[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12780-12782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION, INTERVENTION, AND RECOVERY ACT OF 2014

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 5135) to direct the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and 
Combat Trafficking to identify strategies to prevent children from 
becoming victims of trafficking and review trafficking prevention 
efforts, to protect and assist in the recovery of victims of 
trafficking, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 5135

       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 ``Human Trafficking 
     Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery Act of 2014''.

     SEC. 2. INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE REPORT ON CHILD TRAFFICKING 
                   PRIMARY PREVENTION.

       (a) Review.--The Interagency Task Force to Monitor and 
     Combat Trafficking, established under section 105 of the 
     Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7103), 
     shall conduct a review that, with regard to trafficking in 
     persons in the United States--
       (1) in consultation with nongovernmental organizations that 
     the Task Force determines appropriate, surveys and catalogues 
     the activities of the Federal Government and State 
     governments to deter individuals from committing trafficking 
     offenses and to prevent children from becoming victims of 
     trafficking;
       (2) surveys academic literature on deterring individuals 
     from committing trafficking offenses, preventing children 
     from becoming victims of trafficking, the commercial sexual 
     exploitation of children, and other similar topics that the 
     Task Force determines appropriate;
       (3) identifies best practices and effective strategies to 
     deter individuals from committing trafficking offenses and to 
     prevent children from becoming victims of trafficking; and
       (4) identifies current gaps in research and data that would 
     be helpful in formulating effective strategies to deter 
     individuals from committing trafficking offenses and to 
     prevent children from becoming victims of trafficking.
       (b) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the Interagency Task Force to Monitor 
     and Combat Trafficking shall provide to Congress, and make 
     publicly available in electronic format, a report on the 
     review conducted pursuant to subparagraph (a).

     SEC. 3. GAO REPORT ON INTERVENTION.

       On the date that is one year after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 
     States shall submit to Congress a report, which shall 
     include--
       (1) information on the efforts of Federal and select State 
     law enforcement agencies to combat human trafficking in the 
     United States; and
       (2) information on each Federal grant program, a purpose of 
     which is to combat human trafficking or assist victims of 
     trafficking, as specified in an authorizing statute or in a 
     guidance document issued by the agency carrying out the grant 
     program.

     SEC. 4. PROVISION OF HOUSING PERMITTED TO PROTECT AND ASSIST 
                   IN THE RECOVERY OF VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING.

       Section 107(b)(2)(A) of the Trafficking Victims Protection 
     Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7105(b)(2)(A)) is amended by inserting 
     before the period at the end the following: ``, including 
     programs that provide housing to victims of trafficking''.

     SEC. 5. VICTIM OF TRAFFICKING DEFINED.

       In this Act, the term and ``victim of trafficking'' has the 
     meaning given such term in section 103 of the Trafficking 
     Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102).

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte).


                             General Leave

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 5135, currently under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Virginia?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I rise today to speak in favor of H.R. 5135, the Human Trafficking 
Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery Act of 2014, introduced by 
Representative Kristi Noem.
  The crisis of human trafficking is ruinous to the lives of its 
victims, many of whom are drawn from the ranks of the most vulnerable 
in our society. This crisis has touched nearly every corner of the 
globe, and even exists here in the United States.
  The Justice Department, and its many State and local partners, have 
made great strides to rescue children and other victims from the 
terrible crime of sex trafficking. Last month, the FBI announced a 
successful nationwide sting that led to the rescue of 168 children and 
the arrest of 281 pimps in more than 100 cities.
  Also last month, the Justice Department seized a major Web site known 
for promoting illegal sex trafficking and indicted its owner. Both of 
these cases, and the many other trafficking cases that have been 
brought in recent years, show that law enforcement is making progress 
in the fight against child exploitation. But sadly, there remains more 
work to be done.
  Studies suggest that over 290,000 youth are at risk of commercial 
sexual exploitation in the United States. To effectively combat human 
trafficking, we must cut it off at its root by trying to prevent the 
trafficking before it can occur.
  H.R. 5135 requires the existing Interagency Task Force to Monitor and

[[Page 12781]]

Combat Trafficking to survey and catalog the methods being employed by 
our Federal and State governments to deter individuals from committing 
trafficking offenses and children from being victimized.
  The bill also directs the task force to identify best practices and 
what gaps might exist, if any, in research and data so that we can 
place new and valuable tools in the hands of law enforcement.
  One challenge that victims of sex trafficking often face is a lack of 
financial independence that keeps them trapped in a life of 
prostitution. H.R. 5135 helps to address that by clarifying that 
existing Federal trafficking grants may be used for programs that 
provide housing for victims of sex trafficking.
  As I have said before, sex traffickers, and the buyers who enable 
them to stay in business, dehumanize their victims, treating them as 
objects to be used for the profit and pleasure of others, instead of 
human beings creating in the image of God.
  In May of this year, the House passed a number of antitrafficking 
bills that originated in the House Judiciary Committee, which are all 
awaiting consideration by the Senate. I encourage my colleagues on the 
other side of the Capitol Hill to move swiftly to pass those bills.
  I am pleased that we can consider another set of bipartisan 
antitrafficking bills here today. It is important that we do everything 
that we can to bring an end to this illicit industry. H.R. 5135 will 
help us to do just that. I hope that this body will join with me and 
Congresswoman Noem in supporting this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5135, the Human Trafficking 
Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery Act of 2014. This bill is vital 
to identifying best practices and effective strategies to deter 
individuals from committing trafficking offenses and to prevent 
children from becoming victims, and it, therefore, enjoys bipartisan 
support in the House.
  This bill will encourage Federal, State, and local governments to 
work together as an Interagency Task Force to investigate and enforce 
the existing laws. This task force will emphasize prosecution of the 
purchasers of sex with children as child rapists. These purchasers are 
usually referred to as ``johns'' who pay for sex with children, but 
insofar as children cannot consent to sex, the johns are legally 
committing rape and should be prosecuted as rapists.
  The bill encourages law enforcement coordination with intergovernment 
organizations and academics who will put into practice what research 
and data demonstrate will work to prevent these crimes.
  The GAO will submit a report on how the Federal grant programs' funds 
have been used to combat human trafficking or to assist victims of 
trafficking. An Interagency Task Force will submit a report to Congress 
on its findings.
  The bill will also provide housing to protect and assist children in 
recovering victims of trafficking. To date, the number of victims, 
especially child victims, greatly exceeds the number of available 
shelter beds.
  Without a safe place to stay, many rescued victims will end up 
running away and returning to their abusers due to the unique trauma 
bond that occurs in these cases.

                              {time}  1915

  Along those lines, we must do more to rescue child victims and expand 
the services they need. Our country has a moral imperative to protect 
and help these children who are vulnerable, warrant special protection, 
and need these services, even in the best of circumstances.
  This vulnerability is compounded amongst children who have been 
victims of sexual exploitation, physical violence, trauma, and extreme 
poverty. With our protection, support, and assistance, we can help them 
survive.
  I commend my colleague from Virginia, the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, for working to bring the bill to the floor, and I commend 
our colleague from South Dakota (Mrs. Noem) for introducing the 
legislation.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in prosecuting those who rape 
children, protecting and rescuing child victims, and providing the 
victims with the support that they need.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, at this time, it is my pleasure to yield 
4 minutes to the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Mrs. Noem), the chief 
sponsor of the legislation.
  Mrs. NOEM. I thank the chairman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, over the past several years, my eyes have really been 
opened to the disturbing type of slavery that we have seen across the 
world and here at home.
  I have heard about human trafficking before and young children being 
sold for sex overseas, but I guess I didn't really realize how much it 
was happening here in the United States and even in my home State of 
South Dakota. The more I learned about human trafficking and the risk 
that it posed to our kids, the more I became convicted that I needed to 
do something about it.
  The average age of a child that is trafficked is just 11 to 14 years 
old. Many times, the trafficker will lure these children in, pretending 
to be their friend or their boyfriend, control them through the use of 
drugs or alcohol, and give them the comfort and stability that they may 
be lacking at home. After they have them isolated and dependent, they 
sell them for sex.
  It is heartbreaking for me as a mom, as an aunt of many nieces and 
nephews, as a 4-H leader, and as a person who works with our youth 
every single day to think about the innocent children that are being 
forced into this disgusting industry and becoming slaves to these 
predators.
  Every year, hundreds of thousands of children are at risk to being 
trafficked here in the United States, so this isn't a problem that is 
far away. It is a problem that is right here in our backyards.
  Back in South Dakota, I held a lot of roundtables and a Justice 
Against Slavery Summit. I heard from local shelters, from law 
enforcement officers, tribal leaders, from victims and advocate groups 
and learned from their expertise.
  I learned a lot about what was being done to stop human trafficking 
and what additional tools they needed from Congress and what we should 
pursue. While we talked about the problem, I wanted them to focus on 
what they needed for solutions. With the insight of all these community 
leaders, we identified ways we could rout out the disgusting industry 
and help victims recover.
  That is why I am so proud to be here today to introduce H.R. 5135, 
the Human Trafficking Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery Act. This 
bipartisan bill was based on those conversations that I had during 
those roundtables and the summit that I held in South Dakota on how 
best to prevent and combat human trafficking. The best way to stop 
human trafficking in its tracks is to prevent it.
  My bill launches a task force review to look into Federal and State 
trafficking-prevention activities. The review will be in done in 
consultation with nongovernmental organizations, like those I heard 
from in South Dakota, and will work to identify and develop best 
practices to prevent trafficking.
  Next, it requires an inventory to be done of existing antitrafficking 
efforts by the Federal Government. It is important to take a hard look 
at all of these programs across the Federal Government to ensure that 
Federal resources are targeted and that they are used where they are 
needed.
  We can also identify any gaps in Federal programs that need to be 
filled, and finally, my bill improves existing Department of Justice 
grants and allows them to be used for shelters for survivors.
  Did you know, nationwide, there is only about 200 beds available for 
underage victims of sex trafficking? Many of

[[Page 12782]]

these kids, once they are rescued from their trafficker, have nowhere 
safe to go. They don't have any other option, and so often, what they 
are forced to do is to return to their trafficker.
  Many who are in the foster care system don't have the family support 
that is necessary to be safe and to recover. Sadly, without a place to 
recover from the trauma that has happened in their lives, kids return 
back to those traffickers, and that is why it is important that we use 
Federal resources wisely to promote more facilities to help these 
recovering children.
  I am proud to be standing here with my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle to take action on this bill today and the other bills that 
were brought to deal with sex trafficking. It is an issue that we can 
and we should all stand together on. Together, these bills will do more 
to prevent trafficking, give law enforcement more tools to deal with 
it, and help our victims recover.
  I am grateful for my colleagues and to the leadership for making this 
a priority in the House. I urge my colleagues to support this package 
and continue our fight to end human trafficking.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes 
to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black), who has also been a 
leader on this issue of combating sex trafficking.
  Mrs. BLACK. I thank the chairman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government reports that as many as 17,500 
people are trafficked into our country annually. With the rise of the 
Internet, the number of sex trafficking incidents in particular has 
exploded. We must do what we can to combat this rising epidemic by 
identifying best practices in combating trafficking, so that others can 
duplicate these successful models.
  I am proud that in my home State of Tennessee, the Tennessee Bureau 
of Investigation has developed a card that would identify an algorithm 
of how law enforcement would interview those who potentially have been 
sex-trafficked, as well as on the back of the card, those kinds of 
resources that can be used to help those who are in this situation.
  Systems like this must be identified, studied, and duplicated to 
combat trafficking, and I am proud to support this bill from 
Congresswoman Noem, which would help to make this very important work 
successful.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, at this time, it is my pleasure to yield 
2 minutes to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).
  Mr. CRAMER. I thank the chairman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that my home State of North Dakota is 
enjoying the blessing of an energy boom, an economic boom, which is 
driven largely by an oil and gas renaissance that has us contributing 
now over 1 million barrels of oil per day toward America's energy 
security, but with the blessing of this energy boom comes some unwanted 
consequences, and chief among them is a growing demand for the product 
of human trafficking. It has caused the citizens of our clean and 
beautiful State to be somewhat alarmed and rightfully so.
  Our local and State law enforcement agencies are stressed to the max. 
Our nonprofit and faith-based communities are doing all that they can 
to assist, and they are doing it with great effort, but they need some 
additional help and encouragement.
  So this and the many other House bills that will be passed in the 
next couple of days dealing with this plague of human trafficking will 
provide the tools that, frankly, only the Federal Government can 
provide to assist--not replace, but assist local, State, and nonprofit 
agencies in this fight against the plague of human trafficking in our 
society.
  I encourage all of my colleagues to support this and the other bills 
before us.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, having no further requests for time, I am 
prepared to close.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume 
to say to all that, as the chair of the Judiciary Committee, I 
appreciate the bipartisan work that has been done on many of these sex 
trafficking bills.
  I appreciate especially the work of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Scott), who is the ranking member on the Crime Subcommittee, and the 
ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Conyers, as well. I commend 
the chairman of that subcommittee, Mr. Sensenbrenner, as well as 
Congresswoman Noem for their leadership on this issue.
  Sex trafficking is a serious problem, and while we see it around the 
world, we should not overlook the fact that it is a serious problem 
right here in the United States.
  This bill joins several others that we have already passed through 
the House of Representatives to address this serious problem, and it 
deserves the same bipartisan support that the others received, and it 
also deserves the consideration of the other side of the Capitol, by 
the other body which needs to take these bills up and pass them as 
well, so they can go to the President's desk and be signed into law.
  This is truly a bipartisan effort to address a serious national 
problem, and we all need to join into the solution.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5135.
  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.

                          ____________________