now, at the same time, there was a Congressman, Randy Hultgren, over at the House, who happened to be president of the House Prayer Breakfast. The time change worked perfectly. At the time we were praying there, if you took the 7-hour differential, they were meeting at the House Prayer Breakfast here in Washington. So he joined in. Now, I am not smart enough to figure out how they do this. It is some kind of thing called Skype, where you can get on TV and communicate. So they were praying over there with all of these House Members at the same time that we were praying. On top of that, we had a bunch of great pages, like the pages sitting right in front of me today, all praying at the same time. This was going on all over America.

So they all got together, and it worked--the same group of people who had just hated each other, who had never been in the same room before. The Prime Minister and all of us--Members of the Senate and others who were there--were all rejoicing and embracing each other.

That's really significant. The 9 governors had never been together before. The majority of Americans can't easily grasp this, but is different in Ethiopia. Most of the people don't live in cities, and that made this effort that much more difficult. That is the reverse of the rest of the world. The vast majority of people who live there are in rural communities, and that made this widespread change and development a longer and more difficult path.

In Ethiopia, the tribal factions also play a greater role. Anyone who has been there understands this. If you go from Province to Province, that used to be from tribe to tribe, and they historically have not gotten along until this time. So it made it more difficult because of the factions and all of that, but it worked. We unified them together, and that was unlike anything that has ever happened.

Earlier this month, Ethiopia took another step to showing their commitment to a free and fair democracy by selecting a new Prime Minister. And who is this? His name is Abiy Ahmed, a doctor.

In fact, it is kind of interesting, if you think about his credentials. Just listen to this. Abiy received his first degree, a bachelor's degree, in computer engineering from the Microlink Information Technology College in Addis. That was in 2001.

In 2005, Abiy earned a postgraduate certificate in cryptography in South Africa. He holds a master of arts in transformational leadership and change with merit, earned at the Business School in Greenwich University in London, in collaboration with the International Leadership Institute in Addis, in 2011. He holds a master of business administration from the Leadstar College of Management and Leadership in Addis, in partnership with Ashland University in Ohio.

In 2017, Abiy was awarded a Ph.D. from the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University.

Now, we haven't studied it all the way through, but what we did is we took a cursory look at that, and we believe he is the most highly educated Prime Minister in the history of the continent.

Here we are with this Dr. Abiy, who has been specially selected for his commitment to democracy, good governance, and the rule of law. I met Abiy for the first time in February of 2016 at a leader's breakfast, where he told the story of his journey of faith in Jesus. He is very, very articulate, someone who no one would forget about.

We met a year later, when we prayed and talked about how to unify the country in peace, not conflict. It is from these meetings that I know that Abiy is committed to democracy and the future of Ethiopia. He is showing that with his actions as well.

Last week, he specifically sought to engage the opposition party and its leaders. He said:

We want to work hand in hand with you. What we say and do

must match.

Since his inauguration, he has also restored the internet service all across the country, and he has released 11 high-profile dissidents. This is what we need to be encouraging, not delegitimizing his authority with a heavy handed resolution. After his first week in office, the first week in office, they passed this resolution--this hateful resolution over at the House.

He is also the youngest head of state in all of Africa. Abiy is just 41 years old. He shows an optimistic and engaged future for Ethiopia--a country where 70 percent of the population is less than 35 years old. He deserves a chance to enact the democratic reforms he called for during his inaugural address, before being slapped with a condemnation of his government by a House of Representatives resolution.

They have quite an opportunity. Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in the region, and it has made great strides in lowering the poverty rate. But the resolution that passed last week wasn't about this. They didn't talk about everything that I just articulated.

Ethiopia is also an important partner for us in promoting regional peace and security. We have all recently seen how Islamic terrorists are pushing from the Middle East and regrouping and establishing themselves across Africa. This is the thing that he has inherited. That is what he is in right now.

Ethiopia has been an important partner for the United States in combating the spread of terrorism from Somalia and al-Qaida. He is our closest partner in this effort.

As terrorism grows through Djibouti and the Horn of Africa into northeastern Africa, this is a threat to global security. Ethiopia has been a critical partner for the United States in combating that spread of terrorism.

Ethiopia is the top African contributor to U.N. peacekeeping troops and supplies about 8 percent of the global peacekeeping force. It is not the second or among the first. He was No. 1--the first one to be a contributor to the U.N. peacekeeping effort. Those are contributions they have made. Other countries have not done that, but they have.

More than that, Ethiopia's professional and capable military has also been a positive force in regional stability. When we had problems in parts of Africa--and Somalia comes to mind right now--when we call upon them to send troops, they are the first ones who respond, and they are the ones who send the most of their capable troops.

Ethiopia was a regional stabilizer during the crisis with Sudan and South Sudan. I think we all remember when Sudan was one unified country, and they had not always gotten along with South Sudan. South Sudan had been trying to get their independence for years and years, and, finally, they were successful, and right after that, it looked like it wasn't going to work.

But the resolution last week didn't consider any of the progress Ethiopia has made and the leadership they have provided.

Beyond just the government, more good things are happening in Ethiopia than I have ever seen. The people are not just like other people. There is not time, but I could give so many examples. I will single out just one family

who is really typical of what is going on in Ethiopia.

We have longtime friends there--Marta Gabre-Tsadick and her husband Demeke Tekle-Wold. I will refer to them as Marta and Demeke. They founded an organization called Project Mercy. This is kind of interesting. This wasn't government. This is what they have done and are trying to do in their country.

It is kind of interesting because Marta, as a very young girl, went to work for Haile Selassie. We all know Haile Selassie and what a hero he was before the communists came in in 1974 and murdered him and took over the country. Marta actually had worked for him at one time.

They received political asylum in the United States in the early 1970s, after the communist takeover in Ethiopia, only to return to the country to care for, as they say, the ``least of these.'' That is what they have been doing.

Marta wrote a book that should be required reading so people would know the sacrifices that people make to escape communism. The name of her book is ``Sheltered by the King.''

In fact, if any of you want a copy of it, I will give it to you.

It tells the story about the communist takeover when Haile Selassie was murdered. It was about their escape from the communists.

Throughout the years, I have partnered with Marta and Demeke on several occasions. In 2008, I worked with the USAID. At that time, we had a guy, who, unfortunately, wasn't able stay there very long. He was head of the USAID. At that time, they prioritized the shipment of 43 containers of Atmit. This is during the time of starvation. Amit is a nutritional supplement that was sent to young children, to those in the most severe stages of starvation.

Ethiopia was hit especially hard in the global economic crisis, and these containers equaled 600 tons of food to feed 27,000 severely malnourished children.

The story of Marta and Demeke is kind of interesting because they started out in Addis, the capital. They started out in a small house, getting three or four young men--boys--uneducated and taught them the Scriptures, taught them how to read and write, taught them all of these things, and then how to put together an economy and get these people so that they can go out on their own. They were successful.

That grew from 3 people to 6 people to 100 people. Then they went down to a part of Africa, a part of Ethiopia, that is really interesting. It is called Yetabon. Yetabon is interesting because that is an area where there wasn't any civilization. It was in the bush, on the side of a mountain.

I went down to Yetabon to see. This is some time ago. I was thrilled that Raj Shah, the Administrator of USAID, accepted my invitation to go down there to see Yetabon and to see what they have done down there. When you stopped and looked in that remote area, with the two of them alone, it is not just a matter of 10, 12, or 100 kids, but 1,700 kids were all lined up, K through 12, smiling with big smiles. Their lives had been changed, and all of that took place down there.

I remember that there was a terrible storm down there as we were leaving, and it was all muddy. I told Raj: Anyone under age 70, get out and push. I was the only one exempted, of course. Anyway, he saw the significance of the resource of the Ethiopian people and the progress the country had made in furthering democracy and stabilizing the region.

USAID is now headed up by another person who loves Africa, Mark Green. I remember Mark Green. He used to be the Ambassador to Tanzania. He is a close friend of mine. I actually served with him at one time back at the House.

Raj recognized the genius of the Ethiopian people. We are privileged to deliver a another program they put together, where they would crossbreed cows and start dairy farms in the area close to Addis. It has been a very successful program. Keep in mind that this is all as a result of one family.

I could give examples of this all over the country in Ethiopia. The technical assistance and training to improve the products that they have were done all by one family. All that was largely from Demeke.

There is another person who is set aside from other countries in Africa, and that is a doctor named Hamlin. She actually started the Hamlin Fistula Hospital. Fistula is a disease that people who are pregnant could have. It is fatal in many cases. It is very unique to that part of Africa. So they have an organization working alongside the Ethiopian Government to provide sustainable solutions to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital. It has been a haven for the care of women.

All of this one person started. This is the character of the people. They started treating women in Ethiopia's busy capital city of Addis since 1959. It has now grown to an additional five regional hospitals, a midwifery college, and a rehabilitation center for long-term patients.

I and my wife Kay visited the hospital along with Senator Enzi's wife, Diana, and Senator Boozman's wife, Cathy. We saw the miracle that is taking place there--all because of one woman. It is typical of the people you find in Ethiopia.

They saw the impact that the hospital is making to the lives of women throughout the country to be able to deliver their baby safely and be treated with dignity for childbirth injuries.

So much of this development and progress is due to the emergence of past and present African leaders such as the recently sworn in Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed, who are investing in the lives of their people, and the realization by the United States of the strategic importance to Africa.

They are important. They have joined us in every effort--every military effort--that we have had, more than any other country. None of that was considered by the House last week when they passed this shortsighted resolution.

I tried to work with key sponsors of the resolution to make needed changes to reflect the fact of Ethiopia's progress, but my efforts were unsuccessful. They wouldn't listen to me. I still can't figure out why it is that a handful of people who probably have never, ever been to Ethiopia were doing this to that country. The resolution made a lot of claims that said that ``democratic space in Ethiopia has steadily diminished since the general elections of 2005'' and that the ruling party ``claimed 100 percent of the parliamentary seats'' in the 2015 elections--continued insults to our closest friends in Africa. But the democratic space in Ethiopia has never been more vibrant, as the numbers speak for themselves. There were more opposition candidates in the 2015 election than there have ever been in any election in the history of Ethiopia.

In 2015, the African Union observers--they were the ones who were observing the election, and they concluded that the elections had been free, peaceful, and credible and had provided an opportunity for the Ethiopian people to express their choices at the polls. Overall, the AU observers offered conclusions and recommendations to the government, the electoral board, the political parties, and to the media to strengthen that process, and that has been successful.

The resolution inaccurately stated that the ruling party claimed to have won 100 percent of the parliamentary seats. That is not true at all. There is no truth at all in that. In fact, that is not a ruling party. The EPRDF is not one party; it is a coalition of four major political parties with proportional representation from four regions; namely, from Oromia, Amhara, and some of the other southern nations.

The resolution also claimed that peaceful protests were often hijacked by violent events.

Last year, there were protests and demonstrations in part of Oromia and Amhara, in that region, and it did grow violent.

Ethiopia has a duty to ensure law and order like any other country, and that is exactly what they did. They openly acknowledged that people have legitimate grievances and expressed their willingness to address those. They are making strides. The second National Human Rights Action Plan--the current ruling party has embarked on a dialogue with 222 opposition parties. The United States should allow this dialogue to continue free of interference.

This resolution wasn't new. The House of Representatives did this in 2007 also. By the way, they also did this by voice vote then because no one wanted to be tied to something that they had to vote on without really knowing what it was all about. So they did it in 2007. I don't think the outcome of that was ever discussed, so I am going to tell the story now.

The 2007 resolution claimed that its purpose was to ``encourage and facilitate the consolidation of peace and security in Ethiopia,'' but in reality, it focused only on the shortcomings while blatantly ignoring the unprecedented progress the country had made.

I went to Ethiopia 3 weeks after the House voted in 2007. The resolution was reported widely for weeks in the Ethiopian press as the United States sharply criticizing Ethiopians, the same as they did last week. It caused great confusion and anger with the Ethiopian people, who were emerging from Communist rule. You could argue that at the time this happened, the people were protesting the administration under Prime Minister Meles. Probably they were saying that they prefer the Communists because this is something he was responsible for changing at that time.

So they had that resolution. It was reported that it hurt them and hurt their reputation around the world, caused great confusion and anger with the Ethiopian people, who were emerging from a Communist rule and working with democracy.

I met with Prime Minister Meles on that trip, and he said that the House vote really hurt our relationship with Ethiopia. I remember exactly what he said to me. He said: Our survival depends on democratization.

He was also open and honest about the problems they had in the 2005 election. He acknowledged the riots and that better training could have prevented the deaths of some seven policemen. That is not the story we hear. We hear about hundreds of people dying, but that is simply not the case.

Prime Minister Meles also noted that they were being singled out for criticism and sanctions when Eritrea--an autocratic government that openly gave refuge to terrorists--faced no such condemnation. He stated that he felt insulted by the bill, as well he should have.

When I was visiting with Azeb, Meles's wife--by the way, Azeb and Meles fought together in the feud that took over the country from communism, in the bush. When she asked me how the United States could attack our friends in this way, I didn't have an answer for that. Remember, we are friends. Ethiopia has been a partner on the global War on Terror and has contributed troops to peacekeeping missions and supports regional security efforts.

We also met with a group of Ethiopian citizens in Addis who had returned to Ethiopia to rebuild the nation. They had returned in the mid-2000s because it was the first time they had confidence in the government to return. They were very frustrated and disappointed by the resolution.

Today I am sure that Prime Minister Abiy and the Ethiopian people are also confused and frustrated by this resolution. I want to speak now to our friends in Ethiopia who may be feeling abandoned by the United States and questioning our partnership and friendship in such a critical part of the world.

This resolution, while offensive to you, does not change your friendship with the United States.

I want to repeat that. I want to make sure people know that the resolution, while it is offensive to you, doesn't change your friendship with the United States.

We have a long history of economic and military cooperation that will continue, and Ethiopia is only gaining momentum as a nation. This is apparent when you look at Ethiopia's economy, their military, and the U.S.-Ethiopia trade relationship that they are now building with our country. Ethiopia ranks among the fastest growing economies in the world. This is significant: Despite the recent drought, the IMF estimates that Ethiopia will have an average GDP growth rate of 7.4 percent from 2017 to 2020.

This is what I would have said yesterday, but something happened yesterday that I didn't know was going to happen. Yesterday, in the latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF announced that Ghana had lost its position as the fastest growing economy in Africa, and they lost it to Ethiopia. Ethiopia now has the fastest growth--8.5 percent. We in the United States would love to have an 8.5-percent economic growth rate.

Total U.S. direct investment, including partnerships, stands at more than $567 million, with more than $65 million originating solely from the United States.

The United States has a positive trade balance with Ethiopia, particularly in manufacturing, energy, and agricultural processing.

Over the past 70 years, Ethiopian Airlines has purchased more than 100 U.S.-origin aircraft.

In 2016 alone, Ethiopia utilized over $149 million worth of U.S. agricultural products, including wheat, coffee, and oil seeds.

The United States continues to provide assistance to support Ethiopia's agricultural development. Through the USDA, the 3-year, $13 million Food for Progress Program--known as the FEED project--helps to improve yields of milk, meat, eggs, and other products by increasing the availability and quality of livestock feed.

The U.S. International Military Education and Training Program--by the way, that is called IMET--the IMET Program was put together many years ago so that when our troops go into other areas, they mingle with the troops there, and then we invite the troops from the various countries to come into the United States and get their training here. We found out that once the training takes place in this country, we have their allegiance for the rest of the time they are there. They have been working to train future leaders here in the United States and create a rapport between the United States and the Ethiopian military. They had over 600 members from 2010 to 2015--one of our most successful IMET programs, working military to military.

Along with their own successes, Ethiopia has established itself as a world player. Ethiopia and the United States belong to a number of the same organizations, including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. The nation is an observer to the World Trade Organization and is currently serving on the United Nations Security Council as a nonpermanent member.

So I say to my colleagues in the Senate, I would like to remind you that with the passing of resolution 128, we are repeating the past. That is exactly what they did a few years ago. That doesn't mean we have to do it again in the future. Ethiopia is a key friend, and Prime Minister Abiy--just keep in mind, here is a guy who is the highest educated Prime Minister we think in the entire history of the entire continent of Africa. He deserves a chance for a strong start.

I will continue to fight for that strong friendship in Congress, and I urge the United States to give them the chance they have rightly earned. Clearly, resolution 128 does not reflect America's relationship with Ethiopia, one of our most valued allies in all of Africa.

``Are you listening?'' I asked my brother. Prime Minister Abiy, America is with you. America is with you.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 128) supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

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

Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 128, bipartisan legislation--we got about 114 Members, maybe as many as 118, a few came in right at the end--is a visible and necessary manifestation of deep congressional concern that egregious human rights abuses immediately end in Ethiopia and that fundamental human rights be promoted and protected for all.

I would note parenthetically that, like others in this House, my commitment to promoting human rights in Ethiopia spans decades and includes country visits, chairing numerous congressional hearings and legislation, including the Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006.

The resolution before us today, Mr. Speaker, is balanced and recognizes the recent peaceful and voluntary transfer of power from Prime Minister Hailemariam to the new Prime Minister Abiy, and welcomes Prime Minister Abiy's inaugural speech calling for open political competition and the defense of fundamental human rights. However, Prime Minister Abiy has been a member of the governing Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front since the EPRDF took power in 1991.

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, he played a critical role in the government security apparatus as the cofounder of the Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency. He is the leader of the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization, one of the four ethnic groups that make up the EPRDF.

Also, H. Res. 128 commends Ethiopia's efforts to promote regional peace and security, as well as our longstanding partnership in addressing health challenges.

However, the resolution carefully and accurately highlights that, despite these developments, human rights abuses remain at the core of the government's treatment--or should I say mistreatment--of the Ethiopian people.

So after decades of serious human rights abuse--often ignored and trivialized by some in Africa, the European Union, and the United States--it is now time for positive action and meaningful deeds. Words, Mr. Speaker, are just not enough.

In a letter asking Members of Congress to support our resolution, Amnesty International notes that, in the last 2 months, the government has released large numbers of political prisoners--although many remain behind

bars--and closed the notorious Maekelawi prison, known for its torture. Yet some have already been rearrested, and all--absolutely all of them--are at risk of rearrest. Making matters worse, repressive laws and state of emergency, used to brutalize people, remains in place. There has been no reform there. None whatsoever.

Human Rights Watch strongly supports H. Res. 128 and has reported in its reporting on human rights that: ``Since late 2015, security forces have killed over 1,000 people''--and some estimates put that far higher--``and detained tens of thousands during widespread protests against government policies.''

The Human Rights Watch goes on to say: ``A state of emergency began in February 2018''--that is just several weeks ago--``the second in 2 years, and permits draconian restrictions on rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. Authorities regularly use arbitrary arrests and politically motivated prosecutions to silence journalists, activists, and perceived opposition party members. Torture remains a serious problem in detention.''

Earlier today, Mike Coffman and I had a press conference. There were several men and women there who have suffered the torture of the Ethiopian Government and bear on their bodies and their minds and their hearts the horrible and horrific indignity of the use of torture by the Government of Ethiopia. Human Rights Watch continues: ``The Ethiopian Government has not conducted meaningful investigations into any of these abuses. Repressive laws restrict the activities of nongovernmental organizations. The ruling coalition won all 547 parliamentary seats in the 2015 election.''

All of them. What does that tell you?

Mr. Speaker, the 2017 Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Ethiopia also cited serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, killings, and torture committed by the security forces, restrictions on freedom of expression and association, politically motivated trials, harassment, and intimidation of opposition members and journalists.

On February 18 of this year, the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia issued a strong statement against the state of emergency. They said, in pertinent part: ``We strongly disagree with the Ethiopian Government's decision to impose a state of emergency that includes restrictions on fundamental rights such as assembly and expression.''

``We strongly urge the government to rethink this approach''--the State Department goes on to say--``and identify other means to protect lives and property while preserving, and indeed expanding, the space for meaningful dialogue and political participation. . . . `'

My resolution--cosponsored by well over 110, I think it is 118 now, Members of the House--calls on the Government of Ethiopia to:

Lift the state of emergency;

Repeal or amend proclamations used as a tool to suppress human rights in Ethiopia, including the so-called Antiterrorism Proclamation--which accuses any Ethiopian who criticizes the government of being a terrorist--and the Charities and Societies Proclamation--which makes it virtually impossible for civil society organizations to function by severely restricting foreign funding;

We are asking in the resolution to stop the killing of peaceful protestors and hold accountable those responsible for killing, torturing, and detaining innocent civilians;

Release dissidents, journalists, students, activists, and political leaders jailed for exercising their right to free expression and peaceful assembly;

Engage with citizens about development strategies, especially when these people could lose their land;

Allow a U.N. rapporteur unfettered access to examine the state of human rights in Ethiopia. Unfettered. Go anywhere, any time, and talk to anyone without fear of reprisal or retaliation;

And the resolution calls on the U.S. Department of State and USAID to, among other things, engage in a cooperative effort with the Government of Ethiopia in the formulation of a comprehensive strategy to help advance democracy, rule of law, human rights, economic growth, and peace and security in Ethiopia, and hold accountable individuals responsible for gross human rights violations in Ethiopia through appropriate mechanisms like the Global Magnitsky Act.

Mr. Speaker, let me conclude by thanking Congressman Mike Coffman, who has been an amazing tenacious supporter for this legislation and has really made a difference in helping to get it to the floor, and, of course, our majority leader for actually getting it to the floor. I see many of my colleagues on the Democrat side. I thank them. This is bipartisan legislation, and that is what it ought to be.

I want to thank Ms. Bass, the ranking member of the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee, for her cosponsorship and leadership as well, as well as Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel.

I would also like to thank the many human rights groups and the Ethiopian-American community, who have and continue to work diligently and tenaciously to secure fundamental human rights for the people of Ethiopia.

This is a first step today. My hope is that it will begin a process of this body being absolutely in solidarity with the oppressed and standing in opposition to the oppressor.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Coffman), the original sponsor of the resolution, and, like I said, a giant when it has come to pushing human rights in Ethiopia.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen), one of the cosponsors of this legislation.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I include these letters of support in the Record. I call attention to the membership an excellent letter written by human rights and diaspora groups, six groups in all. It is entitled, ``Ethiopia: Joint Letter About U.S. House Resolution 128'', in support of it. They make a number of very important points.

Ethiopia: Joint Letter About US House Resolution 128

Democracy, Human Rights and Diaspora Groups Urge Congress to Pass H.

Res. 128 on Ethiopia

Ethiopia is at a crossroads. On Monday, April 2, a new

Prime Minister, selected from within the ruling coalition,

delivered a speech about planned reforms while the country

was under another State of Emergency. At such a juncture,

amid mounting pressures, the role of the US, Ethiopia's

longstanding international ally to encourage critically-

needed reforms and human rights protections, should not be

underestimated in urging the country toward a new era of

stability.

The undersigned human rights and diaspora groups fully

support the passage of House Resolution 128 for the positive

contribution it can make toward respecting basic human rights

and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia. The

resolution has strong bipartisan support and more than 100

co-sponsors. In addition, H. Res. 128 has significant

grassroots support among constituents across the US who have

ties to Ethiopia. It calls on the government of Ethiopia to

open up civic space, ensure accountability for human rights

abuses and promote inclusive governance.

For the past three years, Ethiopia has faced largely

peaceful and sustained protests in the Oromia and Amhara

regions of the country. These protests were led by youth

seeking opportunity, political reform and more participatory

development strategies. The government responded with

excessive force. More than a thousand protesters have been

killed by Ethiopian security forces, a greater number

injured, tens of thousands imprisoned and many tortured for

expressing grievances. Over a million, mostly from Oromia,

were uprooted due to government-instigated conflict in the

Eastern part of the country.

However, a combination of forces has accumulated in support

of the protesters--diaspora groups and international human

rights organizations helped publicize the protest movement in

Ethiopia and the government's violent response; the US

Congress rallied behind H. Res. 128; international news

outlets gave frequent coverage of the protests. At

the dawn of this new year, the EPRDF coalition announced

reforms and some changes began to occur. Close to 7000

political prisoners were released in January and February of

2018, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn stepped down within

days, and Dr. Abiy Ahmed, a man with ties to the region most

impacted by the protests, was put forward by the coalition as

Ethiopia's newest prime minister.

In light of these beginnings, now more than ever, it is

imperative that the United States Congress take a stand that

reiterates the need for Ethiopia to take further steps in a

democratic direction by passing H. Res. 128. Ethiopia's

previous transfers of power indicate that leadership change

is often followed by unfulfilled promises, a culling of

opponents and power consolidation. If Prime Minister Abiy is

truly committed to breaking that pattern, this resolution

will encourage Ethiopia to lift the State of Emergency,

ensuring freedoms of expression and assembly and opening up

democratic space, all prerequisites for political and

economic reform.

1) H. Res. 128 is a signal of support for the youth in the

country who have organized to peacefully demand justice and

democracy and have paid a terrible price in terms of loss of

life, injury and arbitrary detention. Accountability for the

human rights violations that have occurred over the last 3

years will be an essential step towards genuine

reconciliation and is a key demand from the protesters.

2) H. Res. 128 contains clauses that could strengthen the

hand of the Prime Minister vis-a-vis less responsive segments

within the EPRDF party coalition structure, requiring

negotiation with the forces that control the country's

security apparatus, intelligence and the economic sectors.

3) H. Res. 128 contains clauses that call on the State

Department and USAID to develop a comprehensive strategy to

support improved democracy and governance in Ethiopia.

4) H. Res. 128 contains clauses that call on the Secretary

of State and Secretary of Treasury to apply appropriate

sanctions on individuals and organizations responsible for

gross human rights.

We support passage of H. Res. 128 as a means to send a

strong, unambiguous signal that the United States Congress

requires concrete reforms. Such reforms are needed to create

a path toward improved respect and protection of human and

civil rights, political stability and sustainable regional

security.

We urge members of the House to pass the resolution.

Amhara Association of America.

Coalition of Oromos for Human Rights and Democracy.

Ethiopian Advocacy Network.

Ethiopian Human Rights Project.

Human Rights Watch.

Oromo Advocacy Alliance.

For the past 3 years, they point out, as we know, Ethiopia has faced largely peaceful and sustained protesters in the Oromia and Amhara regions of the country. They were led by youth seeking opportunity, political reform, and more participatory development strategies. The government responded with excessive force. More than 1,000 protesters have been killed by the Ethiopian security forces, a greater number injured, tens of thousands imprisoned, and many more tortured for expressing grievances. Over 1 million have been displaced.

Let me just say in conclusion that they talk about the importance of supporting this. Yes, there is a new prime minister, but as they point out in their statement, and it is so true, Ethiopia's previous transfers of power indicate that leadership change is often followed by unfulfilled promises, a culling of opponents, and power consolidation. That can't happen again.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution, I think, deserves the support of every single Member.

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

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, yesterday we held a hearing on China in Africa. The hearing analyzed China's activity and engagement in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, we looked into what motivates China and how Chinese involvement has affected African countries.

While a number of African nations have welcomed Chinese engagement and investment, it often comes at a cost: a focus on extractive industries, entanglement with a neo-mercantilist trade policy and a tendency to adopt ``worst practices'' that prop up kleptocrats and autocrats--such as the DR Congo's Joseph Kabila--while fueling corruption in an effort to win contracts.

China's engagement in Africa once was driven by revolutionary ideology, motivated by competition with the Soviet Union as much as it was directed at ``capitalist roaders'' aligned with the United States. In Angola, for example, in 1975, Soviet-backed Communists bested Chinese-backed revolutionary rivals, including Jonas Savimbi, who was a Maoist before he was reborn in the 1980s as an anti-Communist freedom fighter.

Today, China's one-time Marxist-Leninist-Maoist impulse has been softened to the point of almost--but not quite--disappearing, with revolution replaced by infrastructure projects, trade missions, soft loans and scholarships for promising African students.

While on the one hand Africa needs investment and it needs infrastructure, we see a worrisome trend of African countries sliding into indebtedness to China, accumulating burdens that may be beyond their capacity to meet.

All too often, the roads China builds are meant to allow it access to mineral resources that it can extract and ship to China, or are part of its ``One-Belt, One-Road'' initiative which is designed to benefit China, ultimately, and help it project power. Further, as anyone who has been to Africa has observed, these grand construction projects often utilize Chinese engineers and workers, not Africans.

As we heard yesterday from the witnesses, nowhere in Africa is the problem of indebtedness more pronounced than in Djibouti--a strategically important country in the Horn of Africa which sits astride the Mandeb Strait, and one of only five African countries which Secretary of State Tillerson is visiting on his trip to Africa this week.

A former French colony, Djibouti hosts a French military base, and an American one at Camp Lemonnier. And, since last summer, Djibouti also hosts China's only permanent military base outside of China. Query whether that concession, fraught with geopolitical implications, is linked to leverage China is able to exert due to Djibouti's vulnerability on indebtedness.

China's overall foreign aid and financial leverage on the continent has been difficult to quantify, as has demonstrating how that translates into influence. Yeoman work in this regard has been done by AidData at the College of William & Mary which, in written testimony that was submitted as part of the record today, demonstrates a correlation with how an African country votes at the United Nations General Assembly with how much aid it receives from China.

Another strategically important country with high indebtedness to China that the Secretary will visit is Ethiopia. It is also a country where China has most clearly aligned itself with repressive forces. In addition to assisting the government in controlling information flows, such as via signal jamming of Voice of American and BBC broadcasts, the Chinese Communist Party has engaged with Ethiopia's ruling party on ``training and exchanges.''

As the Brookings Institution has documented, cadres from the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front ``were taught comprehensively how to manage their own organizational structure, ideological work, propaganda system, [and] cadre education.''

Thus, it seems ideology still matters with regard to how China engages Africa. It is no coincidence that Ethiopia has become one of the most repressive regimes on the continent, and the subject of a House resolution focused on Ethiopia's abusive practices that Ms. Bass and I have sponsored, H. Res. 128. Whereas the U.S. emphasizes good governance, it suits China's interest to train its partners in old- style Leninism.

We also heard from one of our witnesses on how China projects power in the form of Confucius Institutes located in close to forty African nations. This subcommittee has held hearings on how China in our own country and elsewhere uses these Institutes to push a Sinocentric narrative which aligns with Communist Party propaganda and curtails academic freedom.

In addition to utilizing Confucius Institutes to train Mandarin speakers and indoctrinate students with a pro-China world view, China is expanding its media presence in Africa. Kenya is the country with the largest penetration of Chinese media and the highest level of brand recognition, according to our Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America and which recently conducted a survey of China's media presence in Africa. It should be noted that of five major international networks in Kenya, China's news broadcasts were the least trusted.

Here also is a thought for Voice of America and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to consider--add Mandarin programming to the repertoire of languages in which you broadcast in Africa. By broadcasting objective news stories in Mandarin, you will expose not only African students learning Mandarin to more truthful media, but you will be able to reach the estimated million or so Chinese living or working in Africa with news that they are otherwise unable to access.

China is also Kenya's largest bilateral lender, and one of the three highest debtor nations to China in Africa, along with Djibouti and Ethiopia. It is also a country where Secretary Tillerson will be visiting. On his trip, he may want to highlight the following anecdote, which I believe aptly contrasts China's Africa engagement with that of the United States.

Health commodities supplied by USAID, including life-saving anti- retrovirals distributed as part of our PEPFAR program and anti-malarial commodities, used to be shipped to and stored in a warehouse near Nairobi for distribution not only throughout Kenya, but also in neighboring East African countries as well.

Then in July 2013, Kenya's parliament imposed a 1.5 per cent levy on all imports to Kenya to help pay for a nearly $4 billion railroad from the port of Mombasa to Nairobi built by the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation. Donated goods--including anti-retrovirals for Kenyans living with HIV/AIDS--were subject to this levy to help pay Kenya's debt to China.

As a result of this, the flow of life-saving commodities into Kenya and neighboring countries was burdened and slowed. Kenya's Ministry of Health offered to step in and pay the levy, but their payments were often delayed by some two months. Meanwhile, demurrage charges attributable to clearance delays continued to accrue, and had to be paid by the U.S. taxpayer.

Ultimately, over a year later, Kenya's parliament amended the legislation to exclude donated goods from the Chinese railway-payment levy, but the damage had been done. Today, due to this experience and other factors related to logistics and a new USAID implementing partner, USAID no longer uses a warehouse in Kenya. Storage and distribution has been moved offshore, to a location less-

centrally located but one hopes less prone to disruption.

How did this warehouse episode, borne out of Kenya's need to repay debt to China, benefit Kenyans suffering from HIV/AIDS? How did it affect the ability of Kenya to serve as a regional distribution hub for East Africa, with all the collateral economic benefits that accrue from this purely humanitarian initiative paid for by U.S. taxpayers? More broadly, where is China's PEPFAR, or the equivalent of the President's Malaria Initiative?

These are questions which Africa's leaders, and the African people, need to consider.

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.