[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8519]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HUMAN TRAFFICKING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CRAMER. Mr. Speaker, in New Town, North Dakota, right in the 
heart of the Bakken oil patch, an elderly woman once told an FBI agent 
that she knew human trafficking was taking place in her community 
because she saw young girls taking different men back and forth to 
various rooms. And when the agent asked the woman for her name so they 
could investigate, she was too afraid to report it.
  The horrific nature of this crime can shock individuals and 
communities to such a degree that they are unable to conceive such 
heinous crimes are even possible, much less taking place right in their 
rural communities.
  All around the country, law enforcement and public citizens are 
encountering difficulties in identifying human trafficking victims, and 
our justice system is too often ill-equipped to assign the appropriate 
penalties for a fast-growing international crime, such as human 
trafficking. And what is worse, too often, the victims are treated as 
criminals, dropped into a judicial system not equipped to provide the 
health and protective services that these women and young girls often 
need.
  I held a roundtable with my friend and colleague, Representative Erik 
Paulsen from Minnesota, earlier this month in Williston, North Dakota. 
Along with being the fastest growing micropolitan in the Nation, 
Williston is newly dealing with an increase in human trafficking. It 
was encouraging to hear how local law enforcement and victims' 
advocates in Williston are working hard with Federal agents and 
officers to reverse the trend and to prevent trafficking while 
restoring the lives of victims, but they are very much in need of a 
series of Federal laws designed to aid the very important work that 
they are doing.
  To show our commitment, Congress will enact legislation like the Stop 
Exploitation Through Trafficking Act, which ensures minors who are 
trafficked are treated as victims and not as defendants, and the SAVE 
Act of 2014, which helps address the root of the problem by making it a 
Federal crime to profit from knowingly advertising for the commercial 
exploitation of minors and trafficking victims.
  Mr. Speaker, we know the most important work to stop human 
trafficking will be done on the ground by our State and local law 
enforcement, Federal agents, community members, victims' advocates, the 
faith-based community, and others, but they need our help to make laws 
to better support their efforts. So I urge all of my colleagues to 
support the five bills that will be on the floor tonight to help get 
our criminal justice and victim support systems caught up with a 
rapidly evolving international crime.

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