[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 167 (Wednesday, December 21, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S14299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         REAUTHORIZATION OF THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION

  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of the 
reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
  The scourge of trafficking in women and children was a priority for 
me as First Lady and continues to be a priority for me as a Senator. 
Since the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, I 
have been working to raise awareness of the heinous practice of buying 
and selling women and children like commodities. I have seen the 
devastation that it causes, and the lives it ruins. I have met with the 
families from Eastern and Central Europe, who, with tears in their 
eyes, pleaded with me to help them find lost ones who had been stolen 
from them, and I have met with the victims, including a 12-year-old 
girl in Thailand who was dying of AIDS after being sold twice by her 
family. This barbaric practice has caused far too many to exist in a 
perpetual state of fear and vulnerability, and we must do everything in 
our power to bring the scourge of trafficking out of the shadows and to 
the attention of the world.
  I am proud to say that the United States has, for the past decade, 
been the leader in trying to persuade the rest of the world to 
eradicate this abhorrent practice. As the Clinton administration 
increased the antitrafficking activities of our Government through 
programs at the State Department and the Department of Justice, 
Congress was developing legislation to eradicate trafficking. We worked 
with the late Senator Wellstone, his Republican cosponsor, Senator 
Brownback, and Congressman Chris Smith and former Congressman Sam 
Gejdenson in the House, to introduce the first comprehensive 
antitrafficking bill in Congress. This culminated in the passage of the 
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. I believed 
then, and I believe now, that this is one of the Clinton 
administration's greatest achievements and one of the most important 
parts of Senator Wellstone's legacy. That law has meant the difference 
between freedom and enslavement for unknown numbers of potential 
trafficking victims, and this reauthorization provides us with the 
opportunity to strengthen its ability to help those who have been 
trafficked, and I would like to thank Senator Brownback and 
Representative Smith, my colleagues on the Helsinki Commission, for 
their continued commitment to this act since its initial passage.
  I am proud to see that this reauthorization enhances the 3 P's 
strategy--prevention of trafficking, prosecution of those that engage 
in these acts, and protection of the vulnerable individuals who have 
been trafficked--that we developed in the Clinton administration. It 
gives the Justice Department the authority to pursue extraterritorial 
prosecutions of Federal employees or those accompanying them if they 
engage in trafficking activities. It encourages the prevention of 
trafficking by requiring organizations or contractors engaged in U.S.-
supported peacekeeping efforts to have antitrafficking policies in 
place. And it will protect those who have been trafficked overseas by 
increasing funding for programs like residential treatment facilities.
  But there is still so much work to be done. Although reliable 
statistics are difficult to find, we know that 800,000 individuals--the 
vast majority of whom are women and children--are trafficked from one 
country to another every year, with 15,000 being trafficked to the 
United States. The FBI estimates that trafficking generates $9.5 
billion annually for organized crime syndicates around the world.
  I am deeply concerned about the growing domestic commercial sex 
trade, and I believe that we need to increase funding and target 
efforts to end all forms of exploitation. Any expansion of our focus 
must not dilute our commitment to eradicating human trafficking in all 
its forms in the United States, nor detract from the progress we have 
made in increasing prosecutions and working with law enforcement 
agencies. We must ensure that our government has all the resources it 
needs to make inroads against these awful acts on our own soil.
  In the fight against trafficking in persons, patience simply is not 
an option. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to 
end this barbaric practice in both the United States and around the 
world, because this is not about politics, but about what we all share: 
universal freedom and universal human rights.

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