[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 130 (Tuesday, August 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4669-S4672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. BOOKER:
S. 1689. A bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act to provide for
a new rule regarding the application of the Act to marihuana, and for
other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I rise to talk about the Marijuana
Justice Act--a bill I introduced today that would end the Federal
prohibition on marijuana and start to end the War on Drugs. For far too
long we have approached drug use and addiction as something we can jail
ourselves out of. It is beyond clear that approach has failed. It is
time we start to address the persistent and systemic racial bias that
has plagued our criminal justice system and adopt policies that will
move us forward, not backward. It is time to de-schedule marijuana.
Since 2001, arrests for marijuana have increased across the Country
and now account for over 50 percent of all drug arrests in the United
States. The ACLU conducted a thorough study of over 8 million marijuana
arrests between 2001 and 2010. It found that 88 percent of those were
for marijuana possession. Alarmingly, the study also found that African
Americans are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana
possession than their white peers, even though they use marijuana at
similar rates.
Over the last five years, States have begun to legalize marijuana in
an effort to push back on the failed War on Drugs and combat the
illicit drug market. Currently, eight States and the District of
Columbia have legalized marijuana and more States are taking up
measures to follow suit. We know from the experiences of States that
have already legalized marijuana that we will gain far more than we
lose--these States have seen increased revenues and decreased rates of
serious crime, and a reallocation of resources toward more productive
uses. In Colorado, arrest rates have decreased and State revenues have
increased. Washington saw a 10 percent decrease in violent crime over
the three-year period following legalization.
However, the Federal government still treats marijuana as an illegal
substance. It is time for the Federal government to end the Federal
prohibition of marijuana.
Today, I introduced the Marijuana Justice Act, a bill that would
remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances, thereby ending
the Federal prohibition. The bill would also automatically expunge
records for people who were convicted of Federal marijuana use and
possession offenses. We must help people with criminal records get back
up on their feet and obtain jobs, and expunging their records is an
important step in that process.
The legislation would allow individuals currently serving time in
Federal prison for marijuana offenses to petition a court for a
resentencing. One of the greatest tragedies from the Fair Sentencing
Act was that it did not provide retroactive relief to individuals
serving time under the old crack and powder cocaine sentencing laws.
The Marijuana Justice Act would allow people currently serving time for
a marijuana offense to seek immediate relief.
The bill would also use Federal funds to encourage States where
marijuana is illegal to legalize the drug if they disproportionately
arrest or incarcerate low income individuals or people
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of color. Too often drug laws are enforced disproportionately against
minorities and the poor. This is unacceptable and belies our values.
Finally, the Marijuana Justice Act would establish a community
reinvestment fund, which would invest money in communities most
affected by the War on Drugs. Building new libraries, supporting job
training, and investing in community centers will improve public safety
and is the right thing to do after decades of failed drug policies.
The Marijuana Justice Act is a serious step in acknowledging, that
after 40 years, it is time to end the War on Drugs. It is time to stop
our backward thinking, which has only led to backward results. It is
time to lead with our hearts, our heads, and with policy that actually
works.
______
By Mr. PORTMAN (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. McCain, Mrs.
McCaskill, Mr. Cornyn, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. Blunt, Mrs. Capito,
Mr. Casey, Ms. Collins, Mr. Corker, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Flake, Mr.
Graham, Mr. Isakson, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Lee, Mr.
Nelson, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Brown, Ms. Murkowski, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr.
Hoeven, and Mr. Cochran):
S. 1693. A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify
that section 230 of that Act does not prohibit the enforcement against
providers and users of interactive computer services of Federal and
State criminal and civil law relating to sex trafficking; to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I would like to talk today about the
criminal act of sex trafficking.
Today we introduced legislation that is incredibly important to
combating sex trafficking. The Senate also passed a resolution today by
unanimous consent to provide information to the Justice Department that
comes out of an investigation that we did in the U.S. Senate regarding
sex trafficking. This is an important day in pushing back.
Let me talk about this for a second in personal terms. Imagine, if
you will, that your daughter is missing. You do everything you can do
to find her. Finally, you see her picture on the internet, and she is
being sold for sex. That may sound like a horror movie to you, but it
is very real. Unfortunately, it is happening across our country.
Families in Ohio and in your State have experienced this nightmare
situation. Let me tell you about Kubiiki Pride. Kubiiki Pride gave
powerful testimony before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
in the Senate. Ms. Pride said her daughter had been missing for 9
months when she found her picture on the top website for commercial sex
activity--backpage.com. She was actually glad to have found her
daughter. So she called backpage.com and said: That is my daughter. She
has been missing for 9 months. She is 14 years old. Thank you for
taking down the ad.
Backpage.com said to her: Did you pay for the ad?
She said: No. It is my 14-year-old daughter.
They said: We are not going to take down the ad. You didn't pay for
it.
Imagine if this were your daughter. Imagine how you would feel.
These traffickers are using the internet to sell girls and women.
Congress has a responsibility to act. We have a responsibility to act
because human trafficking is now becoming a national crisis.
Human trafficking, including sex trafficking, is a $150 billion-a-
year industry. That makes it the second biggest criminal enterprise in
the world, only behind the drug trade. And this ruthless, corrupt
industry is growing significantly. Why? Because of the internet in the
digital age. Victims of sex trafficking told me: Rob, this has gone
from the street corner to the smart phone.
Since 2007, the Polaris Project--a leading anti-trafficking advocacy
group--received 33,000 reports of human trafficking through its various
hotlines.
By the way, Polaris endorsed our legislation, which I appreciate.
In 2016 alone, Polaris-operated hotlines received 8,000 reports of
human trafficking. Almost 25 percent of trafficking incidents reported
to Polaris in the past decade happened just last year. Human
trafficking reports through these hotlines went up dramatically--35
percent--between 2015 and 2016. There is no reason to believe this
trend will reverse unless we act.
This is a 21st-century epidemic. The National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children noted an 846 percent increase in reports of
suspected child sex trafficking through its CyberTipline from 2010 to
2015. In just 5 years, that is an increase of over 800 percent. They
found this dramatic spike to be ``directly correlated to the increased
use of the internet to sell children for sex.'' That is what is going
on.
How is this happening? People are being bought and sold on public
domains accessible from a simple search. And the majority of online sex
trafficking can be traced to one website called backpage.com. The
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said 73 percent--
three-quarters of all suspected sex trafficking it receives from the
general public through its CyberTipline comes from this one website.
According to leading anti-traffic organizations, including Shared
Hope International, service providers working with child sex
trafficking victims have reported that between 80 percent and 100
percent of the victims they help were bought and sold on backpage.com.
My experience in Ohio is similar to that. I will tell you
anecdotally, as I talked to women and girls who had been victims of sex
trafficking, almost all of them tell me they have been sold on
backpage. By the way, almost all of them tell me that they had become
addicted in the process to an opioid, heroin, or prescription drugs and
that is used to keep their dependency on their trafficker.
In January of this year, a nearly 2-year investigation by the Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations produced a report finding
backpage to be more deeply complicit in illegal online sex trafficking
than anyone imagined. Everyone already knew sex trafficking was taking
place on this website. It is there. But our report found that backpage
actively and knowingly facilitated the criminal sex trafficking of
women and children; then it covered up evidence of these crimes to
increase its own profits. This is the information we have now provided
to the Department of Justice.
We also know from a recent Washington Post report that, despite its
claims, backpage aggressively solicited and created sex-related ads to
lure customers to its website. It claims it ``leads the industry'' in
its screening of illegal activity, including sex ads for children, but
that isn't true. To the contrary, it appears the industry backpage
leads is online sex trafficking, valuing its profits more than the
rights of vulnerable women and young children. They have known their
site has been used for illegal sex trafficking for years, but instead
of putting a stop to it, the company has actively facilitated these
crimes.
That is why Congress has to act. Last month, I, along with Senators
McCaskill and Carper, launched a criminal review of backpage.com.
Today, the Senate passed a resolution releasing materials from our 18-
month investigation to the Department. I hope the Department of Justice
will join in this fight against backpage, but I believe achieving
justice for these victims requires a legislative fix once and for all.
There is a recent documentary, and I would encourage you to look at
it. It is powerful and tough, but it is important. It is called ``I am
Jane Doe.'' It chronicles the cases of three young girls who were sex
trafficking victims bought and sold on backpage. In 2014, these girls
brought cases against backpage, accusing them of knowingly assisting in
their trafficking. The ads on backpage for each of these girls
explicitly promoted their youth. These were underage girls.
The court found that the victims made a strong case that backpage
tailored its site to make underage sex trafficking easier, but the
court ruled that third-party websites facilitating sex trafficking are
immune from charges brought on by victims, no matter how complicit the
website was in the crime, citing the blanket immunity granted by a 1996
law called the Communications Decency Act, or CDA.
Around the same time in Massachusetts, three young victims sued
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backpage after they were bought and sold on their website for sex.
They, too, argued that backpage made sex trafficking easier. This case
reached the First Circuit Court of Appeals, but backpage was once again
spared of any legal ramifications because of the Communications Decency
Act, specifically section 230 of that law--the clause courts credit to
giving third-party providers blanket immunity from crimes committed
through their website.
Despite its ruling, the court recognized the immoral nature of
backpage appearing to profit from online prostitution but maintained
they couldn't do anything about it because the law protected these
acts. The court opinion stated that in order to fix the problem, ``the
remedy is through legislation, not litigation.'' That is who we are. We
are the legislators. The court of appeals said: Congress, do your job.
Numerous judicial decisions have suggested that Congress must act,
before the courts, to bring justice to the victims and families of
online sex trafficking. That is my intention in introducing this
legislation today.
I believe that we need to have free internet. All of us do. I believe
that the Communications Decency Act is a well-intentioned law that has
an important purpose. But the law was not intended to protect those who
willingly facilitate illegal conduct, such as sex trafficking, and it
wasn't intended to protect backpage.com. That is why today I, along
with a number of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, have
introduced this bill called the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. It
clarifies section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to ensure that
websites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking can be held liable
and the victims can get justice. It is very narrow. You have to
knowingly be involved in supporting, assisting, and facilitating sex
trafficking. This will not be a broad net.
The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act puts in place three narrowly
crafted and commonsense reforms.
First, it allows victims to seek justice against websites that
knowingly facilitate crimes against them.
Second, it eliminates the Federal liability protections for websites
that assist, support, or facilitate a violation of Federal sex
trafficking laws--laws already on the books.
Finally, it will enable State law enforcement--not just the
Department of Justice--to take legal action if these businesses violate
Federal sex trafficking laws. Forty-seven attorneys general asked for
this.
The internet revolutionized illegal sex trafficking, and Federal law
has not kept pace. It is time for this 21-year-old law to be brought
into this century. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act is legislation
our courts have been calling for, our attorneys general have been
calling for, and most importantly, what victims and their families have
been insisting that we do.
Again, this law was never intended to protect sex traffickers who
prey on the most innocent and vulnerable among us. This narrowly
crafted bill gives law enforcement the tools they need to go after
criminals who traffic women and children online for sex.
There are some groups who have been critical of this effort to hold
backpage accountable and stop this online exploitation. They have
suggested that this bipartisan bill could impact mainstream websites
and service providers--the good actors out there. That is false. Our
bill does not amend, and thus preserves, the Communications Decency
Act's Good Samaritan provision. This provision protects good actors who
proactively block and screen for offensive material and thus shields
them from any frivolous lawsuits. That is in the legislation and needs
to be in there.
This bipartisan legislation preserves internet freedom, while holding
those who actively facilitate online sex trafficking accountable.
I recently visited the Ranch of Opportunity in Washington Court
House, OH. This is a place of hope for girls between ages 13 and 18 to
find healing and recovery during a residential treatment program. Most
of the girls at the ranch, I am told, have been victims of sex
trafficking. As I heard heartbreaking stories from these girls who have
had their most basic human rights stripped from them, backpage came up.
As I said earlier, it almost always does. We can never take back the
horrors they had to endure. What we can do and what this legislation
will do is bring justice to these victims and their families.
I am proud to stand with my 20, now 25, bipartisan colleagues, as
well as 18 anti-human trafficking advocacy groups and law enforcement
organizations around this country, to support this legislation as we
fight against this abhorrent evil.
In a letter of support, the president and CEO of the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children said: ``This bill will help ensure
justice for child sex trafficking victims and clarify remedies
available to civil attorneys and State attorneys general to assist
victims in holding everyone responsible who participated in their
trafficking.''
That is what it is about. It is about securing justice for those who
have had their most basic human rights taken away, and it is about
protecting vulnerable women and children. Victims of sex trafficking
know evil far worse than many of us can ever imagine. The trauma they
go through is unbelievable. We owe it to them to fix flaws in the
justice system that allow people complicit in these crimes to profit
from human misery and suffering. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act
will do that.
Thank you, Mr. President.
______
By Mr. REED (for himself, Mr. Casey, and Mr. Coons):
S. 1694. A bill to improve quality and accountability for educator
preparation programs; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, we know that the quality of teachers and
principals are two of the most important in-school factors related to
student achievement. Yet the pipeline into the profession has been
neglected. If we want to improve our schools, it is essential that we
invest in the professional preparation of teachers, principals, and
other educators. As such, today, I am reintroducing the Educator
Preparation Reform Act with my colleagues Senators Casey and Coons to
ensure that the Federal government continues to be a partner in
addressing this critical national need.
Today, we are facing a crisis in education. According to a research
brief from the Learning Policy Institute, we have seen dramatic
declines in enrollment in teacher preparation programs--an estimated 35
percent decline between 2009 and 2014. We also continue to see high
rates of attrition among educators. If these trends continue, there
will be an estimated gap of more than 100,000 between the number of
teaching positions open and the number of teachers available to be
hired annually through 2025.
The impact of these shortages falls the hardest on our most
vulnerable students in our highest need communities. Rhode Island is no
exception. Providence, our largest school district, is facing an acute
shortage of teachers certified to teach English language learners. My
home State has also reported shortages in special education, science,
math, and school nurses.
We cannot solve this problem without improving both teacher and
principal preparation. We need to make sure that our educator
preparation programs are worthy of the professionals entering the field
and the students they will serve. That is why it is more urgent than
ever that we enact the Educator Preparation Reform Act.
Our legislation builds on the success of the Teacher Quality
Partnership Program, which I helped author in the 1998 reauthorization
of the Higher Education Act. It continues the partnership between high
need school districts, institutions of higher education, and educator
preparation programs to reform pre-service programs based on the unique
needs of the partners. Among the key changes are specific attention and
emphasis on principals and the addition of a residency program for new
principals. Improving instruction is a team effort, with principals at
the helm. This bill better connects teacher preparation with principal
preparation. The Educator Preparation Reform Act will also allow
partnerships to develop preparation programs for other areas of
instructional need, such as for school librarians, counselors, or other
academic support professionals.
The bill streamlines the accountability and reporting requirements
for
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teacher preparation programs to provide greater transparency on key
quality measures such as admissions standards, requirements for
clinical practice, placement of graduates, retention in the field of
teaching, and teacher performance, including student-learning outcomes.
All programs--whether traditional or alternative routes to
certification--will report on the same measures.
Under our legislation, States will be required to identify at-risk
and low-performing programs and provide them with technical assistance
and a timeline for improvement. States would be encouraged to close
programs that do not improve.
We have been fortunate to work with many stakeholders on this
legislation. Organizations that have endorsed the Educator Preparation
Reform Act include: the American Association of Colleges for Teacher
Education, American Association of State Colleges and Universities,
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, Council for Christian
Colleges and Universities, Higher Education Consortium for Special
Education, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, National
Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of
Secondary School Principals, National Association of State Directors of
Special Education, National Disability Rights Network, National Network
of State Teachers of the Year, Public Advocacy for Kids, Rural School
and Community Trust, and the Teacher Education Division of the Council
for Exceptional Children.
I look forward to working to incorporate this legislation into the
upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. I urge my
colleagues to join us in this effort and support this legislation.
____________________