    [House Hearing, 113 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                      FIELD HEARING ON EFFORTS TO PREVENT
                             AND ADDRESS CHILD SEX
                        TRAFFICKING IN WASHINGTON STATE

    =======================================================================

                                     HEARING

                                   before the

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES

                                     of the

                          COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS
                         U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                        ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
                                   __________

                                 SECOND SESSION
                                   __________

                               February 19, 2014
                                   __________

                                SERIAL 113-HR10
                                   __________

             Printed for the use of the Committee on Ways and Means

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                          COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS

                         DAVE CAMP, Michigan, Chairman

    SAM JOHNSON, Texas                   SANDER M. LEVIN, Michigan
    KEVIN BRADY, Texas                   CHARLES B. RANGEL, New York
    PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin                 JIM MCDERMOTT, Washington
    DEVIN NUNES, California              JOHN LEWIS, Georgia
    PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio              RICHARD E. NEAL, Massachusetts
    DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington        XAVIER BECERRA, California
    CHARLES W. BOUSTANY, JR., Louisiana  LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas
    PETER J. ROSKAM, Illinois            MIKE THOMPSON, California
    JIM GERLACH, Pennsylvania            JOHN B. LARSON, Connecticut
    TOM PRICE, Georgia                   EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
    VERN BUCHANAN, Florida               RON KIND, Wisconsin
    ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska               BILL PASCRELL, JR., New Jersey
    AARON SCHOCK, Illinois               JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
    LYNN JENKINS, Kansas                 ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania
    ERIK PAULSEN, Minnesota              DANNY DAVIS, Illinois
    KENNY MARCHANT, Texas                LINDA SANCHEZ, California
    DIANE BLACK, Tennessee
    TOM REED, New York
    TODD YOUNG, Indiana
    MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania
    TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas
    JIM RENACCI, Ohio

            Jennifer M. Safavian, Staff Director and General Counsel

                      Janice Mays, Minority Chief Counsel

                                     ______

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES

                    DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington, Chairman

    TODD YOUNG, Indiana                  LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas
    MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania             JOHN LEWIS, Georgia
    TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas                JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
    JIM RENACCI, Ohio                    DANNY DAVIS, Illinois
    TOM REED, New York
    CHARLES W. BOUSTANY, JR., Louisiana

                                C O N T E N T S

                                   __________

                                                                       Page

    Advisory of Febuary 19, 2014 announcing the hearing..............     2

                                   WITNESSES

    Jeanne Kohl-Welles Senator, 36th Legislative District of
      Washington.....................................................     7
    John Urquhart, Sheriff, King County, Washington, Testimony.......    17
    Reagan Dunn, Councilman, King County, Washington, Testimony......    21
    Noel Gomez, Cofounder and Director of Survivor Services, Seattle
      Organization for Prostitution Survivors, Testimony.............    26
    Mandy Urwiler, Senior Network Representative, The Mockingbird
      Society, Testimony.............................................    31
    Dawn Rains, Chief Operating Officer, Treehouse, Testimony........    35

                          FIELD HEARING ON EFFORTS TO
                         PREVENT AND ADDRESS CHILD SEX
                        TRAFFICKING IN WASHINGTON STATE

                                  ----------

                          WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014

                 U.S. House of Representatives,
                           Committee on Ways and Means,
                                                       Washington, D.C.

        The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9:00 a.m., in
    Council Chambers of the Auburn City Hall, 25 West Main Street,
    Auburn, Washington, the Honorable Dave Reichert [chairman of
    the subcommittee] presiding.
        [The advisory of the hearing follows:]

    HEARING ADVISORY

      Chairman Reichert Announces Field Hearing on Efforts to Prevent and
               Address Child Sex Trafficking in Washington State

        Council Chambers of the Auburn City Hall at 25 West Main Street in
    Auburn, Washington
    Washington, Feb 19, 2014

        Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on
    Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced
    that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Washington State's efforts
    to prevent child sex trafficking and protect youth in foster care from
    becoming victims of this crime. The hearing will take place at 9:00
    a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, February 19, 2014, in the
    Council Chambers of the Auburn City Hall at 25 West Main Street in
    Auburn, Washington.

        In view of the limited time available to hear from witnesses, oral
    testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only.
    Witnesses will include a law enforcement official, as well as
    representatives of organizations working to prevent child sex
    trafficking by reducing the vulnerability of youth in foster care.
    However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral
    appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the
    Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
        In announcing the hearing, Chairman Reichert stated, ``This hearing
    will provide Congress with direct input from people on the front lines,
    such as law enforcement, local nonprofits, former foster youth, and
    survivors themselves, who are working to protect youth in foster care
    from sex traffickers. Their perspectives are critical and will inform
    our efforts to pass national legislation to do just that, ensuring more
    young people can grow up to lead healthy, successful lives.''

    BACKGROUND:

        Recognized as one of the first states to pass laws criminalizing
    human trafficking, Washington has been a leader in preventing and
    addressing child sex trafficking. For example, Shared Hope
    International, a group focused on preventing sex trafficking around the
    world, recently recognized the work of Washington in both prosecuting
    those who traffic children for sex and in protecting victims of this
    crime, giving the State an ``A'' grade for its work. In addition, a
    variety of State and local stakeholders have worked together to develop
    a statewide Model Protocol for Commercially Sexually Exploited
    Children. This protocol will help law enforcement, the courts, victim
    advocacy organizations, youth service agencies, and other first
    responders in better identifying child sex trafficking as well as the
    risks that make children vulnerable to this crime.
        Reports suggest that children in the child welfare system are at
    heightened risk for being victims of sex trafficking. In 2010,
    officials in Los Angeles, California reported that 59 percent of
    juveniles arrested for prostitution were in the foster care system. Of
    children reported missing to the National Center for Missing and
    Exploited Children, who are also likely child sex trafficking victims,
    60 percent were in foster care or group homes when they ran away.
    Research shows the majority of sex trafficked youth experienced sexual
    abuse growing up, and that victims of sexual abuse are 28 times more
    likely to be involved in prostitution than children who have not
    suffered such abuse. As improvements in the child welfare system aimed
    at preventing childhood sexual abuse are considered, it is critical
    that child welfare agencies be equipped to do more to prevent and
    address the consequences of this crime, especially when youth in foster
    care are involved.

    FOCUS OF THE HEARING:

        This hearing will highlight efforts by groups in the State of
    Washington to end child sex trafficking, prevent youth in foster care
    from becoming victims of this crime, and empower youth in foster care
    so they can achieve success.

    DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:

        Please Note: Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit
    for the hearing record must follow the appropriate link on the hearing
    page of the Committee website and complete the informational forms.
    From the Committee homepage, http://waysandmeans.house.gov, select
    ``Hearings.'' Select the hearing for which you would like to submit,
    and click on the link entitled, ``Please click here to submit a
    statement or letter for the record.'' Once you have followed the online
    instructions, submit all requested information. Attach your submission
    as a Word document, in compliance with the formatting requirements
    listed below, by March 5, 2014. Finally, please note that due to the
    change in House mail policy, the U.S. Capitol Police will refuse
    sealed-package deliveries to all House Office Buildings. For questions,
    or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-1721 or
    (202) 225-3625.

    FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

        The Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the
    official hearing record. As always, submissions will be included in the
    record according to the discretion of the Committee. The Committee will
    not alter the content of your submission, but we reserve the right to
    format it according to our guidelines. Any submission provided to the
    Committee by a witness, any supplementary materials submitted for the
    printed record, and any written comments in response to a request for
    written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any
    submission or supplementary item not in compliance with these
    guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee
    files for review and use by the Committee.

        1. All submissions and supplementary materials must be provided in
    Word format and MUST NOT exceed a total of 10 pages, including
    attachments. Witnesses and submitters are advised that the Committee
    relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing
    record.

        2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not
    be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be
    referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting
    these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for
    review and use by the Committee.

        3. All submissions must include a list of all clients, persons,
    and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears. A
    supplemental sheet must accompany each submission listing the name,
    company, address, telephone, and fax numbers of each witness.

        The Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons
    with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please
    call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four
    business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to special
    accommodation needs in general (including availability of Committee
    materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the Committee as
    noted above.

        Note: All Committee advisories and news releases are available
    online at http://www.waysandmeans.house.gov/.

        Chairman REICHERT. I appreciate everybody being here today.
    This is such an important topic, and I think one that, of
    course, everyone in this room clearly understands. As I went
    around and met each of you before the hearing, discovering what
    your roles are in helping to eliminate human trafficking, I
    know Jim and I both appreciate all the hard work that you do.
    It is not an easy task.
        We are also going to hear from some folks this morning, not
    only those who are working in the world of trying to prevent
    human trafficking, but we will also hear from folks who have
    nearly become involved in, or have been involved in, and are
    survivors. And I think it is important for us to hear from
    those folks as well.
        I will read part of a prepared statement. Today, we are
    doing what Congress, in my opinion, should do more of, and that
    is get out of Washington, D.C., and listen to real people who
    deal with critical issues like we are dealing with today. We
    are grateful for all of our witnesses, and thank you all for
    joining us today, and we look forward to your testimony.
        Your testimony will be made available on the Ways and Means
    Committee Web site for anyone around the country to read and,
    hopefully, use as communities work together to prevent sex
    trafficking.
        And I am pleased to be joined by my longtime colleague on
    the Ways and Means Committee, Jim McDermott. We are pleased to
    have Jim with us here today. He is the past chairman of the
    Human Resources Subcommittee and has a wealth of knowledge, as
    you might guess, about these issues from his days in the
    Washington State Legislature as well.
        I would also like to acknowledge Mayor Nancy Backus,
    Councilman Bill Peloza, and their staffs, and thank them all
    for their work in helping make this possible today.
        Before being elected to Congress, I was the sheriff of King
    County, as most of you know. And I spent nearly 33 years in the
    Sheriff's Office right here in King County. And I know that you
    also know I saw firsthand in my work, not only in the Green
    River case, but on patrol when I first started in the early
    '70s, the tragedy that occurs when young boys and young girls
    run away from home, leave their dysfunctional homes and end up
    on the street.
        And a lot of time, they end up in the arms of people who
    are there to do them harm, and they figure that out way too
    late. And in some cases, they lose their lives, and families
    are ripped and torn apart. In some cases, they survive, but
    they are scarred for life, living in that community, in that
    underworld.
        And it is so critical for us to take action to work
    together to end and eliminate human trafficking. These are
    children that we are talking about.
        Back in the Green River days, I can remember meeting young
    girls and young boys on the street who were 11 years old, 12
    years old. And I know that some of you today are still dealing
    with young children on the streets of our cities right here in
    our own communities.
        Back in August 1982, I was called to investigate with Kent
    Police Department the body of a young woman who was found in
    the Green River in Kent, only a few miles from where we are
    sitting right now. Three days later, I received a call about
    two more bodies, both young women. And then I found a third
    body at that same location.
        Little did I know on that day, but finding these victims
    began a 2-decade hunt for a man who became known as the Green
    River killer. Once caught, he confessed to killing between 60
    and 70 young women who had been involved in the sex trade.
        The first known victim of the Green River killer was Wendy
    Coffield. She was only 16 years old when she was killed. Wendy
    was living in a foster home when she ran away. But because she
    had run away before, no one was looking for her. We need to do
    more to protect kids like Wendy Coffield, and that is why we
    are all here today.
        To better understand this issue, we have already had
    several hearings in Washington, D.C. Our own Justice Bobbe
    Bridge joined us for one of those hearings when she summarized
    what has been happening here in Washington, and also provided
    us with recommendations for national reforms.
        Based on her recommendations and those of other experts,
    this last week, I introduced legislation to help every State
    better protect youth in foster care from being victims of sex
    trafficking. And I was pleased to be joined in introducing that
    bill by my colleague Lloyd Doggett of Texas, who currently
    serves as the lead Democrat on the subcommittee, as well as Mr.
    McDermott, who also serves on the Ways and Means Committee.
    Other Congressional committees have also been working on
    strengthening penalties on traffickers and johns, as well as
    preventing international trafficking.
        Later this year, I expect the House will act on all of
    those bills, and I am confident we will be able to get our
    legislation to the President's desk. The reason I am confident
    is because the approach we are taking is practical, based on
    State experience, and it is bipartisan.
        As Jim can tell you, when we get the lead Republican and
    the lead Democrat on a subcommittee to agree on a bill, that is
    usually a formula for success.
        Our bill will not increase our debt, but we will ensure
    that all States take real steps to better understand the
    problem and keep kids safe while they are in foster care. That
    is a beginning and not an end.
        Ultimately, making this work will require having
    discussions like this one in communities all across the
    country. This community is uniquely suited to lead that
    conversation and show the way.
        Again, many thanks to all of you who are here today,
    playing a part in doing just that.
        I now recognize Mr. McDermott for his opening statement.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. Thank you very much, Dave.
        You are witnessing a rare occurrence, I think, in the
    modern-day Congress, a Democrat and a Republican working
    together on something. This subcommittee has had a long history
    of being very nonpartisan, because the issue that we are
    dealing with here is not Democrat, is not Republican. It is
    kids that are ground up in the system.
        And the bills that I put through when I was the chairman,
    the Foster Connections and some of the other acts, related to
    foster kids and the things that Dave is putting through, and
    people before me, are always bipartisan. In fact, my bills went
    through the House, both with me as chairman and with a
    Republican as chairman, with no votes against it, because we
    worked together on this issue.
        And I think that Dave is to be commended for having this
    hearing.
        The issue, it seems to me, of trafficking is sometimes--I
    want to make sure people understand we are talking not only
    about girls, but also about boys, because that is a real part
    of this problem. And the tie to foster care is a very tight one
    in many, many, many instances because youngsters get into a
    foster situation and decide, for whatever reason, they can't
    stand it. And they leave when they are under 18, or they come
    to the age of 18 and they age out of foster care and have no
    other resources.
        So they go out in the streets, and drugs and prostitution
    are right there. And it is a way to live, a terrible kind of
    life, but it is a way to do it.
        And the efforts to interrupt that, I think, are what we are
    really here to talk about today. And I would rather listen to
    the witnesses than talk.
        I am a child psychiatrist, and I have been doing it since
    1970. I started out at Cascadia and a lot of other places where
    youngsters who are in these situations wind up, and I have seen
    it all.
        But we have had our problems in finding the resources to
    actually help these kids on a widespread basis. And I would
    like to hear what is going on today.
        So thanks, Dave. And thanks for all of you for coming in to
    testify.
        Chairman REICHERT. Great, Jim. Thank you so much.
        And without objection, each member will have the
    opportunity to submit a written statement and have it included
    in the record at this point.
        Chairman REICHERT. I want to remind our witnesses to please
    limit their oral statements to 5 minutes. However, without
    objection, all the written testimony will be made a part of the
    permanent record.
        So if panelists would please take your seats at this time,
    we will introduce you and we will begin our testimony.
        Thank you.
        So on our panel this morning, we will be hearing from
    Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a senator of the 36th Legislative District
    of Washington. Thank you for being here, Senator.
        John Urquhart, the sheriff of King County. John, thanks for
    being here.
        Reagan Dunn, councilman, King County. Reagan, thank you for
    being here.
        Noel Gomez, cofounder and director of Survivor Services,
    Seattle Organization for Prostitution Survivors. Noel, thank
    you for being here today.
        Mandy Urwiler, senior network representative, The
    Mockingbird Society. Mandy, good to see you again. Thank you
    for being here this morning.
        Dawn Rains, chief operating officer of Treehouse. Dawn,
    thanks for being here this morning.
        Senator, you are recognized for your statement this
    morning. Thank you.

      STATEMENT OF JEANNE KOHL-WELLES, SENATOR, 36TH LEGISLATIVE
                         DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON

        Ms. KOHL-WELLES Thank you for the opportunity to testify
    this morning on this important issue.
        As you noted in your advisory, Washington State has been a
    leader in the Nation on antisex trafficking legislation since
    former State Representative Velma Veloria began championing
    this effort in the Legislature in 2002.
        Washington was the first State to outlaw human trafficking.
    And between 2002 and 2013, the Legislature passed 33 bills, all
    with bipartisan leadership and supporters.
        But sex trafficking, as well as all forms of human
    trafficking, is a pervasive and ever-changing social problem.
    It occurs in many forms, from mail-order bride trafficking,
    including two murders in our State, to false advertisements for
    au pairs, and to the coercion of minors and children being
    trafficked via the Internet.
        Unfortunately, though, 33 antitrafficking bills over 11
    years only begins to address this horrifying commodification of
    human beings. Domestic sex trafficking of minors came to light
    in the mid-2000s as a recognizable term, with considerable
    awareness brought by former U.S. Congresswoman Linda Smith and
    Shared Hope International, API Chaya, the Committee for
    Children, Seattle Against Slavery, and YouthCare, among others.
        We have made a great deal of progress in passing
    legislation and, I believe, also in raising awareness among the
    public.
        We began our work, mainly, on sex trafficking of minors
    with Senate Bill 5718, passed in 2007. It created a new crime
    of commercial sexual abuse of a minor, which replaced the crime
    of patronizing a juvenile prostitute. Follow-up legislation in
    2009 and 2010 strengthened penalties and allowed for diversion
    of cases for those minors who agreed to participate in
    wraparound services.
        We also, in 2010, with the efforts of Seattle Against
    Slavery and with the State Attorney General Rob McKenna,
    permitted placement of informational posters in rest stops
    along I-5 and other State highways in conjunction with the
    winter Olympics taking place in British Columbia, which seemed
    to be placing more youth at risk.
        Treating victims of trafficking, especially children and
    minors, as victims rather than criminals has been an important
    component of the laws we have enacted.
        Children are not prostitutes. They are victims. They are
    coerced or forced into this practice by perpetrators and need
    to be protected and assisted, not jailed.
        Another important component to the way sex trafficking of
    minors is being addressed in Washington is by meeting head on
    the challenges that technology and the Internet pose when
    addressing this problem. Twelve bills became law in 2012--we
    have a handout for you--including a bill that was the first of
    its kind in the country relating to the online advertiser
    Backpage.com.
        Senate Bill 6251 created a new crime of publishing adult
    escort ads involving minors while providing an affirmative
    defense for advertising businesses that verify the age of the
    individuals depicted in the ads, which Backpage does not do. It
    was passed unanimously by the Legislature. And, unfortunately,
    when it came into effect, Backpage.com sued the State in
    Federal court charging the new law violated the First Amendment
    and the 1996 Federal Communications Decency Act.
        After the case was settled, Senate Bill 5488, passed in
    2013, repealed the law and imposed an additional fine of $5,000
    for using online ads to facilitate the commercial sexual abuse
    of a minor.
        I am running out of my time, so you will have to read my
    written testimony, but I am pleased that we did pass just
    yesterday before our 5 p.m. cutoff to get bills out of their
    house of origin, Senate Bill 6017, which allows local law
    enforcement to seize materials and properties used in
    connection with child pornography and commercial sexual abuse
    of a minor, and to keep more of the assets in order to defray
    the costs of investigations and reapply the funds to future
    investigations in this bill.
        Thank you very much for inviting me.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Kohl-Welles follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Senator.
        We have an emergency over to my right.
        [Laughter.]
        Chairman REICHERT. Sheriff, you are recognized for 5
    minutes for your testimony.

      STATEMENT OF JOHN URQUHART, SHERIFF, KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON

        Sheriff URQUHART. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am very honored
    to appear today before this committee.
        The trafficking of our youth is an abhorrent practice, and
    the issue is long overdue for the type of publicity and
    exposure it seems to be finally receiving.
        While any one of any age can be trafficked, the legislation
    we are here to discuss today focuses on a subset of girls and
    boys who are especially vulnerable to becoming victims of this
    form of modern-day slavery.
        Mr. Chair, I have been a police officer for 38 years. You
    were my sergeant back in the day, and as we both know, society
    did not always view those trapped in the sex trade as victims.
    We had other words for them: hooker, prostitute, and
    streetwalker, to name a few. ``Victim'' was never one of those
    words.
        Sure, we occasionally arrested the johns who were out there
    soliciting, but you and I both know it was much easier to make
    a case against the woman working the street than her customer.
        I spent a lot of time on patrol and then as a vice
    detective on Pacific Highway South, which eventually became the
    City of SeaTac.
        I investigated and arrested people for prostitution. Those
    were my marching orders. And I arrested a lot of women, and
    occasionally girls, who were selling their bodies. And
    virtually all of them went to jail or the youth center.
        Mr. Chair, those days do not stir up feelings of nostalgia
    for me. But as society evolves, as people evolve, so must law
    enforcement evolve.
        Thankfully, this groundswell of evolution has occurred in
    Washington State at all levels of government. For years, the
    Office of Attorney General, through two administrations, has
    made fighting human trafficking one of its top priorities.
    Locally, the King County Council, with the leadership of
    Councilmember Dunn, has allocated specific funding for public
    health and to the Sheriff's Office to raise awareness and to
    understand the problem of human trafficking better.
        King County Superior Court Judge Barbara Mack is chairing
    the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children Task Force to
    develop and implement a coordinated, countywide response to
    childhood prostitution. The King County prosecutor, Dan
    Satterberg, takes cases of human trafficking very seriously and
    even obtained Washington State's first conviction under our
    human trafficking statute.
        And my patrol deputies and detectives in the Sheriff's
    Office place a high priority on locating and rescuing those who
    have been coerced, beaten, or otherwise trafficked against
    their will.
        Last year, we implemented mandatory training for all
    commissioned personnel to recognize the signs of human
    trafficking. My deputies now have a broader base of resources
    for which to refer victims.
        And every day we partner with the Federal Government on a
    joint task force to fight human trafficking. We constantly
    share information and resources with the U.S. Attorneys' Office
    locally, because oftentimes investigating the perpetrators of
    this crime takes us across jurisdictional boundaries.
        Mr. Chair, the legislation discussed today addresses a
    systemic failure for our children who have no choice but to
    depend on the State for their welfare. As you, yourself, have
    quoted, 59 percent of juveniles arrested in Los Angeles for
    prostitution were in the foster care system. Sixty percent of
    child sex trafficking victims were in foster care or group
    homes before they ran away.
        These statistics are simply astounding. They came as a
    surprise to me, but I am not so sure the numbers surprised
    everyone in this room. This room is filled with service
    providers who have spent years trying to convince the public
    that the vast majority of those involved in the sex trade have
    been victims of abuse in the past, making them that much more
    susceptible for continued abuse.
        There is nothing voluntary about a child who has engaged in
    survival sex. There is nothing voluntary about a woman whose
    pimp coerces and pressures her into engaging in sex for money,
    just to have the pimp keep the proceeds. And there is
    absolutely nothing voluntary about any adult paying any child
    for sex.
        I spoke earlier about a certain level of lack of sympathy
    law enforcement used to have for the victims caught up in the
    sex trade. Thankfully, Mr. Chair, I suspect you were ahead of
    the times in those days. One has to only know your personal
    history as a teenager, or have watched the level of compassion
    and determination for justice you showed for the victims of the
    Green River killer, to know that this issue has been and will
    always be near and dear to your heart.
        No, I am not nostalgic for those days. But putting that
    different time into perspective shows how far we have come in
    recognizing and fighting human trafficking. Simply put, this
    legislation will save lives, and I thank you for taking up the
    cause.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Sheriff Urquhart follows:]

     [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Chairman REICHERT. Sheriff, thank you for your testimony.
        Councilman Dunn, you are recognized for 5 minutes.

     STATEMENT OF REAGAN DUNN, COUNCILMAN, KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON

        Mr. DUNN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
    hearing. Congressman McDermott, as well. We are grateful for
    this. It is such an important issue. I wanted to highlight some
    of the work that King County has done to fight human
    trafficking.
        It is estimated that, this year alone, between 300 and 500
    young people--mostly women, but some boys and men--will be
    brought into the sex trade in King County alone, and that is a
    number we estimate occurs every year. That doesn't mean 300 to
    500 incidents of actual sexual slavery but new people brought
    into the profession.
        And so it is a serious issue, and children as young as 11
    years old have been brought in and sexually exploited for
    commercial purposes in King County.
        Through the hard work of many individuals in Olympia, such
    as Senator Kohl-Welles, who just testified, Washington State
    has been a national leader in legislation to fight human
    trafficking. And I wanted to take a moment to talk about some
    of the things we have done at the local level to fight back
    against human trafficking.
        King County Superior Court, in partnership with the Center
    for Children and Youth Justice, is leading King County's most
    comprehensive work yet to support children who have been
    commercially sexually exploited. Under the leadership of
    Barbara Mack, the King County Commercially Sexually Exploited
    Children Task Force is working to develop and implement a
    coordinated, countywide response to childhood prostitution.
        As Sheriff Urquhart just mentioned, the Sheriff's Office
    has played a key role in the county's effort to end human
    trafficking.
        The King County Prosecutor's Office works diligently to
    prosecute cases of human trafficking. One highlight is the fact
    that the PAO obtained Washington State's first-ever conviction
    under the State's human trafficking statute, which requires
    prosecutors to prove that the defendant caused the victim to
    engage in forced labor or involuntary servitude for the
    defendant's personal gain.
        The executive department provides some direct services to
    victims and has embarked on educating certain staff about human
    trafficking.
        One significant tool for bringing human trafficking into
    the open is utilizing the National Human Trafficking Resource
    Center hotline. It connects callers to resources, including law
    enforcement and services and information about the crime of
    human trafficking.
        For victims of human trafficking, the public posting of
    information and hotline phone numbers in locations where the
    information may be seen is critical as they might not have
    access to the Internet or to other forms of community-based
    outreach and awareness programs.
        For community members, information and calls to the hotline
    often generate future tips and a better understanding of the
    red flag indicators of human trafficking.
        Now, as a former Federal prosecutor, I prosecuted sex
    crimes, and I have been leading a series of legislative efforts
    in King County to bring better awareness to the National Human
    Trafficking Resource hotline. As you might have seen in the
    last year, in 2012, I drafted legislation to launch a public
    information campaign utilizing metro buses to display the human
    trafficking national hotline number throughout King County.
        King County's efforts were multiplied through a partnership
    with private-sector media companies that included Clear Channel
    Media and Titan, as well as the City of Seattle, with
    strategically placed billboards along roads in certain
    locations across Western Washington. So there were $200,000
    worth of pro bono billboard advertising provided, and over 200
    metro buses where the signs were.
        The antitrafficking campaign was displayed all over King
    County, including more than 200 buses, and those buses covered
    2,134 square miles in King County with a population of over 2
    million.
        The public information campaign raised awareness of the
    signs of human trafficking, leading to an increase in local
    call volume to the National Human Trafficking hotline. And we
    estimate that at least 17 of these calls were crisis calls
    identifying human trafficking situations. And that is 17 lives
    that were potentially saved as well.
        We are still working hard to highlight the national hotline
    number across King County. I have introduced legislation with
    the County Council that calls for the placement of human
    trafficking public awareness materials in all of our county
    facilities, such as public health clinics, transit centers,
    courthouses, and other locations were trafficked individuals
    and the public may see the information. The legislation calls
    upon the county executive to explore information posting
    opportunities with all of our partners--bus shelters, clinics,
    hospitals--where trafficked individuals may utilize services
    and, in turn, see information on where to go.
        The only way we can begin to get a handle on these crimes
    and to stem the tide is to continue to work together and attack
    the problem from all sides, which is what I believe you are
    doing here today.
        Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, Mr. McDermott, for being
    here. We appreciate the work that you are doing.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Dunn follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Councilman Dunn.
        Ms. Gomez, you are recognized for your testimony.

      STATEMENT OF NOEL GOMEZ, COFOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF SURVIVOR
       SERVICES, SEATTLE ORGANIZATION FOR PROSTITUTION SURVIVORS

        Ms. GOMEZ. Thank you for having me here today. My name is
    Noel Gomez, and I am a survivor of sex trafficking, and also
    the cofounder of the Organization for Prostitution Survivors
    and the director of Survivor Services. I am here to talk a
    little bit about myself and what we are doing.
        I grew up in a middle-class family in Kirkland. Everything
    was normal from the outside. There was a lot of alcoholism and
    violence in the homes that I grew up in. And when I was 12,
    some sexual abuse happened, and that is when things really
    started changing for me.
        I started using drugs and drinking alcohol to deal with
    everything that was going on at home and everything that was
    going on with what had happened to me, and I ended up getting
    pregnant at 16.
        My father wanted to put me into foster care and basically
    get rid of me. He tried to force me to sign papers saying that
    I would go to foster care and basically that didn't happen, and
    he told me just to leave and not come back, and I never did.
        So I left home when I was 16 years old and I was pregnant.
        Once I had my child, his father's family took custody of
    him, and then I was pretty much on my own for the rest of the
    time. I lived my teenage years much like many foster care youth
    do. I ran from here to there, living where I could and getting
    involved in the juvenile justice system.
        The difference between me and a foster care youth in the
    juvenile justice system is I would get out, because as far as
    they knew, I wasn't State-dependent. My friends, the foster
    care kids, would have to stay in juvie until they found a
    placement for them, which would be a foster home for them to go
    to.
        So anyway, usually, the youth that I knew would go and then
    run right away, just because they felt like they had found
    their families on the street and didn't want to be somewhere
    where they didn't feel like they were wanted or belong. It
    wasn't their family.
        So anyway, I met a guy. I met a young man who appeared to
    have it all. He had the car, the apartment, the alcohol,
    everything, the money. He became my boyfriend and ended up
    being a very violent pimp that was very well-known in Seattle
    during that time. He was later murdered in prison, because he
    was prosecuted in 2000 for trafficking minors.
        Anyway, he ended up pimping me and trafficking me from
    State to State. We went all around the West Coast for about 4
    years. I don't have time to go into detail about my life, but I
    can tell you it was like living in the middle of a war zone at
    all times, never knowing who was going to try to kill me or who
    was going to rape me next, and that included my trafficker.
        My story is similar to the story that I hear over and over
    again from the girls who have been trafficked. They say they
    want to be with their real families and they don't want to be
    in the system. They don't want to live in a foster home,
    especially after everything they have been through. They need
    special services at this point.
        Without offering services, we can change laws and do
    things, and that is wonderful, but we need to offer services to
    these youth and the women and girls and boys who have been
    through this.
        I ended up being stuck in the life for 15 years. I had no
    resources, nobody to turn to. There were no services. It was
    the hardest transition of my life.
        I didn't have any skills. I didn't have a resume. I didn't
    have an education. I didn't have anything.
        I got away from my pimp after 4 years, after attempting to
    escape many times. Once he found me and handcuffed me in broad
    daylight, threw me in the trunk of his car and kept me in there
    for hours, and I woke up in Portland.
        So getting away from him was not an easy thing to do.
        Nine years ago, I decided I was leaving the life, no matter
    what, and I was determined to do it. I got my first job in a
    bar, because a friend of mine worked there and was able to get
    me a job.
        Since then, my life has become about helping women and
    girls and boys in the life to get out and get the help that
    they need.
        Our organization offers survivor support groups, art
    workshops, drop-in services, that we need to be doing much,
    much more of. So I decided to start OPS because I know there
    were no services for anybody that was coming out of the life.
    So that is what we are doing.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Gomez follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Ms. Gomez, thank you so much for your
    testimony. I know that everybody in this room, you could hear a
    pin drop as you were telling your story. And sadly, this is not
    a unique story.
        Ms. GOMEZ. Not at all.
        Chairman REICHERT. So I thank you so much for having the
    courage to be here today and share that with us.
        Ms. GOMEZ. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Ms. Urwiler, you are recognized for your
    testimony.

    STATEMENT OF MANDY URWILER, SENIOR NETWORK REPRESENTATIVE, THE
                          MOCKINGBIRD SOCIETY

        Ms. URWILER. Thank you. Hello, Congressman Reichert and
    Congressman McDermott. Thank you both for your time and effort
    on the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities
    for Youth in Foster Care Act. It is a really long name.
        My name is Mandy Urwiler, and I work for the Mockingbird
    Society. I am 19 years old, and I entered foster care when I
    was 15. I am still in foster care now, thanks to the Extended
    Foster Care program.
        I could tell you several stories about when people tried to
    get me to turn a trick for them, but there is one in particular
    I would like to share.
        I was 13 and I had just been expelled from my previous
    school because of complications while running away from home.
    Consequently, I started attending an alternative school for
    juvenile court-involved youth. I quickly learned that many of
    my classmates were pimps and drug dealers.
        On my second day at that school, they asked me to be their
    whore and make them money. I said no, but they kept pushing.
    After class let out, they followed me home, continuously
    telling me that they needed me and I could make good money.
        I went to class the next day and was still being pressured,
    but I held my ground.
        This time, when class let out for the day, I was beaten
    brutally for saying no. I was shoved down and kicked while I
    was on the ground. I was punched and had my head slammed into
    the concrete. But I still said no.
        When I went home that night, still being followed by my
    attackers, I told my dad what happened. That may have been the
    only time I ever saw my divorced parents agree on something,
    and that was to pull me out of that school.
        I was lucky because, in this case, it was a situation I
    could get away from.
        Not every young person living in foster care or in a group
    home gets that chance, especially when they are a minor and may
    not have a trusted adult advocating for them. Sometimes,
    especially if the youth have run and are living on the streets,
    the pimps are adult predators who are more sophisticated and
    brutal than the young group that came after me.
        Sometimes the youth being pressured doesn't have the
    support wrapped around them to help them resist the way I did.
        I saw girls who had run away from their foster homes and
    were arrested for prostitution. I later talked to them and
    found out they were afraid to leave the life because they had
    been assaulted. They weren't given help to escape the clutches
    of these evil people who hurt them. Instead, they were treated
    as criminals by the police. I believe that they were victims,
    not criminals.
        I met these girls who were my age and even younger, and saw
    what could have happened to me. I don't want to ever, ever have
    to see that again, because no one should have to go through
    that. I don't want anyone else to have to make the decision
    between injury and sel1ing their bodies.
        This is an epidemic that needs to stop. We say children who
    are removed from their families will be safe from further abuse
    and neglect. We must protect vulnerable youth in care from
    predators like the ones who hurt me.
        As a strategy for preventing sex trafficking, this bill
    addresses the topic of normalcy for foster youth. I am happy to
    see that this bil1 encourages States to adopt a prudent parent
    standard to support normal life experiences for youth in care,
    which is an effort that is already underway here in Washington
    State.
        I believe if youth had more opportunities to do normal
    things they want to do without fear of running into barriers,
    less youth would run from care.
        When I was in my foster home, my foster parents couldn't
    sign for the simplest of things, like school field trips, job
    fairs, and college tours, and this negatively impacted my
    grades, and I lost opportunities to explore educational and
    career opportunities and resources.
        But field trips aren't the only things I missed out on. I
    never got to spend the night with friends, because my foster
    parents were afraid of the liability. I didn't get my learner's
    permit from the State for the same reason.
        And in my experience, this path that leads too many foster
    youth to be preyed upon is driven by a lack of control,
    opportunity, and support.
        I believe this bill will help youth by giving them more
    input and control in their lives by allowing foster parents to
    give their youth access to opportunities that are taken for
    granted by others, and by giving youth who have already started
    down a dangerous path a way out.
        I ask the subcommittee to maintain its commitment to the
    pieces of this bill that reinforce control, opportunity, and
    support for youth in care.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Urwiler follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you for your testimony.
        To both of you, thank you for your courage and your
    willingness to be here today to share your stories with us.
        Ms. Rains, you are recognized for your 5 minutes.

      STATEMENT OF DAWN RAINS, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, TREEHOUSE

        Ms. RAINS. Thank you for inviting me to testify before you
    today. My name is Dawn Rains, and I serve as the chief
    operating officer of Treehouse, a Seattle-based nonprofit
    serving foster care youth in Washington State. I am also a
    former foster parent.
        At Treehouse, our mission is giving foster kids a childhood
    and a future. We are a major partner with Washington State's
    child welfare system, providing foster youth with
    individualized academic support, access to critical
    extracurricular activities and community resources, and
    material needs, like clothes, toys, and school supplies at our
    free store, the Wearhouse. We provide this support to over
    6,000 foster youth in Washington State every year.
        We have set an ambitious goal that foster youth in King
    County will graduate high school at the same rate as their
    peers with a plan for the future by 2017. Currently, only half
    of youth and foster care graduate high school on time and fewer
    than 2 percent will earn a 4-year college degree.
        Without a high school diploma and a plan for the future,
    foster youth experience disproportionately high rates of
    poverty, homelessness, incarceration, mental illness, substance
    abuse, and sexual exploitation when they age out of foster care
    or are missing from care.
        We are pleased to endorse the proposed legislation.
    Children come into foster care through no fault of their own.
    We as a community have a special responsibility to kids in
    foster care, and this proposed legislation improves future
    prospects for youth in our community.
        For my testimony, I would like to focus on two of the major
    provisions of the bill that we are particularly passionate
    about.
        The first is how youth-centered planning is essential to
    building foster youth engagement and investment in their
    future. We support empowering every youth to participate in
    planning their own future and transition from foster care and
    to begin that process at the age of 14. Current transition
    planning in Washington State child welfare is compliance-and-
    checklist-oriented and begins too late to have the most
    powerful impact. Starting in 2012, Treehouse began implementing
    youth-centered, or what we call student-centered, planning with
    middle- and high-school aged youth in foster care as part of
    our academic support program called Graduation Success.
        Student-centered planning is an evidence-based practice
    designed to elicit and inspire youth's own plan for the future
    within the context of support from the adults in their lives.
    When youth set their own course, they build self-determination,
    resilience, and problem-solving skills that lead to confidence
    and self-sufficiency as young adults.
        While student-centered planning is much more labor-
    intensive than what public system social workers are typically
    able to provide, we believe that the impact will be powerful in
    building aspirational and proactive behavior that leads to
    better life outcomes.
        So how does this work in the field? Every youth in
    Treehouse's Graduation Success program has an education
    specialist that provides them with a critical stable adult
    presence in their lives and partners with social workers,
    caregivers, and schools to monitor academic progress and ensure
    that they receive services tailored to their individual needs.
        Foster youth work together with their education specialist
    to define aspirational goals and educational milestones that
    will help the youth stay on track to achieve those goals.
        They then provide coaching to develop positive mindset and
    drive progress toward meeting goals in their plans.
        Education specialists are uniquely situated in a critical
    role if youth should be at risk or actually go on the run, and
    they are being trained on how to identify the risk factors
    associated with sexual exploitation to support and redirect
    these youth.
        If youth should go on the run, they oftentimes keep in
    touch with our staff and/or visit our Wearhouse to stock up on
    clothes as their first stop when they run from care.
        We are currently working with DSHS Children
    Administration's Missing from Care workgroup to strategize how
    to locate and reengage these youth in support services.
        We see every youth in foster care is at risk of poor or
    failing outcomes and believe each need an education specialist.
        We are currently serving over 500 middle school and high
    school youth in King County in our Graduation Success program
    and are on course to fully saturate the population of foster
    youth in King County.
        The second major provision of the bill that I would like to
    address is the importance of creating normalcy in the lives of
    youth in foster care for improved outcomes.
        We applaud the empowerment of licensed foster parents and
    relative caregivers via a reasonable and prudent parent
    standard, which would allow them to make day-to-day decisions
    about a youth's ability to participate in normal childhood
    experiences like sleepovers with friends, school field trips,
    summer camps, and extracurricular activities.
        Currently, bureaucratic barriers impede court and social
    worker efforts and frustrate caregivers without adding value
    for youth. Normal childhood activities are foundational
    experiences that help youth develop interests, skills, and
    dreams for the future. The relationships and connections that
    are built doing these activities contribute to a youth's sense
    of belonging, their mental health, and well-being.
        At Treehouse our Little Wishes program helps to create
    normalcy for kids in foster care by giving them access to self-
    selected activities and experiences. This is a critical piece
    of our model because we know kids who are positively engaged in
    school and community have better academic and life outcomes. We
    also know that these activities build a critical protective
    factor that make youth less vulnerable to exploitation and sex
    trafficking.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Rains follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you for your testimony. One of the
    things that is a little different about having a hearing here
    in the district is that when the timer goes off, people stop
    talking.
        [Laughter.]
        Chairman REICHERT. Back in Washington, D.C., they just keep
    on going, so thank you for being so punctual and respectful of
    the timer.
        But I know that Jim has to leave soon for another
    appointment, and the senator has to leave soon, too, because
    they are still in session. So it is especially great to have
    you take time out of your day here to be here. And because Jim
    has to leave early, we are going to start with his questioning
    first, and then I have a couple questions.
        But, Jim, go ahead.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. Thank you, Dave.
        Ms. Gomez, your testimony was very compelling, but the
    thing that I didn't hear, and I try to figure out, you have two
    kinds of kids who are caught up in trafficking. You have
    underage kids who are out there surviving, just barely getting
    by. And then you have people who have been immersed in the life
    for a long period of time. And you said 9 years ago or
    something you turned a corner. Tell me how that happened. What
    was offered, or what did you stumble into, or who did you meet,
    or how did that transition occur? Because I think one of the
    things we struggle with is trying to figure out how do we take
    people who have been way into the system, how do we then help
    them not wind up in much worse circumstances.
        Ms. GOMEZ. And that is why our organization is survivor-led
    and run. I think that it is important to have survivors as
    mentors and advocates for people who have been in the life.
        For me, there was no support. I got into AA and met people
    in AA who had been through things like I had. And that was
    really the only support I had. There were no services or
    anything like that.
        So for me, I was just so angry and so tired of it, that,
    you know, I just had to get out. I had to.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. Was the support of AA members of a similar--
    it was really a support group, is what you are saying.
        Ms. GOMEZ. Yes, and that is why I started specific support
    groups for survivors, instead of having--because AA is not for
    that, you know. It is for alcohol. But there are a lot of women
    in AA and NA who had previously been in the life. And that is
    how I got help, really, and support was from the recovery.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. Ms. Rains, you talked about involving
    youngsters in their own planning. Children go into foster care
    all the time in this country. I mean, Dave is responsible, and
    I was responsible, for half a million foster kids all over the
    United States. And they go for different reasons. How do you
    set up something at the State level--or does it have to be at
    the county level? Or where is it set up that youngsters,
    somebody sits down with them and says, ``Now, look, you have a
    bad situation at home, and you are not going home. That is not
    possible. So how are we going to plan for your life from here
    on?''
        Where does that occur? Where should it occur?
        Ms. RAINS. Yes, there is planning that happens in the child
    welfare system with their social workers. In Washington, we
    have what is called a 17\1/2\ meeting, where the final planning
    happens.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. That is too late.
        Ms. RAINS. It is way too late. We would love to see that
    more proactive youth-involved planning happening from, again,
    from the age of 14 on, because youth need to see a future for
    themselves. In a situation where youth in foster care give up,
    they have really no say or control in what is happening to
    them--where they live, who they live with--this is a way for
    them to reclaim some of that.
        And we are doing it on a very local scale, with 500 youth.
    We would love to see that program expand statewide, because it
    is time-intensive. It relationship-based. We have to really
    form those relationships in order for youth to trust us and
    engage their caregivers and their social workers and the folks
    at school in charting a course.
        As an interesting side note, someone on my staff is doing a
    Ph.D., and her dissertation is looking at former foster care
    alums who also experienced special education while they were in
    foster care. And she has been interviewing these young adults
    and almost every single one have goals and dreams and
    aspirations for their future, but no one taught them how to map
    the course to get from A to B. And that is what we are really
    trying to build in with the youth that we are working with.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. This is funded by your own private donations
    to your--and there is what? Eight thousand kids? How many kids
    are there in the State who are in foster care?
        Ms. RAINS. Between 9,000 and 10,000.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. Senator Welles, where are we going to get
    money to do that? What she is describing for 500 kids in one
    program?
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. Well, obviously, Congressman McDermott,
    that is an enormous challenge and is the discussion of the day
    in Olympia.
        We have the requirements to meet the McCleary decision for
    fully funding K-12 education. We have increasing demands on our
    social safety net and higher education and transportation. And
    so, with our system of having--we are one of a handful of
    states that does not have an income tax, so we have tax issues.
    And we also have a very generous citizen initiative system in
    our State.
        Legislators in many ways have our hands tied in terms of
    funding all of the needs that we have.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. I mean, the reason I raise this issue is
    that I want the people who see and hear about what happened
    here today to understand that doing what they are doing at
    Treehouse is not done on the cheap, nor is it done without
    money. You do need money to do that kind of stuff.
        And if we are serious about trafficking, then we have to
    talk about money at some point, because to give social workers
    the time to have age 14 meetings instead of an age 17\1/2\
    meetings is going to take time for people to sit down and talk
    with kids about where they are going to go, how are they going
    to do this.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. Well, we have our revenue forecast coming
    out, I believe tomorrow. And we know that our State is coming
    out of the great recession, but it is a recovery that has been
    slow. We are sales-tax-reliant, have one of the most regressive
    if not the most regressive tax system in the country, so our
    revenue, it is very difficult to have a sufficient amount
    coming in.
        But we are trying. We are making progress, and I am pleased
    about that.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. Ms. Gomez, did anybody ever have that kind
    of conversation with you in your trips through juvie downtown?
        Ms. GOMEZ. No.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. You didn't need to turn it on to tell me
    that.
        [Laughter.]
        Ms. GOMEZ. On the streets, there was nothing anywhere, no.
    Nobody.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. So when you were processed through the
    juvenile justice system, since you were not a foster kid and,
    therefore, State-dependent, they just opened the door and said
    goodbye.
        Ms. GOMEZ. Yes. I could be released to my family, but they
    would give you a bus ticket.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. How about you, Ms. Urwiler? What was your
    experience? When did somebody start talking to you about what
    you might become?
        Ms. URWILER. Honestly, what I have thought of on what I
    might become, it started before I entered foster care. I
    started thinking about where I wanted to go. But I never really
    had anybody to help guide me until I talked to my independent
    living case manager, which has been amazingly helpful.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. How old were you then?
        Ms. URWILER. Fifteen or 16. And then from there, I have
    gotten help with filling out my FAFSA and all of my college
    forms, still a hugely confusing process, but I am still
    confused on where I am going. I don't know where I want to go.
    I thought of everything from being a doctor specializing in
    emergency pediatrics to getting a Ph.D. in theoretical physics
    or a law degree or going into poli-sci. I don't know where I am
    going.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. How old are you?
        Ms. URWILER. Nineteen.
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. You have a little while. You don't have to
    make every decision yet.
        [Laughter.]
        Mr. MCDERMOTT. Dave and I got into this late in life.
        Thank you all very much for your testimony. And I apologize
    for having to leave.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. Congressman, can I bring up one more thing
    I think might be helpful to other young individuals who have
    been facing similar experiences?
        We have a very new but I think has a huge potential
    scholarship program in our State called College Bound. And we
    are able to reach out to young people in the seventh and eighth
    grade who are low-income. And they are able to make a pledge to
    keep a C average and stay in school. And if so, then they
    receive a scholarship from the State, which is sizable, along
    with other scholarships and grants that we have for the funding
    of their college education.
        Chairman REICHERT. I thank Jim for being here today.
        And, Senator, if you have another comment or two you want
    to make, that is fine.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. Thank you. I would like to make one more
    comment before I leave.
        Chairman REICHERT. Please.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. I appreciate that.
        As I mentioned earlier with the case with Backpage.com,
    which is an online advertiser that supposedly and admittedly
    makes over $21 million a year on these online adult escort
    services, what we ran into with having to settle the case for
    our legislation, our new law, was, as I mentioned, the Federal
    Communications Decency Act, which was enacted into law in 1996.
    And the Internet has grown rather sizably since that time.
        So we have a measure moving through the Legislature, Senate
    Joint Memorial 8003, which will request Congress to amend the
    Federal Communications Decency Act to reflect the current scope
    of the Internet and take into account the role that IPOs play
    in the advertising and profiting from sexual exploitation of
    minors.
        Right now, the advertisers are not responsible for third
    parties who advertise on them in terms of the content, and we
    really think there has to be a change made.
        So thank you for listening to that request.
        Chairman REICHERT. You are welcome. Thank you for that
    thought. And thank you for your testimony and your hard work.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. It takes all of us to have an impact on
    tragic issues like the one we are dealing with.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. And it is bipartisan.
        Chairman REICHERT. Absolutely.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. It completely has been unanimously passed,
    in terms of the legislation. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you. Good luck in Olympia today.
        Ms. KOHL-WELLES. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Well, I would just like to make a couple
    comments and then I have some questions, too.
        First of all, I think it is important for you to know that
    we are having this hearing today, but as you know, we come to
    this all with different experiences. Jim's experience in child
    behavior and his work prior to Congress in understanding child
    behavior gives him a passion and compassion for young people,
    and a certain insight that is very beneficial to the Ways and
    Means Committee. There are other Members of the subcommittee
    who bring different experiences, but are also just as
    passionate and compassionate.
        I think that is a critical thing for Americans to
    understand, that it is just not a machine of legislation back
    in Washington, D.C., with a lot of uncaring, process-oriented
    people.
        And in my own personal experience, as most of you know, my
    story starts out very similar to Ms. Gomez's story, in that my
    family was also a home of violence and alcohol, and I ran away.
    But I had a football coach and a geometry teacher, which is one
    of the few classes that I did okay in. For some reason, I got
    the circles and squares and triangles.
        I don't know how I did that, John.
        But you know, there was a person in my life that I remember
    sort of grabbed me by the back of the collar and said, ``Dave,
    you are headed down the wrong road.'' But where was I to go?
        And I lived in a car for a while when I was a senior in
    high school. I was one of the fortunate ones that didn't get
    sucked into the rest of the lifestyle.
        But then I became a police officer and saw it as a 21-year-
    old police officer on the street. And as John said, Sheriff
    Urquhart said, that it is not a nostalgic time to remember back
    to. It is a sad time to recall how people were treated and the
    thought process that not only police officers but the entire
    community really held toward people who were on the street.
        And then when I began Green River, I was only 31 years old,
    by the way, and I had dark brown hair then, believe it or not.
        [Laughter.]
        Chairman REICHERT. Thirty-one years old, and that was the
    beginning of 19 years of working with young ladies like you.
        And the story that you told, again, I want to make clear to
    the audience and people who might hopefully listen to the
    testimony today, is not a unique story.
        And the difficulty we have in trying to convince young
    people to please leave the streets because of the danger we
    knew that lurked out there in the presence of a man who is now
    in prison for 49 consecutive life terms, but not only him,
    others.
        As you said, Ms. Gomez, the life that our young people are
    leading that have left their homes, whether foster children are
    not, have left violent and dysfunctional homes and end up on
    the street in the arms of people like some of the descriptions
    that we heard today--I don't even like to mention his name--is
    a battle. It is a war. And they are in a world of violence.
        Imagine 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 years old and that is your
    life.
        So I am so grateful for you and the work that you do.
        And, Mandy, what did you want to be? I think a rocket
    scientist?
        [Laughter.]
        Chairman REICHERT. I hope that you make that. You have
    hope, and you both have hope. And we all go through struggles
    and now you are applying that struggle to help people.
        So my question, first of all, goes to the sheriff and to
    the councilman. I think Washington State is known for being a
    collaborative state. State, local, and city governments work
    together a lot on issues. And you have described some of the
    ways you are working.
        Where do you see your efforts in working together going
    from here? What are the next steps? What do you see in bringing
    all this together, because I know back when I was in the
    Sheriff's Office and even in this job, it seems to me that
    there are so many programs and plans and people, all working
    but sometimes at cross-purposes and repetitive efforts.
        What are you looking to in the future, to bring all of
    these valiant efforts together to coordinate the efforts so we
    can be more efficient and effective in saving lives?
        Sheriff URQUHART. I think what we have to stop doing is
    fighting. And we talked about it today, Congressman McDermott
    mentioned it, and Senator Kohl-Welles mentioned it. There is
    not enough money for all of us, not enough money for the
    Sheriff's Office, not enough money for Treehouse, not enough
    money for Mockingbird.
        And what we have done in the past, we have fought over
    those funds. And guess who normally wins? The police. It is a
    much easier sell to the public. It is a much easier sell to the
    council and county executive to fund the police department.
        And we have been real happy with that, but that is the
    wrong way to do it. We have to quit fighting over this limited
    number of funds and work together.
        I much prefer to be in front of the county council, in
    front of Councilmember Dunn hand-in-hand with the social
    service providers and divvy up the money that way. They are
    just as important on any social problem, including this one, as
    the police are. And not just the Sheriff's Office but other
    police departments as well have to realize that if we are going
    to be successful.
        To me, that is the next step, getting all of us on the same
    page and quit fighting over the money.
        Chairman REICHERT. That is a small pot that we all fight
    over.
        Councilman?
        Mr. DUNN. I think John is right on there. I would just add
    to that the way that we are approaching the issue of human
    trafficking, generally, we are very much in sort of the
    beginning to mid-stages of understanding the issues and
    developing the best practices to deal with them.
        You and I worked together more than a decade ago on gun
    violence. We put together a plan based on a lot of experiences.
    That plan worked over time.
        We did the same thing with ecstasy and methamphetamine,
    getting those labs out.
        So there is an evolution that is going take a period of
    years, as we understand from the victims' perspectives and what
    the nonprofits need, who are those trigger people or
    organizations that are going to tend to pull these people out
    of that horrible life.
        So what I think we should be driving toward is nonprofit
    local, State, and Federal sets of best practices where we can
    all emphasize our areas of expertise. We need to find
    additional funding sources. Maybe we need to redirect existing
    resources. We can do a better job of raising money from the
    private sector, which I think we are starting to get better at
    as we do what the most important thing here is, is raising
    awareness, Congressman. That is one of the things that has been
    found to be lacking.
        This issue is probably the least understood and least
    reported crime happening in our community today that somebody
    is prosecuted. People don't understand it. They are still in
    that mentality that there is a prostitute. That is a criminal
    now. That is a victim.
        So those are the things we are working toward, and
    ultimately, a series of best practices promulgated with the
    help of Congress, perhaps through the Office of Justice
    Programs at the Federal level, may be the way to go.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you. And I do think that it is an
    invisible sort of mindset that the people have.
        Back in the Green River days, and my sheriff days, John, as
    you worked on the street--and I know some of the other law
    enforcement officers in the room--I often wondered and thought
    about people who were driving from home to work and drove by
    all these young girls and boys on the street but never saw
    them. And there were hundreds of them.
        It just sort of was a shock to all of us that no one saw
    anything as you went back to the scene to try to gain
    information. There were no witnesses. However, there were lots
    of people present. And that is a sad commentary.
        I do think that you touched on something, both of you, and
    Ms. Rains has touched on this, too, in her testimony. I think
    when you think about 9,000 to 10,000 young people in foster
    care and prevention, one of the things that we have to take a
    look at is why are these 9,000 to 10,000 young people in foster
    care in the first place.
        And there is really a beginning seed of where we need to
    start. And then those that are in foster care, of course, we
    really need to wrap our arms around them as a State.
        And I know there are people here from DSHS. And I thank you
    so much for your work and thank you for being here today, too.
        I know DSHS is involved with the Rescue and Restore effort,
    and I think that that is a national effort.
        And, Councilmember Dunn, you referred to Project Safe
    Neighborhoods, which was an effort to end gun crime violence.
    But I think Rescue and Restore could be a similar effort in
    really eliminating human trafficking. It is something I think
    that we could grab onto at a national level. And I think it
    would take a State like Washington State, which is really
    active and forward-thinking, to take Rescue and Restore, make
    it a statewide program, a model for other states to model
    after.
        I wanted to ask Mandy, I know you touched on this just a
    little bit. If I can call you Mandy, if that is okay?
        Ms. URWILER. No problem.
        Chairman REICHERT. So I really like how you characterized
    one of the drivers behind becoming a victim of trafficking, is
    that youth in foster care feel they have a lack of control.
    Where do you think, in some of the areas that we talked about
    control, how do you think that we can give youth control? What
    are some areas that you see, from your perspective?
        Ms. URWILER. For me, I was lucky because I actually had a
    lot of control in my planning, because I had an attorney,
    because I was lucky to be in one of the very few counties that
    gives attorneys to foster youth.
        But I think the control really comes in when I was able to
    sit with my social worker and my attorney when I was looking at
    foster homes to go to. And I actually got to interview the
    foster parents, and I was able to say I don't want to be in
    this placement because their values don't match up with mine
    and I don't think we would get along. I was able to have
    control on where I lived.
        I was able to have control on when I got to go see my
    family, because I was able to talk with my social worker and my
    attorney and set up when the best visit times for me were. I
    didn't have school on Fridays, because I was going to a school
    that didn't have class on Fridays, so my visits were on
    Fridays. I could take the bus up from Shelton to Seattle to see
    my family.
        But I didn't have control where I couldn't go on any school
    field trips. I wasn't allowed to go to a friend's house. And my
    friends, by the way, were a huge support to me.
        For a short time, my ISSP, the service plan, said I was not
    allowed to sit in my room and be on the phone with my friends
    and family from back home all day, which my first 2 months
    spent in care, I didn't come out of a room and spent pretty
    much 24 hours a day on the phone with my support network at
    home. I was told I couldn't do that, so I was cut off for
    several months from being able to contact people when I needed
    to. When I was getting ready for bed, I would call home and
    say, ``Hey, I don't know what is going to happen and I am
    scared, and I want to go home, and I miss you.'' And then I
    wasn't allowed to do that. So that is a big control piece for
    me.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you. Yes, so it is really the
    little things just about being a normal kid growing up in a
    home.
        Ms. Gomez, I think that Mr. McDermott touched on a question
    that I want to go back to, and, again, going back to my
    experience in trying to take people off the street, to either
    get them to the YWCA or to a foster home or somewhere off the
    street.
        How do people come to your organization? How do they come
    to you? Are you on the street? Do you have people on the street
    trying to pull people out of that life? Do you have referrals
    sent to you? Do police officers refer to you? How does that
    happen?
        Ms. GOMEZ. Yes, we have a relationship with the Innocence
    Lost task force. They make referrals to us. Different
    organizations make referrals to us.
        A lot of it is word of mouth. A lot of the women and girls
    that we have been working with have heard from other people
    about us.
        We get referrals from everywhere. I think that everybody in
    social work is looking for somewhere to send their client who
    had been in the life or been involved. And really, there are
    not many resources.
        So we are overwhelmed with people wanting to get in and get
    into the program.
        Chairman REICHERT. And it is not just about getting out of
    the life, but you are also talking about drug addiction,
    alcohol addiction, and all of those things, too, that go along
    with it.
        Ms. GOMEZ. Yes.
        Chairman REICHERT. We know that sometimes that it is more
    than once off the street and into treatment, back again, and
    then back again. So it is a long-term effort to even save one
    life. It doesn't happen overnight.
        So I know that is a huge struggle. Thank you so much for
    what you are doing.
        And one of the things we want to do is help collect data,
    because I think that as we talked about some of the future
    efforts, we really need to make our efforts focused on where we
    know the money is going to do the most good. So the collection
    of information and data from all of you in this room who are
    involved I think it is really helpful in helping us identify
    where to really put our energy.
        And just one last question for Ms. Rains. So when I
    mentioned why are kids in foster homes anyway, I think we have
    some of the answers to that, but how do we keep kids in their
    families? Is your organization involved in looking at that data
    at all, or working with other organizations that have looked at
    that data? Do you think that is important for us to examine a
    little bit closer?
        Ms. RAINS. Absolutely. We are very excited about the
    implementation in the State of Washington about family
    assessment response, which diverts families and the youth from
    coming into foster care in the first place, provides intensive
    in-home family support. And it will be a program that will be
    rolling out over the next couple of years here in Washington.
        But we believe that kids in need should stay with their
    families whenever possible, and so we are very excited about
    that, learning from several other States that have implemented
    differential response systems.
        And when it is necessary for safety reasons to have youth
    placed in foster care, I think surrounding them with as many
    supporters as possible, giving them regular access to their
    families, trying to reunite, reunify, families whenever
    possible, is absolutely the best way to go. And Washington is a
    leader in that arena.
        We are also working every day with about 40 percent of our
    youth in foster care in King County, for example, who are
    actually place with relatives. And working with those families
    to keep kids in their neighborhoods and family systems as much
    as possible I think leads to additional protective factors that
    can help keep youth off the streets and out of sex trafficking.
        So all of those elements, I think, are important.
        Chairman REICHERT. Yes, I agree. And thank you so much for
    your work in that area, and I look forward to the roll-out of
    the program. And if there is a role for us to play in that,
    maybe we can partner with you, along with everyone else at the
    table today, and in the room.
        I was a foster grandparent for a while, until my two
    grandkids were adopted. And I have to hand it to my daughter
    and her husband. The visits with the biological mothers are a
    tough thing to do, especially after adoption. But that has
    continued on.
        And both of these young women were drug and alcohol
    addicted, meth addicted, moms and on the street. So these two
    young kids, they have a stable home. But the visits with their
    biological moms still take place, so I think that is an
    important factor.
        I want to thank all of you so much for attending the
    hearing today, and thank all of you for your testimony.
        The important thing is that we do not want this effort to
    end here today for the Federal Government. So I want you all to
    know that.
        I know one of my least favorite things to hear when I was
    the sheriff, or when I was working on a task force as the lead
    investigator, was from some Federal agency, ``I am from the
    Federal Government, and I am here to help.''
        When I say that today, I really mean that. And I know that
    Jim does, too, from the bottom of his heart.
        We want to be able to help in this effort. And I think we
    have something to offer besides legislation, hopefully. And so
    thank you again for all your work.
        Just for the record, I would like to thank all of our
    witnesses and Jim McDermott for their testimony and attention
    to this important issue. I look forward to our continued work
    as a subcommittee as we work to prevent sex trafficking of
    children in our foster care system.
        We received a lot of excellent testimony and
    recommendations today, which we will review closely as we plan
    our next steps.
        If members have additional questions for witnesses, we will
    submit them to you in writing, and we would appreciate
    receiving your responses for the record within 2 weeks.
        Chairman REICHERT. The committee stands adjourned. Thank
    you.
        [Whereupon, at 10:19 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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