[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
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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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