[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1342]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

  (Mr. DOLD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the importance of 
the legislation that we passed this week on human trafficking.
  Sadly, my district is no stranger to this despicable crime. In both 
Lake and Cook Counties, we seem to have too many cases of human 
trafficking. In the Chicagoland area, up to 25,000 women and girls are 
victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
  According to the Justice Department, as many as 300,000 American 
youths are at risk of becoming victims of sexual trafficking. The 
average age for girls that first become victims is between 12 and 14 
years of age.
  This legislation will protect our youth by establishing programs to 
help runaways and homeless children who are at the highest risk for 
becoming victims. The bills will also help address the issue by giving 
tools to health care professionals and law enforcement to identify and 
help victims of human trafficking, and to create programs to deter and 
prevent human trafficking in the first place.
  Human trafficking for sexual exploitation is an epidemic that needs 
to be stopped. This is a first step, and we must remain focused to end 
human trafficking altogether.

                          ____________________