[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 163 (Monday, September 21, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4603-H4605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STOPPING TRAFFICKING, ILLICIT FLOWS, LAUNDERING, AND EXPLOITATION ACT
OF 2020
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 7592) to require the Comptroller General of the United
States to carry out a study on trafficking, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 7592
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Stopping Trafficking,
Illicit Flows, Laundering, and Exploitation Act of 2020'' or
the ``STIFLE Act of 2020''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Trafficking is a national-security threat and an
economic drain of our resources.
(2) As the U.S. Department of the Treasury's recently
released ``2020 National Strategy for Combating Terrorist and
Other Illicit Financing'' concludes, ``While money
laundering, terrorism financing, and WMD proliferation
financing differ qualitatively and quantitatively, the
illicit actors engaging in these activities can exploit the
same vulnerabilities and financial channels.''.
(3) Among those are bad actors engaged in trafficking,
whether they trade in drugs, arms, cultural property,
wildlife, natural resources, counterfeit goods, organs, or,
even, other humans.
(4) Their illegal (or ``dark'') markets use similar and
sometimes related or overlapping methods and means to
acquire, move, and profit from their crimes.
(5) In a March 2017, report from Global Financial
Integrity, ``Transnational Crime and the Developing World'',
the global business of transnational crime was valued at $1.6
trillion to $2.2 trillion annually, resulting in crime,
violence, terrorism, instability, corruption, and lost tax
revenues worldwide.
SEC. 3. GAO STUDY.
(a) Study.--The Comptroller General of the United States
shall carry out a study on--
(1) the major trafficking routes used by transnational
criminal organizations, terrorists, and others, and to what
extent the trafficking routes for people (including
children), drugs, weapons, cash, child sexual exploitation
materials, or other illicit goods are similar, related, or
cooperative;
(2) commonly used methods to launder and move the proceeds
of trafficking;
(3) the types of suspicious financial activity that are
associated with illicit trafficking networks, and how
financial institutions identify and report such activity;
(4) the nexus between the identities and finances of
trafficked persons and fraud;
(5) the tools, guidance, training, partnerships,
supervision, or other mechanisms that Federal agencies,
including the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network, the Federal financial regulators, and
law enforcement, provide to help financial institutions
identify techniques and patterns of transactions that may
involve the proceeds of trafficking;
(6) what steps financial institutions are taking to detect
and prevent bad actors who are laundering the proceeds of
illicit trafficking, including data analysis, policies,
training procedures, rules, and guidance;
(7) what role gatekeepers, such as lawyers, notaries,
accountants, investment advisors, logistics agents, and trust
and company service providers, play in facilitating
trafficking networks and the laundering of illicit proceeds;
and
(8) the role that emerging technologies, including
artificial intelligence, digital identity technologies,
blockchain technologies, virtual assets, and related
exchanges and online marketplaces, and other innovative
technologies, can play in both assisting with and potentially
enabling the laundering of proceeds from trafficking.
(b) Consultation.--In carrying out the study required under
subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall solicit
feedback and perspectives to the extent practicable from
survivor and victim advocacy organizations, law enforcement,
research organizations, private-sector organizations
(including financial institutions and data and technology
companies), and any other organization or entity that the
Comptroller General determines appropriate.
(c) Report.--The Comptroller General shall issue one or
more reports to the Congress containing the results of the
study required under subsection (a). The first report shall
be issued not later than the end of the 15-month period
beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act. The
reports shall contain--
[[Page H4604]]
(1) all findings and determinations made in carrying out
the study required under subsection (a); and
(2) recommendations for any legislative or regulatory
changes necessary to combat trafficking or the laundering of
proceeds from trafficking.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Sherman) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr.
Timmons) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks on this legislation and insert extraneous material thereon.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7592, the Stopping
Trafficking, Illicit Flows, Laundering, and Exploitation Act of 2020,
the STIFLE Act, introduced by Representatives McAdams and Gonzalez.
This bill would commission the Government Accountability Office to
study and analyze the converging attributes of transnational
trafficking networks. These shared or overlapping characteristics and
methods, such as supply chains, facilitators, or gatekeepers, and the
movement of finances make it possible for traffickers in a host of
different areas to move their illicit proceeds and evade detection.
By better understanding the ``business models'' that underlie these
networks, we can better combat their terrible acts in a host of
different areas, ranging from selling illicit drugs to trafficking in
modern slavery. We have focused on illicit trafficking--human
trafficking, drug trafficking, et cetera--in the Foreign Affairs
Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I commend the members of the Financial Services
Committee for focusing on this issue, since the linchpin, the Achilles
heel, of many of these trafficking networks is their financial
movements, their access to the financial system, and this may be the
way to accomplish an awful lot to stop this illicit trafficking.
The STIFLE Act is part of the House Financial Services Committee's
bipartisan Counter-Trafficking Initiative, introduced in March to
address this pervasive issue that is a threat to all of our
constituents and communities.
Human trafficking, drug trafficking, wildlife trafficking, and the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are just a few examples of
the illicit markets that generate an estimated $2.2 trillion, annually.
The resulting proceeds and instability benefit bad actors, while
threatening the environment, civil society, individuals on our streets,
our economy, our national security, and, of course, the human rights of
so many thousands of people who are trafficked around the world.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. McAdams and Mr. Gonzalez for introducing
this bill to help identify concrete opportunities for action to combat
these criminals and terrorists who engage in this illicit trade by
focusing on our financial system. For these reasons, I urge my
colleagues to support H.R. 7592.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1630
Mr. TIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7592, the STIFLE Act of 2020.
Mr. Speaker, in March of 2020, the Financial Services Committee
launched its bipartisan Counter-Trafficking Initiative to explore and
expose the breadth of transnational trafficking networks and their
illicit financial systems.
As we learned during our additional counter-trafficking hearing,
transnational criminal organizations rarely limit their trafficking to
one sector. Often, these criminals will acquire and traffic anything
that will bring them a profit. Needless to say, these criminals have
been successful in their efforts.
Global Financial Integrity, an NGO that studies illicit financial
flows, estimates that the global business of transnational crime is
valued between $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion annually. To be frank,
Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of work to do.
Following our counter-trafficking hearing this Congress, Mr. McAdams
and Mr. Gonzalez worked diligently and across party lines to craft a
thoughtful piece of legislation to help to answer some of the
outstanding questions trafficking experts brought before the committee
in March.
H.R. 7592 instructs the Comptroller General to carry out a detailed
study on trafficking issues. This would range from the major routes
trafficking networks use, how these criminals launder and move the
proceeds of their crimes, suspicious activity that law enforcement can
focus on when investigating these crimes, and the steps financial
institutions are taking to detect and prevent bad actors who are
laundering the proceeds of trafficking.
H.R. 7592 is exactly the type of bill we as policymakers need, to
learn how these illicit activities are being carried out and what we
must do to make it as hard as possible for these criminals to succeed.
I would like to thank both Congressman McAdams as well as Congressman
Gonzalez for taking the Counter-Trafficking Initiative seriously and
coming away from our initial hearing with an understanding that there
is more work that needs to be done to deal with illicit trafficking.
I look forward to working with both of them as we continue in our
efforts to end trafficking once and for all.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance
of my time.
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Utah (Mr. McAdams).
Mr. McADAMS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Stopping
Trafficking, Illicit Flows, Laundering and Exploitation Act of 2020, or
the STIFLE Act of 2020, bipartisan legislation that I introduced with
my colleague, Representative Anthony Gonzalez, from Ohio.
Trafficking is a scourge on society, leaving millions of victims in
its wake. Recent reports show that the global business of transnational
crime is valued at between $1.6 to $2.2 trillion annually, resulting in
crime, violence, terrorism, corruption, and human suffering.
Illicit actors engaged in trafficking--whether in drugs, arms,
wildlife, organs, or humans--use dark markets to finance and hide their
horrific activities and their profits. We need to identify, disrupt,
and prosecute these financial networks to stop these abhorrent crimes.
And that is what the STIFLE Act does.
The STIFLE Act activates tools, partnerships, and guidance of a
number of Federal agencies to help financial institutions identify
techniques and patterns of transactions that may involve the proceeds
of trafficking.
The legislation requires a report to Congress with recommended
actions necessary to combat trafficking or money laundering of the
proceeds.
We must attack trafficking networks from all sides, using any
effective approach. Targeting the finances of these networks is a key
way that we can crack down on these illicit activities.
The STIFLE Act is just one component of the bipartisan Counter-
Trafficking Initiative that the Financial Services Committee launched
earlier this year. The long-term committee effort is designed to
explore and expose the breadth and reach of international transnational
trafficking networks and their illicit finances.
I thank Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry for focusing our
committee on this important work.
Mr. Speaker, we must do more to protect innocent victims of
trafficking and take down the trafficking networks that prey upon our
most vulnerable. This bipartisan bill is a step in that direction.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important
legislation.
Mr. TIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I simply urge my colleagues to support H.R.
7592, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, understanding the business of trafficking--
[[Page H4605]]
whether it be illicit drugs, whether it be human trafficking, whether
it be terrorism, et cetera--is fundamental to stopping transnational
crime, and the harm that it causes and the victims it creates in
communities worldwide.
The House Financial Services Committee's bipartisan Counter-
Trafficking Initiative is a comprehensive approach to this challenge
and is a very important adjunct to the Foreign Affairs Committee's work
to stop illicit trafficking, particularly human trafficking.
We need to examine these illicit networks as a whole, whether they
engage in narcotics, timber, endangered species, rare earths, or,
tragically, human trafficking of men and women--modern slavery.
So I look forward to all of the committees of this Congress focusing
on these criminal traffickers. H.R. 7592, the STIFLE Act, is a
significant piece of that effort, tapping into the knowledge from
survivor and victim advocacy organizations, law enforcement,
regulators, research organizations, and the private sector to be able
to focus on the financial system and make sure that we keep these
traffickers at bay and out of the financial system as much as possible.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation which
is an important step to protecting our citizens, our economy, and our
national security.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 7592.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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