[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 198 (Tuesday, December 22, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13788-S13790]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. Cornyn):
  S. 2925. A bill to establish a grant program to benefit victims of 
sex trafficking, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join today with my 
colleague from Texas, Senator Cornyn, to introduce the Trafficking 
Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2009.
  This bill addresses a serious problem that is modern day slavery, 
pure and simple--human sex trafficking. You could almost call it a war, 
where all too often, children are the casualties.
  The statistics on minors involved in sex trafficking are shocking. 
Experts estimate that over 100,000 children in the U.S. are at risk for 
prostitution. The average age of entry into prostitution is 12. The 
children at greatest risk of becoming involved in sex trafficking are 
what they call ``repeat runaways''--kids who have run away over and 
over again. They need help right away if they are going to avoid being 
caught by pimps. One third of run-away children are lured into 
prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home and 75 percent of minors 
caught in this web of prostitution have a pimp.
  This problem is on the rise because criminal gang members are 
increasingly turning to pimping. Gang members have discovered that they 
are less likely to get prosecuted for trafficking a person than 
trafficking drugs. While drugs can only be sold once, a pimp can sell a 
person over and over. It is just as lucrative. A pimp can make $200,000 
a year on one trafficking victim.
  This situation is horrifying and totally unacceptable. The bill I am 
introducing today will bring a smart strategy that will give some teeth 
to the efforts law enforcement across the country have made to combat 
sex trafficking. It will give them additional resources they need to 
lock up pimps and sex traffickers. It will also help victims break away 
from their abusers and get the treatment and services they need to take 
their lives back.
  Let us be absolutely clear about this--the pimps who prey upon 
vulnerable young people are criminals, and they should be put behind 
bars. The young women, girls, and sometimes boys who are trafficked are 
not criminals--they are victims of crime. They don't need to be 
prosecuted. They need all the help they can get to escape the clutches 
of pimps.
  Unfortunately, until now, the government has been a step behind. 
Right now, it is very difficult for law enforcement officers and 
prosecutors to build criminal cases and crack down on pimps. The 
Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act would change that.
  Here is how it would work: The bill would establish a pilot project 
of 6 block grants in locations in different regions of the country with 
significant sex trafficking activity. The block grants would be awarded 
by the Department of Justice to State or local government applicants 
that have developed a workable, comprehensive plan to combat sex 
trafficking. The grants would require a comprehensive, multi-
disciplinary approach to addressing trafficking problems. Applicants 
for the grants would have to demonstrate they can work together with 
local, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and 
social service providers to achieve the goals the bill would set out 
for them.
  Government agencies that get the grants would be required to create 
shelters where trafficking victims would be safe from their pimps, and 
where they could start getting treatment for the trauma they have 
suffered. The shelters would provide counseling, legal services, and 
mental and physical health services, including treatment for substance 
abuse, sexual abuse, and trauma-informed care. The shelters would also 
provide food, clothing, and other necessities, as well as education and 
training to help victims get their lives on track.
  It is going to take this kind of comprehensive plan to finally turn 
the tables on pimps who, right now, just wait for their victims to be 
released from jail so they can put them back out on the streets to make 
money for them. Once those girls are out, they don't come back to 
testify against their pimps--they're just gone.
  This bill fixes that problem by giving the young victims a safe 
haven. It is only by addressing the needs of these victims that law 
enforcement officers will be able to work with them to build criminal 
cases against their pimps. The block grants will also provide for 
specialized training for law enforcement officers and prosecutors to 
help them learn how to handle trafficking victims and build trafficking 
cases.
  This bill would also strengthen reporting requirements for runaway or 
missing children, and authorize funding to the FBI to enhance the 
National Crime Information Center, NCIC, database, which is where 
missing child reports are filed. This would give law enforcement 
officers better information on the children at greatest risk of being 
lured in to sex trafficking by being able to show a tally of how many 
times a child has run away, and can flag them as ``repeat runaways'' 
who are at high risk of being lured into prostitution.
  Sex trafficking is a complex issue that requires the comprehensive, 
wrap-around approach that this bill would deliver. As daunting as this 
problem is, there are bright examples of how to address the challenge, 
such as the achievements of Sergeant Byron Fassett of the Dallas Police 
Department. Just listening to Sergeant Fassett, who spoke at a recent 
congressional briefing that I hosted, is an education in how to do this 
right. The lessons he has learned in over 20 years of combating sex 
trafficking are a primer for how to get victims out of the clutches of 
pimps and build cases to put pimps away. Sergeant Fassett is not the 
only officer out there who's attacking this challenge the right way. In 
my home town of Portland, the officers on the human trafficking task 
force are doing excellent work. But right now, they simply don't have 
the resources to crack this problem. The Trafficking Deterrence and 
Victims Support Act would deliver the training and resources they need.
  I want to also thank the many individuals and organizations who 
attended the briefing and participated in efforts to craft this 
legislation. I particularly want to acknowledge the Polaris Project and 
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, for their 
instrumental roles in this effort.
  I look forward to working with Senator Cornyn and other colleagues to 
move this important legislation forward. There are children out on the 
streets tonight who shouldn't have to wait for the help this bill can 
give. Let us end this appalling war on those kids. Let us give them the 
help they need by passing this piece of legislation with all the speed 
possible.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 2925

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Trafficking Deterrence and 
     Victims Support Act of 2009''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:
       (1) Human trafficking is modern day slavery. It is the 
     fastest-growing, and second largest, criminal enterprise in 
     the world. Human trafficking generates an estimated profit of 
     $32,000,000,000 per year, world wide.
       (2) In the United States, human trafficking is an 
     increasing problem. This criminal enterprise includes 
     citizens of the United States, many of them children, who are 
     forced into prostitution, and foreigners brought into the 
     country, often under false pretenses, who are coerced into 
     forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation.
       (3) Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative areas of 
     human trafficking. Criminal gang members in the United States 
     are increasingly involved in recruiting young

[[Page S13789]]

     women and girls into sex trafficking. Interviews with gang 
     members indicate that the gang members regard working as an 
     individual who solicits customers for a prostitute (commonly 
     known as a ``pimp'') to being as lucrative as trafficking in 
     drugs, but with a much lower chance of being criminally 
     convicted.
       (4) Minors in the United States are highly vulnerable for 
     sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. As many as 2,800,000 
     children live on the streets. Of the estimated 1,600,000 
     children who run away each year, 77 percent return home 
     within 1 week. However, 33 percent of children who run away 
     are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.
       (5) National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, 
     Runaway and Throwaway Children, the definitive study of 
     episodes of missing children, found that of the children who 
     are victims of non-family abduction, runaway or throwaway 
     children, the police are alerted by family or guardians in 
     only 21 percent of the cases. In 79 percent of cases there is 
     no report and no police involvement, and therefore no 
     official attempt to find the child.
       (6) In 2007, the Administration of Children and Families, 
     Department of Health and Human Services, reported to the 
     Federal Government 265,000 cases of serious physical, sexual, 
     or psychological abuse of children.
       (7) Experts estimate that over 100,000 children in the 
     United States are at risk for prostitution.
       (8) Children who have run away from home are at a high risk 
     of becoming involved in sex trafficking. Children who have 
     run away multiple times are at much higher risk of not 
     returning home and of engaging in prostitution.
       (9) The vast majority of children involved in sex 
     trafficking have suffered previous sexual or physical abuse, 
     live in poverty, or have no stable home or family life. These 
     children require a comprehensive framework of specialized 
     treatment and mental health counseling that addresses post-
     traumatic stress, depression, and sexual exploitation.
       (10) The average age of entry into prostitution is 12. 
     Seventy-five percent of minors engaged in prostitution have a 
     pimp. A pimp can earn $200,000 per year prostituting 1 
     trafficking victim.
       (11) Sex trafficking is a complex and varied criminal 
     problem that requires a multi-disciplinary, cooperative 
     solution. Reducing trafficking will require the government to 
     address victims, pimps, and johns; and to provide training 
     specific to sex trafficking for law enforcement officers and 
     prosecutors, and child welfare, public health, and other 
     social service providers. A good model for this type of 
     approach is the Internet Crimes Against Children task force 
     program.
       (12) Human trafficking is a criminal enterprise that 
     imposes significant costs on the economy of the United 
     States. Government and non-profit resources used to address 
     trafficking include those of law enforcement, the judicial 
     and penal systems, and social service providers. Without a 
     range of appropriate treatments to help trafficking victims 
     overcome the trauma they have experienced, victims will 
     continue to be involved in crime, unable to support 
     themselves, and continue to require government resources 
     rather than being productive contributors to the legitimate 
     economy.
       (13) Many domestic minor sex trafficking victims are 
     younger than 18 years old and are below the age of consent. 
     Because trafficking victims have been forced to engage in 
     prostitution rather than willfully to committing a crime, 
     these victims should not be charged as criminal defendants. 
     Instead, these victims of trafficking should have access to 
     treatment and services to help them escape and overcome being 
     sexually exploited, and should also be allowed to seek 
     appropriate remuneration from crime victims' compensation 
     funds.
       (14) The State of New York has adopted a safe harbor law 
     that establishes a presumption a minor charged with a 
     prostitution offense is a severely trafficked person. This 
     law allows the child to avoid criminal charges of 
     prostitution and instead be considered a ``person in need of 
     supervision.'' The statute also provides support and services 
     to sexually exploited youth who are under the age of 18 years 
     old. These services include safe houses, crisis intervention 
     programs, community-based programs, and law-enforcement 
     training to help officers identify sexually exploited youth.
       (15) Sex trafficking is not a problem that occurs only in 
     urban settings. This crime exists also in rural areas and on 
     Indian reservations. Efforts to address sex trafficking 
     should include partnerships with organizations that seek to 
     address the needs of such under-served communities.

     SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE SENATE.

       It is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the Attorney General should implement changes to the 
     National Crime Information Center database in order to ensure 
     that--
       (A) a child entered into the database will be automatically 
     designated as an endangered juvenile if the child has been 
     reported missing not less than 3 times in a 1 year period;
       (B) the database be programmed to cross-reference newly 
     entered reports with historical records already in the 
     database; and
       (C) the database be programmed to include a visual cue on 
     the record of a child designated as an endangered juvenile in 
     order to assist law enforcement officers in recognizing the 
     child and providing the child with appropriate care and 
     services; and
       (2) funds awarded under subpart 1 of part E of title I of 
     the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 
     U.S.C. 3750 et seq.) (commonly known as Byrne Grants) should 
     be used to provide programs relating to sex trafficking 
     education, training, deterrence, and prevention.

     SEC. 4. SEX TRAFFICKING BLOCK GRANTS.

       (a) Definitions.--In this section--
       (1) the term ``Assistant Attorney General'' means the 
     Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs 
     of the Department of Justice;
       (2) the term ``domestic minor'' means an individual who 
     is--
       (A) a citizen of the United States or a lawful permanent 
     resident of the United States; and
       (B) under the age of 18 years old; and
       (3) the term ``eligible entity'' means a State or unit of 
     local government that--
       (A) has significant sex trafficking activity;
       (B) has demonstrated cooperation between State and local 
     law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service 
     providers in addressing sex trafficking; and
       (C) has developed a workable, multi-disciplinary plan to 
     combat sex trafficking, including--
       (i) the establishment of a shelter for sex trafficking 
     victims;
       (ii) the provision of comprehensive services to domestic 
     minor victims;
       (iii) the provision of specialized training for law 
     enforcement officers and social service providers; and
       (iv) deterrence and prosecution of sex trafficking 
     offenses.
       (b) Grants Authorized.--
       (1) In general.--The Assistant Attorney General is 
     authorized to award 6 block grants to eligible entities in 
     different regions of the United States to combat sex 
     trafficking, and not less than 1 of the block grants shall be 
     awarded to an eligible entity with a State population of less 
     than 5,000,000.
       (2) Grant amount.--Each grant awarded under this section 
     shall be in the amount of $2,500,000.
       (3) Duration.--
       (A) In general.--A grant awarded under this section shall 
     be for a period of 1 year.
       (B) Renewal.--The Secretary may renew a grant under this 
     section for 2 1-year periods.
       (c) Use of Funds.--
       (1) Allocation.--For each grant awarded under subsection 
     (b)--
       (A) not less than 25 percent of the funds shall be used to 
     provide shelter and services to victims of sex trafficking; 
     and
       (B) not less than 10 percent of the funds shall be awarded 
     by the eligible entity to a subcontractor with annual 
     revenues of less than $750,000, to provide services to 
     victims of sex trafficking or training for law enforcement 
     and social service providers.
       (2) Other activities.--Grants awarded pursuant to 
     subsection (b) may be used for activities such as--
       (A) providing shelter to domestic minor trafficking 
     victims, including temporary or long-term placement as 
     appropriate;
       (B) providing trafficking victims with clothing and other 
     daily necessities needed to keep the trafficking victims from 
     returning to living on the street;
       (C) counseling and legal services for victims of sex 
     trafficking, including substance abuse treatment, trauma-
     informed care, and sexual abuse or other mental health 
     counseling;
       (D) specialized training for law enforcement personnel and 
     social service providers, specific to sex trafficking issues;
       (E) funding salaries, in whole or in part, for law 
     enforcement officers, including patrol officers; detectives; 
     and investigators; provided that the percentage of the salary 
     of the law enforcement officer paid for by funds from a grant 
     awarded under subsection (b) shall be no less than the 
     percentage of the time dedicated to working on sex 
     trafficking cases by the law enforcement officer;
       (F) funding salaries for State and local prosecutors, 
     including assisting in paying trial expenses for prosecution 
     of sex trafficking law offenders;
       (G) investigation expenses, including--
       (i) wire taps;
       (ii) consultants with expertise specific to sex trafficking 
     cases;
       (iii) travel; and
       (iv) any other technical assistance expenditures; and
       (H) outreach and education programs to provide information 
     about deterrence and prevention of sex trafficking, including 
     programs to provide treatment to men charged with 
     solicitation of prostitution in cases where--
       (i) a treatment program is an appropriate alternative to 
     criminal prosecution; and
       (ii) the men were not charged with solicitation of sex with 
     a minor.
       (d) Application.--
       (1) In general.--Each eligible entity desiring a grant 
     under this Act shall submit an application to the Assistant 
     Attorney General at such time, in such manner, and 
     accompanied by such information as the Assistant Attorney 
     General may reasonably require.
       (2) Contents.--Each application submitted pursuant to 
     paragraph (1) shall--
       (A) describe the activities for which assistance under this 
     section is sought; and
       (B) provide such additional assurances as the Secretary 
     determines to be essential to ensure compliance with the 
     requirements of this Act.

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       (e) Evaluation.--The Assistant Attorney General shall, in 
     consultation with the Comptroller General of the United 
     States, enter into a contract with an academic or non-profit 
     organization that has experience in sex trafficking issues 
     and evaluation of grant programs to conduct an annual 
     evaluation of grants made under this section to determine the 
     impact and effectiveness of programs funded with grants 
     awarded under subsection (b).
       (f) Authorization of Appropriations.--For fiscal years 2011 
     through 2014, there are authorized to be appropriated, to 
     carry out the provisions of this section, the following sums:
       (1) $45,000,000 to fund grants awarded under subsection 
     (b).
       (2) $1,500,000 to conduct the evaluation under subsection 
     (e).
       (3) $3,500,000 to the Attorney General, to design and 
     implement improvements to the NCIC database.

     SEC. 5. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

       (a) Reporting Requirement for State Child Welfare 
     Agencies.--
       (1) Requirement for state child welfare agencies to report 
     children missing or abducted.--Section 471(a) of the Social 
     Security Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)) is amended--
       (A) in paragraph (32), by striking ``and'' after the 
     semicolon;
       (B) in paragraph (33), by striking the period and inserting 
     ``; and''; and
       (C) by inserting after paragraph (33) the following:
       ``(34) provides that the State has in effect procedures 
     that require the State agency to promptly report information 
     on missing or abducted children to the law enforcement 
     authorities for entry into the National Crime Information 
     Center (NCIC) database.''.
       (2) Regulations.--The Secretary of Health and Human 
     Services shall promulgate regulations implementing the 
     amendment made by paragraph (1). The regulations promulgated 
     under this subsection shall include provisions to withhold 
     federal funds to any State that fails to substantially comply 
     with the requirement imposed under the amendment made by 
     paragraph (1).
       (3) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) 
     shall take effect on October 1, 2010, without regard to 
     whether final regulations required under paragraph (2) have 
     been promulgated by that date.
       (b) Annual Statistical Summary.--Section 3701(c) of the 
     Crime Control Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 5779(c)) is amended by 
     inserting ``, that includes the total number of reports 
     received and the total number of entries made to the National 
     Crime Information Center (NCIC) database'' after ``of this 
     title''.
       (c) State Reporting.--Section 3702 of the Crime Control Act 
     of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 5780) is amended in paragraph (4)--
       (1) by striking ``(2)'' and inserting ``(3)'';
       (2) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``, and a photograph 
     taken within the previous 180 days'' after ``dental 
     records'';
       (3) in subparagraph (B), by striking the ``and'' after the 
     semicolon;
       (4) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as subparagraph (D); 
     and
       (5) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:
       ``(C) notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
     Children of each report received relating to a child reported 
     missing from a foster care family home or childcare 
     institution; and''.

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