[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
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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.
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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.
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