[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 11716]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       RESCUE AND RESTORE PROGRAM

 Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to mark the occasion of 
the 500th nonprofit and faith-based group joining Rescue & Restore 
Victims of Human Trafficking, an initiative by the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services. Rescue & Restore is a project to help 
protect the victims of trafficking in human beings.
  After years of working on a bipartisan level with colleagues to pass 
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, it is my distinct 
pleasure to commemorate this landmark achievement. Rescue & Restore is 
a multicity, decentralized national coalition to find, identify and 
rescue victims of human trafficking in the United States and restore 
them to a condition of human dignity. The program does this through the 
engagement of thousands of individuals and hundreds of government and 
community organizations. TVPA was designed to protect the victims of 
involuntary servitude, sexual exploitation, forced labor and other 
forms of a contemporary slave trade.
  Since the launch of the first Rescue & Restore city coalition in 
2004, the rate of trafficking victims rescued has more than doubled 
over the previous reporting period--from 107 victims receiving 
certification letters, to 224. More victims are being identified every 
day. There are now more than 10,000 ``boots on the ground'' in 14 
cities and trained advocates actively seeking out trafficking victims.
  Today, June 7, a statewide Rescue & Restore coalition is set to be 
launched in Illinois in cooperation with the administration of Governor 
Rod Blagojevich. The Chicago rollout is a true watershed in the mission 
to locate, identify, rescue, and restore trafficking victims to a 
condition of human dignity. This is a statewide endeavor, the first of 
its kind, involving the full panoply of Illinois state and local 
government law enforcement and health and human welfare agencies 
working in a coalition with more than 60 nongovernmental and social 
welfare organizations, child advocates, and health care professionals 
mobilized to combat trafficking. Other coalition launches are planned 
for Long Island NY, Houston, and Los Angeles later this year for a 
total of 17 geographical regions to be served.
  Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the 
world today, affecting as many as 900,000 victims worldwide. The CIA 
estimates that as many as 17,500 men, women and children are brought 
into the U.S. annually by force, fraud or coercion as victims of human 
trafficking. Others are victimized right here in America, trafficked 
into prostitution or forced labor. Many of the victims are women or 
children who are forced into prostitution; others are pressed into 
labor slavery such as sweatshops, peonage, or domestic servitude.
  Rescue & Restore coalition partners are using their existing channels 
of communication and growing public awareness to help Americans 
recognize the existence of human trafficking. They are educating their 
associates and constituents on how to identify and assist trafficking 
victims. We now have taken vital steps toward wiping the scourge of 
human trafficking from our shores.

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