[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1401-S1402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SESTA

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, finally, I want to talk about something 
else we were working on in Congress to create a brighter future for 
many Americans. I am talking about our efforts to provide justice for 
victims of sex trafficking and to hold accountable those online 
entities, those websites that knowingly facilitate these evil crimes. I 
am talking about this because, although this week we are focused on 
these reforms to Dodd-Frank to help our smaller banks make the economy 
stronger and help individuals and small companies, next week we hope to 
take up this issue of sex trafficking.
  We are closer than ever to getting this legislation passed, and just 
recently we had some good news in our bipartisan effort. The Stop 
Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or SESTA, a bill I introduced with 24 
Senators back in August, is gaining momentum in Congress. Last week, 
the House of Representatives actually offered the SESTA legislation as 
an amendment on the floor to a broader bill, and it passed by an 
overwhelming vote--over 300 votes. Just a couple of days later, the 
White House expressed their support for this legislation.
  It is now the Senate's turn to act on this critically important 
issue, and Leader McConnell--the leadership in the Senate--again has 
made a commitment to me and my colleagues that we will hold a vote on 
this sex trafficking legislation, the SESTA legislation, in the next 
couple of weeks. We now have 67 Senate cosponsors for SESTA. That is 
not typical around here.
  It is a majority of Democrats; it is a majority of Republicans--two-
thirds of the Senators in this body. By the way, this is a diverse 
group with wide-ranging political and ideological backgrounds. They 
have all signed on to this legislation because they want to be part of 
the solution. It is a commonsense solution to what is unfortunately a 
growing problem here in our country and in every State represented here 
in this body.
  Unbelievably, sex trafficking is actually increasing in this country 
right now. In this century, in this country, sex trafficking is 
actually increasing. How can that be? What the experts tell us is that 
it is because of the online presence of these evil websites that are 
selling women and children online. The ruthless efficiency of social 
media--of the online presence of these websites--is what is causing 
this increase.
  Victims of sex trafficking in Ohio have told me, as I have met with 
them: Rob, this has moved from the street corner to the smartphone. One 
website called backpage.com is the industry leader in online sex 
trafficking. They are involved in nearly 75 percent of all child 
trafficking reports that the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children receives from the public. Seventy-five percent of the reports 
that this great organization receives to try to stop sex trafficking 
relate to this one site.
  The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations here in the Senate, 
which I chair, conducted an 18-month investigation into this issue. We 
looked at what the online presence was and why it was happening. We 
learned, of course, that backpage.com was by far the biggest problem. 
We found that backpage not only had the vast majority of the commercial 
sex traffic on their site, but they had knowingly facilitated and 
assisted criminal sex trafficking and covered up evidence of those 
crimes in order to increase their own profits.
  For years, unbelievably, we have allowed them to get away with it. I 
think that is a stain on our national character. I think we need to 
address it, particularly because we have the opportunity here in the 
Senate to change a Federal law to help stop this.
  Courts have consistently ruled that backpage.com and these other 
websites are protected by a Federal law--a law that we passed over two 
decades ago--called the Communications Decency Act that protects these 
websites from liability for crimes users commit through their site, no 
matter how complicit they are in those crimes. It was certainly not the 
intent of Congress to permit this, but that is how the courts have 
interpreted it.
  Prosecutors and courts from across the country, including 50 State 
attorneys general, have called on Congress to fix this injustice. In 
one of the most direct calls that I have seen, a Sacramento judge last 
year dropped pimping charges against backpage.com, 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.'' 
In other words, this judge is saying that there is now an immunity--a 
protection under Federal law--that allows these people, even when they 
are knowingly involved with sex trafficking, to continue to do what 
they are doing.
  Our legislation makes two very simple changes to the Federal law that 
currently protects websites like backpage in an effort to restore 
justice.
  First, SESTA says that if you are violating a Federal law, the 
Federal law on trafficking--and that is a law that was in existence 
long before we started this investigation. It is a law that is well 
established. If you are violating the Federal law on trafficking, 
assisting, supporting, or facilitating sex trafficking, and if you are 
doing it knowingly, which is a very high standard to prove, then you 
can be held liable and held to account. Again, this is very narrowly 
targeted legislation to deal with this specific problem.
  Second, the legislation will allow State attorneys general--who 
cannot now but would be able under this legislation--to prosecute 
websites that violate Federal sex trafficking laws. It is very 
important because that is where you are going to see most of the 
action--at the State level, the State prosecutors.
  We have tailored this legislation narrowly to ensure no threat to the 
freedom of the internet but ensure we are getting at this problem and 
actually dealing with immunity in Federal law.
  Sex trafficking survivors, their families, and anti-trafficking 
advocates have shown great courage by sharing their tragic stories and 
personal accounts of injustice at the hands of online sex traffickers 
as we worked with them to develop this narrowly crafted legislation.
  In testimony before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and 
in testimony before the Commerce Committee--which unanimously endorsed 
this legislation--we heard from victims and their families. We heard 
from moms who told us about their teenage daughters having been 
trafficked online.

[[Page S1402]]

  One mom talked about her daughter who, at 14, was trafficked. She had 
been missing for 10 weeks. She finally found a photograph of her 
daughter on backpage. She called and said: I found my daughter. She is 
on your website. Thank you for taking her off your website. She is 14 
years old.
  The person at the other end of the line from backpage said: Did you 
pay for the ad?
  The mom said: No, I didn't pay for the ad. That is my daughter.
  They said: Then we can't take down the ad.
  That is who these people are.
  They have shown great courage by coming forward with their stories. 
Now it is our turn to show courage by coming together and voting on 
this bill, sending it to the President's desk, and fixing this problem, 
fixing the Federal law to allow justice for the trafficking victims and 
to finally hold accountable those who knowingly facilitate these 
crimes.
  We have an opportunity to do something important here to create a 
better, safer, and more just society. I am hopeful that next week we 
will have that legislation before this body. We will have the debate. 
We will pass the legislation and begin to provide these victims of 
trafficking the justice they deserve and, most importantly, stop women 
and children from being exploited online.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield back my time.

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