    [House Hearing, 119 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                         PROTECTING VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
                                 AND ONLINE EXPLOITATION

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

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL
                               GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE

                                     OF THE

                           COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

                         U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                        ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

                          THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2025

                                   __________

                                Serial No. 119-8

                                   __________

             Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary

    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                   Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov

                                    __________

                       U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
    59-437                    WASHINGTON : 2025

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                           COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

                            JIM JORDAN, Ohio, Chair

    DARRELL ISSA, California             JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland, Ranking
    ANDY BIGGS, Arizona                      Member
    TOM McCLINTOCK, California           JERROLD NADLER, New York
    THOMAS P. TIFFANY, Wisconsin         ZOE LOFGREN, California
    THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky              STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
    CHIP ROY, Texas                      HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
    SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin              Georgia
    BEN CLINE, Virginia                  ERIC SWALWELL, California
    LANCE GOODEN, Texas                  TED LIEU, California
    JEFFERSON VAN DREW, New Jersey       PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
    TROY E. NEHLS, Texas                 J. LUIS CORREA, California
    BARRY MOORE, Alabama                 MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania
    KEVIN KILEY, California              JOE NEGUSE, Colorado
    HARRIET M. HAGEMAN, Wyoming          LUCY McBATH, Georgia
    LAUREL M. LEE, Florida               DEBORAH K. ROSS, North Carolina
    WESLEY HUNT, Texas                   BECCA BALINT, Vermont
    RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina          JESUS G. ``CHUY'' GARCIA, Illinois
    GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin            SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE, California
    BRAD KNOTT, North Carolina           JARED MOSKOWITZ, Florida
    MARK HARRIS, North Carolina          DANIEL S. GOLDMAN, New York
    ROBERT F. ONDER, Jr., Missouri       JASMINE CROCKETT, Texas
    DEREK SCHMIDT, Kansas
    BRANDON GILL, Texas
    MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER, Washington

                                     ------

                       SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL
                            GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE

                           Andy Biggs, Arizona, Chair

    TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin               LUCY McBATH, Georgia, Ranking
    TROY NEHLS, Texas                        Member
    BARRY MOORE, Alabama                 JARED MOSKOWITZ, Florida
    KEVIN KILEY, California              DAN GOLDMAN, New York
    LAUREL LEE, Florida                  STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
    BRAD KNOTT, North Carolina           ERIC SWALWELL, California

                   CHRISTOPHER HIXON, Majority Staff Director
                      JULIE TAGEN, Minority Staff Director

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------

                           Tuesday, February 27, 2025

                               OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                       Page
    The Honorable Andy Biggs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and
      Federal Government Surveillance from the State of Arizona......     1
    The Honorable Lucy McBath, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on
      Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from the State of
      Georgia........................................................     3

                                   WITNESSES

    Anne Basham, Founder, Chair, Interparliamentary Taskforce on
      Human Trafficking
      Oral Testimony.................................................     5
      Prepared Testimony.............................................     8
    Jean Bruggeman, Esq., Executive Director, Freedom Network USA
      Oral Testimony.................................................    23
      Prepared Testimony.............................................    25
    Sheri Lopez, Survivor-Advocate & Founder, Pearl at the Mailbox
      Oral Testimony.................................................    33
      Prepared Testimony.............................................    35
    Camille Cooper, Vice President, Anti-Human Trafficking & Child
      Exploitation, Tim Tebow Foundation
      Oral Testimony.................................................    41
      Prepared Testimony.............................................    43

              LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC. SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING

    All materials submitted by the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal
      Government Surveillance, for the record........................    72

    A ACLU Research Brief entitled, ``Is Sex Work Decriminalization
      the Answer? What the Research Tells Us,'' Oct. 16, 2020, ACLU,
      submitted by the Honorable Lucy McBath, Ranking Member of the
      Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from
      the State of Georgia, for the record
    Materials submitted by the Honorable Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member
      the Committee on the Judiciary from the State of Maryland, for
      the record
        An article entitled, ``Elon Musk's business empire is built
            on $38 billion in governmentfunding,'' Feb. 26, 2025, The
            Washington Post
        An article entitled, `` `The Girls Were Just So Young: The
            Horrors of Jeffrey Epstein's Private Island,'' Jul. 20,
            2019, Vanity Fair
        An article entitled, ``Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes:
            `I Was Donald Trump's Closest Friend,' '' Nov. 3, 2024,
            The Daily Beast
    Materials submitted by the Honorable Andy Biggs, Chair of the
      Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from
      the State of Arizona, for the record
        A letter to the Honorable Andy Biggs, Chair of the
            Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
            from the State of Arizona, and the Honorable Lucy McBath,
            Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal
            Government Surveillance from the State of Georgia, Feb.
            27, 2025, from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation
        An image of Mr. Epstein, Ms. Maxwell, and President Clinton.
        An article entitled, ``Schumer for thousands in donations
            from Jeffrey Epstein,'' Jul. 10, 2019, New York Post
        A fact sheet entitled, ``Combating Demand: The Harmful Impact
            of Decriminalization on Anti-Trafficking Policies,''
            Shared Hope International
        A document entitled, ``INTERPOL's Crimes Against Children
            Unit,'' International Criminal Police Organization

        PROTECTING VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND ONLINE EXPLOITATION

                                  ----------

                          Thursday, February 27, 2025

                            House of Representatives

           Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance

                           Committee on the Judiciary

                                 Washington, DC

        The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:04 a.m., in
    Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, the Hon. Andy Biggs
    [Chair of the Subcommittee] presiding.
        Present: Representatives Biggs, Tiffany, Moore, Kiley, Lee,
    Knott, McBath, Goldman, Cohen, and Swalwell.
        Also present: Representatives Jordan, Fry, and Raskin.
        Mr. Biggs. Good morning. The Subcommittee will come to
    order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
    recess at any time.
        We welcome everyone to today's hearing on protecting
    victims of human trafficking and online exploitation. I will
    recognize myself for an opening statement.
        Oh, I am sorry. We're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance.
    I'll ask the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Moore, to lead us in
    the pledge.
        All. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
    of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation,
    under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
        Mr. Biggs. Thank you. I'll now recognize myself for an
    opening statement.
        I appreciate everyone being here today. We're here to
    continue an extremely important discussion on protecting the
    most vulnerable members of our population.
        Through the 118th Congress, our Subcommittee held two
    victims-focused hearings. We passed two pieces of legislation
    out of the Committee, and one of them ended up being signed
    into law.
        I look forward to continuing this work in the 119th
    Congress by spotlighting how to best protect victims of human
    trafficking and child exploitation and give a voice to these
    countless victims.
        Human trafficking, specifically sex trafficking, is a
    heinous crime that tragically continues to grow in America.
    While international sex trafficking may be more widely known,
    domestic sex trafficking also persists in the United States.
        Traffickers even use social media to lure innocent people,
    including children, to become victims.
        In the United States, an adult or child can be trafficked
    and exploited at hotels, truck stops, their own homes, and
    online. Trafficking victims are exploited in cities, suburban
    and rural areas. It can happen anytime and anywhere.
        Traffickers use fraud, force, and coercion to induce their
    victims to commit crimes. This can lead to arrest, conviction,
    and incarceration of trafficked victims without consideration
    of their victim status.
        Thankfully, we as a country have and will continue to make
    significant progress to help victims and survivors move forward
    with their lives. We're also committed to protecting children
    and combating the growing issue of child sexual abuse material,
    CSAM.
        Identifying children depicted in CSAM is crucial to stop
    their ongoing victimization and capture offenders producing it.
    More than 50,000 children--excuse me--in CSAM videos in the
    possession of law enforcement remain unidentified. It's tragic
    that so many children remain unknown, unfound, and unrescued.
        Last year, the Committee worked with the former Members of
    Homeland Security investigations, the main investigative body
    within DHS and the prominent law enforcement agency combating
    human trafficking and child exploitation.
        We also heard from current and former Internet Crimes
    Against Children, ICAC, Task Force officers coordinating
    thousands of Federal, State, and local enforcement agencies
    across the country combating CSAM.
        We also had powerful testimony from Tim Tebow, sharing the
    mission of the Tim Tebow Foundation and more about Operation
    Renewed Hope.
        Operation Renewed Hope is the first of its kind. It's
    joining Federal law enforcement agencies with nongovernment
    organizations to identify, locate, and rescue victims of child
    exploitation.
        Thanks to these heroic efforts, over 300 victims were
    identified, and at least 14 were rescued.
        I understand Operation Renewed Hope is ongoing, and I hope
    more victims continue to be rescued and provided with the care
    they need and deserve.
        There is no question these criminals must be prosecuted.
    While there are many solutions to combat these issues, we must
    ensure prosecutors are doing their jobs to put these criminals
    behind bars.
        I express my gratitude to the special agents of HSI and
    ICAC Task Force officers for their unwavering commitment to
    safeguarding children and liberating victims from the
    atrocities of these crimes.
        I also thank NCMEC and the Tim Tebow Foundation. These
    groups are leading the charge to identify and rescue victims of
    human trafficking and CSAM, and for that, we thank you.
        Sunshine is the best disinfectant, it has been said. It is
    the best way to rid the world of these predators who abuse and
    exploit victims. We will continue our work to deliver hope to
    those who need it most.
        Again, I thank those witnesses who are here and the Members
    of the Committee who are here and will come. With that, I yield
    back and now recognize the Ranking Member, Ms. McBath, for her
    opening statement.
        Ms. McBath. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning to
    all our witnesses this morning. Thank you to each of you for
    joining us today for our first hearing of the Subcommittee on
    Crime and Federal Government Surveillance in the 119th
    Congress.
        I welcome all our Subcommittee Members, as the Chair said,
    that will also be arriving, and I truly hope that we can find
    common ground this Congress as we work to combat crime and make
    our communities safer.
        Most Americans probably think that we've never met a victim
    of human trafficking or online exploitation, that these crimes
    happen everywhere else. The unfortunate reality is that more
    than 36 million reports of online child sexual exploitation
    were made in 2023, while reports of online enticement increased
    more than 300 percent in just two years.
        Human trafficking, a multibillion-dollar industry that
    includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking, has been
    reported in all 50 States.
        Before I became a Member of Congress, believe it or not, I
    was a flight attendant, and I was trained to spot the signs of
    trafficking on board the airline--the planes.
        We were taught that if we saw someone in distress, we would
    reach out and help that person find safety if we could.
        This training continues today through the Department of
    Homeland Security's Blue Campaign, which educates people in key
    industries and the public to help identify victims of
    trafficking.
        What happens after that victim is discovered, whether by a
    flight attendant, a doctor, a hotel manager, a friend, or a
    member of the community? What happens after that?
        Almost 25 years ago, Congress recognized that to combat
    human trafficking effectively, a system was needed that could
    help victims escape, get the support that they needed, and if
    they were willing, aid law enforcement in prosecuting their
    trafficker.
        With the help of trafficking advocates, Congress' solution
    was the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a bipartisan bill
    that invested in prevention, protection of victims, and
    prosecutions.
        Today, the entire system is in jeopardy. The current
    administration's chaotic and reckless approach to governing has
    put lives on the line by freezing funding and stopping the very
    critical work done by organizations that help victims and help
    survivors.
        These disruptions have already forced nonprofits to lay off
    employees and while some organizations have had their funding
    restored, they still worry about how this administration might
    continue to undermine their work.
        If the President continues down this path and funding is
    cut for good, it will be trafficking victims and survivors who
    pay the price.
        Without shelters, where will these victims and survivors
    go? Without lawyers or social workers, who will advocate for
    them to make sure that they get the services that they need?
        Without assurances of safety, how will victims work with
    law enforcement in pursuing charges, charges that might prevent
    a trafficker from reaching new victims?
        If this administration lets the system fail, victims will
    have nowhere to turn, and that is exactly what traffickers
    want. When victims feel like they have nowhere to go,
    traffickers can promise them safety, then turn on them to
    resume their exploitation.
        Now, I'm sure that there may be some out there who still
    think that this issue doesn't affect them, but the reality is
    that human trafficking and online exploitation, both in the
    United States and abroad, it harms all Americans.
        When the administration attempted to illegally dismantle
    USAID and froze State Department funding, U.S. antitrafficking
    efforts were stopped around the world--efforts that protect
    Americans and the United States' interests.
        For example, USAID has been working to combat online
    operations in South Asia, known as scam farms, which use forced
    labor to scam Americans.
        Democrats and Republicans have long been able to work
    together to combat human trafficking and online exploitation.
    At this moment--and I believe this is possible--we need our
    Republican colleagues to stand with us in calling on the
    administration to stop the chaos and stop the disruptions, join
    us in protecting these very vital programs and organizations
    and their funding so that we can truly protect the victims and
    survivors of these reprehensible crimes.
        Now is not the time for us to cutoff funding for law
    enforcement and safety reforms and safety efforts. Funding is
    absolutely necessary to combat these egregious crimes, and I
    yield back.
        Mr. Biggs. Without objection, all the opening statements
    will be included in the record. I'm going to now introduce
    today's witnesses, and I appreciate you coming today.
        Starting with Ms. Jean Bruggeman, Esq., Ms. Bruggeman is
    the Executive Director of Freedom Network USA, a collection of
    advocates and survivors that advocate for and provide services
    to trafficking survivors.
        She previously served as a human trafficking fellow in the
    DOJ Office for Victims of Crime.
        Also, Ms. Basham, Ms. Anne Basham, the Founder and Chair of
    the Interparliamentary Task Force on Human Trafficking. The
    Task Force is a consortium of members of Parliament and
    Congress, government leaders, and survivors from more than 25
    countries who work to stop human trafficking.
        Ms. Camille Cooper serves as Vice President of Anti-Human
    Trafficking & Child Exploitation at the Tim Tebow Foundation.
    She's worked for over 20 years on issues, including child
    protection, child exploitation, and child trafficking.
        She previously served for 13 years as the Director of
    Government Affairs at the National Association to Protect
    Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting
    children from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
        Ms. Sheri Lopez is a survivor of human trafficking and the
    Founder of Pearl at the Mailbox, a nonprofit organization that
    works to end child exploitation through prevention, education,
    and awareness.
        Her nonprofit is named for the woman who noticed that she
    was being trafficked and helped Sheri get free from her
    traffickers.
        We welcome our witnesses and thank them for appearing
    today. We'll begin by swearing you in. Would you each please
    rise and raise your right hand?
        Do you each swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that
    the testimony you're about to give is true and correct to the
    best of your knowledge, information, and belief, so help you
    God.
        The record will reflect there that the witnesses have
    answered in the affirmative.
        Thank you. Please be seated.
        Please know that your written testimony will be entered
    into the record in its entirety. Accordingly, we ask that you
    summarize your testimony in five minutes.
        Ms. Basham, we'll go to you first.

                        STATEMENT OF ANNE BASHAM

        Ms. Basham. Thank you so much, Chair Biggs, Ranking Member
    McBath, and the Members of the Committee. Thank you for the
    opportunity to testify today. My name is Anne Basham, as he
    mentioned, and while there are many important, relevant bills
    here in Congress right now, I am going to be focusing primarily
    on two--and that is the Trafficking Survivor Relief Act and the
    GRACIE Act.
        Human trafficking is perhaps the worst human rights
    violation in the world, and yet, instead of receiving
    protection and justice, many trafficking victims are arrested
    and convicted of crimes they were forced to commit.
        Survivors of human trafficking too often have their voices
    silenced by unjust felony convictions for crimes they committed
    as a direct result--as a direct result, I should restate--of
    their trafficking offenses.
        Traffickers often force their victims to commit crimes, and
    the resulting criminal records prevent survivors from obtaining
    housing, employment, and other essential elements for life.
        Currently, most States have legal mechanisms that allow
    survivors of trafficking to seek vacatur or expungements of
    their criminal record that are tied to their exploitation.
        However, there is no equivalent legal framework at the
    Federal level.
        The Trafficking Survivor Relief Act, or TSRA, as I'm going
    to refer to it, is sponsored by Representative Fry, Lieu, and
    Wagner, and it actually passed through the House Judiciary
    Committee last year.
        It seeks to address this gap by providing a pathway for
    survivors to vacate convictions and expunge arrest records for
    certain crimes that were a direct result of their trafficking.
        Additionally, the bill allows for the Office on Violence
    Against Women to allocate funding for civil legal services and
    establishes--and this is very important--an affirmative defense
    for victims so that they can avoid unjust criminalization at
    the outset.
        In the appendix to my written testimony, which I would
    really encourage you to read, I have included survivor impact
    statements, including the story of Hollie Nadel, who built an
    incredible career and was acknowledged as a trafficking
    survivor by the court.
        She recently lost everything due to a wrongful felony
    conviction.
        What is most alarming is that for most of these adults who
    are convicted in their late teens or early 20s, this experience
    began actually when they were children.
        Research shows that the average age at which children are
    targeted for both sex and labor trafficking is just 11-14 years
    old, and more than 60 percent of child trafficking victims are
    current or former foster youth.
        The GRACIE Act, which is Generate Recordings of All CPS
    Interviews Everywhere, was just introduced last week by Senator
    Blackburn and Senator Ossoff, and it incentivizes States to
    mandate audio or video recordings for all Child Protective
    Services, or CPS, interviews.
        It also provides necessary transparency and accountability
    to those who are on the front lines of protecting children.
        So, I'm actually going to share with you the story that
    inspired the GRACIE Act. Abby, as I'm going to refer to her,
    was a young girl. She was caught in a nightmare that too many
    children face.
        Her parents were divorced, and during a visit to her
    father's house, a quarrel escalated into physical violence--and
    this was a young child in elementary school.
        Abby's father grabbed her neck, the incident was reported
    to a counselor, and the case was referred to CPS. The
    caseworker actually interviewed Abby at her mother's home,
    because school happened to be closed that day for snow. That's
    very typical.
        The mother listened to the story from the next room and
    recorded the interview. The mother told the--or Abby told the
    investigator the same story she had told the counselor.
        However, the case was curiously dismissed.
        Months after the case closed, it was discovered that the
    official report distorted Abby's testimony, downplaying the
    assault as a mere grab to the arm, not the neck, an act which
    could have qualified as a felony under State law.
        Abby's voice was silenced.
        In the United States, 37.4 percent of children--that's more
    than one-third of all children--will be interviewed by CPS by
    the time they're 18, and without recordings, these children's
    testimoneys can be easily misrepresented.
        I actually have here a copy of the Congressional Record. I
    know that you all know what this looks like, but for everyone
    else, this is just one day on the House floor. This is
    everything that was spoken.
        What if you, as Members of Congress, went to the House
    floor and you gave an important testimony, and it was never
    recorded?
        What if there was only one witness in the hearing room, not
    a stenographer but just an observer, who recorded a personal
    analysis of your testimony?
        Would you take this personal analysis as an accurate record
    of your testimony? Do you want the most important statements of
    your life to be at the mercy of a stranger with a pen?
        The lack of transparency and accountability within child
    welfare systems is appalling. Police are required to wear body
    cameras in most States, and the Department of Justice has
    mandated interrogation recordings since Eric Holder.
        Child victims are not afforded the same protections.
        Thank you so much. With that, I urge each of you to
    cosponsor both of these bills, as well as the National Human
    Trafficking Database Act, the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization
    Act, the SHIELD Act, the Renewed Hope Act, and the TAKE IT DOWN
    Act.
        Thank you so much, and I look forward to your questions.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Basham follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ms. Basham. The Chair now recognizes
    Ms. Bruggeman for your five-minute statement.
        Microphone, please.

                   STATEMENT OF JEAN BRUGGEMAN, ESQ.,

        Ms. Bruggeman. Thank you. Chair Biggs, Ranking Member
    McBath, and the Members of the Committee and staff, and my
    fellow witnesses, thank you for the opportunity to discuss
    human trafficking in the United States. I'm Jean Bruggeman,
    Executive Director of Freedom Network USA, and an attorney with
    25 years of experience addressing human trafficking.
        Freedom Network USA is the Nation's largest coalition of
    antitrafficking programs and a training and technical
    assistance expert. Our 98 members are NGOs and individuals.
    They are survivors, attorneys, researchers, teachers, doctors,
    and social service providers who work with over 6,000
    trafficking survivors here in the United States every year.
        I've provided detailed recommendations in my written
    statement and will summarize those briefly now.
        Human trafficking is the result of policy choices.
    Industries like agriculture and domestic work, once dependent
    on enslaved labor, were left out of U.S. labor protections and
    are now rife with labor trafficking.
        Our immigration laws were established to exclude Asians and
    Africans. The criminalization of sex work was rooted in
    opposition to mixed-race couples.
        Enacting policies that protect all workers, value
    immigrants, and decriminalize sex work robs traffickers of
    their power.
        Young people are vulnerable to trafficking due to their
    developing brains and legal and--excuse me--physical
    dependence. If you add in the poverty, insecure immigration
    status, sexual or physical abuse, or rejection by family or
    community, traffickers will swoop in.
        Providing care and support to all young people, including
    education on consent and healthy relationships, protects them
    from a range of abuse and creates safe places to seek help.
        The internet, social media, and cryptocurrencies are being
    used by traffickers but also by survivors and providers.
        While we need safer online spaces, restricting access to
    information and shutting down sites with adult content only
    drives traffickers into hidden spaces, out of the reach of
    legal authorities. Age and identity restrictions collect data
    that hackers steal.
        Far too many policies are used to block access to critical
    information and safety for queer communities.
        We need to pursue policies that protect everyone, not just
    a few.
        Both labor and sex trafficking survivors are left with
    criminal records as a result of their victimization. Our
    Survivor Reentry Project is currently supporting 137 survivors
    who have a total of 1,716 criminal charges.
        We're connecting them with pro bono attorneys in the 47
    States that have criminal record relief, but for those with
    Federal charges, there are no options.
        Enacting the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act is critical,
    but we must avoid the pitfalls we've seen in so many State
    statutes. It must include a broad range of criminal charges,
    reduced requirements, and meet the needs of real survivors.
        Over 25 years, the TVPA has remained impressively
    bipartisan. Funding for services has steadily grown, but let's
    be honest, it's still not that much.
        Fiscal year 2024 appropriations for the DOJ and HHS
    programs combined were only about $120 million. They provide
    survivors with safe housing, medical and mental healthcare,
    legal services, and education.
        These programs not only meet the very real needs of
    survivors, but they also send a critical message--we see you,
    you did not serve this abuse, and we will protect you.
        Last month's OMB memo threatened to end all funding in less
    than 48 hours. The HHS grants were on hold for weeks. Programs
    funded by the State Department and USAID, both in the U.S. and
    abroad, have been canceled. Some programs have already enacted
    furloughs, halted hiring, or stopped accepting clients.
        If funding is not reliable, programs will close. Survivors
    will have to choose between staying with traffickers and
    homelessness, between abuse and hunger. Funding cuts enable
    traffickers to abuse and exploit U.S. citizens and foreign
    nationals alike.
        Traffickers target the vulnerabilities of their victims. To
    combat them, we can't use a one-size-fits-all approach. We must
    meet the specific needs of each person.
        The Executive Orders on gender, DEI, and immigrants
    threaten this critical work. Guidance from the Federal
    Government to ignore gender identity and sexual orientation
    tells queer communities that they are not welcome in these
    programs.
        Eliminating services for undocumented immigrants leaves
    them dependent on the traffickers who control their visas and
    their debts back home.
        These orders are a blank check for traffickers and will
    lead to increased violence and abuse.
        Most antitrafficking programs are embedded in community-
    based organizations, like refugee resettlement agencies,
    runaway and homeless youth shelters, and queer community
    centers.
        They are a part of the fabric of our social safety net, and
    strengthening that net holds the key to not only supporting
    survivors, but preventing human trafficking in America.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Bruggeman follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Biggs. Thank you. The Chair now recognizes Ms. Lopez
    for five minutes.

                        STATEMENT OF SHERI LOPEZ

        Ms. Lopez. Good morning, Chair Biggs, Ranking Member
    McBath, and the Members of the Committee. I am honored to
    testify before you today on protecting victims of human
    trafficking and online exploitation.
        My name is Sheri Lopez, and I am a human trafficking
    survivor and founder of the nonprofit Pearl at the Mailbox,
    named in honor of a brave woman who rescued me, from seven
    years of trafficking, at a mailbox. I share with you today a
    survivor's point of view.
        I grew up in a stable, two-parent home. I had just turned
    15 and was trying to find my place in the world. I was an
    insecure and shy teen which made me vulnerable to manipulation.
        I share this to shatter the preconceived notion that most
    children trafficked come from broken homes, are troubled, or
    are runaways. I was none of these. The reality is that any
    child can be groomed and trafficked.
        I met a boy in the drama club in high school, and he
    quickly introduced me to his father. Throughout three months,
    he groomed me and became my first trafficker. This began my
    seven years of being sex trafficked.
        From the age of 15-18, I lived at home, and my parents had
    no idea what was happening to me, and I could not find the
    words to tell them that I was repeatedly being raped. This
    continued on the weekends and over the summer while I was in
    high school.
        There are many times I tried to stop what was happening.
    However, every rape had been recorded and used as blackmail to
    force me into submission, along with other threatening actions
    that were messages to me to comply.
        From the age of 18 until my rescue, I was flown across the
    United States and forced to do things I didn't want to do but
    did because of fear of the consequences.
        Traveling on airplanes, nobody would've ever known I was a
    trafficking victim. Over time, my body operated on autopilot,
    while emotionally checked out to cope with the trauma.
        During my seven years of being trafficked, I had four
    traffickers. One was a woman. See, a trafficked person has a
    shelf life. Once they are no longer useful to the trafficker,
    the trafficker is going to get rid of them, which could include
    being sold to another trafficker, such in my case, kicked out
    resulting in many homeless teens, or they're going to be
    killed.
        Traffickers intentionally set out to destroy the will,
    heart, and soul of their victim and would not hesitate to take
    their life, too, if needed.
        When a victim gives up on life and their will to live is
    destroyed, the brain goes into self-preservation mode to keep
    the heart beating, even if the victim would rather die to end
    the abuse.
        Survival is in our DNA. Traffickers know this and use fear
    to gain and maintain control of their victim, beat down the
    will to live, and use the victim, however it best fits the
    agenda of the trafficker.
        Human trafficker survivors are often the pawns of crimes
    masterminded by the traffickers and seen as throwaways who can
    take the blame. Many times, human traffickers are labeled as
    domestic violence victims and inadequately represented legally,
    and therefore, easy to convict, a box that can be checked and a
    person to put behind bars, while the trafficker can afford
    better legal representation and receive a lesser charge or
    accountability for their role in forcing another person to
    participate in what they orchestrated.
        Let me share with you that it took over 25 years for me to
    grasp even what happened to me, to be able to put a name to it,
    and then it was anger that another person had the right to
    abuse another person in such fashion, that I finally had to
    speak up, and now you cannot keep me quiet.
        I found my place in legislation. Last year with the help of
    Representative Gress, I was able to get the Arizona vacatur law
    updated and signed by the Governor, which gives human
    trafficking survivors charged with prostitution or minor
    criminal offenses the ability to meet with a judge and
    potentially get those charges set aside.
        Also, I participated in a group with the help of
    Representative Bliss, Senator Bolick, and the guidance of
    Representative Wynn, which was Prop. 313, and it was created by
    the Arizona voters to put on the ballot and it was passed
    unanimously in the State.
        What this does is, it allows any adult who traffics a child
    under 15, is convicted with the charge, will spend the rest of
    their natural life in prison without the possibility of parole.
        Why is this important? Because a trafficked survivor has a
    life sentence themselves. I will never get away from what
    happened to me. The life I had before is now gone.
        I respectfully ask that you support the Trafficking
    Survivors Relief Act. Doing so will give survivors hope that
    they can go forward and have a new life. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Lopez follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Biggs. Thank you. The Chair recognizes now Ms. Cooper
    for your five minutes.

                      STATEMENT OF CAMILLE COOPER

        Ms. Cooper. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Chair Biggs, Ranking
    Member McBath, and honorable Members of the Committee, thank
    you for having me back to speak again. My name is Camille
    Cooper, and I'm Vice President of Anti-Human Trafficking &
    Child Exploitation at the Tim Tebow Foundation.
        The Tim Tebow Foundation exists to bring faith, hope, and
    love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of
    need. Our antihuman trafficking efforts span 52 countries
    around the globe.
        You have a few great bills before you this Congress, the
    Strengthening Child Exploitation Enforcement Act, the Protect
    Our Children Act reauthorization, the SHIELD Act, the
    Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, and Representative Smith's
    reauthorization of TVPRA.
        For today I'm going to focus most of my attention on the
    Renewed Hope Act, which addresses the need to identify and
    safeguard the 57,000 unknown children seen in crime scene
    photos that depict their rape and torture.
        Chair Biggs and Representative Laura Lee, thank you for
    your leadership and your assistance with that bill.
        Ten years ago, in a small town, a man started raping his
    two-year-old stepdaughter. For our purposes, I'm going to call
    her Jane Doe. He filmed that abuse and shared it online with
    other pedophiles.
        The girl repeatedly disclosed her abuse, but she was not
    believed. For this little girl, the bogeyman was real, and he
    lived down the hall. For 10 years, Jane Doe suffered.
        In 2020, the number of children in the U.S. like Jane Doe
    that had their abuse images in the possession of law
    enforcement, but had yet to be identified and safeguarded, was
    11,000.
        In 2022, the anecdotal information put that number at
    20,000. In just two years, it had almost doubled.
        When I got to TTF, we put the protection of those children
    as our number one priority, and we got to work. With the help
    of Timmy, Jon Rouse, Jim Cole, and the entire team at TTF, we
    hatched a plan--bring all the experts in the world together
    with the goal of determining how many unknown victims were in
    the global image database at INTERPOL and operationalize a plan
    to find them.
        The result of that meeting led Homeland Security
    Investigations to create the first-ever Victim Identification
    Task Force in the United States and dubbed it Operation Renewed
    Hope.
        In the summer of 2023 and the winter of 2024, this task
    force tentatively identified over 730 children, including Jane
    Doe. To date, 289 of those children have been confirmed
    safeguarded. Almost half were American children.
        Operation Renewed Hope 3 is currently underway as we speak.
    Based on current data of actively traded series identified at
    the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, we know
    that family members are the largest category of offender in
    actively traded series, and of those, fathers produce more
    child sexual abuse images than any other type of offender
    category.
        According to law enforcement, children can be heard in
    these videos screaming for daddy to stop.
        In an unidentified--in a study of unidentified victims of
    the INTERPOL database, they found that 84 percent of the images
    were of actual child sexual abuse; 47 percent contained extreme
    abuse, including rape, bondage, torture, defecation, and even
    bestiality; 4.3 percent of the images were infants.
        Due to the nature of online distribution, international
    collaboration with INTERPOL is essential in identifying and
    safeguarding American children.
        By way of example, the offender in Arizona rapes his child,
    films it, shares it with offenders in Spain or Germany. When
    those countries make an arrest and seize that offender's
    devices and analyze the images, they will find new victims, and
    those new victims' images goes to INTERPOL's International
    Child Sexual Exploitation Database.
        Since its inception, 14,000 children, or almost half of the
    unidentified images in the ICSE database, have been American
    children, and this is why collaboration is so critical.
        If half of the unidentified children in INTERPOL's database
    are likely American victims, that means that a team of seven at
    HSI Cybercrimes Center are tasked with finding tens of
    thousands of American victims.
        That's why the Renewed Hope Act is critical. It will
    increase that full-time workforce from 7-200.
        Despite the success of Operation Renewed Hope, we cannot
    leave these remaining 56,000 children to languish, they need
    intervention and they need it quickly.
        When Jane Doe was protected, this is what she said.

            When the police arrived at my house, I felt happy. I felt that
            something good will happen for me. God, I was thrilled, I
            wanted to smile because I knew something good will happen. It
            was magic.

    Today the fate of 56,000 children is in your hands. Thank you
    for allowing me to speak.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Cooper follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Mr. Biggs. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Cooper, and thank all
    our witnesses for their opening statements.
        Mr. Raskin, are you ready to go?
        So, Mr. Raskin, we recognize you for your opening
    statement.
        Mr. Raskin. I thank you for kindly for your indulgence, Mr.
    Chair, and greetings to our witnesses. Thank you for your
    testimony which I know is harrowing and difficult in some
    cases, and I thank you for your public service.
        Trafficking is modern-day slavery, and it reflects a time
    of cruelty and barbarity when everything is for sale, not just
    public office and government, but human beings, people, women,
    children, laborers.
        We know that labor trafficking, sex trafficking, the child
    sex abuse material are all flourishing online.
        Alas, the social media companies have been pushed to remove
    all guardrails against objectionable content on their platforms
    which is called censorship.
        The result has not been a free speech utopia but a
    dystopian nightmare. Social media has become a cesspool of
    scams targeting the elderly, cyber bullying aimed at children
    and linked to escalating suicide rates, misinformation
    exploiting the victims of disasters, natural and unnatural,
    racist and antisemitic hatred and vilification, and foreign
    disinformation and propaganda, undermining democratic elections
    and social trust.
        All of this has been a boon for the sex traffickers while
    reduced content moderation has also led to an explosion of
    child sex abuse material online.
        So, we want to prevent the government from becoming a
    barren hellscape like the social media platforms have become.
    We cannot allow them to dismantle the government programs and
    Federal funding that actually protect children and teens and
    aid the victims of human trafficking.
        We rely on law enforcement and personnel from Homeland
    Security, the FBI, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task
    Force program, which is a national network of 61 different task
    forces to target the people that are preying on children and
    women.
        Just last week, we learned that the Department of Homeland
    Security has ordered its entire investigative division--6,000
    agents--to stop focusing on drug dealers, terrorists, and human
    traffickers, and instead prioritize, you guessed it,
    immigration enforcement.
        The child pornographers, the drug networks, and the human
    traffickers must be uncorking their champagne bottles about the
    diversion of all the other law enforcement resources to work on
    the mass round-up and deportation of immigrants.
        We've got an entire ecosystem of groups working to help
    here. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
    which receives 81 percent of its funding from the Federal
    Government, does an essential job.
        Without Federal funding and not-for-profits--and there are
    people determined to dismantle the Federal funding--NCMEC and
    those that support victims by providing housing, emergency
    shelter, food, clothing, and so on, may have a much more
    difficult time being able to find the victims and survivors,
    the people who are willing to cooperate with investigations and
    prosecutions.
        My bottom line is, I want to thank you for everything that
    all are doing, and I hope that we will invest carefully in the
    public programs and the funded not-for-profit programs that are
    actually working to confront this nightmare in our time.
        I yield back to you, Mr. Chair.
        Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields back. I now recognize
    myself for my five minutes.
        Ms. Bruggeman, you're the Executive Director of Freedom
    Network, and so I assume you're familiar with your
    organization's finances and budget?
        Ms. Bruggeman. That's correct.
        Mr. Biggs. Will you please share with the Committee the
    dollar amount Freedom Network received in grants from the
    Federal Government in 2023, please.
        If you don't have an exact number--
        Ms. Bruggeman. I don't have the exact number in front of
    me. I think that was in my disclosure form. We do have
    currently three grants and one sub award. They're a three-year
    award, so the funding is received but is to be used over the
    course of three years.
        Mr. Biggs. Yes, the 990 indicates that you received about
    $1.3 million, and that was about 87.7 percent of your funding.
        Ms. Bruggeman. That's correct.
        Mr. Biggs. Is that accurate?
        Ms. Bruggeman. That sounds accurate.
        Mr. Biggs. Let's put those up.
        You're getting nearly 90 percent of what you do funded by
    American taxpayers. Can you advocate for legalization of
    prostitution? Is that fair?
        Ms. Bruggeman. We advocate for the decriminalization, Mr.
    Biggs. It is not the same as legalization.
        Mr. Biggs. You also advocate for open borders, right?
        Ms. Bruggeman. We advocate for a safe way to allow migrants
    to move to attain safety and support for themselves and their
    children, yes.
        Mr. Biggs. I have here a document from the National Center
    on Sexual Exploitation that protests your testimony today
    because the legalization, or full decriminalization, of
    commercial sex does two things:

        (1)  Expands the trade, thereby expanding the demand for
    more prostitution, typically satisfied by manipulating
    vulnerable people, including youth and those experiencing
    poverty, homelessness, addiction, and undocumented status; and
        (2)  it prevents law enforcement from being able to
    identify sex trafficking victims, including minors.

        So, without objection, I introduce this letter and the
    packet from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
        Ms. Bruggeman. I would argue that--
        Mr. Biggs. There's no question for you right now, Ms. Brug-
    geman.
        I'll go now to you, Ms. Lopez. The vacatur statute in
    Arizona that you worked on with Representative Gress in
    Arizona, that was to protect victims of trafficking who
    sometimes get caught up with committing crimes themselves. I
    wanted you to explain that and how you got that through.
        Ms. Lopez. Thank you for the question, Chair Biggs. Yes. I
    like to find laws that are completely outdated and useless when
    it comes to protecting survivors, and the vacatur law was one
    of those in Arizona. It had an effective date of crimes prior
    to, like, 1987, something.
        I presented it to Representative Gress, and I said,

            We need to update this because the issue that we have currently
            are survivors that were charged with prostitution, because
            somehow automatically at the age of 18, somehow you're
            consenting to what's happening to you, when you're really being
            trafficked.

        You're charged with prostitution or some other petty crime,
    which is not uncommon for those that are hungry, and the
    trafficker is controlling their aspects of eating or drinking,
    so they steal food to eat.
        Being able to update this law, which was supported
    unanimously through the House and the Senate on both sides, and
    now it allows survivors who have these charges to be able to
    fill out a form and request to meet with the judge and
    hopefully get those set aside, so that way they can apply for
    background checks, of course--
        Mr. Biggs. Then, they get a clear record, and they can live
    a normal life after that, to a certain extent?
        Ms. Lopez. Well, yes. With a vacatur law, it is not
    expungement, so they still show up on a fingerprint clearance
    card absolutely.
        Mr. Biggs. Right.
        Ms. Lopez. The microphone shut off. Yes, but they can go
    on. It gives them hope. Somebody who maybe wants to be a
    teacher can now apply to be a teacher. Somebody who wants to be
    a nurse, such in my case, I became a nurse, and I was able to
    do that.
        Mr. Biggs. Thank you for that, and I know that there's
    additional work to be done on Arizona's law as well, so we'll
    be talking about that.
        I want to go to you, Ms. Basham, for a moment. So, human
    trafficking, child trafficking, that happens across borders as
    well.
        Ms. Basham. Correct.
        Mr. Biggs. When you have misplaced 330,000-plus children,
    which the previous administration did through its ORR programs,
    those children, some being placed in sponsors who were running
    strip clubs, dozens going to the same address, same person,
    without vetting, that makes them more vulnerable to human sex
    trafficking?
        Ms. Basham. Absolutely, yes.
        Mr. Biggs. My time is expired. I appreciate that. I'm going
    to recognize now the Ranking Member, Ms. McBath, for five
    minutes.
        Ms. McBath. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        In a memorandum dated January 27, 2025, the Office of
    Management and Budget's Acting Director instructed the heads of
    all Executive Departments and agencies to effectuate a
    temporary pause on Federal grants, loans, and other financial
    assistance--that's the OMB memo--slated to begin the next day,
    January 28, 2025, at 5 p.m.
        The funding pause applied to, (1) the issuance of new
    awards; (2) the disbursement of Federal funds under all open
    awards; and (3) any other relevant agency actions that may be
    implicated by Trump's Executive Orders.
        Ms. Bruggeman, what did this memo mean for the
    organizations and the Freedom Network, and also, what was the
    immediate response to this memo by members of your
    organization?
        Ms. Bruggeman. The response to the memo was widespread
    fear, confusion, frustration. Organizations--the funding that
    is issued by the Federal Government is reimbursement funding.
    By cutting off the funding with such little notice, not only
    were people not able to determine whether they'd be able to
    continue serving folks going forward, but also weren't sure
    they were going to be paid the money that they were already due
    from the Federal Government.
        Immediately, people within our network had to lay off staff
    and stopped accepting new clients, denying services and support
    to the very victims that we've been talking about this morning.
        That includes legal services, housing, case management, and
    assistance through the legal process to clear their criminal
    records. All these services were immediately in great peril.
        Ms. McBath. How did your Executive Director of the Freedom
    Network anticipate this memo would affect victims and survivors
    of human trafficking?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Well, what we know is that when programs are
    not available, victims are stuck with nowhere to go. They stay
    with their traffickers. They do not--they are not able to
    access safe housing, alternative jobs, food, shelter, medical
    and mental health services, substance abuse services, all the
    critical services that they need to leave the trafficking
    situation, heal, and then if they're--pursue justice either
    through a civil case or in working with law enforcement.
        Without those services and support, they remain in the
    trafficker's orbit and continue to be abused and exploited.
        Ms. McBath. Let me ask, does your organization encourage
    prostitution or open borders? Please explain your position and
    why.
        Ms. Bruggeman. Yes, thank you so much for that question. We
    do not promote any form of work. What we promote is human
    rights. All workers deserve human rights. No one should be
    criminalized for the work that they do, either because they
    have no other choice or because it's the work that they choose.
        There is a full spectrum of reasons why people do any type
    of work. Not everyone is as privileged as myself to choose to
    do legal work in a safe office. For those who are left with
    choices that are less safe, we have to improve their safety.
        That is the approach we take to all other sectors of the
    workforce, and we should take that same approach with sex work
    as well, improve the safety.
        Ms. McBath. The bipartisan Trafficking Victims Protection
    Act was first signed into law by President Clinton in 2000 and
    has since been reauthorized a number of times.
        Can you please explain how and why the Trafficking Victims
    Protection Act was first developed?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Absolutely. At the time in the 1990s, there
    were a host of cases of forced labor and sex trafficking that
    involved a lot of extreme psychological coercion. The laws we
    had on the books at the time did not recognize these types of
    forced fraud and coercion.
        At the same time, there were no programs for the survivors,
    and so they were trapped within the trafficking situation.
        Many trafficking victims are living with their traffickers,
    and so, leaving the trafficker means needing a safe place to
    live.
        In recognizing both that survivors needed better services
    to rebuild their lives and to engage with the legal system, the
    TVPA was created to accomplish both of those goals.
        Ms. McBath. I have one more question for you. Where do any
    gaps in services to victims and providers exist, if there are
    any, and how could legislation effectively address those gaps?
        Ms. Bruggeman. There are many gaps--
        Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady's time is expired, but you may
    answer the question.
        Ms. Bruggeman. Thank you so much. There are many gaps
    remaining. We need more funding. We need more support. We need
    to be allowed to really identify communities most at risk, and
    direct our programs specifically to their needs, to their
    experiences, and to their situation. We need more housing,
    medical care, and mental healthcare. Case management services
    are always critical.
        Ms. McBath. Mr. Chair, I have a unanimous consent request.
    I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a research
    brief from the ACLU, titled, ``Is Sex Work Decriminalization
    the Answer?'' What the research tells us, a comprehensive
    review of more than 80 studies on the decriminalization and
    criminalization of sex work, which revealed there is no clear
    link between criminalizing sex work and stopping human
    trafficking.
        Mr. Biggs. OK. So, you can--if you want to read from it,
    like I did, next time you need to do it in your five minutes,
    which is what I did.
        We're going to go with Mr. Tiffany for five minutes.
        Mr. Tiffany. I thank you, Mr. Chair.
        Ms. Cooper, how can social media companies help? I view,
    especially with young males, that pornography is kind of a
    gateway drug to stuff like this that happens.
        How could the social media companies help, and have you
    identified ways that they could be--to stem the tide of this
    proliferation?
        Ms. Cooper. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for that question.
    It's a great question.
        Under our current legal framework in the United States,
    social media companies have to report CSAM that they find on
    their networks but only if they see it. They don't have to
    proactively look for it, and I think that proactive detection
    is probably the most significant action the technology
    companies could take in this country to look for the material
    and then remove it. So that would be the first thing.
        The second thing is, a lot of the social media companies,
    like Meta, provide encryption on their services like WhatsApp,
    and WhatsApp--CSAM is proliferating across that particular
    application because it's encrypted, and it provides safe harbor
    for pedophiles all over the world.
        Mr. Tiffany. Have any States taken action? First, I'm not
    sure of the legality. Can they? Have any States taken action in
    this regard?
        Ms. Cooper. Some of the States are looking at things like
    age assurance and age verification issues to be able to block
    content for minors.
        Then some States are looking at ways to be able to sort of
    block the efforts of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task
    Forces by preventing them from being able to collect what's
    called attribution data in their investigation.
        You kind of have both things happening at the State level.
    It's a bit of patchwork. We have some laws that have been
    passed, like in Utah, that have problems, and we have some laws
    that are passed in other States that are working toward age
    verification.
        Mr. Tiffany. Thank you.
        Ms. Lopez, is prostitution a component of human trafficking
    in your experience?
        Ms. Lopez. Well, it is a result of being trafficked. It's
    not a choice by the victim.
        Mr. Tiffany. It's a component of human trafficking?
        Ms. Lopez. It is, absolutely, because somebody is paying
    for a service.
        Mr. Tiffany. Yes. Is it helpful to your cause to encourage
    prostitution?
        Ms. Lopez. No.
        Mr. Tiffany. It is not helpful?
        Ms. Lopez. To encourage prostitution?
        Mr. Tiffany. Yes. That does not help to limit human
    trafficking.
        Ms. Lopez. No.
        Mr. Tiffany. Is that right?
        Ms. Lopez. Well, if you're saying that prostitution is OK,
    it opens the door for anybody to say, OK, well, I'm going to
    say this child who's 17, but looks like they're 21, let's go
    ahead and prostitute them, and we're not going to be held
    liable.
        Mr. Tiffany. In other words legalizing prostitution is not
    going to be helpful to your cause?
        Ms. Lopez. No, not at all.
        Mr. Tiffany. Ms. Basham, are you familiar with something
    referred to as rape trees?
        Ms. Basham. Not extensively, no.
        Mr. Tiffany. Microphone.
        Ms. Basham. No, not extensively.
        Mr. Tiffany. OK. When I was down to Arizona on one of the
    trips with Mr. Biggs, an Arizona sheriff shared how the gangs,
    if I recall this correctly, they will hang a woman's underwear
    when they would bring her in from a foreign country when they
    were trafficked into the United States. Those were rape trees.
    I'm sorry to have to share it on such explicit terms.
        Is it helpful to secure the Southern border to prevent some
    human trafficking in the United States of America?
        Ms. Basham. Well, let me give you this analogy. If you take
    excellent care of your children in your house, you are going to
    lock your door at night, and I believe very firmly that, first,
    a lot of these children--we know this now, we are not in the
    dark--they are being raped along the journey here.
        It's a horrific set of circumstances that they are facing
    here, and by having porous borders, what it actually ends up
    doing is, it becomes a push-pull factor, and it actually
    encourages this.
        The biggest thing with human trafficking in general is it's
    a crime. It's very different than every other human rights
    abuse because it's not just slavery. It is slavery, but human
    trafficking is actually, at its core, part of the advanced
    criminal networks.
        That's why it's such a big deal, and it is part of this
    Committee explicitly. So, yes, I absolutely believe that every
    country needs to have authority over their borders, and I
    believe that there should be no incentivization for someone to
    try to cross those borders because otherwise what you get is,
    you get children who are caught in the middle, and they become
    the commodity.
        Mr. Tiffany. Securing our borders will help prevent human
    trafficking?
        Ms. Basham. Absolutely.
        Mr. Tiffany. I yield back.
        Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
        We've been called to votes. I think there's just one vote.
    I would urge us to go over, vote quickly, and come back. I
    tried to poll, see who's available to come back. I think most
    everybody can.
        I'd ask the witnesses to stay close. We're going to go into
    recess until 10 minutes after the vote, so probably 20-30
    minutes, somewhere in there. With that, we're going to be in
    recess.
        [Recess.]
        Mr. Biggs. The Subcommittee is called back to order. Others
    are on the way back from voting. Thank you all for being here.
        The Chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the entire
    Committee, Mr. Raskin, for his five minutes.
        Mr. Raskin. Mr. Chair, thank you very much.
        The most famous child sex trafficker of our time I would
    venture a guess is Jeffrey Epstein, a man of extraordinary
    wealth, power, influence, and connection. A good friend of
    Donald Trump's, actually, and other politicians who used his
    resources to exploit girls.
        I'm wondering if--Ms. Bruggeman, perhaps you could start--
    if you would explain basically how sex traffickers work and how
    they are able to get access to underaged girls and to exploit
    them for other purposes?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Thank you for the question.
        Sex traffickers work in many different ways to target
    vulnerabilities of the individuals they are targeting to
    exploit. For young people, it's often through grooming, through
    approaching them and offering things that they're not getting
    at home, whether that's--
        Mr. Raskin. So, in his case, he had a woman--I think her
    last name was Maxwell--who worked with him, and then she would
    procure the girls by giving them gifts, money, clothing, or
    invitations to parties, that kind of thing?
        Ms. Bruggeman. My understanding is that, yes, there were
    people being approached and offered financial rewards,
    benefits, and opportunity to come to parties, but we're not
    told exactly what was being expected of them, what would happen
    once they arrived, and then they had difficulty to not consent
    to what was happening and were trapped in that situation.
        Mr. Raskin. Yes. So, they tended to be poor or vulnerable
    from a more--like, a broken home or dysfunctional family
    situation, right?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Yes. I think what we heard from our
    witnesses is that people are targeted in different ways. It
    might be because they were low-income. It might be because they
    have an insecure immigration status. It might be because
    they're queer and not being respected by their communities. It
    might be because they're seeking validation and love and
    attention. So, there are lots of ways to target folks.
        Mr. Raskin. OK. You had an interesting colloquy about the
    law of prostitution. I know that's not what this is about, but
    I'm just wondering, did the law criminalizing prostitution and
    putting women in jail for prostitution help any of the girls
    who were trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and his network?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Exactly. No. The criminalization of people
    engaging in the selling of sex does not help anyone. It makes
    them more vulnerable, more at risk, and unable to come forward
    for assistance if they do experience abuse and exploitation,
    and the criminal records, as we've heard, follow them
    throughout their entire lives.
        Mr. Raskin. OK. I've got an article I would like to submit
    for the record, ``Elon Musk's business empire is built on $38
    billion in government funding,''--if I could, from The
    Washington Post.
        Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
        Mr. Raskin. That's a lot of money. People are getting a lot
    of money from the U.S. Government for different purposes, and I
    hope that our Oversight Committee will be able to figure out
    the waste, fraud, and abuse in a lot of these programs.
        How much money--you were asked the question how much money
    does your organization get, and I know you're a consortium of
    how many different organizations?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Right. We do have 89 different members. We
    also have staff ourselves. We receive direct Federal funds to
    run a program to help survivors clear their criminal records.
    We provide training and technical assistance to housing
    providers, and we're also working on other training and
    technical assistance programs, and then our members have
    different funding that they get directly.
        Mr. Raskin. How much money did you get in government grants
    and funds?
        Ms. Bruggeman. We get the amount--as Mr. Biggs pointed out,
    I think it was around two million in that one-year--
        Mr. Raskin. Two billion?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Million.
        Mr. Raskin. Oh, two million. OK.
        Ms. Bruggeman. Yes.
        Mr. Raskin. I was talking about Musk with $38 billion, and
    you said $2 million for all the consortium--
        Ms. Bruggeman. For over a period of three years.
        Mr. Raskin. Perhaps I would come to you, Ms. Lopez. What
    would the effect be of actually demolishing government funds
    and grants to all these organizations? There are some people
    who just want to shut it all down. What would that mean?
        Ms. Lopez. I can't speak to other organizations, but I can
    tell you Pearl at the Mailbox will never accept government
    grants.
        Mr. Raskin. How come you don't accept government grants?
        Ms. Lopez. Because we want to be able to continuously
    employ the people that we choose to employ, and we don't want
    to be beholden to another agency that tells us what to do.
        Mr. Raskin. OK. Ms. Cooper, what do you think the effect
    would be of a shutdown in government funding?
        Ms. Cooper. Well, antihuman trafficking and child
    exploitation efforts have been historically underfunded. So,
    really, we need more funding for enforcement efforts for demand
    reduction.
        That it's really important to clarify that there's good
    funding and there's bad funding. Good funding needs to go to
    support law enforcement. It needs to go to support survivor
    care. It needs to go to support legal services. Bad funding
    would be funding that supports the full decriminalization, and
    that means funding that supports decriminalizing brothel
    keeping, pimping, and sex buying. What we need is an increase
    in efforts to enforce those third-party profiteers that profit
    from prostitution.
        Mr. Raskin. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
        I now recognize the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Moore.
        Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate all the
    witnesses being here today.
        I understand Pam Bondi said that they're going to release
    the flight logs of the Lolita Express--Jeffrey Epstein's
    planes--coming out today, and we're asking for them to be
    unredacted. We want to know who was on the flights. I
    understand there were 200 victims in that process. We will
    indeed get to the bottom of that. I'm grateful President Trump
    has the courage and the willingness to put the names on a list
    and let everybody know what was going on at this island that
    Epstein owned.
        Anyway, Ms. Basham, can you maybe break down the funding
    that--the trafficking funding that was put in by 45, President
    Trump, as opposed to the Biden Administration? What was the
    difference between the budgets we spent on antitrafficking
    between those administrations? Do you know off the top of your
    head?
        Ms. Basham. Yes, I know some of that off the top of my
    head. So, just as a background, I did used to work at the
    Department of Justice. I was in senior leadership there
    actually at the Office for Victims of Crime, which is the
    largest Federal under of domestic antitrafficking efforts in
    the Nation.
        I can tell you this, that under the last year of President
    Trump's Administration in 2020, it was allocated that over $100
    million in a single Fiscal Year just from the Department of
    Justice for domestic antitrafficking efforts. This is the
    largest ever given in any administration.
        I do agree with Representative McBath when she said at the
    beginning that antitrafficking efforts need to be prioritized.
    That's absolutely the case.
        Additionally, $35 million was allocated for shelters.
    Shelters, as Ms. Bruggeman mentioned, are one of the most
    essential parts to the recovery of survivors of trafficking.
    They are the foundation. We have got to have funding for
    shelters. Since that time, the funding has dropped to about
    half--in many years, less than half of that $35 million--and it
    has never come back up. That's with inflation.
        Mr. Moore. The Biden Administration, even with inflation,
    cut funding to less than half than what President Trump was
    spending.
        Explain to me the shelter. Now, how is that such an
    integral part? You don't have to go in detail, because I have
    got some other questions that I want to ask Ms. Cooper and some
    of the others, but how does that help the process? Does it get
    folks off the streets? Is that kind of what happens?
        Ms. Basham. Yes. You have to have safe shelter. Any
    survivor of trafficking, a lot of times when they leave, they
    are in a very dangerous situation. They need a place that's
    safe, and they actually need a place with wraparound services
    so that they can fully recover and then move on with their
    lives. That usually takes at least a year, sometimes two years
    for long-term care.
        Mr. Moore. Ms. Cooper, you mentioned the unidentified
    56,000 children--I believe it was the number you told us--where
    these kids, we know they have been victimized by family members
    or whatever the case may be, which is incredibly tragic. Do you
    think facial recognition will help? Is that something down the
    road that our law enforcement agents will be able to use to try
    to identify these children and get them out of those harmful
    situations?
        Ms. Cooper. Yes. Actually, facial recognition is a game
    changer for that purpose, because children's faces are in the
    photographs, and I think that it has led to quite a number of
    successful identifications and rescues of children that have
    been seen in that database. So, Homeland Security
    investigations, the FBI, all our Federal and State partners
    need to be able to have permission to use that technology. It's
    a game changer.
        Mr. Moore. How much money do you get or your organization--
    the Tebow organization--get from the Federal Government?
        Ms. Cooper. Nothing.
        Mr. Moore. Not a dime. You all get--what, $30 million a
    year is your budget? Is that right?
        Ms. Cooper. Yes. Our budget is significantly higher than
    that because we do have some organizations that are sort of
    subsidiaries of us. I think that, right now, we're at about $50
    million that we give out.
        Mr. Moore. Thank you. Tell Mr. Tebow we appreciate your
    efforts.
        Ms. Lopez, Pearl at the Mailbox. Wow. What a name. Tell me,
    how does that work? I know you only got about, well, 60 seconds
    or so, but tell me a little bit about Pearl at the Mailbox and
    what you do in your organization.
        Ms. Lopez. So, at Pearl at the Mailbox, we work on
    prevention. There are many organizations that work on the post-
    rescue, but there's not a lot of people working on the
    prevention side. If we can teach people to spot it and stop the
    grooming process, we have a better chance of protecting
    children from going into trafficking.
        Mr. Moore. How do parents and grandparents--what is one of
    the signs that you think maybe we as parents and grandparents
    might miss? What is something that--I know you need to be
    involved in your children's lives, and we certainly are, but
    tell me, is there a certain thing that you recommend? Maybe a
    two or three bullet-point, hey, here's what parents and
    grandparents need to be looking for?
        Ms. Lopez. In my case, I would always say--and other
    survivors:

          It's the behavior that changes before words are
    ever used to say what's going on. If a child is behaving
    differently, wanting to spend more time away from home, maybe
    have new friends, just things to look at.
          We've lost our ability to listen to our
    intuition, and we forget that, OK, maybe we need to pay
    attention because something is not right in our home.
          I say that the schools are the missing link. We
    don't have enough preventive education in our schools.

        Mr. Moore. Thank you.
        I'll yield back, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
        Mr. Biggs. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
        Now, I want to include into the record without objection an
    acknowledgment of the good work of Mr. Goldman when he was
    prosecuting and breaking up an international sex trafficking
    conspiracy. That was good work, and I want to highlight that
    for you, Mr. Goldman.
        With that, I yield five minutes to you.
        Mr. Goldman. Thank you very much for that, Mr. Chair.
        Mr. Biggs. Actually, I'm going to rescind that yielding
    because Mr. Cohen got here just in the nick of time before you
    started, and I promised him he could go next.
        Mr. Raskin. You stand by the praise nonetheless.
        Mr. Biggs. Yes. I stand by the praise. I stand by the
    praise.
        Mr. Goldman. As long as you reiterate it again before I go.
        Mr. Biggs. I know you like that stuff,
        So, Mr. Cohen, I yield to you for five minutes.
        Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        I listened to your testimony and appreciated your issue,
    and I've got a bill on this, the SOAR bill, which you may know
    about. Ms. Basham did mention it in a list of bills she
    mentioned.
        I want to ask each of you, have any of you heard of either
    Andrew or Tristan Tate?
        Ms. Bruggeman, what do you know about Andrew and Tristan
    Tate?
        Ms. Bruggeman. I understand that they're accused of sex
    trafficking internationally, and there's questions about the
    jurisdiction and their freedom of movement at this time.
        Mr. Cohen. Thank you. Anybody else know about them? Ms.
    Cooper, what do you know about them?
        Ms. Cooper. I just am aware of what I read in the news,
    that there's several cases pending.
        Mr. Cohen. They are social activists and whatever they call
    them? Influencers?
        Ms. Cooper. Influencers. Correct.
        Mr. Cohen. Right. They're no longer having their travel
    restricted. They were allowed--given their U.S. passports back
    today, and they flew a plane, allegedly, straight to Ft.
    Lauderdale. There are allegations that there was involvement
    from our administration, the Trump Administration, that they
    got Romanian pressure for Romania to release them. They've got
    some pretty serious charges against them for rape and sex
    trafficking in Romania and also in England.
        What do you think the odds of them returning to Romania are
    after they've been released with their U.S. passports, Ms.
    Bruggeman?
        Ms. Bruggeman. My assumption would be very low.
        Mr. Cohen. Yes. Thank you. Anybody else have an opinion?
    Well, that just happened today. It's pretty startling what
    they've done. They're dual U.S.-U.K. citizens and not good
    folks.
        Let me ask you, are you all familiar with--where's my--here
    I am. Are you familiar with any grants that have been
    restricted by the Trump Administration here in the Executive
    Orders that affect your particular entities, Ms. Bruggeman?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Yes. There was grant funding from HHS for
    direct services for trafficking victims that were halted for
    about two weeks, leaving providers without access to funding
    and uncertain if they would be able to continue supporting
    those survivors with housing, food, medical care, and legal
    services.
        Also, we have seen halting of funding internationally from
    USAID and the State Department that have ended critical human
    trafficking work internationally, but also, that were hiring
    survivors here in the United States as consultants and experts
    in developing those programs who have lost their livelihood
    when their contracts were canceled.
        Mr. Cohen. This would be damaging to arresting sex
    traffickers in the future, would it not?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Absolutely. Without building that capacity
    and that expertise based on the knowledge of survivors, we're
    unable to actually effectively stop trafficking labor and sex
    trafficking. Any restriction, any halting, any stopping of that
    work--of that critical work--is a gift to traffickers.
        Mr. Cohen. Are the other ladies familiar with any grants
    that might be held up? No?
        Ms. Bruggeman, you have been an expert in this. Do you
    think your being an expert in this area makes you more likely
    to be aware of these issues than if you were an expert in
    rocket propulsion or electric cars?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Yes, of course.
        Mr. Cohen. Thank you. The DOJ office that administers the
    Office of Victims of Crime and the Office of Violence Against
    Women and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency, all
    which fund important antitrafficking exploitation programs--
    they've been threatened to be slashed as well. Are you familiar
    with that?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Yes, sir. We're very concerned about the
    ideas that those offices--the staff would be slashed. We need
    those staff to help administer these grants and make sure that
    the funding continues to move forward, that everything is
    reviewed, and programs are provided with the support they need.
        Mr. Cohen. When we look at budgeting--and we've been given
    by the judiciary areas of over $100 million to look at
    budgeting--do you think these areas are more important to stop
    sex trafficking than building a border wall?
        Ms. Bruggeman. I do.
        Mr. Cohen. I would like to thank you.
        I would like to mention my bill that I had introduced to
    reauthorize the SOAR Act, which was to give people training to
    identify people that have been sex-trafficked. It was law. We
    got it passed through the House and stopped in the Senate for
    funding problems, but it has been reintroduced, and I hope that
    you all will encourage your Senators to support it. It failed
    last time for whatever reason, and the House had passed it
    pretty much unanimously. It was successful. Between September
    2017-2023, they hosted more than 200 events and trained over
    260,000 healthcare professionals across the country.
        Thank you very much, and thank you for your testimony.
        Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
        The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr.
    Kiley.
        Mr. Kiley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witnesses
    for your testimony.
        As we have held hearings on this topic the last few years,
    the numbers and the scale of the problem continues to be
    absolutely horrifying, and it's particularly alarming the
    prevalence of these horrors here in the United States and the
    number of victims.
        I do think there is some cause for encouragement that we
    have an opportunity to start to turn a corner and to help
    prevent these crimes and to help victims and to stop there from
    being even more victims going forward.
        First, of course, is that we have an entirely different
    situation at the border, which is connected to this problem.
        Second, that there is a growing realization that we need to
    use the full force of the criminal code to hold traffickers
    accountable. I'll give you one quick example of that. In my
    State of California, there was a bill that said, ``Well, we
    should classify trafficking of a minor as serious as a violent
    offense, a serious felony.''
        Incredibly, the State assembly's public safety Committee
    initially voted not to do that. They said, ``No, this is not
    going to be considered a serious crime.'' However, the public
    backlash was so great that they eventually reconvened and held
    a revote, and that bill made it all the way through and was
    signed into law by the Governor. Now, it is actually considered
    a serious felony with real consequences in California, and I
    think that there's more we need to do under both State law in
    California as well as under Federal law.
        Third, the area that is very important and was mentioned by
    Ms. Lopez is education. Actually, a good example--a good law
    that we have in California is one that is designed to promote
    prevention education in schools. There's an organization based
    near my district, 3Strands Global, that has pioneered a lot of
    very good education efforts in classrooms.
        Finally, I've introduced the National Human Trafficking
    Database Act. This is a piece of bipartisan legislation. Mr.
    Johnson on this Committee is a coauthor. What this will do is
    establish a national human trafficking database at DOJ as well
    as incentivize certain State law enforcement agencies to report
    to the database.
        So, reported data would include data that indicates the
    presence and prevalence of human trafficking for every county
    in every State, the names of all antitrafficking organizations
    operating in each county, the total number of State-level human
    trafficking organizations collected in coordination with local
    DAs, and then as I mentioned, there would also be--it would
    also incentivize States to submit this data by directing DOJ's
    Office for Victims of Crime to award grants to States to
    collect and submit the data authorizing $50 million per fiscal
    year. I also want to thank Ms. Hageman, also on this Committee,
    for authoring this bill with me as well.
        I believe, Ms. Basham, you mentioned this issue in your
    testimony.
        Maybe, Ms. Lopez, if you wanted to just expound on the
    education--the importance of the education piece of this and
    then, Ms. Basham, as far as the data collection goes?
        Ms. Lopez. Thank you. Education is key. That seems to be
    what's lacking. If you spend resources to educate individuals
    about what human trafficking is, and the grooming process that
    leads to trafficking, people have the ability to understand it.
        We teach our children how to drive cars, and it's a process
    before they get a license. Why are we not teaching the children
    how to spot when somebody is trying to harm them such as a
    predator, whether it be in person or online? That is lacking
    throughout all our country and specifically in Arizona. We
    can't get these programs in our schools. We need to focus on
    education for prevention purposes.
        Ms. Basham. Thank you so much.
        There are two key reasons why data is important, and
    specifically this National Human Trafficking Database Act:
        First, it actually funds State law enforcement, and as we
    all know, law enforcement tends to be historically underfunded
    and especially when it comes to trafficking. They just don't
    have enough resources. It actually brings the money directly
    where we need it most so that every State in the Nation can
    have that money for their State law enforcement.
        Second, the word ``data,'' unfortunately, is not an
    exciting word. There isn't adrenaline with it. Those numbers
    represent individuals. Data is people. Every single number is a
    person. The number one biggest gap, in my opinion, in
    trafficking is victim identification. It sits at about 0.4
    percent. Over 99 percent of victims are never identified, and
    the National Human Trafficking Database Act helps us to see
    what we're not currently seeing.
        Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much for your work and your
    advocacy, and I yield back.
        Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields.
        Mr. Raskin, do you have some UCs?
        Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Mr. Chair, two. ``The girls were
    just so young: The horrors of Jeffrey Epstein's private
    island''--that's Vanity Fair, and ``Listen to the Jeffrey
    Epstein tapes: I was Donald Trump's closest friend,'' in The
    Daily Beast.
        Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
        Also, without objection, Mr. Fry will be permitted to
    participate in today's hearing for the purpose of questioning
    the witnesses if a Member yields time for that purpose.
        Now are you ready, Mr. Goldman?
        Mr. Goldman. Ready.
        Mr. Biggs. OK. I yield time to you, Mr. Goldman.
        Mr. Goldman. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        You are right. I supervised sex trafficking cases in the
    Southern District of New York, and based on that experience as
    well as 10 years of experience prosecuting other cases, I can
    say with great certainty that victims of sex trafficking in
    particular are the most traumatized and stigmatized and
    difficult witnesses. I don't mean difficult in presenting
    difficulties, but that it is incredibly difficult to have
    victims feel comfortable coming forward to testify, which often
    is required to hold people accountable.
        I just want to make sure that we are all in agreement here
    that Federal funding is essential to fighting online
    exploitation and sex trafficking.
        Ms. Lopez, do you agree with that?
        Ms. Lopez. Yes and no.
        Mr. Goldman. All right. Well, I know you don't take it, but
    you don't accept it, you said, but you do support the Human
    Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act, do you
    not?
        Ms. Lopez. I do. I believe there's a place for Federal
    funding.
        Mr. Goldman. All right. I just want to make sure. Ms.
    Cooper?
        Ms. Cooper. The right kind of Federal funding. Funding that
    supports--
        Mr. Goldman. Ms. Basham?
        Ms. Basham. Absolutely, yes.
        Mr. Goldman. I assume Ms. Bruggeman as well?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Yes, of course.
        Mr. Goldman. Now, Ms. Bruggeman, tell me a little bit about
    how online exploitation of victims' influences--well, occurs
    and also influences the willingness of other victims to come
    forward?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Sure. Online exploitation happens in a lot
    of different ways as technology continues to evolve, and online
    services are used for both labor and sex trafficking.
    Recruiters use online spaces to recruit workers with false
    promises of jobs and then bring them in and traffic them
    throughout our country.
        Sex traffickers also use online spaces to identify and
    groom people--we're talking in games, in apps, in online
    chats--and then also use online spaces to share, advertise, and
    sell--
        Mr. Goldman. Right. It's a very common method for sex
    traffickers to prey on victims, right?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Absolutely. As our society has moved online,
    so have the criminals.
        Mr. Goldman. Right. If there were a social media king, for
    example, who has expressed support for sex trafficking, would
    that be a concern of sex trafficking victims in your
    experience?
        Ms. Bruggeman. I would think absolutely, yes.
        Mr. Goldman. Well, I just want to put up a photo here. This
    is Elon Musk in 2014 with Ghislaine Maxwell. Mr. Raskin had
    mentioned Ghislaine Maxwell was the right-hand person for
    Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation of minors.
        Mr. Cohen spoke earlier--and I want to return to this--
    about these individuals, Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate. They
    were charged in December 2022 with human trafficking,
    trafficking of minors, rape including minors, money laundering,
    and organized crime charges. In March 2024, the British police
    obtained an arrest warrant for them based on an investigation
    into rape and human trafficking.
        If anyone wants to go online and get a sense of this Andrew
    Tate, you should. I can't quote almost anything he says because
    it is so vile and misogynistic that it is not appropriate for a
    morning television show.
        Last week, there was an article in The Financial Times
    about how the Trump Administration was pressuring Romania to
    lift restrictions on the Tate brothers and to allow them to
    leave Romania, and low and behold, what do you know? Just
    today, they were released from house arrest, given their
    passports back, and flew on a private plane to Florida. I can
    assure you they will never return to Britain or Romania to face
    these charges.
        For five years, Andrew Tate's account on Twitter was
    banned, but when Elon Musk took it back over in November 2022,
    he reinstated him and gave him a social platform to continue
    their sex trafficking and their illegal conduct.
        Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
        Mr. Goldman. Mr. Chair I think we ought to take a very
    close look at these social media companies and their role in
    the online exploitation of sex trafficking.
        Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
        The Chair now recognizes the Chair of the whole Committee,
    Mr. Jordan, for five minutes.
        Chair Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate you having
    this hearing today.
        I want to give my time to the gentleman from South
    Carolina.
        Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Biggs, for
    having this hearing.
        I want to dive in. Ms. Basham, you dedicated most of your
    career to combating human trafficking, and I think no one would
    question your expertise in this field. How many human
    trafficking cases are prosecuted at the Federal level in this
    country?
        Ms. Basham. Yes. So, in 2023, it was around 1,000, and the
    year before that, it was around 1,600.
        Mr. Fry. During these prosecutions and your review of them,
    do you think there are adequate protections for victims of
    human trafficking who may have been forced to commit nonviolent
    crimes by their traffickers?
        Ms. Basham. No. There's a huge gap.
        Mr. Fry. Do you think that is a serious problem in our
    Federal system of laws that we don't have those protections?
        Ms. Basham. Absolutely. I think it's covered in
    severalfold: One through the vacature and expungement, as I
    mentioned, but also, through providing civil legal services at
    the Federal level and allocating funding through the Office on
    Violence Against Women.
        Mr. Fry. So, that being said, this year, I reintroduced the
    Trafficking Survivors Relief Act along with colleagues that
    really span the ideological spectrum. This is a truly
    nonpartisan piece of legislation.
        With that particular legislation, would that close some of
    the loopholes in our legal system and provide adequate
    protection for victims?
        Ms. Basham. Absolutely. One of the other ones I want to
    mention is the right for affirmative defense from the outset.
        That is one of the biggest reasons--one of the biggest
    questions is why would someone be deemed both a victim of
    trafficking by the court, and then at the same time, want their
    crimes vacated? Well, the reason is that, oftentimes, they
    don't have the right to have that affirmative defense. That
    affirmative defense is what makes is crystal clear to the judge
    and to the court from the beginning. It lets them really look
    at the case and say: Is this a victim of trafficking?
        Instead, what happens is the crime is being prosecuted. So,
    DOJ or whoever puts prosecutors who are used to prosecuting
    white-collar crime. Like, they're not used to prosecuting
    necessarily trafficking cases. They are focused on the crime.
    It's usually money laundering, bank fraud, and those sort of
    things.
        When the focus is on that, then through the process the
    victim actually--the survivor bubbles up. The real story
    bubbles up. At that point, they're looking at two different
    things. That's what's really a huge problem. The affirmative
    defense is so critical, and that's what it really establishes
    from the outset as part of it.
        Mr. Fry. To be clear, most of our States--close to 50--have
    this at the State level?
        Ms. Basham. Absolutely. I think it was 40, it might be 49
    now. I think one State just crossed that finish line. That is
    the biggest precedent that we have for this because there are
    more trafficking convictions that actually fall at the State
    level, and we've seen that for over 10 years.
        We've seen that, actually, States that implement this--they
    are not overrun with cases, and additional to that, they've
    actually strengthened. As Sheri mentioned, a lot of States like
    Arizona--they have actually strengthened their laws over the
    years.
        Mr. Fry. Right. This is obviously--so this legislation,
    it's nonpartisan, obviously. Forty-nine States have it,
    approaching 50.
        So, when you look at--obviously, it's provictim because it
    provides that affirmative defense, but it's also
    proprosecution, right? This is why prosecutors and sheriff
    associations and--they love it, too, because--and why is that?
    Why do you think that they would want something of this
    magnitude?
        Ms. Basham. It makes their job easier.
        Mr. Fry. Correct. Because they're able at that point to go
    after the real culprits, right? The real individuals who are
    behind the trafficking victim and go after these rings.
        Ms. Basham. Absolutely.
        Mr. Fry. Thank you so much for your time.
        Mr. Chair, with that, I yield back.
        Mr. Swalwell. Mr. Chair?
        Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
        Mr. Swalwell. I was going to say, if Mr.--I'm only probably
    going to take three minutes if you want two more of mine, Mr.
    Fry. Are you sure? OK.
        Mr. Biggs. I just have a couple UCs really quick.
        OK. First, I would like to introduce into the record this
    image--we'll get you the hard copy--of Mr. Epstein, Ms.
    Maxwell, and President Clinton.
        Also, I've got another article called ``Schumer got
    thousands in donations from Jeffrey Epstein.''
        Without objection, those will be--and, Mr. Swalwell, your
    five minutes now.
        Mr. Swalwell. Thank you, Mr. Biggs.
        Look, as we have trafficking victims testifying to us about
    really important issues, I think it's insulting to them to try
    and bring in politics right before I question them. We'll see
    whatever is on the Epstein list if the full list is released.
    I'm here to get serious things done, and so my line of
    questioning will not be absurd and in the spirit of what was
    just said.
        Ms. Lopez, thank you for sharing your story as well. I was
    a prosecutor. I've had child sex-trafficking victims testify.
    It's one of the hardest things in the world to convince them to
    confront their attacker, their assailant, their trafficker in
    court, and more cases bleed out because you want them to avoid
    doing that. So, these monsters typically don't get the full
    sentence they deserve because you're trying to protect the
    victim from having to go through cross-examination and seeing
    that individual in court. Thank you for sharing that.
        Ms. Bruggeman, could you share with us what would happen to
    organizations that help victims and provide support to victims
    and survivors of trafficking and exploitation if the temporary
    restraining order holding back this administration's order is
    lifted?
        Ms. Bruggeman. Which--the order on the halting of funds?
        Mr. Swalwell. Yes.
        Ms. Bruggeman. OK. Great.
        Yes. Service providers depend on a variety of different
    sources of funding, and I think the witnesses have talked about
    the different sources that they are familiar with. It is a web
    of protection that is woven with Federal funds, private
    dollars, donations, and earned income that nonprofits around
    this country are working every day to ensure that they are able
    to provide consistent, reliable, dedicated services, and
    support.
        When that is interrupted even for a week, for a month, the
    message to survivors is, We cannot be relied on. The day that
    you are able to find the time, the effort, the strength, the
    ability to escape your situation may be the day that our doors
    are closed, and once you do that, you may never be able to come
    out again.
        So, if we allow our providers to close their doors, to go
    dark, we are inviting traffickers to walk in the door, to hold
    survivors captive, and we are telling survivors that we no
    longer care about your safety, we no longer care about your
    security, and we do not care whether or not you are able to
    ever escape your abuse and exploitation. We just can't let that
    happen.
        Mr. Swalwell. Thank you, Ms. Bruggeman.
        I imagine all you know this, especially Ms. Lopez, but in
    my experience as a prosecutor I was trained in law school, and
    through the training that the district attorney's office
    provided to prove cases beyond a reasonable doubt.
        Of course, you want to have compassionate people doing the
    job of criminal prosecution, but I could never have done my job
    unless I had outside organizations who were working with the
    victim in all of the life issues outside the legal issues that
    needed to be addressed when they are pulled away from the
    trafficker, and they need to reestablish their lives, get their
    confidence back, get their health back, receive the mental
    health services that they certainly need to get a career and if
    they have children. A prosecutor can't do that.
        The only way to hold these monsters accountable who are
    trafficking them is for a prosecutor to have a victim who wants
    to be at least somewhat a part of the process. Your
    organizations help us bring accountability. Accountability puts
    the worst people away and prevents the next victim from being
    trafficked, but it also is a deterrent to someone who will see
    that you will pay if you do this to a victim.
        So, again, to each of you, thank you for what you do in
    this cause. Our victims are worthy of your support, and I hope
    that we can see any funding that has been pulled to be restored
    immediately.
        I yield back.
        Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
        For the record, Shared Hope International, Congresswoman
    Linda Smith, who is the architect of TVPA--and I'll introduce
    that. She is here today. Thank you for being here.
        The fact sheet on ``Combating Demand and Harmful Impact of
    Decriminalization of antitrafficking,'' also entered into the
    record. Without objection.
        The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Florida, Ms.
    Lee, for five minutes.
        Ms. Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to our witnesses
    for being here today.
        I, too, am a former prosecutor and served as the lead
    prosecutor on the Child Exploitation Task Force while I was at
    the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa. I have seen first-hand
    both the horrible crimes that are perpetrated against our
    country's most vulnerable children, and also how vital the work
    by Federal agents and others in investigating and prosecuting
    these cases truly is. As a Member of Congress, I am committed
    to ensuring that we do everything that we can to stop the
    sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and to stop
    these predators.
        Ms. Cooper, it has indeed been a pleasure and an honor to
    work with you and the Tim Tebow Foundation on the Renewed Hope
    Act. You mentioned earlier in your testimony that this bill is
    designed to provide resources and training and also requiring
    the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit at his field offices
    to hire an additional 200 computer forensic specialists and
    criminal analysts because these units are a dedicated team of
    investigators who can play a crucial role in combating human
    trafficking. I appreciate the bipartisan support of many
    Members of this Committee and the Chair's leadership on this
    legislation.
        You touched on something earlier, though, that we need to
    revisit, and that is, you said the words, ``the right kind of
    Federal funding.'' So, clearly, the Renewed Hope Act to find
    these specialists and add to them, to supplement the team doing
    this important work, is indeed adding additional Federal
    employees of a certain type and specialty who can help rescue
    these children and stop these predators.
        I am interested, Ms. Cooper, how much does the Tim Tebow
    Foundation receive in Federal funding?
        Ms. Cooper. We do not receive any Federal funding at all.
        Ms. Lee. How many victims has Operation HOPE identified?
        Ms. Cooper. Tentatively identified 730 and safeguarded and
    rescued--I believe it's 289.
        Ms. Lee. OK. It is important for this Committee hearing to
    note that your foundation is doing that kind of extraordinary
    work in partnership with Federal agents, but not by surviving
    on Federal funds. In fact, you have received no Federal funds
    to do the important work that you were doing to stop child
    exploitation.
        Now, would you tell us, if we had those additional 200
    agents at his, what do you believe we could accomplish?
        Ms. Cooper. Yes, absolutely.
        So, over 25 days, they have tentatively identified 730 of
    the 57,000 children that are waiting and languishing in abusive
    situations and hoping that someone is going to knock on that
    door. Imagine what we could do with 200 full-time investigators
    and victim identification specialists because, right now,
    Homeland Security is a global leader in this issue. They are
    the tip of the sphere. They are the most well-trained along
    with some of the analysts at Interpol and Europol.
        We need to take that army of seven that's sitting over
    there at the Cyber Crime Center and we need to put it on blast,
    in the words of Senator Cornyn. That's why we need 200
    investigators and analysts to ramp up that effort and get to
    those 56,000 remaining children that are waiting.
        Ms. Lee. You also mentioned in your testimony the
    proliferation of CSAM materials and just how rapidly that
    material is increasing and growing, and I would like for you to
    touch on two things: (1) Why these Federal investigators or why
    this is important that it sits at his? (2) The urgency of us
    actually enacting this legislation, getting this done, and
    getting it signed into law?
        Ms. Cooper. Yes, absolutely.
        The reason why his plays sort of the most important role
    globally is because they have international jurisdiction, and
    the nature of Child Sexual Abuse Material is that it crosses
    both State and Federal and international lines. The offender
    who is raping their child in Ohio is going to share that image
    with someone overseas in a country, and they may share it with
    someone in a country that does not have good diplomatic
    relations with our country.
        That's why HSI's partnership with Interpol and Europol is
    so important because not all countries want to share their data
    directly with the United States, and they need a neutral third
    party. That's why Interpol's relationship in this ecosystem is
    absolutely vital to find those American children that are
    waiting to be rescued.
        Ms. Lee. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I yield back.
        Mr. Biggs. Thank you. I thank the gentlelady for her work
    on this bill and other bills and legislation in this area. I
    appreciate it very much.
        I appreciate all our witnesses being here today. We are not
    going to stop until we get this under control. Thank you for
    being here.
        With that, we are adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 11:03 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

        All materials submitted for the record by Members of the
    Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance can
    be found at: https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent
    .aspx?EventID=117951.

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