[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 11 (Thursday, January 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S278-S279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STOP ENABLING SEX TRAFFICKERS ACT

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I want to talk about another vulnerable 
group of Americans. This is an issue that doesn't relate to the looming 
government shutdown or the spending bill that will avoid that shutdown, 
but it relates to another issue that Congress has the opportunity to 
address this month.
  January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Last Thursday was 
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. We had a lot of people here 
in town talking about that issue.
  I think everybody in this Chamber would agree with me that we live in 
a great country. We are blessed to be Americans. In this age of rapid 
scientific, medical, and technological innovation, we have been able to 
change the world in positive ways. That is good. But something else is 
happening that is discouraging; that is, in this country, in the 21st 
century, we are actually seeing an increase in a part of human 
trafficking, and that is heartbreaking. This is sex trafficking that is 
occurring in our country. Often it involves children, underage, who are 
being sold much like property. Experts tell us that this increase is 
happening primarily for one reason and one reason alone, and that is 
because of the internet. It is sort of the dark side of the internet. 
It is a ruthlessly efficient way to conduct this trafficking business.
  This is a stain on our national character. It is something we should 
all be involved with, Republican and Democrat alike, all of us as 
Americans, to say: Let's push back. Let's not allow our country, during 
this period of so many positive technological changes, to use this 
technology--in this case, online websites selling people--in a way that 
devastates these families and creates so many dislocations in our 
communities. Traffickers are using the internet because of the fact 
that Congress--the House and the Senate--passed legislation 21 years 
ago that they are able to hide behind. They have immunity under the 
Federal law called the Communications Decency Act. Ironically, it was 
actually put in place to push back against child pornography--in other 
words, to protect children from viewing pornography. It is being used 
now to say: Well, we don't have responsibilities as websites even if we 
knowingly are selling children online. Can you imagine that?
  Our legislation to deal with that is something we have been working 
on for a couple of years. We had a 2-year investigation on this online 
trafficking. It focused a lot on one website--an evil website that 
sells people online and knowingly has been providing ads out there for 
underage girls and boys--backpage.com. As we looked into it and did 
more research, it became clear that even though they were doing this 
and even though there were people suing them because of it, none of the 
lawsuits were successful--whether from prosecutors or victims, whether 
criminal suits or civil suits--because of this immunity they were 
claiming under Federal law.
  We found out that backpage.com--this one website--was responsible for 
about 75 percent of all child trafficking reports that the National 
Center for Missing and Exploited Children was receiving. In other 
words, the great majority of this was happening on this one website. We 
found out there has been a dramatic increase in trafficking because of 
this ruthless online efficiency.
  When we got through our investigation, we also found out that this 
website actually knew that some of these ads were related to children 
and yet published them anyway. They went so far as to try to, as they 
called it, ``clean'' the ads for illegal transactions. Someone would 
place an ad, pay for the ad, and then backpage would say: You need to 
change this ad a little bit because you are using words like 
``schoolgirl'' or ``cheerleader,'' which indicates they are underage.
  In other words, they knew these kids were underage. Yet they edited 
the ads and placed the ads anyway and took the profit. That is what we 
are up against.
  The cost to these families, the human suffering that results from 
this, is incalculable. I met with victims all around the State of Ohio 
and some from other States who have come here, as they did last week 
for this rally. Can you imagine being in that situation as a parent?
  Kubiiki Pride, who was here last week, had her 14-year-old daughter 
go missing. She was a teenager. Her mom was stricken with grief and 
concern over her. After 10 weeks, she couldn't find her anywhere. 
Finally, somebody said: You ought to look on this website called 
backpage because they are selling girls online. God forbid, they were 
right, and she found her daughter. She

[[Page S279]]

found several photographs of her daughter--not photographs she wanted 
to see, but on the other hand, there was her daughter alive. She said: 
My first reaction was relief that she was alive. Then, of course, I 
called backpage, and I said: I found my daughter. She is on your site. 
She is 14 years old. Please take her ad down.
  Backpage said: Did you pay for the ad?
  She said: No, I didn't pay for the ad. That is my daughter. She is 14 
years old.
  They said: No, we can't take down the ad. You didn't pay for it.
  Can you imagine?
  She was eventually reunited with her daughter. And there is a film 
called ``I am Jane Doe'' in which she and other women, mothers and 
young women, are featured. You can see more about her story and what a 
brave woman she is because she is now standing up to it. She filed a 
lawsuit, but the lawsuit was not successful because the judge said 
there is this immunity.
  By the way, the courts that have ruled that these websites are 
protected by this Federal law have said that Congress ought to do 
something about that. Most recently, last August, a Sacramento judge 
dropped charges against backpage, stating: ``If and until Congress sees 
fit to amend the immunity law, the broad reach of section 230 of the 
Communications Decency Act even applies to those alleged to support the 
exploitation of others by human trafficking.''

  To me that is an invitation for Congress to act, saying: We get it; 
they are exploiting human beings online, but this Federal law gives 
them immunity.
  This immunity was put in place 21 years ago in an effort to try to 
ensure that we could have a free internet, and that is very important, 
but it was never intended to provide immunity to illegal activity like 
this--certainly not to keep people in the business of sex trafficking.
  That injustice is why we introduced our legislation. It is called the 
Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or SESTA. I introduced it with 
Senators Blumenthal, McCain, McCaskill, Cornyn, Heitkamp, and others. 
Senators Thune and Nelson took this bill through the Commerce Committee 
late last year.
  We had a spirited debate in that committee, and it ended up coming 
out of the committee with a unanimous vote. Why? Because after hearing 
from the victims, after hearing from the experts on both sides, the 
Senators said: Whoa. This doesn't make any sense. As Senators, it is 
our responsibility to change this law.
  It provides justice for victims of online sex trafficking because 
they will have the opportunity to sue. It holds these websites 
accountable that knowingly facilitate crimes. It also helps in terms of 
prosecutions because the State prosecutors now--the AGs, the local 
prosecutors at the State level--will be able to have access now to the 
courts to be able to take on these websites and, again, hold them 
accountable. The prosecutions, again, have been thwarted because of 
this immunity.
  These are very narrow changes. They don't affect the freedom of the 
internet at all. In fact, I would argue it helps to ensure a free 
internet. To take care of these bad actors and by holding these folks 
accountable, it is going to provide the justice the victims deserve.
  It is a fair and commonsense approach, and that is why it has the 
support not just of the Members I have mentioned but actually, now, 66 
or 67 Members of the U.S. Senate. That is out of 100 Members. That is a 
rare thing to have that kind of support. It has the majority of the 
Republicans on board. It has the majority of the Democrats on board.
  It is a fair and commonsense approach that is going to make a real 
difference in the lives of the people we represent. It will be 
effective at curbing this increase in trafficking that we see online. 
Every day we don't act, there are more women and more children who are 
being trafficked unnecessarily.
  It also has the support of an extraordinary coalition of law 
enforcement organizations, anti-trafficking advocates, survivors, 
faith-based groups, civil rights communities, major businesses, and 
even some members of the tech community that initially pushed back 
against this legislation. Looking at it, I think many of them realized 
this is not a defensible position to say we shouldn't amend this 
Federal law that is providing immunity to these bad actors.
  Members of the U.S. Senate who have cosponsored the bill, including 
colleagues of mine who are in the Senate Chamber this afternoon, are 
saying: I want to be part of the solution. They are showing some 
courage, and I appreciate that. People who have really shown courage 
are these survivors--these children and these women who have been 
trafficked--and they need our help.
  We need 60 votes to pass most things around here. In this case, we 
will have some objections, apparently, and so having 66 or 67 
supporters of this legislation is a key number. It enables us to ensure 
that we can get this onto the floor and passed on the floor. So why are 
we waiting? We shouldn't wait. We should move this month, during Human 
Trafficking Awareness Month, Human Trafficking Prevention Month. We 
should move because it is the right thing to do for these victims and 
those who might be victims between now and when we act. It is the right 
thing to do because it will create a safer and a better and a more just 
society. Elected officials like us are elected to do just that.
  There were hundreds of sex trafficking survivors on Capitol Hill last 
week, and I met with them. The stories will break your heart. Some were 
the parents, some were trafficking victims themselves. They have shown 
great courage by sharing their stories, bringing their tragedy public, 
and now we owe them the opportunity to get this legislation passed, to 
ensure that we can protect some of the most vulnerable among us.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield back my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Indiana.

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