[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3731]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     HUMAN TRAFFICKING LEGISLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it is hard to believe what we saw 
yesterday. Democrats actually filibustered a bill to help victims of 
modern slavery apparently because leftwing lobbyists told them to. Yes, 
their historic mistake is callous and extreme, but more than that it is 
tragic.
  I mentioned the story of Melissa yesterday. Melissa was sold into 
sexual slavery before she had even become a teenager. She still bears 
the scars of her years of torment, the beatings, the shackling, the 
emotional cruelty. When Melissa finally escaped, she wasn't embraced as 
a victim, she was branded as a criminal.
  Melissa's story is heartbreaking, but it is anything but unique. 
Stories such as hers remind us how important the Justice for Victims of 
Trafficking Act is. It is stories such as hers that remind us that no 
excuse about not reading a bill and no command from leftwing lobbyists 
could justify filibustering the critical help this human rights bill 
would provide.
  So we have not given up on the thousands of victims in this country 
who suffer as Melissa did--shaken and shackled but still hanging on to 
hope. Democrats owe these victims, not lobbyists, help--help the Senate 
is so close to passing.
  A strong majority of the Senate, including several Democrats, have 
already voted in favor of this human rights bill. Now all it takes is a 
few more Democrats of courage to ignore the lobbyists and do what is 
right. All that will mean is the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee 
supporting the very same bill they voted for just a few weeks earlier.
  Apparently, all of these Senators were for this human rights bill 
before they were against it, and it is not like the bipartisan 
provision now suddenly in question is anything new. As the 
Congressional Research Service notes, bipartisan provisions such as 
this one ``have been enacted in a variety of contexts since 1970,'' 
appearing in authorizing legislation as diverse as the State Children's 
Health Insurance Program, the Legal Services Corporation Act, the 
Department of Defense Authorization Act, the Foreign Assistance Act, 
and others--language that is quite common and has been voted for 
numerous times by our friends on the other side of the aisle.
  That is why the distinguished Democratic leader, my friend, had been 
such a strong supporter of the bipartisan Hyde provision for so many 
years and why he said during his tenure as majority leader: ``My belief 
in the sanctity of life is why I have repeatedly voted against using 
taxpayer money for abortions.'' That was my friend, the Democratic 
leader. That is the declared view of my friend. It is what he said just 
a few short years ago before he and his party voted to filibuster a 
bill that would help the victims of modern slavery.
  So this afternoon we invite Democrats to ignore the lobbyists and do 
the right thing. We invite every Democrat to help us write a happy 
ending to this story, where the forces of hope and humanity, not 
powerful lobbyists, prevail.

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