    [Senate Hearing 115-747]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                          S. Hrg. 115-747

                             ENDING MODERN SLAVERY:
                              BUILDING ON SUCCESS

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

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                         COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                         ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                  __________

                              FEBRUARY 15, 2017

                                   __________

           Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations

    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                       Available via the World Wide Web:
                             http://www.govinfo.gov

                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

                    BOB CORKER, Tennessee, Chairman
    JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho                BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland
    MARCO RUBIO, Florida                 ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
    RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin               JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
    JEFF FLAKE, Arizona                  CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
    CORY GARDNER, Colorado               TOM UDALL, New Mexico
    TODD YOUNG, Indiana                  CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut
    JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming               TIM KAINE, Virginia
    JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia              EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
    ROB PORTMAN, Ohio                    JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
    RAND PAUL, Kentucky                  CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey

                      Todd Womack, Staff Director
                Jessica Lewis, Democratic Staff Director
                        John Dutton, Chief Clerk

                                  (ii)

                             C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

    Corker, Hon. Bob, U.S. Senator From Tennessee....................     1
    Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., U.S. Senator From Maryland.............     3
    McCain, Hon. John, U.S. Senator From Arizona.....................     5
        Prepared statement...........................................     5
    Kutcher, Ashton, Co-Founder, Thorn: Digital Defenders of
      Children, Los Angeles, California..............................     7
        Prepared statement...........................................    11
    Massimino, Elisa, President and Chief Executive Officer, Human
      Rights First, Washington, DC...................................    14
        Prepared statement...........................................    17

                  Additional Material Submitted for the Record

    Responses of Elisa Massimino to Questions Submitted By Senator
      Edward J. Markey...............................................    40
    Statement of Principles on America's Commitment to Refugees......    43
    Human Rights First...............................................    45

                                 (iii)

                   ENDING MODERN SLAVERY: BUILDING ON SUCCESS

                                  ----------

                          WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017

                                           U.S. Senate,
                                Committee on Foreign Relations,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m. in
    room SD-419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Bob Corker,
    chairman of the committee, presiding.
        Present: Senators Corker [presiding], Rubio, Johnson,
    Flake, Gardner, Young, Cardin, Menendez, Coons, Murphy, Kaine,
    and Booker.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BOB CORKER,
                      U.S. SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE

        The Chairman. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will
    come to order. I am going to re-hit the gavel since people are
    tied up in the back for a variety of reasons. I want to call
    the meeting to order.
        I want to thank everybody for coming today. And to those
    who are here and who have traveled extensively to be here, I
    want to apologize on the front end for what is happening today.
    We have two votes at 10:30, which means that people will be
    streaming in and out of the meeting. And secondly,
    unfortunately, I understand there is a Democratic Caucus
    meeting that was called without talking to some of the
    chairmen. So in any event, that does not take away from the
    importance of this. I just hope that people will bear with us.
        We are at a historic turning point in the global fight to
    end modern slavery today, thanks to the incredible efforts of
    so many committed individuals, two of whom are with us today.
    Several are in the audience and certainly many up here at the
    dais. Faith-based groups, aid organizations throughout the
    U.S., and just people around the world have come together
    around this issue that we are highlighting today.
        This is the third year that we have held a hearing to
    highlight Shine a Light on Slavery Day, and the END IT movement
    has been building for about 10 years now. People around the
    world are very, very familiar now with this scourge on mankind.
    Across the country, people have made personal statements about
    the need to end modern slavery by wearing a red X like so many
    of us are doing today. And this year on February 23rd, during a
    Senate recess, this day will take place.
        In marking END IT Day, we highlight the horrific nature of
    modern slavery. We also highlight progress that is being made
    as the U.S. prepares to embark on an unprecedented global
    effort to end the scourge on humanity. And we certainly have
    some pioneers today who have been very instrumental in laying
    the foundation for that.
        Starting with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, there
    has been a growing awareness and increasingly effective anti-
    human trafficking work in the United States. This is important
    because as we begin to implement the authorization of the End
    Modern Slavery Initiative to measurably and sustainably ramp up
    all of our efforts worldwide, we can build on what has
    occurred.
        I want to take this moment to thank people here on the
    committee that unanimously passed out several years ago this
    bill and then continued to work to make sure, after about a 2-
    year process, we actually passed the authorization. I think
    people understand appropriations are already in place. And now
    the real work begins, again standing on the shoulders of our
    witnesses here today and so many others.
        Along the way, we have seen efforts to make a difference,
    as I just mentioned. And our first witness today is Mr. Ashton
    Kutcher. He is the Co-Founder of Thorn, an organization that
    works with law enforcement to rescue trafficking victims by
    leveraging the very technology used to abuse and exploit them.
    We welcome him today. He, by the way, flew all night. He is
    working right now on a film. And so he caught a red-eye in
    after having dinner with this wife. A very smart man on
    Valentine's Day.
        [Laughter.]
        The Chairman. And he is leaving immediately after this. But
    I will tell you if you knew of what he and his organization
    have done, it is inspirational, and the metrics that they are
    able to help us with, the way that they are able to interdict
    in advance now what is happening is phenomenal and a true
    testament to entrepreneurialism and people taking a risk, in
    this case towards a social good.
        I had a few moments with him. I am even more thankful for
    him and his commitment to this. He became interested just by
    seeing that it was occurring and felt that he could do
    something about it.
        We also welcome our second witness, Ms. Elisa Massimino,
    President and Chief Executive Officer of Human Rights First,
    which is engaged in the fight against modern slavery. Thank you
    so much for what you have been doing and your testimony today.
        We are also happy to have with us today the founders of
    Passion Movement and the Passion Church, Louie and Shelley
    Giglio. I will have to say that they are the people that
    brought awareness to me. They are the people that have
    instilled the awareness in young people all across our country.
    They want to be a part of ending this. I thank them for their
    personal inspiration and the inspiration they are to so many
    people around the world every day.
        We also have Jenny Brown, the Campaign Director of the END
    IT movement, who obviously for 10 years has been making people
    aware. In many ways, this awareness is what has led us to
    today.
        We would also like to welcome Mr. Tim Estes, just
    serendipitously. This has nothing to do with our involvement.
    He is CEO of Digital Reasoning, which is based in Tennessee,
    and they are actually using intelligence to interdict and help
    with the tools that Thorn is putting in place.
        I want to also thank Ernie Allen for being here as well.
    Ernie founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited
    Children, one of our greatest leaders on this issue. People in
    this movement know him well.
        I also want to welcome former U.S. Representative Susan
    Molinari from Google who has been involved in this even before
    being involved with Google.
        So with that, thank you all for being here. It is a great
    day for us. A lot of work ahead.
        I would like to introduce our outstanding ranking member,
    Ben Cardin, and my friend.

                 STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN,
                       U.S. SENATOR FROM MARYLAND

        Senator Cardin. Well, Mr. Chairman, thank you for making
    this one of the first hearings for the Senate Foreign Relations
    Committee in this Congress. It speaks to the priority that we
    believe that we must pay to modern day slavery trafficking. And
    we are proud of the progress that we have made in regards to
    dealing with this issue. It has been thanks to U.S. leadership,
    many of the people in this room, Susan Molinari. It is nice to
    see you again. We served together in the House of
    Representatives.
        It is always a pleasure to have Senator McCain on this
    committee. He served here for a while. I was a little
    suspicious when I saw him in the facilities. I thought he was
    coming over to take our office space, as well as our
    jurisdiction, for the Armed Services Committee.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Cardin. That had me a little bit concerned.
        Senator McCain. I came to counsel you.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Cardin. Your counsel is always welcome.
        Senator McCain is one of our great international champions
    on human rights. He is always very kind in the comments he
    makes about many of us. But we all have been mentored by
    Senator McCain on his passion to stand up for what is right and
    to do that regardless of the political consequences. When you
    stand up for human rights, you are standing up for what makes
    America the great nation it is. So, Senator McCain, it is great
    to have you here and thank you for your incredible leadership.
        Mr. Chairman, we have been talking about trafficking for a
    long time, and quite frankly, it was the U.S. leadership--it
    was the congressional leadership that made this issue the
    priority of our Nation and has made progress globally on
    trafficking, whether it is trafficking for sex or for labor
    issues, so many areas in which we have seen people abused
    around the world. I want to thank you for your leadership. It
    is tough to get anything done in this body, but through your
    persistent leadership, we have been able to leverage a very
    small amount of federal funds with private sector dollars that
    will make a difference globally on our fight against
    trafficking. You stuck with it. You got it done, and thank you
    for doing that.
        I want to thank Senator Menendez for his leadership on this
    issue. He has been one of the great champions on trafficking
    and standing up for the integrity of the Trafficking in Persons
    report which in the last administration, a Democratic
    administration, there was bipartisan criticism for the manner
    in which the Obama administration, we believed, brought in
    factors that should not have been brought into the rankings on
    the Trafficking in Persons report.
        I am proud of the work that has been done by the Helsinki
    Commission. I at one time had the opportunity to chair the
    Helsinki Commission. It was the Helsinki Commission that raised
    these issues in the international forum. Chris Smith now is our
    special representative to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He
    has made a career priority of dealing with trafficking.
        Mr. Chairman, as you can see, there have been members on
    both sides of the aisle that recognize that this indeed is
    modern day slavery, and we have a responsibility to root this
    out wherever we find it. And it cannot be compromised for other
    areas. This is something that in and of itself must be our
    highest priority.
        So we can celebrate the success that we have had, but we
    know there are too many people at risk. I visited victim
    centers and have seen the victims of trafficking. I have seen
    the victims of trafficking in Europe. I have seen the victims
    of trafficking in Asia. I have seen the victims of trafficking
    in the United States. And it is heartbreaking. And we know that
    they are victims and we need to recognize them as victims.
        I want to make just one other comment if I might, and that
    is, there are many reasons I was concerned about the
    President's executive order on immigration and refugees. But
    one of the reasons is the impact it has on victims of
    trafficking. I am not clear whether those who had T-visas
    would, in fact, still--who are victims of trafficking could
    have come into this country under that ban. I know that many of
    the refugees from Syria are potential victims or are victims of
    trafficking that our refugee program has a major impact on. We
    know that the Rohingya population of Burma were subject to
    trafficking. Many were allowed to come to the United States
    that were put on hold as a result of the President's executive
    order.
        So I just urge us that as we look at our priorities for
    protecting those who are victims, that we recognize that we in
    our zeal to protect our Nation on things like this executive
    order, has an impact on protecting people from the scourge of
    trafficking and modern day slavery. And I would just urge us to
    make sure that when we say this is going to be our priority
    that we are going to protect these victims, that we look for
    every possible way in order to be able to accomplish these
    goals.
        As the chairman said originally, I apologize that
    Democratic members are going to have some conflicts and there
    are some conflicts on floor votes. But I must tell you this is
    a very, very important hearing and one we thank our witnesses
    and we thank the interest that we have from the private sector
    to work with us to find ways that we can be more effective in
    stopping modern day slavery.
        The Chairman. Thank you so much.
        And with that, we will turn to my friend and, as has been
    mentioned, someone who has been fighting for the rights of
    people who do not have them all around the world, one of the
    crankiest Members that we have here in the United States
    Senate.
        [Laughter.]
        The Chairman. But we are glad that he has come to our
    hearing today. And I want to thank you personally for your and
    Cindy's leadership on this issue.
        I want to thank you also for allowing the Modern Slavery
    Initiative to be carried on the NDAA last year. Thank you for
    hanging with us but showing the leadership you have, I know you
    are going to make a few comments. We appreciate that and we
    introduce you now.

                    STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN McCAIN,
                       U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA

        Senator McCain. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will now
    translate the chairman's remarks into English.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator McCain. In the interest of time, Mr. Chairman, I
    would like my statement to be made part of the record and just
    say that the reason why I am here is to thank you, thank
    Senator Cardin, thank Senator Menendez especially, and all
    members of the committee for this bipartisan effort. If it had
    not been for yours and Senator Cardin's tenacity and dedication
    to this issue, it would not have passed into law as part of the
    National Defense Authorization Act. So I want to thank you and
    I want to thank all members of this committee for their effort
    and their highlighting this terrible, terrible issue that
    unfortunately, thanks to a lot of things, including social
    networking, seems to be growing rather than lessening
    throughout the world.
        I also want to thank Elisa and Ashton. Ashton, you were
    better looking in the movies.
        [Laughter.]
        Mr. Kutcher. My wife says that too.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator McCain. I want to thank you very much. On a
    personal note, I am proud of my home state of Arizona for being
    a leader on the issue. I applaud the work of my wife Cindy who
    for years has dedicated her time and effort on this. But I want
    to thank Thorn especially for their efforts.
        And just finally, Mr. Chairman, this issue is so terrible
    and so heart-wrenching and so compelling that a lot of times
    some of us would rather talk about more pleasant things. So I
    thank you for everything that you and members of this
    committee, but especially you and Ben, have done in furthering
    this effort. Some day it will pay off. And we will hear from
    our witnesses of the compelling stories that are so deeply
    moving, and I cannot think, frankly, of a higher priority.
        I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        [The prepared statement of Senator McCain follows:]

                   The Prepared Statement of Hon. John McCain

        Thank you, Chairman Corker and Ranking Member Cardin for holding
    today's hearing, and, more importantly, for your commitment to ending
    modern day slavery through your work on this committee.
        Human traffickers target the most vulnerable and at-risk
    individuals in our society and their crimes undermine the most basic of
    human rights. And the sad reality is that no matter where you live, the
    chances are it's happening nearby. More than 20 million people have
    been trafficked and trapped in horrific situations in over 165
    countries across the world, including the United States. If we are to
    finally eradicate modern slavery once and for all, it will require
    significant additional resources and sustained cooperation within the
    international community.
        Marshalling both public and private resources, the End Modern
    Slavery Initiative Act that passed as part of last year's National
    Defense Authorization Act will be critical in stopping such inhumane
    acts by giving support to victims, creating strategies to prevent
    slavery, and enforcing laws to punish perpetrators.
        This Initiative is an important step forward, and I am encouraged
    to see United States leadership on this issue, but human trafficking
    remains a widespread global phenomenon and we cannot address it on our
    own. We find susceptibility to trafficking wherever there is poverty,
    unemployment, and lack of opportunity, where rule of law is weak, where
    corruption is rampant, and where citizens live in fear without the
    protection of government. This is why we must do more to strengthen
    rule of law and support the work of our foreign partners, not only
    through anti-trafficking measures but also through vital democracy and
    governance aid. And it is why we need the support and commitment of our
    partners in return.
        Ultimately, when foreign countries see a serious and sustained
    commitment from the United States it often compels them to consider and
    make real policy changes. We need to provide a strong incentive for
    governments at every level to do all they can to prevent and prosecute
    trafficking, identify and support victims, and shield at-risk
    populations. This Initiative gives us the tools necessary to support
    the efforts of foreign governments committed to addressing human
    trafficking and allows for innovative partnerships where there is an
    active civil society to engage.
        On a personal note, I am proud of my home state of Arizona for
    being a leader on this important issue. I also applaud the work of my
    wife, Cindy, who, for years, has dedicated her time and energy to the
    cause of ending human trafficking both in Arizona and around the world.
    And, I am encouraged by the work of organizations like Thorn, who we
    will be hearing from today, who are harnessing technological innovation
    to assist law enforcement in restoring freedom to victims of this
    crime.
        As a country, we have had an extensive history of responding with
    necessary action to prevent slavery and ensure that fundamental
    freedoms are afforded to all people. But the fight against modern
    slavery is not over, and we must do more now. I am encouraged to see
    the Senate Foreign Relations Committee discussing ways to successfully
    implement this remarkable initiative and explore new opportunities to
    restore safety and give support to citizens across the world that are
    in dire need of protection and security.

        The Chairman. Thank you so much for coming. We appreciate
    it. Thank you.
        With that and setting the stage for the fact that we have
    27 million people around the world today that, as we sit here
    in this hearing, are living in slavery, 24 percent of those are
    in sexual servitude. 76 percent are living in cages at night,
    working in fishing, working in brick kilns, working in rug
    manufacturing. We have two of the best witnesses we could
    possibly have and people who have committed their lives and
    resources to this.
        Our first witness is Mr. Ashton Kutcher, Co-Founder of the
    Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children. Ashton, I just want to
    say again your story--for those people who are involved in
    venture capital and entrepreneurialism, it would be uplifting
    to see what you have done solely to help other people. I look
    forward to your testimony.
        Our second witness today is Elisa Massimino, President and
    Chief Executive Officer of Human Rights First. We thank you
    again for being here.
        If you would give your testimony in the order introduced,
    any written documents you have, without objection, will be
    entered into the record. Again, thank you so much for being
    here.

        STATEMENT OF ASHTON KUTCHER, CO-FOUNDER, THORN: DIGITAL
             DEFENDERS OF CHILDREN, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

        Mr. Kutcher. Thank you. It is an honor to be here. As a
    young man raised and brought up in the public school system, I
    pledged my allegiance to that flag every single day. And the
    honor--maybe one of the greatest honors of my life today--is to
    be here and leverage the work that I have done as testimony
    that may in some way benefit this Nation that I love.
        I would like to start by saying thank you to Chairman
    Corker for your leadership in this endeavor, and to Senator
    Cardin, your leadership has been extraordinary. And I would
    like to also say thank you to the rest of the committee that
    has supported this effort. This is a bipartisan effort, and in
    a country that is riddled with bipartisan separation on so many
    things, slavery seems to come up as one of these issues that we
    can all agree upon, and I applaud you for your agreement. And I
    believe in you and your leadership and your ability to take us
    out of it.
        I am here today to defend the right to pursue happiness. It
    is a simple notion: the right to pursue happiness. It is
    bestowed upon all of us by our Constitution. Every citizen of
    this country has the right to pursue it. And I believe that it
    is incumbent upon us as citizens of this Nation, as Americans
    to bestow that right upon others, upon each other, and upon the
    rest of the world.
        But the right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped
    away. It is raped. It is abused. It is taken by force, fraud,
    or coercion. It is sold for the momentary happiness of another.
        This is about the time when I start talking about politics,
    and the Internet trolls tell me to stick to my day job. So I
    would like to talk about my day job.
        My day job is as the Chairman and the Co-Founder of Thorn.
    We build software to fight human trafficking and the sexual
    exploitation of children. That is our core mission. My other
    day job is that of the father of two, a 2-month old and a 2-
    year-old. And as part of that job that I take very seriously, I
    believe that it is my effort to defend their right to pursue
    happiness and to ensure a society and government that defends
    it as well.
        As part of my anti-trafficking work, I have met victims in
    Russia. I have met victims in India. I have met victims that
    have been trafficked from Mexico, victims in New York, in New
    Jersey, and all across our country.
        I have been on FBI raids where I have seen things that no
    person should ever see. I have seen video content of a child
    that is the same age as mine being raped by an American man
    that was a sex tourist in Cambodia. And this child was so
    conditioned by her environment that she thought she was
    engaging in play.
        I have been on the other end of a phone call from my team
    asking for my help because we had received a call from the
    Department of Homeland Security telling us that a 7-year-old
    girl was being sexually abused and that content was being
    spread around the Dark Web. And she had been being abused and
    they had watched her for 3 years and they could not find the
    perpetrator, asking us for help. We were the last line of
    defense. An actor and his foundation were the potential last
    line of defense. That is my day job and I am sticking to it.
        I would like to tell you a story about a 15-year-old girl
    in Oakland. We will call her Amy. Amy met a man online, started
    talking to him. A short while later, they met in person. Within
    hours, Amy was abused, raped, and forced into trafficking. She
    was sold for sex. This is not an isolated incident. There is
    not much that is unusual about it. The only unusual thing is
    that Amy was found and returned to her family within 3 days
    using the software that we created, a tool called Spotlight.
        And in an effort to protect its capacity over time, I will
    not give much detail about what it does, but it is a tool that
    can be used by law enforcement to prioritize their caseload. It
    is a neural net. It gets smarter over time. It gets better and
    it gets more efficient as people use it. And it is working.
        In 6 months, with 25 percent of our users reporting, we
    have identified over 6,000 trafficking victims, 2,000 of which
    are minors. This tool is in the hands of 4,000 law enforcement
    officials and 900 agencies. And we are reducing the
    investigation time by 60 percent. This tool is effective. It is
    efficient. It is nimble. It is better. It is smarter.
        Now, there is often a misconception about technology that
    in some way it is the generator of some evil, that it is
    creating job displacement, and that it enables violence and
    malicious acts. But as an entrepreneur and as a venture
    capitalist in the technology field, I see technology as simply
    a tool, a tool without will. The will is the user of that
    technology, and I think it is an important distinction. An
    airplane is a tool. It is a piece of technology. And under the
    right hands, it is used for mass global transit, and under the
    wrong hands, it can be flown into buildings. Technology can be
    used to enable slavery, but it can also be used to disable
    slavery. And that is what we are doing.
        I alluded to a phone call that we got from the Department
    of Homeland Security about this girl that was being trafficked
    on the Dark Web. Now, it is interesting to note that the Dark
    Web was created in the mid-1990s. It was a tool that was
    created by the Naval Research Lab called TOR, a tool with
    absolute purpose and positive intention for sharing
    intelligence communications anonymously. It has also been used
    to help people who are being disenfranchised by their
    government within political dissent in oppressive regimes. But
    on the other side, it is used for trafficking, for drug
    trafficking, for weapons trafficking, and for human
    trafficking. And it is also the warehouse for some of the most
    offensive child abuse images in the world.
        Now, when the Department of Homeland Security called us and
    asked for our help and asked if we had a tool, I had to say no.
    And it devastated me. It haunted me because for the next 3
    months I had to go to sleep every night and think about that
    little girl that was still being abused and the fact that if I
    built the right thing, we could save her.
        So that is what we did. And now if I got that phone call--
    and, Greg, wherever you are at--the answer would be yes. We
    have taken these investigation times of Dark Web material from
    3 years down to what we believe can be 3 weeks. The tool is
    called Solace. Once again, I will not go into too much detail
    about the tool, but it is being used by 40 agencies across the
    world today in beta, and we believe that it is going to yield
    extraordinary results. And just like Spotlight, it gets smarter
    and more efficient and more cost-effective over time.
        So where do we go from here? What do we need? Obviously, we
    need money. We need financing in order to build these tools.
    Technology is expensive to build, but the beauty of technology
    is once you build the warehouse, it gets more efficient and
    more cost-effective over time. I might be able to present to
    you a government initiative where next year I come back and ask
    for less. And to me, it seems extraordinary.
        The technology we are building is efficient. It works. It
    is nimble because traffickers change their modus operandi, and
    we can change ours as well just as efficiently, if not more
    efficiently, as they can. It is enduring and it only gets
    smarter with time.
        We also are collecting data. We have KPIs. We actually
    understand that if we are delivering value, we increase our
    efforts in that area. If we are not delivering value, we shut
    it down. And it is a quantifiable solution. One of my mentors
    told me do not go after this issue if you cannot come up with a
    quantifiable solution. We can quantify it and we can make the
    work that we are doing and the initiatives you put forth
    accountable.
        My second recommendation is to continue to foster these
    private-public partnerships. Spotlight was only enabled by the
    McCain Institution, and the full support of Cindy McCain and a
    man that I find to be not only a war hero but a hero to this
    issue, John McCain.
        It was not just created by them. There was extraordinary
    support from the private sector. The company, Digital Reasoning
    out of Tennessee, stepped up to the plate. They offered us
    effort. They offered us engineers. They offered us support and
    pro bono work. We have had the support of companies that
    oftentimes war with each other from Google, to Microsoft, to
    AWS, to Facebook. And some of our other technology initiatives
    included many, many other private companies. It is vital to our
    success. These private-public partnerships are the key.
        The third thing I would like to highlight is the pipeline.
    You know, we sit at the intersection of discovery of these
    victims, but the pipeline in and the pipeline out are just as
    vital and just as important and addressing them are just as
    important.
        I would like to highlight one thing in particular, that
    being the foster care system. There are 500,000 kids in foster
    care today. I was astonished to find out that 70 percent of the
    inmates in the prisons across this country have touched the
    foster care system, and 80 percent of the people on death row
    were at some point in time exposed to the foster care system.
    50 percent of these kids will not graduate high school, and 95
    percent of them will not get a college degree.
        But the most staggering statistic that I found was that
    foster care children are four times more likely to be exposed
    to sexual abuse. That is a breeding ground for trafficking. I
    promise you that is a breeding ground for trafficking.
        But the reason I looked at foster care is that it is a
    microcosm. It is a sample set that we have pretty extraordinary
    data around to date, even though we cannot seem to fix it. It
    is a microcosm for what happens when displacement happens
    abroad as the unintended consequences of our actions or
    inactions in the rest of the world. When people are left out,
    when they are neglected, when they are not supported, and when
    they are not given the love that they need to grow, it becomes
    an incubator for trafficking. And this refugee crisis--if we
    want to be serious about ending slavery, we cannot ignore it
    and we cannot ignore our support for this issue in that space
    because otherwise we are going to deal with it for years to
    come.
        The outbound pipeline. There is just not enough beds. The
    bottom line is once someone is exposed to this level of abuse,
    it is a mental health issue. And there are not enough beds.
    There is not enough support. And we have to have the resources
    on the other side, otherwise the recidivism rates are through
    the roof. It is astonishing because when Maslow's hierarchy of
    needs are not being met, people will resort to survival, and
    this is their means of survival and the only source of love
    that they have in their life, that is what they go for. So we
    have to address the pipeline out, and we have to create support
    systems on the other end. It is not an entitlement. It is a
    demand to end slavery.
        My fourth and final recommendation is the bifurcation of
    sex trafficking and labor trafficking. They are both
    aberrations. They are both awful. They are both slavery, and
    they are both punitive in fact. But the solution sets are
    highly differentiated. When you look at sex trafficking, a
    victim is most often present at the incident of commerce. And
    this provides an opportunity for drastic intervention, whereas
    in labor trafficking, the victims are being hidden behind the
    manufacturers and the merchandisers. And it requires an
    entirely different set of legislation and proactivity and
    enforcement in order to shut it down.
        You know, there is a lot of rhetoric that is going on in
    the world right now about job creation in the United States.
    Well, if we want to create jobs in the United States, I would
    ask you to consider eliminating slavery from the pipelines of
    corporations because a lot of that slavery is happening abroad.
    And if we ask those corporations under extreme pressure that if
    you do not change it, you are going to be penalized, and if you
    do not clean up that pipeline, it is going to mean trouble,
    they are forced with two decisions. They can either clean up
    the pipeline abroad or they can move the jobs to the United
    States of America where they can be regulated and supported.
    Bringing jobs to America can be the consequence of doing the
    right thing, or it can be the consequence of doing the wrong
    thing. But that choice is up to you.
        Now, it is not lost on me that all of this disruption in
    our marketplace is going to have economic backlash. That is not
    lost on me at all. But I ask you do you believe that Abraham
    Lincoln had to consider the economic backlash of shutting down
    the cotton fields in the South when he shut down slavery
    because I am sure that weighed on his mind.
        You know, happiness can be given to no man. It must be
    earned. It must be earned through generosity and through
    purpose. But the right to pursue it--the right to pursue it is
    every man's right. And I beg of you that if you give people the
    right to pursue it, what you may find in return is happiness
    for yourself.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Kutcher follows:]

                    The Prepared Statement of Ashton Kutcher

        Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, I am
    honored to appear before you today to express my conviction that we can
    end modern slavery during our lifetimes.
        I want to express my particular gratitude to Chairman Corker for
    his vision, courage and tenacity, Senator Cardin, and the members of
    this Committee, for the work you did in a bipartisan way that made the
    End Modern Slavery Initiative a reality. It will change the world.
        As this Committee has reported, at least 27 million people,
    including children, suffer as a result of forced labor and sexual
    exploitation. The leading experts tell us that this is a problem in
    more than 165 countries. But it is not just a problem somewhere else.
    It is also a problem in this country.
        While it's important to know the numbers and statistics, it can
    make this problem seem distant. However, this is an issue that touches
    real people's lives. As a father of two young children, it is the
    stories of survivors and their resilience that have stayed with me and
    motivated me to do this work.
        Let me give an example of a survivor I was thinking about today as
    I came to Capitol Hill for this hearing. In 2015, we learned of Amy
    (not her real name), a 15-year old girl in Oakland who met her
    trafficker online and struck up a friendship. One day after school, she
    agreed to meet him in person and runaway. As soon as they were alone
    together, the man revealed he was a pimp and that Amy had to now sell
    herself for sex, otherwise he would beat her. He sexually assaulted Amy
    and forced her to start posting her own ads on online escort sites.
        Several days later, law enforcement officials were able to locate
    Amy and set up a ``date.'' Once in the room, they revealed they were
    law enforcement and there to help her. She said she wanted to go home
    and she helped the officers arrest her pimp. He is now facing over 40
    years in prison. Amy is back home with her family and receiving
    services.
        Sadly, Amy's story is not an isolated instance. It occurs every
    day, not just in this country, but all around the world. These are
    horrible situations and every situation is different.
        One thing that is unique about Amy's story is the short amount of
    time it took officers to find her. While our goal is that no one falls
    prey to trafficking ever, if and when they do, we must have a rapid
    response. When children are being trafficked and exploited, time is of
    the essence. There is not a moment to waste. And this is where
    technology can help.
        In the past, a typical trafficking case could take months, if not
    years, to identify and locate a minor victim due to the volume of
    escort ads posted daily in the United States. Our data points to over
    150,000 escort ads posted every day that are constantly being taken up
    and down on various sites. This reality, in combination with the fact
    that traffickers move victims from city to city, makes it extremely
    difficult to find and identify any individual.
        Our solution to this challenge is Spotlight. Spotlight is a web-
    based application we built with our partners (Digital Reasoning, the
    McCain Institute, Google, and others) to improve trafficking
    investigations and increase the number of victims identified and
    connected with help resources.
        While I can't disclose exactly how it works since it is utilized by
    law enforcement across the country, I can say it draws from publicly
    available data and using natural language processing and machine
    learning to help surface likely minors being sold online. This
    technology has existed for years, and yet now we are putting it to work
    for some of our most vulnerable children.
        And is it working? Yes. We know this because more than 4,000
    officers from over 900 agencies across this country are using it and
    getting real results. In the last twelve months, it's helped identify
    over 6,000 trafficking victims in the U.S., 2,000 of which were minors.
    It has also led to the identification of over 2,200 traffickers.
        Before Spotlight, if officers were lucky, they may have found Amy
    in a few months. With Spotlight, it took 3 days. This is where
    technology can be instrumental--in shrinking the time it takes to reach
    the victims in these situations.
        Amy's story shows us the power of using technology in the fight
    against trafficking:
        1. Technology Means Faster Identification. While invest in
    trafficking prevention is paramount, we also need the tools to identify
    victims when trafficking occurs. Amy is one person, but she is not
    alone. Technology allows for first responders to move faster and reach
    more victims in half the amount of time. Our users report that
    Spotlight has reduced investigative time by up to 60%. This means
    officers can spend more time away from a computer and out in the field
    trying to make contact with those who may want help.
        2. Technology is adaptable. One of the things we know about all
    types of trafficking, is how quickly the landscape changes. This is
    particularly true online, and can put law enforcement at a disadvantage
    to tech savvy perpetrators. One site goes down, another one pops up in
    its place.
        However, technology is nimble and can adjust to these kinds of
    changes in a matter of seconds, ensuring we don't miss a beat. We also
    run our nation wide survivor survey, where we ask survivors of
    trafficking to describe what role technology played in their
    exploitation to better understand where the points of intervention are
    and how we can improve our response. In this way, we are getting the
    full picture of how technology is being used to exploit these victims,
    so we can create effective tools to fight back.
        3. Technology is scalable and inexpensive to replicate globally. If
    you build a viable tool, you don't have to be constantly re-inventing
    the wheel, making it is relatively easy to adapt and scale globally.
    For us we've seen this both on the Spotlight, and with our work on the
    Dark Web. Spotlight is now being used in Canada, and we have great
    interest from the UK. Separately, our dark web tool (which I will
    discuss later) is being utilized by an international working group who
    focus on Child Sexual Abuse Material investigations in the Dark Web
    (over 40 users from 8 countries).
        Using technology to fight the sexual exploitation of children is
    what we aim to do at Thorn, a nonprofit organization I co-founded
    several years ago. We made a commitment to innovate, to develop new
    technology tools to better respond to and address these problems, and
    then to put those tools in the hands of those best positioned to use
    them.
        I refuse to live in a world where any person must remain in a
    heinous abuse situation simply because existing technology hasn't been
    utilized to find them.
        This model has taught us a lot about what we need to be effective
    but we still have a lot to learn. Spotlight is just one example of our
    commitment at Thorn to bring new, cutting-edge tools to the fight
    against modern slavery and human trafficking. Let me mention one more.
                                    dark web
        In the mid-1990s, the United States Naval Research Laboratory
    created a new tool, which enabled political dissidents and journalists
    to use the internet anonymously, thus avoiding retaliation by
    repressive regimes. This was done for high-minded and noble reasons.
        Yet, as with so many other innovations, there have been unintended
    consequences. Political dissidents are not the only ones using the
    internet anonymizing tools we created. They are also being used by
    criminals and exploiters, including human traffickers, weapons
    traffickers, drug traffickers, child exploiters and many others.
        As a result today, the anonymous Dark Web has become the open
    market for the trading of the worst of the worst child sexual abuse
    content. And there is no way to ``shut it down.'' Now that the
    technology exists, it will also be out there.
        Therefore, the way you have to attack this problem, is by matching
    the level of technical sophistication with your response. Initially,
    the primary investigative techniques were either infiltration or
    waiting for offenders to make a mistake. At Thorn, we are changing this
    paradigm by enlisting the best and brightest minds in technology to
    help us get out in front of these perpetrators instead of always
    playing catch up.
        Working alongside some of the top minds in technology, as well as
    law enforcement, we
        have developed a Dark Web investigations tool that can aid
    investigators in identifying and rescuing victims in the Dark Web
    faster than ever before.
        Just in the first six months of testing our beta tool, it has
    helped identify 37 children from around the world who were victims of
    child sexual abuse and whose abuse material has been shared in
    communities on the Dark Web. A number of these children were under 5
    years old.
                                recommendations
        Our efforts to help solve the complex problems of human trafficking
    and child sexual exploitation have taught us some powerful lessons. I'd
    like to offer three recommendations:
        1. More public-private partnerships are needed (Investment in
    Technology). At Thorn, we are a concrete example of what working with
    the public and private sector looks like. We've benefited from the
    expertise of leading technology companies like Google, Facebook,
    Microsoft, and AWS. We've also had the privilege to work with law
    enforcement and other government agencies at the local, national, and
    international level that are on the frontlines and are eager to improve
    their technical tools. We need support from both industry and
    government to keep doing this work.
        Our tool Spotlight is a great example of a public/private
    partnership. Because of the McCain Institute's initial investment in
    Spotlight, we were able to partner with Digital Reasoning, (a
    technology company based in Tennessee), to build the tool and get it in
    the hands of officers across the country. Our grassroots work with law
    enforcement has helped us bring Spotlight to over 4,000 law enforcement
    agents in over 1,000 agencies in all 50 states.
        A detective in New Mexico wrote us, ``I cannot overstate the
    importance of Spotlight in these investigations. Due to caseloads, we
    would be unable to identify most of these victims by manually searching
    their information due to time constraints.''
        While this approach of private and nonprofit funding allowed us to
    build the tool, it is not sustainable over time. We need government to
    join us as investment partners and support the ongoing innovation
    needed to stay ahead of perpetrators as well as invest in the technical
    support for law enforcement agents that are working to protect our
    kids.
        The End Modern Slavery Initiative Act, championed by Chairman
    Corker and this Committee, shows how the US government can be a leader
    on this issue. Through this initiative, the US government can actively
    invite the best and brightest in the technology field to join us in
    this fight and open a dialogue towards identifying and implementing
    technical solutions around the world. And, by demonstrating your
    financial commitment, this Committee is showing the world that the
    United States is serious about ending slavery in our lifetime.
        2. We must address the ``pipeline'' and aftercare: We need to even
    better understand how children become vulnerable to this crime in the
    first place. For instance, if you want to think about preventing
    domestic sex trafficking in the U.S., you must examine the foster care
    system and the data around the correlation between foster care and
    trafficking. It is absolutely dismal. Many organizations, agencies, and
    reports have documented the intersection between involvement in the
    child welfare system and child sex trafficking; between 50 and 98
    percent of identified child victims of commercial sexual exploitation
    have previously been involved with the child welfare system. Therefore
    if we are to address trafficking in the U.S., we must look hard at the
    foster care system as a place of critical intervention.
        And while our tool helps identify victims who are being exploited,
    what happens to these survivors once they are out of that abusive
    situation? All too often trafficking survivors find no options for
    rescue and rehabilitation. We must change that. There are some
    remarkable non-profits and government programs that offer direct
    services to survivors in the U.S., and all of them operate on a
    shoestring budget. Robust aftercare services prevent re-victimization
    and can be a critical investment of the End Modern Slavery Initiative
    Act as you seek to measurably reduce the prevalence of slavery around
    the world.
        3. We must address demand, the buyers. Human trafficking and modern
    slavery are such large problems today for a basic reason. They are low-
    risk and highly profitable. In the fight against sex trafficking, the
    perpetrators are often the unsuspected man next door. We have to create
    real deterrence and reduce demand by holding the customers accountable.
    And in regards to labor trafficking, we need more transparency in
    business supply chains and accountability for companies that are
    sourcing supplies and labor unethically. Members of this Committee have
    helped advance efforts to protect victims of labor trafficking by
    regulating foreign labor recruiters and introducing legislation to hold
    companies accountable. President Obama's Executive Order seeking to
    eliminate trafficking in federal contracts showed us that change is
    possible, but we have more work to do.
                                   conclusion
        Thank you for holding this hearing on this issue. Too often it is
    ignored and it takes courage to confront an issue that represents the
    worst of humanity.
        However, in working together to ``End It'' we also see the best
    sides of humanity. Because this committee has worked in a bipartisan
    way, the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act has now been signed into law
    by President Obama. I congratulate you on putting the interests of
    vulnerable children and adults ahead of politics.
        Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership. And thank you for the
    opportunity to appear before you today and to add my voice and that of
    Thorn to your historic effort to end modern slavery and touch the lives
    of millions of children and adults around the world. We stand ready to
    assist.
        Thank you.

        The Chairman. Thank you so much. Thank you.
        Elisa?

      STATEMENT OF ELISA MASSIMINO, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
              OFFICER, HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST, WASHINGTON, DC

        Ms. Massimino. Thank you, Chairman.
        Wow. I am just digesting all of that incredible passion and
    intelligence and purpose from you and feeling regretful that I
    have to follow it.
        [Laughter.]
        Ms. Massimino. But thank you also, Ashton, for turning your
    talent, your profile, your smarts to this important issue.
        Thanks to this committee and particularly thank you to you,
    Mr. Chairman, for your outstanding leadership on this issue. We
    are so grateful for your efforts to promote a stronger American
    leadership in this fight.
        Slavery is a devastating assault on human dignity.
    Perpetrators prey on the most vulnerable among us, refugees,
    children, the poor. It is a pressing global problem that
    affects and implicates the United States. It involves
    multinational supply chains, criminal enterprises, and the very
    terrorists and extremists that our Nation has vowed to combat.
    It tests our country's willingness to uphold fundamental rights
    at home and to challenge other governments to do the same.
        Our country is both a source and destination country for
    trafficking victims. And traffickers earn an estimated $150
    billion annually in illicit profits, while NGOs like ours and
    governments worldwide spend only about $124 million each year
    to combat it. That is simply not a fair fight. Meanwhile,
    American workers are forced to compete against free labor as
    companies take advantage of the global failure to enforce anti-
    slavery laws.
        Increasingly organized crime rings and international
    terrorist organizations traffic in human beings to accumulate
    wealth and power. And when refugees fleeing violence in Syria,
    Iraq, and other regions plagued by terrorism and political
    instability do not have pathways to safety, they become easy
    marks for extremists to exploit.
        Congress and the administration ought to deepen their
    commitment to combating slavery not only because of the moral
    and economic implications, but also because of the national
    security risks posed by corruption, terrorism, and organized
    crime.
        At Human Rights First, our mission is to foster American
    global leadership on human rights. We believe that standing up
    for the rights of all people is not only a moral obligation,
    but it is a vital national interest and that our country is
    strongest when our policies and actions match our ideals. For
    nearly 40 years, we have worked to ensure that the United
    States acts as a beacon on human rights in a world that sorely
    needs American leadership.
        American efforts to end modern slavery are critical not
    only to prevent human trafficking here at home, but also to
    ensure that our country sets an example for others. That is why
    we need to work harder to eliminate slave labor from the supply
    chains of American companies and to empower federal law
    enforcement agencies, which have deep expertise in prosecuting
    cross-border organized crime, to focus greater attention on
    ending impunity for traffickers and their enablers.
        Right now, slavery is a low-risk enterprise for the bad
    guys. According to the State Department's most recent
    Trafficking in Persons report, there were just over 6,600
    trafficking convictions globally in 2015, and only 297 of those
    were in the United States. Now, that might sound like a lot,
    but when you consider that there are nearly 21 million people
    enslaved around the world today, that is a pitifully small
    number. We have to do better.
        The United States has made important progress in the fight
    against modern slavery, and this committee has really been a
    key driver of that progress. The bipartisan cooperation and
    concern that has been demonstrated by this committee is a model
    for the future of our country.
        Today Human Rights First is releasing a new congressional
    blueprint for action to dismantle the business of modern
    slavery in which we detail additional measures that Congress
    should take. Modern slavery is a complex global crime, and we
    have to tackle it using a range of strategies. In my written
    testimony, I detail our recommendations, and they include using
    the funds authorized by the End Modern Slavery Act to combat
    trafficking globally and to attract new resources from other
    governments and private donors, bolstering the Trafficking
    Victims Protection Act to ensure that law enforcement and
    prosecutors have adequate resources to hold traffickers
    accountable, intensifying enforcement of the Tariff Act's ban
    on importation of goods made with slave labor, fully leveraging
    the power of the U.S. Government contracting to make sure we
    are not purchasing goods and services made with slave labor,
    and shielding the TIP report from political influence by
    passing the bill recently introduced by Senator Menendez and
    Senator Rubio.
        Each of those measures is critically important, but we also
    have to pay attention to prevention. Traffickers are ruthless
    and opportunistic. They are drawn like sharks to those in
    distress, and it is hard to imagine people in more distress
    today than refugees. In fact, with the possible exception of
    Vladimir Putin, nobody benefits more from the refugee crisis
    than those in the business of modern slavery. The truth is we
    simply cannot combat slavery without attending to those most
    vulnerable to it. And today, more than ever, that means helping
    refugees.
        As the State Department explained in last year's TIP
    report, refugees are, quote, prime targets for traffickers and
    refugee camps are ideal locations for them to operate. The
    majority of the world's refugees are women and children, and
    the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Trafficking reports that since
    2011, thousands of them--thousands--have disappeared,
    presumably abducted for purposes of trafficking-related
    exploitation.
        The U.N. Rapporteur also concluded that one of the primary
    causes of the rise in trafficking worldwide is increasingly
    restrictive and exclusionary immigration policies. According to
    the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, 10 percent of the
    world's refugee population is in urgent need of resettlement.
    Yet, last year only 1 percent were moved to places of safety.
        In light of this crisis, the recent executive order
    blocking the resettlement of Syrian refugees and reducing
    refugee admissions and halting the entire refugee resettlement
    program for the foreseeable future is particularly cruel.
    Turning our backs on the people most vulnerable to slavery, the
    very people this committee has worked so hard to help, not only
    breaks faith with our most cherished ideals, but it is a gift
    to those who profit from human misery. As a Nation that once
    pledged to stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human
    dignity, I think it is unconscionable. It is not who we are. It
    is not what we stand for.
        Time and again, national security leaders from Republican
    and Democratic administrations have testified that protecting
    refugees does not put Americans at risk. On the contrary,
    accepting Syrian and other refugees actually makes us safer. By
    helping them, the U.S. safeguards the stability of our allies
    that are hosting the vast majority of refugees, counters the
    warped vision of extremists that we are somehow at war with
    Islam, and strengthens our moral credibility, credibility that
    can be leveraged on other issues.
        Thirty-two of our Nation's most prominent national security
    leaders, retired flag officers, former government officials,
    including the former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael
    Chertoff, former National Security Adviser Steve Hadley, and
    former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center said in
    this statement--and I quote--despite America's role as the
    global leader in resettling refugees, many voices call for
    closed doors rather than open arms. To give in to such impulses
    would represent a mistake of historic proportions.

        [The information referred to can be found at the end of the
    hearing.]

        The so-called extreme vetting that is sought by the
    administration is already happening. It takes place over many
    months. It involves multiple law enforcement and intelligence
    agencies, and the blanket ban that has been proposed would not
    block terrorists. Our Nation's national security officials
    already do that. But it would block people forced to flee
    because of persecution and violence inflicted by repressive
    regimes and terrorist groups. And it will block people that are
    vulnerable to the parasitic criminals and violent extremists
    who profit from the global slave trade.
        Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I know how
    deeply you care about ending the scourge of modern slavery, and
    I urge you to allow your compassion for its victims to inform
    your position on refugees. Anyone who seeks to deprive
    traffickers of their ability to prey on vulnerable people
    cannot in good conscience slam the door on refugees. We are
    counting on you to fight any executive action that would
    sacrifice more innocent women and children to the global slave
    trade.
        In particular, I urge you to support Senator Feinstein's
    bill that would rescind the executive order. In the midst of
    the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, the world is
    really watching what we do. If we want our country to be a
    global leader in the fight against modern slavery, we cannot
    turn our backs on the very people most likely to become its
    victims.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Massimino follows:]

                   The Prepared Statement of Elisa Massimino

               i. introduction: the problem of human trafficking
        Chairman Corker, Ranking Member Cardin, and Members of the
    Committee: thank you for the invitation to be here today to discuss
    strategies for ending modern slavery. The scope and gravity of this
    problem demands our attention. We are deeply grateful, Mr. Chairman,
    for your outstanding leadership in raising the profile of this often-
    hidden crime and your persistence in ensuring that our country does all
    it can to end it.
        The United States abolished slavery with the ratification of the
    13th Amendment over 150 years ago. Yet the International Labor
    Organization reports there are more than 20 million people enslaved
    today--about double the number in bondage during the transatlantic
    slave trade. Slavery is a devastating assault on human dignity.
    Fundamentally, it is about exploitation of vulnerable people for
    profit.
        This is a pressing global problem that both affects--and
    implicates--the United States. It involves multi-national supply chains
    and global criminal enterprises. It tests our country's willingness to
    uphold fundamental rights at home and to challenge other governments to
    do the same.
        The United States is both a source and destination country for
    human trafficking victims. Traffickers earn an estimated $150 billion
    annually in illicit profits, while NGOs and governments worldwide spend
    only about $124 million each year to combat it. That's not a fair
    fight. Meanwhile, American workers are forced to compete against free
    labor as companies take advantage of the global failure to enforce
    anti-slavery laws.
        Increasingly, organized crime rings and international terror
    organizations traffic in human beings to accumulate wealth and power.
    Congress and the new administration must continue their commitment to
    addressing the problem of slavery, both for its moral and economic
    implications, and also because of the national security risks
    associated with corruption, terrorism, and organized crime.
        This committee has done important work in this regard, and I want
    to thank Senators Corker and Cardin for your continued leadership on
    this issue.
        As you said at this hearing last year, Senator Corker, the stark
    reality of modern slavery is unconscionable, and it demands that we
    make a commitment to end it for good.
        At Human Rights First, our mission is to foster American global
    leadership on human rights. We believe that standing up for the human
    rights of all people is not only a moral obligation; it is a vital
    national interest. Our country is strongest when our policies and
    actions match our ideals. For nearly 40 years, we have worked to ensure
    that the United States acts as a beacon on human rights in a world that
    sorely needs American leadership.
        American efforts to end modern slavery are critical, not only to
    eliminate human trafficking here at home, but to ensure that the United
    States sets an example for other nations. We need to make sure we are
    doing everything we can to eliminate slave labor from the supply chains
    of U.S. companies, and that our powerful federal law enforcement
    capabilities, which have deep experience and expertise in prosecuting
    cross-border organized crime, turn their attention to the crime of
    human trafficking.
        To that end, we have supported anti-trafficking legislation and
    increased funding for anti-trafficking programs, both at home and
    abroad. And we have spotlighted how traffickers and their enablers
    worldwide, including in the United States, too often operate with
    impunity.
        According to the State Department's most recent annual Trafficking
    in Persons report, in 2015 there were just over 6,600 convictions
    globally, and only 297 convictions for human trafficking here in the
    United States. That may seem like a lot, but when you consider that
    there are nearly 21 million people enslaved around the world today, it
    is pitifully few. We have to do better.
        These statistics also show that the people trafficked for labor
    have been especially neglected. An estimated 68% of trafficking victims
    worldwide are trafficked for labor, yet only 7% of convictions
    worldwide, and only 4% of human trafficking-related convictions in the
    United States, are labor trafficking cases.
        Boosting domestic prosecution of human trafficking is critical,
    both to eliminating the problem here in the United States and to
    setting an example for other countries on how it can be done.
    Human Trafficking and Refugees
        Traffickers are opportunistic and ruthless, and they are drawn like
    a magnet to vulnerable people. Because refugees are separated from
    their economic and social support structures and have limited ways to
    provide for their families, they are particularly vulnerable to
    exploitation by traffickers. This is especially true for unaccompanied
    minors and women and girls.
        Those who fall victim to human trafficking are among the most
    vulnerable people in the world, such as the nearly 5 million refugees
    who have fled Syria. About three-quarters of these refugees are women
    and children. A third of them are under 12 years old. These people are
    in grave danger of falling prey to human traffickers. Human Rights
    First has been assisting refugees seeking asylum in the United States,
    and encouraging global adherence to the international refugee
    convention, since our founding in 1978. As you said recently, Mr.
    Chairman: ``[T]he United States is at its best when it leads. And that
    leadership is particularly important in a crisis.'' We could not agree
    more.
        The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has described the current
    situation as the ``biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our
    time.'' Host countries' infrastructures are buckling under the strain,
    forcing refugees to rely on smugglers and treacherous migrant routes
    and border crossings as they search for protection. Even if they
    finally land in a refugee camp, these people remain at high risk for
    being trafficked. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has stated
    10% of the world's refugee population is in need of resettlement, yet
    less than 1% are resettled.
        As the U.S. State Department explained in its 2016 TIP report:
        Camps for refugees and internally displaced persons are prime
    targets for traffickers. The concentration of vulnerable, displaced
    people, combined with a lack of security, services, and oversight
    typically found in such camps, make them ideal locations for
    traffickers to operate. In long-standing camps, traffickers are able to
    build relationships with corrupt camp officials and establish
    trafficking rings. Human trafficking is frequently overlooked in crises
    and omitted from formulations of humanitarian and emergency response
    policies. Trafficking operations can flourish amidst international
    reconstruction efforts where there are few government institutions or
    rule of law. The international community and individual countries must
    recognize labor and sex trafficking as a common occurrence during
    conflict and include anti-trafficking strategies in humanitarian
    responses.
        We must recognize the close link between human trafficking and the
    refugee crisis. If we want to end modern slavery, we should be doing
    everything we can to reduce the vulnerability of the refugee
    population.
                       ii. successes and recommendations
        The United States has made some important progress in its attempts
    to combat human trafficking, and this committee has played a key role
    in making that happen. Today Human Rights First is releasing a new
    congressional blueprint for action to dismantle the business of modern
    slavery in which we detail additional measures that Congress should
    take.
    A. End Modern Slavery Initiative Act
        Senator Corker introduced bipartisan legislation designed to bring
    much-needed resources to this global fight. The End Modern Slavery
    Initiative Act of 2015 was critically important legislation seeking to
    leverage foreign aid and galvanize support from the public and private
    sectors internationally to focus resources to fight slavery.
        Programs that receive funding under the act are required to
    contribute to the freeing and recovery of victims, prevent future
    enslavement, and enforce laws to punish perpetrators of modern slavery.
    They must develop clear and measurable goals and outcomes; and achieve
    fifty percent reduction of modern slavery in targeted populations.
    These are all extremely important measures.
        Now we need to ensure the funds authorized by the act and already
    appropriated will be used to leverage further resources from
    governments and private donors. Engaging other governments is key to
    addressing the cross-border aspect of slavery and ensuring that
    shutting down slavery in one place doesn't just force it over to
    somewhere else. Similarly, we have to engage the private sector to
    address slavery in supply chains. Additionally, this fund should
    bolster law enforcement in select geographic areas with a goal of
    reducing the incidence of slavery by at least fifty percent during the
    duration of the project. This concentrated investment in key geographic
    areas is crucial to identifying the most successful methods of
    increasing the risk to traffickers, which can then be scaled up and
    replicated in other countries.
    B. Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization Act
        Amendments to the Trafficking Victims Protection and
    Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) have also been critical to enabling
    prosecutors to bring traffickers and their enablers to justice.
    Although we still see only a small number of human trafficking
    prosecutions, both worldwide and in the United States, we have learned
    that targeting funding to encourage coordination among federal
    agencies, such as through Enhanced Collaborative Model Human
    Trafficking task forces, has been extremely helpful to the U.S.
    government's ability to detect and respond effectively to human
    trafficking. It is important for Congress to continue to support these
    prosecutions, through additional targeted funding for training of
    prosecutors, investigators, and service providers, and through
    legislation that provides designated prosecutors with the resources
    necessary to focus on prosecuting slavery.
        Domestic prosecutions of human trafficking send an important signal
    to other countries we are trying to enlist in this fight. Better
    coordination of domestic law enforcement also supports international
    prosecutions of global trafficking rings, which is a growing area of
    concern.
        Refugees, and particularly children, are especially vulnerable to
    these organized criminal syndicates. Last year, Interpol, along with
    the European Union's criminal intelligence agency, released a report
    documenting that at least 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees had
    disappeared after arriving in Europe. Many were feared to have fallen
    into the hands of organized criminals engaged in human trafficking.
    These international law enforcement agencies found that longstanding
    criminal gangs known to be involved in human trafficking were now
    engaging in migrant smuggling and were targeting refugees for human
    trafficking. U.S. law enforcement agencies must have the resources and
    training to coordinate with our allies and help combat this global
    scourge.
        The TVPRA has also provided important protections for unaccompanied
    children who arrive at the Southern border and are at risk of human
    trafficking. The 2008 TVPRA mandated that Customs and Border Protection
    (CBP) immediately transfer unaccompanied children from non-contiguous
    countries to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of
    Refugee Settlement custody, where appropriate care and screening can
    take place with child welfare professionals. The TVPRA also mandated
    that unaccompanied children from Mexico or Canada be screened for risk
    of trafficking or fear of persecution before they are removed or
    returned, and that any unaccompanied child found to be at risk be
    immediately transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services
    Office of Refugee Settlement custody. Congress should ensure that these
    provisions in Section 235 of the TVPRA are maintained. These
    protections guarantee that unaccompanied children speak to individuals
    trained to recognize the signs of trafficking and who have expertise in
    child welfare and development. If unaccompanied children who have been
    trafficked are to be protected, they must speak with the proper people
    with the proper training. Recognizing that unaccompanied children are
    at risk of being trafficked ensures that the government is keeping the
    child's best interest and human rights in mind.
        Furthermore, how the U.S. Government responds to the crisis of
    unaccompanied child refugees and their risk of being trafficked has
    implications beyond our borders. If the United States does not
    adequately respond to this crisis, it loses the moral authority to ask
    other nations to work harder to identify and protect trafficked and
    persecuted children.
    C. Tariff Act
        Another important success in the past year was the amendment of the
    Tariff Act to close the consumptive demand loophole that for too many
    years prevented meaningful enforcement of the ban on importation of
    goods made by slave labor. We commend the bipartisan efforts of this
    committee for its leadership in closing that loophole.
        The Obama administration slowly began to enforce this legislation,
    but we need to see significantly more effort from the new
    administration on enforcement of the law, and more oversight from
    Congress. I encourage this committee to press the Customs and Border
    Protection agency to play a more aggressive enforcement role, and to
    ensure that all CBP agents who may encounter slave-made goods have the
    training and resources to effectively respond. Barriers to the import
    of goods made with slave labor is, of course, consistent with the new
    administration's emphasis on encouraging American-made products and on
    creating a level playing field in the market for U.S. manufacturers.
        This new Tariff Act provisions also provide an important
    opportunity for Congress to encourage American companies with global
    supply chains to work with the U.S. government, and with other
    governments where their supply chains extend, to ensure that their
    suppliers are complying with the requirements of U.S. law and not
    creating unfair competition for American workers by using slave labor.
    Increasingly, the private sector will need to coordinate and share
    information with governments if our efforts to end modern slavery are
    to succeed.
    D. Leveraging the Power of Government Contracting
        Congress and this committee have also taken important steps toward
    ensuring that the government itself is not relying on goods or services
    provided by forced labor.
        Following President Obama's 2012 executive order, ``Strengthening
    Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts,''
    Congress passed the End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, as
    Title 17 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013. That led
    to amendment of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) to strengthen
    protections against human trafficking in federal contracts, which went
    into effect March 2, 2015.
        FAR subpart 22.17 codified trafficking-related prohibitions for
    federal contractors and subcontractors, requires contractors and
    subcontractors to notify Government employees of violations, and
    notifies parties that the Government may impose remedies, including
    contract termination, for failure to comply with the requirements.
        The Executive Order and statute created a stronger framework for
    preventing trafficking by prohibiting contractors and subcontractors
    from engaging in practices such as destroying, concealing,
    confiscating, or otherwise denying access by employees to their
    identity or immigration documents; using misleading or fraudulent
    recruitment practices; charging employees recruitment fees; and
    providing or arranging housing that fails to meet the host country's
    housing and safety standards. The Executive Order and statute also
    extend anti-trafficking requirements to contracts performed outside the
    United States that exceed $500,000, including a requirement for a
    compliance plan and annual certifications.
        These laws have now been in effect for two years, but unfortunately
    we've seen little enforcement. The Executive Order banned contractors
    and their sub-agents from charging workers recruitment fees, because
    these fees often leave workers indebted and vulnerable to abuse.
    However, the term ``recruitment fee'' has not yet been clearly defined
    in the regulations. A draft definition was released last summer for
    public comment, but it has not been finalized. Robust enforcement of
    this important provision hangs on the ability of both government
    contractors and contracting officers to know what constitutes a
    recruitment fee. The definition should be broad enough to encompass
    anything of value, so that recruiters aren't continuing to charge these
    fees under another name--for example, calling them travel, medical or
    equipment expenses, a practice that has become quite common.
        Congress should support a mechanism of high-level oversight by
    creating positions of Human Trafficking Compliance Advisors who will
    work within government agencies to ensure everyone involved in the
    contracting process is trained on these new laws and brings allegations
    of human trafficking to the appropriate counsel's office. Currently,
    the legislation relies on contractors to self-report violations, which
    has not been an effective means of enforcement.
    E. TIP Report
        Finally, I'd like to highlight the importance of the Trafficking in
    Persons (TIP) report, which has been a critical tool for grading
    countries on their efforts to eliminate human trafficking and
    pressuring them to improve. When countries are ranked appropriately,
    the TIP report has been an important diplomatic tool for the United
    States in addressing this global problem. Where politics has taken
    priority over trafficking concerns, however, it has been less
    effective.
        That is why we strongly support a bill recently re-introduced by
    Senators Robert Menendez and Marco Rubio, which would help to shield
    the report from political influence.
        A new provision of that bill would leverage the role of
    multilateral institutions, as called for by the United Nations'
    Sustainable Development Goals, by making it more difficult for the
    World Bank to lend to countries who receive a Tier 2 Watch List or Tier
    3 ranking by requiring these countries to first participate in a human
    trafficking risk assessment.
                    iii. refugee crisis & human trafficking
    A. Overview
        The world is facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
    One cannot effectively address the scourge of modern slavery without
    recognizing our duty to assisting those most vulnerable to it.
    Especially now, that means assisting and welcoming Syrian refugees.
        In this context, the president's recent Executive Order
    indefinitely suspending the resettlement of all Syrian refugees is
    particularly cruel and unconscionable. The United States must be
    concerned with national security and preventing terrorism. But it is
    nonsensical to ban, even temporarily, the most vulnerable refugees, who
    are only accepted for resettlement here after a rigorous cross-border,
    multi-agency screening progress that can take up to two years.
        Over and over again, national security leaders from both Republican
    and Democratic administrations have explained that protecting refugees
    does not put us at risk. On the contrary, accepting Syrian and other
    vulnerable refugees makes us safer, by burnishing our global reputation
    as a humanitarian leader and supporting our allies in the Middle East
    who are struggling to host huge numbers of refugees within their
    borders.
        Last year, a bipartisan group of former national security officials
    and retired military leaders issued a Statement on America's Commitment
    to Refugees, noting how critical it is to our identity as a nation that
    we accept refugees fleeing persecution and violence:
        For more than two centuries, the idea of America has pulled toward
    our shores those seeking liberty, and it has ensured that they arrive
    in the open arms of our citizens. That is why the Statue of Liberty
    welcomes the world's ``huddled masses yearning to breathe free,'' and
    why President Reagan stressed the United States as ``a magnet for all
    who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places
    who are hurtling through the darkness.''
        Unfortunately, by temporarily banning all refugees, indefinitely
    banning all Syrian refugees, and cutting the number of refugees
    resettled to the U.S. by 60,000, the president's Executive Order on
    Immigration means that the United States is turning its back on the
    very individuals who are the most vulnerable to the scourge of modern
    slavery this committee has been working so hard to end.
        In June 2016, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons,
    Especially Women and Children, reported:
        People fleeing conflict [are] constantly exposed to the risk of
    trafficking any time during their journey. For such migrants,
    internally displaced persons, refugees and asylum-seekers, the
    clandestine nature of their journey, the often unscrupulous and corrupt
    conduct of their facilitators, and the extent to which some States will
    go to prevent their departure, transit or arrival, all operate to
    create or exacerbate opportunities for traffickers who prey on their
    precarious situation. Therefore, even if they were not trafficked from
    the very beginning of their journey, they can become victims of
    trafficking at some point in their journey or at their intended
    destination.
        The journey of female migrants and unaccompanied children is
    particularly hazardous, he noted. ``Thousands of such women and
    children have disappeared, presumably abducted for purposes of
    trafficking related exploitation.''
        In addition, the U.N. Special Rapporteur found that since 2011,
    ``an increased number of Syrian refugees have been trafficked for
    purposes of labor exploitation in the agricultural industry,
    manufacturing, catering and informal sectors in Jordan, Lebanon and
    Turkey.''
        Sudanese and Somalian refugees and asylum seekers, including many
    unaccompanied children, have been kidnapped or lured from refugee camps
    or while traveling, sold and then held captive for exploitation.
        There has also been a high incidence of trafficking and
    exploitation among poorly-educated Afghan, Syrian and Iraqi men and
    boys traveling alone.
        People of the Rohingya Muslim minority fleeing persecution in
    Myanmar were being smuggled across borders and trafficked to fishing
    boats and palm oil plantations. Others were held captive and abused in
    Malaysia.
        The causes of this growth in modern slavery, the Special Rapporteur
    explained, include: ``increasingly restrictive and exclusionary
    immigration policies, including criminalization and detention of
    irregular migrants, insufficient channels for regular migration and
    family reunification and lack of regular access to the labour market
    for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.'' (UNSR, June 2016)
    B. Recommendations
        The refugee crisis is, of course, a multi-faceted problem, and not
    one that Congress can solve on its own. However, there is a good deal
    this Congress and this committee can do to champion the resettlement of
    refugees, provide information to trafficking victims, maintain critical
    safeguards, and train U.S. officials who may encounter trafficking
    victims and refugees about how best to ensure their protection.

            1. Rescind Provisions of the Executive Order on Immigration

                    a. We strongly support Senator Dianne Feinstein's bill,
                    S.274, rescinding the provisions of Executive Order
                    13769. There is no need to issue a blanket ban on entry
                    of individuals from the seven specified countries
                    (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen),
                    and even less reason to halt the U.S. refugee program.
                    As we and many others have explained, refugees
                    resettled in the United States already face ``extreme
                    vetting'' and are actually the most carefully screened
                    of anyone who arrives here. Accepting refugees is also
                    widely seen as helpful to U.S. national security.

                    b. In addition to rescinding the order, we urge
                    Congress to maintain current funding levels for the
                    refugee resettlement program.

                    c. We also support Senator Kamala Harris's bill, S.349,
                    to clarify that all persons who are held or detained at
                    a port of entry or at any detention facility overseen
                    by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or U.S.
                    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are allowed
                    access to counsel. This is particularly important for
                    women, children and others vulnerable to trafficking,
                    who are often unaware of their rights at the border.

            2. Ensure Vulnerability Remains the Criteria by Which Refugees
            are Prioritized for Admission, not Discrimination Against
            Specific Refugee Populations

        In addition to financial support for particular programs to help
    identify and protect refugees who have suffered or are at risk of
    trafficking, it is critical for the United States to lead globally
    again on resettling vulnerable refugees, without regard to religion or
    nationality, and respecting the human rights and refugee protection
    treaties that are so essential to global stability.
        Those treaties rightly mandate that people should be protected from
    religious persecution. Yet the Trump administration's proposed policy
    of allowing Christians into the United States while barring Muslims is
    itself a form of religious discrimination. Religious tests like the one
    embedded in President Trump's executive order are illegitimate and
    inconsistent with our values as a nation.
        To aid trafficking victims in particular, we also urge the issuance
    of humanitarian visas, increased flexibility in the family
    reunification processes, launch of a program to allow for private
    sponsorship of refugees by Americans, and student scholarship programs
    to reduce the incentive for victims to turn to smugglers or
    traffickers.
        The United States must also lead by example at home, making sure
    that refugees and those at risk of trafficking, including children,
    have access to protection at our borders.
        Finally, when it comes to child refugees, who face the greatest
    risk of trafficking, the best interests of the child should be
    paramount. The United States should not force children to return to the
    societies they fled, where they may be recruited by military groups and
    end up alone and isolated from their families and communities, leaving
    them especially vulnerable to trafficking.
                                   conclusion
        These are difficult times for millions of people living in poverty
    and conflict around the world. The rise of modern slavery is one of the
    tragic consequences of these intractable problems, but it is one that
    this Congress can do something about. This committee has taken
    important steps to end modern slavery through the legislation and
    oversight. But it is not enough. The scope of this problem demands that
    we tackle it at the roots. At its core, slavery is about exploitation
    and dehumanization of vulnerable people. If our country is to be a
    global leader in the fight against human trafficking, we cannot turn
    our backs--at a time when they most need us--on the very people most
    likely to become its victims.
        Thank you.

        The Chairman. Thank you.
        Ashton, I was going to ask you a different question, but
    after hearing your opening comments, I am going to reframe it.
    I think you shared how you became involved in this and your
    compassion and passion for ending it. And we thank you for
    that.
        We have embarked on a program now that is a public-private
    partnership of major proportion. It is where the U.S. would
    lead. We would get other governments to help on a two-to-one
    basis and the private sector to help on a three-to-one basis to
    put in place an effort that would have metrics, an effort where
    we would be able to measure results, measure the problem,
    measure results. And I just wondered, based on the experiences
    that you have had in the private sector establishing metrics
    and models to end this scourge on mankind, what kind of advice
    would you give us as we set up this international effort that
    is based here but led by the United States?
        Mr. Kutcher. I think my first piece of advice would be to
    lead with compassion as you approach these private sector
    companies. These companies have customers and they care about
    their customers and they want their customers to know that they
    are doing the right thing. And I think great companies have a
    conscience that promote them to actually do the right thing.
        The second thing--I mean, you basically said it in your
    question to some degree, which is you have to be able to
    measure results. And I oftentimes believe that if you cannot
    measure it, you cannot improve it, and if you cannot improve
    it, you are working blindly.
        But also what I would encourage is to ensure that whatever
    buckets of capital are being deployed to actually deploy that
    capital in a way where there is not a risk aversion in shooting
    for the fences. If what it is that you are trying to apply to
    the issue does not have a potential 10X outcome but also the
    same potential to fail, you may not get the results that you
    want. And as I work with entrepreneurs across the country, the
    extraordinary thing about the entrepreneurs I work with in
    Silicon Valley is that they are not afraid to fail. It is
    unbelievable. As a kid from Iowa that was taught to be
    responsible with everything and make sure every dollar counts,
    they just go for it like full-blown. And so if you deploy the
    capital in a way that allows people the opportunity to fail but
    also massively succeed, you may find that you have much greater
    outcomes than what you do by making the safe choices with the
    deployment of the capital in large chunks into some--well,
    obviously, that is the good feel. Oftentimes the greatest idea
    comes when those people are not afraid to fail. And so giving
    them permission to shoot for the fences I think is an important
    piece of the puzzle.
        The Chairman. I am going to turn to Senator Menendez. These
    people are coming back, by the way. We have got a vote that is
    underway. I think we are going to try to time it where we do
    both at one time.
        Senator Menendez, do you want to go and come back?
        Senator Menendez. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I think there is only
    2 minutes left on the vote. So I do intend to come back
    notwithstanding the caucus.
        The Chairman. So here is that we are going to do and this
    is strange, but we are going to recess for just a moment until
    the next person comes back and we will resume. And I apologize
    for this, but I am sure lots of people would like to have their
    photograph taken.
        Mr. Kutcher. I prefer not to talk to no one.
        [Laughter.]
        The Chairman. We will be back.
        Mr. Kutcher. Although I do it quite often.
        The Chairman. We are in recess until someone returns. Thank
    you.
        [Recess.]
        Senator Young [presiding]. I want to thank our witnesses
    very much. As you are well aware, we have votes going on right
    now. But with the chairman's guidance, we shall continue here
    out of respect for your time.
        We will begin with my own questions. As other members roll
    in, we will entertain those.
        But, Mr. Kutcher and Ms. Massimino, thank you so much for
    your leadership. This is such an important area. We are shining
    a national spotlight on the importance of it, and I am just so
    grateful for your efforts.
        Do you both agree, as you work on this issue, that the
    State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report is a
    valuable resource in your efforts to fight human trafficking
    and the scourge of modern slavery?
        Mr. Kutcher. Yes.
        Ms. Massimino. Yes, absolutely we do. I do.
        Mr. Kutcher. And presumably you cannot solve the problem if
    you do not know how big it is.
        Senator Young. That is right. So presumably we want that
    report to be as accurate and as comprehensive as possible.
    Right?
        Ms. Massimino. We do.
        Mr. Kutcher. Yes.
        Senator Young. These are what we call leading questions.
    Right?
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Young. So tomorrow I plan to introduce a piece of
    legislation called the Department of State and United States
    Agency for International Development Accountability Act of
    2017. The legislation is needed to provide this committee
    greater transparency regarding the more than 180 General
    Accountability Office recommendations for the departments and
    USAID that have not been fully implemented. And among the
    recommendations are at least two or three recommendations
    pertaining to this very area, about which you and so many
    others are passionate.
        The legislation will enable Congress and this committee to
    conduct even more effective oversight, something we can always
    improve upon. It would require State and USAID to provide a
    timeline for implementation of these anti-trafficking
    proposals, as well as other proposals. And it would ensure that
    any GAO recommendation that is not implemented--we are certain
    as to why that is, given some rationale for that.
        So given the large number of open recommendations, it would
    be my hope that most would be implemented and that we can get
    bipartisan support for this effort.
        So I am inviting members of both sides of the aisle to work
    with me on this legislation. We will be dropping it tomorrow.
        I would like to ask both of our witnesses about the growing
    impact of sexual exploitation, forced labor, what we generally
    call modern slavery here in our own country. Some of my
    thinking on this issue is informed by good work that has been
    done in my own State of Indiana. With the leadership of the
    Indiana Attorney General, our former U.S. Attorney, and now so
    many other stakeholders in our State, we have put together a
    report in our State, the 2016 Indiana State Report on Human
    Trafficking.
        Typically, we ask for unanimous consent to enter this into
    the record. I consent to have it entered into the record.

        [The material referred to above can be accessed at the
    following url:]
        https://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/files/
    ht%20report%202016.pdf

        Senator Young. I think this will be instructive to further
    your efforts and those of others who are working on this issue.
        This was the product, this report and the related
    initiatives in my own State of Indiana. It was a product of a
    public-private partnership to address the unique challenges
    that our State and others are facing.
        The report indicates that the coalition of service
    providers served 178 trafficked youth in 2016 alone. 178 people
    in my home State of Indiana. Of those youth under age 21 served
    by Indiana providers statewide in 2016, nearly all were girls,
    94 percent. As a father of three young girls, I feel
    particularly passionate about the need to address this, but I
    note that this is something that afflicts both genders as well.
        The report found nearly 30 percent of those impacted are 15
    or younger, and more than 10 percent are between the ages of 12
    and 14. All of my children are younger than that. In Indiana,
    victims were as young as 7 when first trafficked.
        These statistics are, of course, heartbreaking. They speak
    to the broader challenges we face nationally and
    internationally. If you could each speak to whether the trend
    lines in the State of Indiana are reflective of your findings
    across the country, the ages, the gender.
        Mr. Kutcher. So most studies have found that the average
    age of entry into sex trafficking is about 12 years old. I
    think most of the numbers that you are finding in your State
    are accurate.
        Relative to the legislation that you were alluding to
    earlier, I would like to ask, then what? So we measure it and
    we know it is a problem, but then what? And what are the
    consequences if the reporting is not there, and what is the
    consequences if they do not use the tools, if the tools are
    being used? I am just curious about that relative to that
    legislation.
        Senator Young. I would be happy to indulge that question.
    So working with the chairman and the ranking member and people
    on both sides of the aisle, I think we should make every effort
    to make sure that the State Department has a specific, concrete
    plan of action comprehensive in nature that would arrest this
    problem internationally since that is the focus of the State
    Department. We also need to have a domestic range of solutions
    to this. And then we need to resource. We need to resource our
    action plans at the State level, at the federal level. I know
    that has been a point of emphasis in your own testimony.
        Here on this committee, perhaps the first step is to see
    that members on both sides of the aisle continue to work to
    push an authorizing bill, something the chairman has really
    shown some leadership on recently, and to the extent we can
    include human trafficking and other things moving forward on
    that, that is a part answer to your question.
        So, Ms. Massimino, do you have additional thoughts on the
    trend lines in Indiana versus the country?
        Ms. Massimino. I do. I do think those are reflective of
    what we see.
        I also want to say I think it is really important, the
    State level focus on trafficking. This, as I said, is a big
    global problem, very complex, and there are lots of different
    ways we need to tackle it. But it is really quite important.
    That sounds like extraordinary leadership at the State level to
    be tackling these issues really kind of close to home.
        One of the things that you heard from both of us is the
    importance of--you know, reporting is for the purpose of being
    able to measure progress--right--and to get data so you know
    what strategies are working. One of the things that Human
    Rights First has been really focused on is making sure that
    State and federal law enforcement have the resources that they
    need to go after higher up in the food chain, if you will, of
    these criminal enterprises that are exploiting people, both on
    labor and sex trafficking.
        You know, labor trafficking cases are a much smaller
    percentage of the overall prosecutions that happen, but there
    are a greater percentage of victims that are in the labor
    trafficking area. They are much more complex and expensive
    cases to bring, but they are really important.
        I think Congress should pay particular attention to making
    sure that these human trafficking prosecution units are well
    funded and can work in coalition at the State and local and
    federal level law enforcement to integrate the solutions to
    those problems.
        You also mentioned the public-private partnership piece.
        Senator Young. I did and that was my next question. So
    thank you for anticipating it, but I do not have to cut into
    the chairman's time now that he has reentered the room. Maybe
    you could speak to the importance of that, each of you. I know,
    Mr. Kutcher, you mentioned it in your testimony as well. IPATH
    is the Indiana State report on human trafficking and the entity
    it created to help fight this scourge in our own State. It is a
    not-for-profit initiative. There are over 75 organizations
    statewide focused on collectively addressing this issue, and
    perhaps you could speak to the importance of these sorts of
    public-private partnerships in addressing modern slavery, each
    of you. Thank you.
        Mr. Kutcher. Just to touch on the point that Elisa is
    making, I think another thing that should not be lost is the
    focus on demand prosecution in the space. These are victims.
    You said it yourself. These kids are 12 years old, 13 years
    old. That is not a criminal. That is a victim of a crime. And
    if we are not prosecuting the buyers, if we are not prosecuting
    the traffickers not just for trafficking, but that is statutory
    rape and it should be treated as statutory rape and prosecuted
    as rape. And I do not think that we do a good enough job yet of
    addressing that issue in that way.
        Senator Young. Do either of you have thoughts on what we
    might do to bring more of these individuals to justice to
    prosecute them?
        Mr. Kutcher. Well, it is my understanding that there is an
    initiative underway currently that will address this within the
    judiciary system. And I think the best thing that we can do is
    to support that initiative.
        Senator Young. Continue to support that.
        Ms. Massimino. I think also making sure that these safe
    harbor provisions that have had so much bipartisan support here
    in Congress that would treat victims like victims are very,
    very important.
        The public-private partnership aspect of this I think is
    absolutely key. You know, there is a lot that government can do
    and should be doing, that all governments globally should be
    doing and collaborating together on this. But as Ashton pointed
    out, the supply chain issue, the pipeline into slavery--we have
    to be looking at that.
        So I would say there should be kind of 3 P's in this
    public-private partnership. It should be also the private
    sector companies, American companies in particular. You know,
    when I talk about American leadership on this issue, I do not
    just mean the American Government. I mean all of us. And in
    many places in the world, American companies are the American
    brand. So making sure that we enlist those companies,
    especially now that you all have passed legislation that amends
    the Tariff Act which for decades allowed for this importation
    of child-made and slave-made labor through this consumptive
    demand loophole that was in existence. You have closed that
    loophole down, and that is a potentially transformational thing
    in the world of human trafficking.
        Now we have to make sure that it is enforced, that the
    Department of Homeland Security enforces it, that companies
    understand what they need to do. Most companies do not want
    anything to do with slavery, but many of them do not understand
    what they need to do to look at their supply chains and make
    sure that there is no forced labor in there and no child labor.
    So we have to come together to talk about that.
        And one of the things that you all could do--a report was
    due to you from the Department of Homeland Security I think
    back in August on how they are implementing this very important
    new provision that you passed, and it has not been submitted
    yet. So I would urge you to ask for that, and we would love to
    come in and talk with you about it.
        Senator Young. Well, thank you. Thanks for your ideas and,
    again, for your counsel on this. And we will continue to stay
    vigilant even when the klieg lights are off, and that is really
    the important thing with respect to our oversight role. And
    thank you so much for this opportunity.
        Mr. Chairman?
        The Chairman [presiding]. Thank you very much for coming
    back and filling in that way. I very much appreciate it.
        I have had two experiences I guess that had a big impact on
    me. One was hearing the statement of someone in the audience,
    Louie Giglio, speaking to his congregation saying, if not you,
    who? And I think we all know what that means. And we together
    who hear that message need to be the people who involve
    ourselves in ending this.
        The other was an experience in a group of about 20 young
    ladies in the Philippines going to the police department there,
    seeing what a U.S. private entity was doing to teach them about
    prosecution, seeing how this is a crime of opportunity. Most
    people think this is largely the mafia, and they definitely are
    involved. But it is really, as you both know, a lot of small
    business people that take advantage. They have dominion over
    people and they use this to make money.
        But part of our efforts--and we need to measure this and we
    need to end it, and that needs to be our focus. Part of the
    effort also has to do with what we do with victims after they
    have been victimized. And one of the efforts that to me was so
    impressive was seeing how these young ladies who maybe were 13
    or 15 and maybe they were in the rural part of the Philippines
    and maybe a gentleman came by and said, hey, how would you like
    to go to Manila for the day and they find themselves in
    Malaysia in a brothel for 7 or 8 years or they find themselves
    in a place that they cannot get out of. But they also have to
    have a place to go. They have to have a place to be protected
    from people who otherwise would kill them for testifying
    against them. They have got to have a way of coming back into
    society.
        Could you speak to personal experiences there and what we
    need to do as a nation working with others to address that
    component also?
        Mr. Kutcher. Sure. This is the pipeline out. There are four
    or five organizations domestically that I think are doing
    extraordinary work. There is an organization called My Life My
    Choice, Journey Out, Courtney's House, Rebecca Bender
    Initiative, and GEMS. I have had the privilege to spend some
    time with GEMS and look at the organization and sort of assess
    the effectiveness of it. They do extraordinary work. They
    recognize these victims as victims. They do the best they can
    to rehabilitate them.
        I think one of the things that we can definitely do is look
    across that sector of NGOs and find the ones that are the most
    effective and then try to assess what the best practices of
    each one of those individual organizations are and then
    replicate that and grow it.
        You know, as you have said, as I said, I think there has to
    be accountability in our spending relative to this, but there
    are some simple low-hanging opportunities within these
    organizations that I actually think the private sector can come
    in and be drastically supportive. I mean, the administration
    roles within these organizations are being done a lot of times
    on these kinds of books. And I think that there is the
    enterprise software that could be given away for free by many
    private companies and that could create massive efficiencies
    inside of these organizations.
        But at the end of the day, you have to have a place to keep
    these people.
        You know, I was in Russia and the girls that were getting
    let out of the orphanages all get let out at about at the same
    age. And the traffickers would circle the orphanages waiting
    for those girls to hit that prime age where they could use
    them.
        So if people do not have a place to go, if they do not have
    an environment of love and support and then the expertise to
    help them with the mental health issue of the abuse that they
    have endured, they do not get better. So I think mental health
    is a gigantic issue in this country in a lot of ways, and I
    think that we need really look at this not only as a slavery
    issue but as a mental health issue and ensure that the finances
    and the support is going into that arena as such.
        Ms. Massimino. This is a problem globally as well. It is
    very similar. We have worked closely with many Yazidi women. We
    gave our human rights award last year to a Yazidi woman
    activist. She and her husband are rescuing women who have been
    abducted and are being held in sexual slavery by ISIS. And
    these women are so traumatized. They are now barred from coming
    here under this order. But they have said if you cannot save us
    from this, then just bomb us because we cannot survive this.
        You know, one of the things that I think the United States
    could be doing there--they need mental health services
    desperately even if they cannot come here to get them. And I
    think there is more that we could be doing to fund
    organizations that can provide those kinds of services to women
    who have suffered just unspeakable horror. Many of them are
    children.
        The Chairman. Thank you.
        Senator Menendez is back, and he was the lead other sponsor
    of this legislation and has been my friend and certainly an
    advocate for victims and human rights. So I thank you and look
    forward to your questions.
        Senator Menendez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        First, I would ask to submit into the record Human Rights
    First's blueprint for Congress, how to dismantle the business
    of human trafficking.
        The Chairman. Without objection.

        [The information referred to can be found at the end of the
    hearing.]

        Senator Menendez. Mr. Chairman, first of all, let me say
    that my experience in the Senate--I was speaking with Senator
    Young yesterday about the difference between the House and the
    Senate where we both have served--is the fundamental difference
    is that one Senator committed to an idea or an ideal and
    willing to fight for it can create change. And you did that in
    the context of human trafficking. You made it a singular issue.
    You were focused on it like a laser beam. I am glad to have
    worked with you on it, but clearly you deserve the credit. And
    it is the embodiment of what you can do in the Senate when you
    choose to do so. I want to salute you on that.
        I have listened to both of your testimony with great
    interest. And we are having a major caucus on Russia right now,
    but this is important. So I have questions for both of you and
    I hope to get to it in my time. Maybe the chairman will be a
    little generous with the time.
        The Chairman. Take as much time as you wish.
        Senator Menendez. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. I
    will not do that, but I do have some questions.
        Ms. Massimino, as you know, there have been serious
    questions both from the Foreign Relations Committee and civil
    society organizations regarding the integrity of the past 2
    years' Trafficking in Persons report. To me, that report is the
    gold standard, and I want to show why it is so important. Mr.
    Kutcher said the reports are important, but what do we do with
    them? He is right.
        The reports have a template for how we judge countries in
    the world.
        The amendment that I got into law, which now denies a
    country who is in Tier 3 of trafficking any preferential access
    to the United States in terms of any trade agreement, is
    incredibly important, a powerful tool. But, of course, we need
    the right type of reporting to ensure that those who are in
    that category do not get arbitrarily and capriciously removed
    from that category unless they have done the things that are
    necessary to, in fact, be removed from it, which would be good
    for the victims of trafficking in their countries because that
    means they will have improved their standards.
        Now, I introduced legislation, bipartisan legislation, with
    Senator Rubio and Senator Kaine and Senator Gardner that makes
    sweeping reforms to restore the integrity to the Trafficking in
    Persons ranking process. I know and I believe there is
    bipartisan consensus that reforming the ranking process is a
    priority that we should address early in this Congress.
        Can you speak to, number one, your organization's reactions
    to the 2015-2016 TIP report, and what damage, if any, do you
    think that created, and to the importance of the integrity of
    the TIP report as a foundational issue for us globally to
    challenge countries in the world to do what we think they
    should be doing to end modern day slavery?
        Ms. Massimino. Yes, absolutely. And thank you very much for
    your leadership on that legislation and on the TIP report.
        Human Rights First has focused a lot of attention over many
    years on reports coming out of the State Department that have
    been mandated by Congress and why it is important for those
    reports to be basically just the facts, you know, not colored
    by political considerations. For many years, the State
    Department country reports annually--we did a critique of those
    because we felt there was too much political influence across
    administrations from different parties, but there was too much
    political influence and other concerns going into kind of
    shading the facts in those reports. So we have been very
    vigilant. Actually we stopped doing that critique because we
    felt that the State Department country reports had improved
    significantly and were much more objective.
        The point of reports like that is really to provide a
    baseline for policy. They are not policy, but they are to
    provide a baseline for policy. And that is why it is so
    important that reports like the State Department country report
    and the TIP report are just the facts and really have
    integrity.
        So we were very concerned, as many were, that there
    appeared to be movements of some countries up on the scale
    without any demonstration or transparency about what the
    reasons were for that.
        You know, the TIP report has actually been a really
    important tool for diplomats and others to use. We have
    instances where countries have really been pressured to
    actually improve their performance as a result of the ranking
    process. So it is really important to have transparency about
    how those rankings are made and to make sure that countries do
    not get a free pass just because we have other business to deal
    with.
        Senator Menendez. That is a concern. This is as important
    as this committee has dictated in a bipartisan way, which means
    that you cannot subvert its importance because you have
    economic reasons with a country, maybe to some degree even
    security reasons with a country because when you do that, then
    you undermine the essence of the importance and the integrity
    of trying to end human slavery.
        In that regard, my legislation requires TIP rankings to be
    contingent on concrete actions taken by a country in the
    preceding reporting period and that the State Department must
    specify how these actions or lack thereof justify the ranking.
    A recent GAO study highlighted this is a major gap in the
    existing TIP ranking process.
        Would you support such changes?
        Ms. Massimino. Yes, we would.
        Senator Menendez. Mr. Kutcher, let me ask you.
    Extraordinary work. And I heard, just before I had to leave to
    go vote, your answer to the chairman about having the freedom
    to go big and take a risk to develop the technology that might
    be the next cutting edge on how we further help law enforcement
    and other entities both capture those--reclaim those lives that
    have been lost to human trafficking, capture those who were the
    traffickers themselves, prevent efforts on trafficking.
        I sit on another committee here on the Finance Committee
    which deals with all tax trade and incentives. If there was a
    way to incentivize that effort by you and others similarly
    situated, is there a specific way beyond letting you go big?
    Are there tax incentives? I think about already the systems you
    have, and I think about other countries. Maybe one of the
    requirements we should have is that other countries should use
    the best available technology at the time, something that we do
    not have a requirement to, and an estimation as to whether they
    are moving in the right direction on human trafficking. Can you
    help me a little bit on that on how we take what you have done
    and create a greater opportunity for its deployment?
        Mr. Kutcher. Yes. I think at its core, the reason why most
    of our partners, private company partners, in the space are
    technology companies is that they are naturally incentivized to
    actually do something about this. So for the most part, there
    is a CDA 230--these companies want to perform--they want their
    tool to be used in the right way. Right? And they do not want
    their tool to be regulated because then it regulates the
    potential of the tool for good. And I happen to support that
    notion that it is user that is the malicious actor. But in
    order for these companies to maintain that stance, it is my
    belief that they have to support efforts in technology to
    actually grow tools that fight against these types of
    atrocities that are happening on their platforms. Therefore, we
    have had extraordinarily willing participants in that effort.
        I think we have also launched a best practices guide for
    companies relative to trafficking because I think that when
    your employees are involved in this space or your company in
    some way, shape, or form touches this space, I think it
    actually affects the quality of your company and the
    performance of your company in the long term. And so I think
    having companies become aware of these best practice guides----
        But I think there is also a larger issue relative to what
    we call modern slavery, and I think it is actually just in the
    nomenclature of calling it modern slavery. It is slavery. It is
    just slavery. I think we do a disservice to the people that
    were slaves in this country for so long and the oppression that
    they felt in the years following by not calling it what it is.
    And if we just call it slavery from a nomenclature perspective
    and acknowledge the fact that just because a person is of a
    different nationality or that they are being sold for sex makes
    it something different so that we can pat ourselves on the back
    and say, well, we have abolished this and we have already done
    all that we can, I think that will have a giant impact because
    I think it motivates people emotionally to actually build
    things.
        On the other side, I think that these tools are best built
    in the private sector, and the reason why I think that they are
    best built in the private sector is we are willing to take
    those risks and we are willing to create that accountability.
        Now, when we get to the level of where it is becoming a
    fundamental institution to solving the problem and we have
    4,000 law enforcement officials and 900 agencies using the
    tool, well, now we have shown its effectiveness. We have shown
    that it can be measured. We have shown that it can be improved.
    And at that point in time, I think it becomes incumbent upon
    the public sector to step up. We give our tools away for free.
    They are 100 percent free. I look at it like Facebook. We grow,
    grow, grow, grow, grow, and at some point in time, we can turn
    on a revenue model that creates sustainability within our
    organization.
        So I think they are best incubated in the private sector,
    but at a certain point, the public sector needs to recognize
    that tool works, we need that tool, it is effective, and we can
    leverage it domestically and internationally to behoove
    everyone.
        Senator Menendez. Thank you.
        And finally, Ms. Massimino, let me ask you. Your testimony
    noted a new provision in the bill that myself, Senator Rubio,
    and others have introduced that requires the multilateral
    development banks to conduct a human trafficking risk
    assessment for projects in Tier 2 watch list or Tier 3
    countries as a condition of U.S. support.
        Now, it is my hope that these assessments can draw together
    a wide variety of stakeholders from international civil society
    organizations, local communities, law enforcement, and others
    to ensure that development bank projects work to combat human
    trafficking wherever possible. And I hope that as part of that,
    organizations such as yours would be called upon by the
    multilateral development banks.
        But it seems to me that we have done a few things here that
    are important, but we have a lot more tools at our disposition
    that we can use in the multilateral development banks, having a
    strong TIP report, thinking about how we incentivize the
    technology either by allowing it to be free, as you suggested,
    in terms of its ability to go big, thinking about there are
    privacy elements so that we ultimately do not constrain it in a
    way that is unnecessary and maybe even looking at other
    countries and saying one of the ways in which we will test
    whether or not you are moving in the right direction is are you
    employing the latest available technologies that can help you.
        And so I appreciate what we have gleaned from both of your
    testimony and look forward to continuing to work with you.
        Do you have a comment?
        Ms. Massimino. I just want to underscore that I think this
    provision that you have talked about with requiring an
    assessment of implementation of anti-trafficking with the
    development banks I think is just part of what we have been
    talking about how you take the data and use it to leverage
    change. I completely agree with you, Senator, that we have a
    lot of tools that are not being fully used to tackle this big
    problem. And a lot of what you all have done here has moved the
    ball forward between the federal acquisition regulations and
    the statute, seeking to implement that, making sure that the
    changes to the Tariff Act get implemented. There is a lot that
    this body can do to take those tools and make sure that they
    are being fully exploited for good. And that takes a lot of
    attention. It sometimes takes money. But if we can pull this
    all together, I think that is the way that we are really going
    to make a dent in this problem.
        Senator Menendez. Thank you. I see my colleague is here who
    helped me write the bill, and I appreciate his support
    alongside of me.
        Senator Rubio. Thank you both for being here. I am sure the
    chairman told you he had to go vote. He will be back any minute
    now.
        I know you have talked about the integrity and the
    Trafficking in Persons report, and I do not know what has been
    discussed already. But one of the points I have made--this is
    always an issue when it comes to human rights, and that is the
    balance between our geopolitical relations and information
    about potential allies that is embarrassing. And I think you
    would both concur that, first of all, the Trafficking in
    Persons report--a lot of people think about it as just a piece
    of paper the U.S. Government publishes. But it has in fact been
    impactful. Part of our role here is to shame those who are less
    than cooperative in the efforts to tackle this, including
    people here at home but also in governments abroad.
        And I just think I want to reiterate what appears to have
    already been discussed: how critical it is that this report be
    free from political interference. And to be blunt, the notion
    that someone could come in and say to the State Department,
    look, I do not want to change the tiering of a country because
    we have got a good thing going with them on some other foreign
    policy issue and we do not want to offend them--and it is my
    feeling that that occurred in the last report. That cannot
    happen again. And so our hope is to prevent that from
    happening, and I would imagine every advocate out there
    believes that as well, especially since we as a nation are
    also, hopefully, being honest about our own internal problems
    with regards to that.
        The first thing I want to talk about, Mr. Kutcher, is the
    Thorn website. And, again, you may have talked about this
    already. It may have been asked and I apologize. But the
    website talks about people using the Internet to share child
    abuse material are doing so with seemingly low risk of getting
    caught.
        So I am interested in learning how Thorn collaborates with
    law enforcement in the United States and around the world,
    especially with countries that have weak criminal justice
    systems, to change the sort of behavior with impunity of this
    criminal activity and at the same time using that also as a
    tool to, hopefully, train law enforcement agencies about
    victim-friendly procedures. There are places around the world--
    quite frankly, there have been jurisdictions in the United
    States that if, for example, someone is being trafficked into
    prostitution, they are arrested for the crime of prostitution
    and treated as a criminal as opposed to as a victim. And we
    have had arguments with law enforcement about that, some of
    whom argue to us that is the appropriate way to do it. That is
    the only way to break them free from the endeavor. In other
    cases, I have had some disagreements with regard to that.
        But is Thorn working to kind of end that cycle of impunity
    where people think we can do whatever we want, the chances of
    getting caught are very low, and quite frankly, the penalties
    in some places are not very high?
        Mr. Kutcher. Thank you for the question.
        You know, at its core, one of the issues with sex
    trafficking, specifically domestically and most certainly
    internationally, is the lack of attention that it actually gets
    from law enforcement--resources I should say. You know, most
    trafficking divisions in police departments across this country
    are maybe one or two people, and they are understaffed and
    under-financed. When we first went in, we were looking at the
    tools that they were using, and they were going into chat rooms
    and trying to strike up conversations with traffickers or
    trafficking victims in order to get leads on an investigation.
        We saw, specifically relative to minors, that if we could
    create a platform or a tool that helped them prioritize their
    caseload by understanding what we call a maturity score of the
    victim, we could help get the victims as early as possible out
    of the system and as young as possible out of the system first.
    So we have created this prioritization tool. I would be happy
    to show you Spotlight at some point in time. I do not want to
    reveal too much about it because I do not want to risk the
    enduring power of the platform. But we help them prioritize
    their caseload.
        And basically what we are doing is just taking this
    Internet, which is largely anonymous in many ways, and making
    it far less anonymous. We can track victims as they get
    trafficked across State lines. We have investigation tools that
    allow us to understand the full picture, the full story of the
    trafficking victim over time and the trafficker over time,
    which is admissible in court and which is really good evidence
    in order to prosecute these cases.
        Senator Rubio. And this question is for both of you. It is
    one of the things that you hear a lot about, which I find to be
    one of the most grotesque and outrageous things I have seen,
    and that is the conduct of BackPage.com. There was a recent
    article in the Miami Herald that talked about a local
    organization that is filing a federal lawsuit against
    BackPage.com, and it found that in my hometown of Miami-Dade,
    over half the adult victims in human trafficking cases and 40
    percent of minor victims were being advertised on BackPage.com.
    As you are probably aware, the Senate has also conducted an
    investigation with regards to that and issued a report.
        So following that report, BackPage has closed the adult
    section in which advertisers solicited services. However, it
    has been reported that the ads are now running on the dating
    section, and some are now asserting--and I agree--that this is
    nothing more than a publicity stunt. And I would welcome both
    of you to comment on that change. In the end, did they not just
    change the name of the same activity?
        Mr. Kutcher. So this has been happening long before
    BackPage. I think 6 years ago, I started going after the
    Village Voice for advertising sex on their platform, and
    actually the way I went after them is I went after their
    advertisers and said, hey, do you know that this is happening?
    And the advertisers quickly pulled back and the Village Voice
    started to have some issues relative to that.
        I talked to the founder and CEO of BackPage 5 years ago and
    said we are watching. We know what is happening. I know you
    know what is happening. You can either join us in the fight
    against it or you are going to become the tool for it. And they
    really sort of did not want to hear about it.
        Craigslist, on the other hand--the founder, Craig Newmark,
    was very willing and interested in fighting this and was
    actually distancing himself from what was happening on his
    platform. We watched. We technically watched the traffic move
    from the adult section to the women seeking men section. We
    watched it. We analytically watched it happen moments after it
    was shut down. Moments.
        So you look at it and you go it is a game of whack-a-mole.
    Right? And the only question that we have is not relative to
    censoring it. It is not relative to shutting down the Internet.
    It is relative to can we build the tools that are better than
    their tools to fight what is happening. There are sites in the
    United States that do this other than BackPage--a lot of them,
    in fact. There are sites internationally that are doing this
    that are other sites. It is happening all over the place. It
    has been happening for decades in print media. We are now just
    recognizing it for what it is, and I think that that is the
    most important part. And secondarily to that is let us build
    the tools and let us finance the tools and let us deploy the
    tools to fight back.
        Ms. Massimino. So I think that BackPage has to be held
    accountable for what they are doing, and one of the things that
    they are doing right now--there is evidence that shows that
    they have been doctoring the ads, up to 80 percent of their
    ads, to conceal the underlying transaction, meaning that when
    they do that, they should not be protected by the law. Current
    law--and there are some good reasons for it--says that Internet
    sites that allow third parties to post are not responsible for
    the content of that post. But you do not have to change that
    law to go after what BackPage is doing right now. It appears
    that they are intentionally altering ads to make underage
    people look like they are consenting adults, and that is
    despicable and wrong and they should be held accountable for
    that.
        The Chairman. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here.
        Before turning to Senator Coons, Jean Baderschneider is
    here. She is the lady sitting up front. She has been an
    operational leader here. She, years ago in an airport in
    another country, saw a young lady that she thought was being
    trafficked. She went to talk to officials. She came back. She
    was gone. And it haunted her, and she has committed her life to
    dealing with this issue. So we thank you for that. We thank you
    for helping us be in the place that we are today, ready to
    launch what is happening.
        And with that, Senator Coons?
        Senator Coons. Senator Corker, I just want to thank you. I
    want to thank you for taking the experiences that others have
    brought to you and applying your skills, your leadership, and
    your passion to mobilizing this committee to engaging in a
    bipartisan way on legislation, to fighting tirelessly for
    funding, and to empowering organizations that have got the
    skills, the tools, the passion to now go out and make a
    difference. And I am excited about the opportunity to continue
    working with you in this critical fight to end human slavery in
    the modern era. Thank you for your leadership on this, Chairman
    Corker.
        There are other great folks on this committee who have also
    been leaders on it, Senator Cardin, Senator Menendez, many
    others. As some of you may know, I have spent a lot of my time
    in Africa as a member of this committee, as the former chairman
    of the Africa Subcommittee. It is tragic what we know happens
    to people who are victims in this country and in countries
    around the world.
        So I mostly just want to thank you. Ashton Kutcher, thank
    you for your leadership and your innovation. I am excited to
    see your tool and how it works and to better understand what
    Thorn is deploying here in the United States. And you have got
    some terrific people working with you, Julia and others, who
    help make this real each and every day.
        And to Ms. Massimino and Human Rights First, thank you for
    also providing the analysis and the support. There are a lot of
    great organizations in this space. We need many, many more. The
    scope of this problem dwarfs the resources we currently have
    deployed against it. But, you know, look, there are days here
    that are somewhat partisan and where it is somewhat
    frustrating, and we do not get as much done as we would like.
    This is a moment that is worth focusing on because it is a
    moment where we can recognize significant progress.
        I am the co-chair of the Law Enforcement Caucus, and given
    what I read in your testimony and what I have heard, I hope we
    have a chance to talk further about exactly how we get U.S. law
    enforcement better funded, better engaged, better equipped to
    deploy this tool and these resources, better trained. In my
    previous life, I was responsible for a county police force, and
    I am confident that they do not have as much in the way of
    resources as they would need. And we were a county that was
    bisected by I-95. And on a regular basis, we had homeless and
    runaway kids. We had victims of domestic violence and I am
    certain of trafficking as well and yet could have done much
    more with more resources. We had one officer who did what you
    are talking about, went into chat rooms, tried to gather
    evidence, tried to help pursue and prosecute child
    prostitution, child pornography cases, a very dedicated, very
    loyal, very skilled officer. There are a few more resources
    today, but still far below what it should be.
        So I just have three questions, if I might. First, I am
    interested in how we can expand Thorn's model globally because
    I think you have made a significant impact so far. But if you
    look at the level of resources and training and access in U.S.
    law enforcement--as we all know, in the developing world, law
    enforcement, courts, transparency are significantly less
    resourced.
        So I would be interested in hearing how you think further
    investment by the United States Government in the End Modern
    Slavery Initiative might inspire engagement from our private
    sector. And I think it is exciting, the digital partners and
    the information technology partners, Susan and others, that you
    have brought to the table here. How might more investment in
    our appropriations leverage significant increased resources
    from the private sector?
        And then second, what are the limits to Spotlight
    internationally? What are the challenges you face in trying to
    really scale this up? But in countries where mobile technology
    is now widely available but where the transparency, reliability
    of the law enforcement system is significantly below what we
    would hope and expect.
        And then on a personal enthusiasm, a whole group of us
    worked together last year, Senators Flake and Menendez and
    Portman and Merkley, to pass the End Wildlife Trafficking Act.
    Wildlife trafficking is often viewed separately from human
    trafficking, but it is really not. And the criminal networks
    that benefit from wildlife trafficking, from killing and then
    selling parts, whether it is rhino horn or elephant tusk or
    pangolins--there are many others--are often the exactly the
    same criminal networks that are involved in trafficking people.
    And so how could we reinforce those two efforts which at times
    engage completely separate NGOs but really with the same goal,
    which is to end grotesque criminal activity that destroys and
    denigrates wildlife and whole communities and enslaves people?
        Ashton, to the first questions about how we might invest
    more and extend the reach.
        Mr. Kutcher. Sure. So we have two tools that I talked about
    today that are built and several others that are built and
    already deployed. As I mentioned, the heavy lifting, to a
    certain extent, is done.
        The key to the ongoing success of the tools is continuing
    to iterate on those tools and make them better over time.
    Senator Rubio mentioned BackPage. They shut down one section of
    their site and another section pops up. It is incumbent upon us
    having a malleable tool that can effectively work in all
    markets.
        But now that the database is built and the algorithm is
    built, relative to the contextual understanding of this
    content, our expansion internationally is relatively simple
    insomuch as we just need to find the environments that are
    being utilized for trafficking in those spaces and put them
    into our engine.
        Now the trick, which you alluded to, relative to the limits
    on that is there are some countries where this platform
    probably will not work. But it is incumbent upon us to build
    the next tool that will work there. You know, a lot of this
    trafficking and the exchange--the advertisement of sex slavery
    happens online. In some sense there is a benefit to that--
    right--because in some ways it can be tracked, but building the
    tool relative to that specific market is not trivial.
        We are currently working with international partners.
    Canada is using our Spotlight tool. We are talking to the UK
    about using our Spotlight tool. We think it will be very
    effective in those markets. And our Solace Dark Web tool is
    being used in international spaces I will just say by several
    people and has proven to be very effective because the same
    Dark Web tool, TOR, which was created by the Naval Research
    Lab, is the same tool that is used internationally. So really
    just training our database to have an understanding of variable
    languages and things like that is fully doable.
        The limits? The real limit is the fact that we are only
    sitting at the identification barrier. Right? That is the
    limit. We can identify these people. I can identify all the
    people in the world. Right? But if we do not have the right
    resources on the inbound side and on the outbound side, it is
    just going to be a cycle. I think having a holistic
    understanding of the issue and approaching it from that
    perspective is essential to actually solving the problem.
        And relative to the wildlife piece, definitely on the Dark
    Web, our tool could be repurposed for specifically that. If
    somebody was so interested and passionate about that issue in
    the same way as I am passionate about solving sex trafficking,
    our tool could essentially be repurposed for something like
    that if need be.
        Senator Coons. That is an intriguing conversation I would
    love to follow up on.
        Ms. Massimino?
        Ms. Massimino. So I think the big picture issue here is
    around the risk/reward equation. You know, how do you keep
    people from going into the business of exploiting others
    through slavery? And right now, this is, as I said, a very low
    risk enterprise for the bad guys and high reward. So how to
    flip that? You have to increase the risk. That includes through
    law enforcement, through reputational and other damage to
    companies that do not do a good job of getting rid of slavery
    in their supply chain, and decrease the reward. So we have to
    tackle both sides of that.
        And as you keep hearing, some of the pieces of this problem
    really can be solved or significantly advanced through
    increased resources. So on the close-to-home kind of
    perspective, in the TVPRA reauthorization, for example, it
    would be really good to have designated human trafficking
    prosecutors. You know, there were only 297 of these
    prosecutions last year. If there were a provision that
    authorized human trafficking prosecutors in key U.S. attorneys'
    offices, I think that number would go up, and they could be
    responsible, kind of the hub, the point person for cultivating
    the relationships with all the different agencies that deal
    with this. We have seen jurisdictions with that type of
    collaboration increase their cases filed by 119 percent and
    defendants charged up by 86 percent. So some of this really is
    a resource question.
        You know, I mentioned the federal acquisition regulations,
    again another, like the Tariff Act, potentially
    transformational change in the way we do business--we, the
    United States, do business. I think if we were to fully
    implement those regulations--we need to authorize human
    trafficking compliance advisors in the counsels' offices of all
    these agencies, DOD, Labor, GSA, all of these places, who would
    work with the contracting officers and make sure that this is
    really being taken seriously. So there is a lot of potential
    here right now that is not being fully implemented, and with
    congressional oversight and attention on all of those--you all
    started a lot of that. Now to follow it through making sure it
    is fully implemented, I think those could be transformational.
        Senator Coons. Ms. Massimino and Mr. Kutcher, to you and
    your organizations and everybody who supports them and
    volunteers with them, I will just close by saying sexual
    slavery, human trafficking is some of the darkest activity that
    happens in the world. It thrives in dark places. It feeds on
    dark aspects of human nature. And I am really grateful for your
    work and, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership in shining light on
    this problem and on bringing to all of us not just hope but
    confidence that we can solve this, we can address this by
    appealing to the light within all of us and by coming together
    in a way that actually brings light to this darkest of
    subjects. Thank you for your work.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        The Chairman. Thank you very much for your leadership on
    this issue and so many others.
        I know that we have got a meeting after this to build on
    this and look at some of the tools in private that are being
    utilized. But I want to thank you both for outstanding
    testimony, for committing your lives to this issue, for being
    examples and bringing notoriety, bringing awareness, if you
    will, to this issue that plagues us all.
        There will be some follow-up questions. I know you have got
    a couple of day jobs and you do too, but there may be some
    follow-up questions afterwards. And we will try to keep those
    to a minimum, knowing that you have got other things that you
    do in life.
        But this has been an outstanding hearing. We apologize
    for--there is a lot happening up here on the Hill, as you know
    and has been reported, and it is taking people in a lot of
    different directions right now. But this has been a very
    impactful hearing, and we look forward to building upon it.
        One of the things that I do wish we could have touched more
    on is--I know you alluded to this, Ashton, but the sexual piece
    and the day labor piece--there are lot of differences that
    exist too and just some of the cultures that we deal with in
    other parts of the world and the collection of passports. I
    know when we visit countries now, it is one of the first things
    that we bring up. I am heading to that part of the world this
    weekend, but there are cultural aspects that are barriers. And
    people again unwittingly think they are going to a country for
    a particular job for a period of time and end up being
    entrapped there. And so there may be some questions in that
    regard too.
        But, again, the lives that you are leading and the example
    that you are setting for us, your willingness to come here and
    go right back to other work is deeply appreciated. I do not
    know if either one of you--this is a rather informal hearing--
    wish to say anything in closing, but you are welcome to if you
    wish.
        Mr. Kutcher. I would just like to say thank you. As I
    mentioned before, this is one of the greatest honors of my
    life. And I know the work that you all do is rife with conflict
    and headlines that dominate your time and pull you in
    directions that oftentimes you do not even want to go. But if
    we really care about ending slavery, if we really care about
    doing the right thing here, we will realize that there will be
    negative repercussions of our actions.
        And I think the biggest thing that I got out of being here
    today--I got reminded of a story a friend of mine told me about
    a rabbi named Hillel who was asked to explain the Torah while
    standing on one leg. And he said love thy neighbor as thyself.
    Everything else is just commentary.
        The Chairman. Elisa?
        Ms. Massimino. Thank you. Well, I also want to say thank
    you so much to you in particular, Mr. Chairman, who have really
    have put this issue on the map in the United States Congress in
    a way that it has never been before and now using that
    awareness, that growing awareness that we all have to end
    modern slavery.
        I think it was Senator McCain who said this is not a pretty
    topic and a lot of people, particularly Americans, do not like
    to think about it, do not want to talk about it and would
    rather pretend that it does not exist and particularly do not
    want to see the ways in which we are all complicit in this
    problem. So you have made that harder for people, and I want to
    thank you and all the members of the committee who have done so
    much to make people uncomfortable about this issue. And that is
    where it starts. So thank you very much.
        The Chairman. Thank you both. You have been outstanding.
        We are going to walk across the hall I think and view how
    some of this that you have developed works so well. We thank
    you for that.
        The meeting is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 11:52 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

                                 ----------

                  Additional Material Submitted for the Record

                   Responses of Elisa Massimino to Questions
                     Submitted By Senator Edward J. Markey

    Funding Restrictions in Tier 3 and Child Soldier-Using Countries
        Question. We have laws about restricting funding to countries that
    are either Tier 3 or that are known to recruit or use child soldiers.
    However, there are serious questions about the effectiveness of these
    laws, given that provisions through which the President can waive such
    restrictions. During the Obama administration such waivers were given
    to multiple countries known to use or recruit child soldiers including
    Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Rwanda,
    Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. From your perspective how do such
    waivers effect the will of governments to enforce laws against
    Trafficking in Persons?

        Answer. Routinely waiving these restrictions undermines the ability
    of the United States to pressure governments into prioritizing the
    fight against human trafficking and child exploitation. Much like
    questions about the objectivity of the TIP report rankings, overuse of
    the national interest waiver weakens American credibility in demanding
    action.
        When our government raises the ranking of a country from Tier 3,
    unjustifiably and without evidence of significant efforts to eradicate
    modern slavery, it renders prohibitions virtually meaningless, not only
    in that country, but across the globe. Failing to follow through on
    restrictions against countries that are ranked Tier 3 or that use child
    soldiers sets a stage for all countries to disregard U.S. prohibitions
    and sanctions in favor of what is easier--continuation of profitable
    and exploitative practices.
        If the United States is to be successful in the fight against
    modern slavery and the exploitation of children, it must be credible
    and consistent. But that is not happening. For example, approximately
    17,000 children have been recruited to fight in South Sudan since the
    conflict there began in 2013. However, our government has withheld only
    about four percent of all taxpayer-funded military aid to countries
    like South Sudan during that time. Waiving these restrictions leaves
    vulnerable populations open to exploitation and undermines the U.S.
    government's power to promote better anti-trafficking policies in
    countries where there is forced labor and where children are forced to
    take up arms.

        Question. A year ago, there were only 23 countries on Tier 3. Now
    there are 27. How can we encourage states to move out of Tier 3?

        Answer. Encouraging states to take the steps that would move them
    out of Tier 3 will require collaboration and strong leadership from the
    United States.
        Effectively implementing programs and providing grants, such as the
    recently passed End Modern Slavery Initiative, are key to encouraging
    this movement. Programs that leverage funding from other governments to
    invest alongside the United States in anti-trafficking programs will
    help target specific geographic regions and gain buy-in from foreign
    governments. To promote better policies, programs like this one take a
    multi-stakeholder approach involving civil society organizations,
    governments and the private sector all working together to identify
    victims, prevent future enslavement, and increase law enforcement
    efforts.
        In addition to promoting American leadership and funding to
    encourage states to raise the issue of trafficking, we should leverage
    bilateral agreements to increase information sharing about best
    practices and resources to combat trafficking. The United States should
    use its diplomatic relationships as the basis for raising awareness of
    the problem of modern slavery, and work with diplomatic partners to
    address the specific trafficking concerns in their regions. Raising
    modern slavery as a key issue in these important conversations--
    including in trade negotiations--will encourage states to adopt more
    stringent laws and policies.
    Fishing Industry and TPP
        Question. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement contained a
    provision that required member states to provide fishing subsidies to
    reduce overfishing and to agree to cooperative measures designed to
    reduce IUU fishing. The U.S. International Trade Commission n, in its
    report on the expected effects of the TPP, predicted that ``the United
    States needs to help other TPP parties to build enforcement
    capacity.''\1\ With the demise of the TPP, what are other ways the US
    can influence the fishing industry to stop using what is essentially
    slave labor to obtain and process seafood?
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4607.pdf.

        Answer. The United States already has laws in place that could be
    leveraged to encourage better practices in the fishing industry, but we
    need to better enforce these to see their success. In February 2016,
    Congress amended Section 307 of the Tariff Act to eliminate the
    consumptive demand loophole, a broad exception that allowed goods made
    with forced labor to be imported if the demand in the United States
    exceeded domestic production capacity. Now, the Department of Homeland
    Security Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is tasked with
    investigating allegations of forced labor in the manufacture or
    production of goods imported into the United States.
        The United States imports over $1 billion worth of seafood from
    Thailand, so enforcing this law could have a significant impact on
    seafood industry labor practices. To establish accountability and
    ensure that the civil ban is being fully enforced, Congress should
    insist that CBP report on their enforcement activities. CBP should
    report not only on the merchandise denied entry, but on the number of
    petitions filed which allege forced labor and the result of those
    petitions. This report is required by statute; the first report was due
    in August 2016, but CBP failed to submit it.

        Question. With the collapse of TPP, many observers predict that
    China could have a greater opportunity to influence the rules of
    international trade in Asia, including on issues like labor standards.
    How do you think this would affect efforts to combat modern slavery in
    the seafood industry?
        Answer. Enforcing the Tariff Act will help ensure that seafood
    caught with slave labor does not find its way into American markets.
    But unfortunately, no other country has a similar law. The U.S.
    government should leverage its bilateral relationships to encourage
    other countries to follow its lead, so that if a shipment of goods is
    turned away from the U.S. border because it was made with forced labor,
    there won't be another market easily available. If all countries banned
    the import of goods made with forced labor, this collaborative approach
    would encourage countries to strengthen labor standards. A cooperative
    global response could have the negative economic effects needed to
    counter any influence that China stands to gain.
          Statement of Principles on America's Commitment to Refugees
                  Submitted for the Record by Elisa Massimino
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                      [all]