[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 4 (Monday, January 8, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S52-S53]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



        National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, January is National Slavery and Human 
Trafficking Prevention Month. In a recent proclamation, President Trump 
continued what President Obama had begun in making this the ninth 
annual year where we designate our first month of the year to awareness 
and prevention of trafficking, awareness and prevention of this crime 
against humanity.
  President Trump issued a call to action. The proclamation said, in 
part:

       Human trafficking is a modern form of the oldest and most 
     barbaric type of exploitation. It has no place in our world. 
     This month, we do not simply reflect on this appalling 
     reality. We also pledge to do all in our power to end the 
     horrific practice of human trafficking that plagues innocent 
     victims around the world.

  Amen. I commend the President for his strong stance, and I commend 
the U.S. Senate for the work we have done over the past several years, 
in a bipartisan way, to help combat trafficking. We made some progress.
  About 6 years ago, Senator Blumenthal--who will speak about this 
topic later on the floor--and I cofounded the Senate Caucus to End 
Human Trafficking and legislation since that time to increase penalties 
on people buying sex from children; stop international trafficking by 
U.S. Government contractors overseas; find missing children more 
quickly--the most vulnerable among us--by ensuring that their 
photographs and other identifiers are available; improve data on 
trafficking to find out what the problem is, where it is going; and, of 
course, change the paradigm--treat children who are exploited as 
victims rather than, as they have been treated over the years, as 
criminals.
  We have made some progress in these areas, but I have to tell you, 
despite these efforts and despite the increasing awareness of the fact 
that trafficking occurs right here in this country, in all of our 
States, we now know that one form, at least, of sex trafficking is 
actually increasing in our country. Think about that. It is increasing 
in this country, in this century. What experts say when you ask them 
about it is that is primarily because of one reason; that is, the fact 
that the internet is being used to sell sex.
  By the way, doing it on the internet, it turns out, occurs with 
ruthless efficiency. Victims I have visited across Ohio tell me, 
including one this past Friday in Ohio: Rob, it has moved from the 
street corner to the iPhone, from the street corner to the cell phone, 
from the street corner to the internet.
  There was discussion earlier from my colleague from New York about 
the role opioids play in causing harm in our society. Of course, the 
internet combined with opioids is deadly. The young woman I met with on 
Friday was one of those who had become addicted to opioids--in her 
case, fentanyl, which is an incredibly powerful, dangerous drug--and 
depended on her trafficker to be able to provide that. That is one form 
of dependency you see in sex trafficking. And again, online is where 
people are increasingly being bought and sold.
  This increase in sex trafficking is a stain on our national 
character. It is only Congress that has the power to stop it.
  There is one website--backpage.com--that is the leader in online sex 
trafficking. They have knowingly sold underage girls online. I say that 
because we have done an investigation, and we determined that. We now 
know from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that 
backpage.com is involved in nearly 75 percent of all child trafficking 
reports the organization receives from the public.
  The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, along 
with then-ranking member Claire McCaskill and now-ranking member Tom 
Carper, has conducted an extensive, 18-month investigation into online 
sex trafficking and specifically backpage.com. We found that 
backpage.com knowingly facilitated criminal sex trafficking of 
vulnerable women and young children. It coached the traffickers on how 
to edit adult classified ads to post so-called clean ads for illegal 
transactions, and then it covered up evidence of these crimes in order 
to increase its profits. All this was done at the cost of human 
suffering--and sometimes human life--with the sole purpose of 
increasing the company's profits.
  In the fall, I testified on this issue in front of the Senate 
Commerce Committee--about our legislation. With me at the witness table 
was Yvonne Ambrose, a mother whose 16-year-old daughter, Desiree, was 
found murdered on Christmas Eve 2016 after being sold for sex on 
backpage.
  Desiree's death should never have happened--and neither should online 
sex trafficking of minors happen at all--but this tragic trend is 
compounded by the fact that backpage has evaded justice for its role in 
these tragic crimes. Courts across the country have consistently ruled 
that a Federal law--and this is why Congress has such a key role to 
play here--called the Communications Decency Act actually protects 
backpage and others from the liability they should have in sex 
trafficking.
  The Communications Decency Act is a well-intentioned law originally 
enacted back in 1996, when the internet was in its infancy, and it was 
meant to protect third-party websites from being held liable for crimes 
that users might commit on those websites. Ironically, part of the 
original intention of the Communications Decency Act was to protect 
children from indecent material on the internet by holding liable users 
who send explicit material to children. Now this same law is being used 
as a shield by cynical sex traffickers who promote and engage in online 
underage sex trafficking with immunity, thanks to this Federal law.
  Congress didn't intend for this broad immunity in the law--I am 
convinced of that--but numerous courts across the country have made it 
clear that their hands are tied because of the legal precedent that has 
been formed. As the lawmaking branch of the Federal Government, it is 
up to Congress to fix this injustice. No one else can do it.
  In the most blatant call for congressional action I have seen yet, in 
August of last year, a Sacramento judge cited the broad immunity 
provided by the Communications Decency Act in dismissing pimping 
charges against backpage.com. The court opinion stated:

       If and until Congress sees fit to amend the immunity law, 
     the broad reach of Section 230

[[Page S53]]

     of the Communications Decency Act even applies to those 
     alleged to support the exploitations of others by human 
     trafficking.

  That is an invitation to Congress to act. It is clearly up to 
Congress to act. It is past time we update this 21-year-old law for the 
21st century and allow victims who have had their most basic human 
rights violated to get justice against those who facilitate these 
crimes.
  We have an opportunity this month during National Human Trafficking 
Prevention Month to fix this. We can and we must.
  The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or SESTA, is a bill I 
introduced with my bipartisan colleagues--Senator Blumenthal, who will 
speak later this afternoon, and Senators John McCain, Claire McCaskill, 
John Cornyn, Heidi Heitkamp, Amy Klobuchar, and 18 other colleagues. As 
of this morning, that legislation has 64 cosponsors. It is totally 
bipartisan, supported by both sides of the aisle. It is popular: 64 out 
of 100 have already cosponsored it because it will fix this injustice 
with two very narrowly crafted changes to the Communications Decency 
Act.

  First, it will allow victims to get the justice they deserve by 
removing the Communications Decency Act's broad liability protections 
the judge discussed, specifically for websites that knowingly 
facilitate sex trafficking crimes.
  Second, it will allow State attorneys general to prosecute these 
websites that violate Federal sex trafficking laws. These changes will 
hold bad actors like backpage accountable while doing nothing to impair 
the free internet. In fact, they will protect websites that do not 
actively and knowingly engage in online sex trafficking.
  The ``knowing'' standard is a high bar to meet. The California 
attorney general, Xavier Becerra, testified at the Senate Commerce 
Committee about that this fall. He said:

       We have to prove criminal intent. We can't win a 
     prosecution unless we can show the individuals we're 
     prosecuting, like Backpage, had the intent--the knowledge--to 
     do what they're doing. The legislation we have before you is 
     very narrowly tailored. It goes only after sex trafficking.

  The Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act passed the Senate Commerce 
Committee by a vote that was unanimous. It was bipartisan. It was 
unanimous, and the legislation has the support of an extraordinary 
coalition of law enforcement organizations, anti-trafficking advocates, 
trafficking victims, survivors, faith-based groups, and even some major 
tech players, although some in the tech community continue to be 
concerned. This includes the Internet Association, which now represents 
companies such as Facebook, reddit, Amazon, and others. It was endorsed 
by businesses, including Oracle, 21st Century Fox, Hewlett-Packard 
Enterprise, and the Walt Disney Company. Other companies such as IBM 
and others have stepped up to support it.
  Last year, 50 attorneys general across this country wrote a letter 
calling on Congress to amend the Communications Decency Act in the 
exact way we are proposing in this bill--50.
  Again, in the Senate, a bipartisan group of 64 Senators has now 
cosponsored the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. Those 60-plus 
cosponsors are significant because 60 is how many votes we need in the 
U.S. Senate if there are objections to the legislation to be able to 
get it passed. We already have that many Senators who have now put 
their names down. They said they want to be part of the solution to 
this tragic problem. They want to stop this increase in sex trafficking 
that unconscionably is happening in this country in this century.
  So we shouldn't wait any longer to pass this bill in the Senate. 
Every day we do, those who sell women and children will be allowed to 
continue that, continue to profit, and victims will continue to be 
denied justice.
  It is not an issue of politics or partisanship. It is about 
preventing exploitation and providing justice. I am hoping we can have 
a vote on this bill in the Senate this month, during National Slavery 
and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. This Thursday is National Human 
Trafficking Awareness Day. I urge the leadership to have the bill on 
the floor as soon as possible. We have every reason to act and no 
reason not to.
  These victims deserve justice, and Congress should help provide it. 
Passing the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act is an opportunity.
  Thank you.
  I yield back my time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I don't know whether it is four, five, 
or six, but some Senators would like to have colloquy on the issue of 
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and I ask unanimous consent 
that we have that privilege.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.