[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 11, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1430-S1432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HUMAN TRAFFICKING

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, we live in a country of unparalleled 
opportunity. The blessings of liberty are the birthright of every 
American, and the Framers ordained our Constitution to protect these 
rights. To deny any person these basic freedoms would seem almost 
unthinkable today. So the fact that even as I speak there are thousands 
of individuals living as slaves in our very own country is even more 
unthinkable. But it is undeniably true.
  In this country, right now, there are thousands of human beings 
living as slaves, men, women, and children, stolen from their homes, 
stripped of their God-given rights, and robbed of their human dignity. 
These individuals live

[[Page S1431]]

among us. They live in our neighborhoods and our suburbs, our biggest 
cities and our smallest towns. They live in a world of silence, fear, 
hopelessness, and unspeakable suffering.
  These individuals of whom I speak are the victims of human 
trafficking, a heinous and abominable crime that we should call by its 
real name: modern-day slavery. The State Department estimates that up 
to 17,500 individuals are trafficked to the United States every year. 
The majority of these are women and children. Some of them are forced 
into a life of unpaid servitude, many others into sex work. Worldwide, 
the International Labor Organization estimates that 4.5 million people 
are currently enslaved through sex trafficking. These numbers are 
staggering, but they illustrate the scope of the problem. The suffering 
of each individual victim should not be lost in a sea of statistics.
  For victims of human trafficking, the surreal horror of their lives 
bears testimony to the gravity of the crime.
  Consider the case of Holly Smith. When Holly was just 14 years old, 
she met a man at a local shopping mall in New Jersey. With all the 
innocence of youth, Holly confided in this man all the fears and 
anxieties of her adolescence, telling him how nervous she was to begin 
high school.
  Holly could never have guessed that the man she had just met--the man 
she had just trusted with her deepest feelings--was a human trafficker 
trained to emotionally manipulate young girls to lure them into 
prostitution. This man promised Holly a life of glamor and excitement 
if she agreed to run away with him.
  Holly took the bait. She ran away with the man who would later abuse 
her and intimidate her into prostitution. She was one of the many 
victims of child sex trafficking.
  Holly eventually escaped this nightmare and even had the courage to 
tell her story at a Judiciary Committee hearing on human trafficking 
last month, but many are not so lucky. We must do more to help victims 
such as Holly. We must do more to combat the evils of human 
trafficking.
  As a legislative body, we made significant progress in the year 2000 
when we passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. This legislation 
took critical steps in providing greater protection to victims and 
levying heavier penalties against traffickers. We have since 
reauthorized that legislation on four occasions.
  In each instance, I have been passionately committed in the fight 
against human trafficking. My staff has also been equally devoted to 
this issue, and I was especially proud when President Bush asked my 
former Judiciary counsel, Grace Chung Becker, to head the very first 
human trafficking unit within the Justice Department's Civil Rights 
Division. It is only fitting that the Justice Department established 
this unit as a subset of its Civil Rights Division and not its Criminal 
Division. Human trafficking is more than a mere crime; it is a 
fundamental violation of human rights.
  It is not my intention to minimize the significance of the 
legislation we have passed thus far, but we still have so much work to 
do. We have recognized that human trafficking is a serious problem; now 
we need a serious solution.
  I am grateful for Senator Klobuchar's initiative in addressing that 
problem. Her Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act properly 
identifies children lured into prostitution as victims, not criminals. 
By encouraging States to adopt safe harbor laws, we are better equipped 
to help victims receive the care and treatment they deserve.
  Senator Cornyn's Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act also aids 
these victims by establishing a special fund that will provide them 
more of the resources they need to repair their shattered lives. 
Senator Cornyn's bill also imposes severe penalties on traffickers, 
including heavier fines that the Justice Department will direct toward 
victim compensation.
  I strongly support both of these bills, and I am grateful for my 
colleagues' enormous efforts in building a coalition to combat this 
scourge.
  Human trafficking is a complex problem, and solving it requires a 
multi-front approach. It is a problem of both supply and demand. In 
addition to passing this legislation to address the problem of supply, 
we must also address the problem of demand.
  The prevalence of human trafficking is a moral stain on our country, 
and we can never eradicate this evil if we are only addressing part of 
the problem.
  Through stricter enforcement of obscenity laws, we can decrease 
demand for sex trafficking. There is an undeniable link between illegal 
adult obscenity and sex trafficking, and I have long been an outspoken 
voice on this issue.
  Laura Lederer, former Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons at the 
State Department, observed that there are ``numerous links between sex 
trafficking and pornography'' and that pornography is even ``used in 
sex trafficking and the sex industry to train women and children what 
to do.''
  In 2011, I led 41 other Senators in sending a letter to Attorney 
General Eric Holder calling for greater enforcement of Federal 
obscenity laws. In his response, even he agreed that hard-core 
pornography is associated with sex trafficking. This type of obscenity 
not only harms individuals, families, and entire communities, but also 
normalizes sexual harm to children.
  How long will we let this culture of perversion persist? How long 
will we ignore the pressing problem of adult obscenity at the expense 
of the innocent women and children who are too often the victims of 
this vice?
  Enough is enough. Ignoring the problem of adult obscenity is ignoring 
the problem of human trafficking, and ignorance will not free the 
innocent women and children trapped in the clutches of modern-day 
slavery. The First Amendment does not protect adult obscenity, so the 
Federal Government is acting well within its power to impose greater 
enforcement. I firmly believe a consistent commitment to enforcing 
these laws will have a significant impact in reducing the prevalence of 
sex trafficking.
  I want to conclude by discussing this body's handling of this 
important bill. In my 39 years as a Member of this body, I have seen 
the Senate at some of its best moments and at some of its worst 
moments. Last year I came to the floor repeatedly to warn of how my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle--who were then in the 
majority--had abused the legislative process for partisan political 
gain.
  Since the beginning of the 114th Congress this January, we have made 
remarkable progress in restoring the Senate as an institution. By 
restoring this body's traditions of fulsome debate, an open amendment 
process, and regular order through the committee system, our new 
majority is putting the Senate back to work for the American people. 
While the sailing has not always been totally smooth--it rarely is in 
my experience--the progress we have seen in restoring this institution 
to its proper role as a productive legislative body is real and 
meaningful.
  Given this headway, I have been extremely disappointed to see a 
logjam develop and impede our progress on this vital piece of 
bipartisan legislation, something that should pass this body 100 to 0. 
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have threatened a 
filibuster, claiming that we somehow ambushed them with a controversial 
abortion rider. That claim is absolutely ridiculous. The language they 
are suddenly so upset about has been in the bill the entire time, as 
those of us on the Judiciary Committee can attest. My colleagues had no 
complaints about this language when the bill passed out of the 
committee; in fact, it passed unanimously. Moreover, not only was this 
language in the bill from the beginning, but it has also been the law 
of the land for nearly four decades.
  Democrats in this body have supported countless other bills--
including even ObamaCare--with similar language, knowing that such 
provisions are important to many people on both sides of the aisle.
  This policy represents a sensible and appropriate compromise in an 
issue area characterized by conflicting and deeply held views. As such, 
the notion that this provision should provoke my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle to grind the legislative process to a halt 
boggles the mind. It makes us wonder what in the world is going on 
here.

[[Page S1432]]

  Even the most charitable interpretation of this move suggests that 
the minority is once again resorting to outrageous my-way-or-the-
highway tactics to impose an extreme pro-abortion policy.
  More disturbingly, this ploy plainly demonstrates the minority 
leadership's desire to pick a political fight over abortion and to muck 
up the majority's efforts to exercise reliable leadership. By resorting 
to this sort of obstruction, they have demonstrated just how 
desperately they want to derail our efforts to legislate responsibly 
and instead resort to their tired and discredited war-on-women rhetoric 
to win cheap political points. I am unabashedly pro-life, and I have no 
qualms whatsoever about debating that issue.
  If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are so desperate to 
debate that issue and push an extreme plan to overturn the longstanding 
compromise--that is the law of the land--let us debate such a measure 
at an appropriate time, but not on this bill. To hold this important 
human trafficking bill hostage is a deplorable approach.
  The minority leader earlier came to the floor and tried to manipulate 
my words to support his shameful gambit. For all of my colleagues who 
are tempted by this irresponsible strategy, let me repeat my previous 
point.
  It would be pathetic to hold up this bill. This bill is absolutely 
critical to families and our children. I cannot believe the Senate has 
become so political that my colleagues would raise this issue--this 
tangential, long-settled issue--at this time--after the same 
transparently clear language passed unanimously out of the Judiciary 
Committee.
  For my colleagues to hold up this bill in an effort to seek to impose 
their extreme policy, to overturn the law of the land that has long 
enjoyed bipartisan support, to pick a false fight over abortion, or to 
try to embarrass the majority is itself embarrassing. They ought to be 
ashamed.
  I urge my colleagues in the minority, in the strongest possible 
terms, to reconsider their position and allow the Senate once again to 
do the people's business.
  Look, all of us are fed up with the delays and the problems of not 
legislating the way we should in the Senate. All of us are fed up with 
some of the tactics that have been used, but to use them on a bill such 
as this? Come on. This is a bill that will make a real difference, and 
there should not be one Senator in this body voting against it, and 
they certainly shouldn't vote against it because there is language in 
there that is the law of the land today.
  Yes, many Democrats don't like it. But I don't like them holding up 
one of the most important bills for children and families and women 
just so they can make a cheap political point on abortion.
  I care a great deal for my colleagues on the other side. They have 
special concerns just as we have special concerns. They have special 
challenges just as we have special challenges. But this is one we ought 
all to agree on. Get it out of the Senate, get it going, and start 
doing more to stop human trafficking in our society today.
  This is something we ought to all quit playing games with. Just pass 
it, and get it through the Senate and the House.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________