[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5230-5231]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     HUMAN TRAFFICKING LEGISLATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, after weeks of stalling a bipartisan human 
trafficking bill, our Republican colleagues have now agreed not to 
expand the scope of the Hyde language. Democrats and Republicans have 
come to an agreement on a path forward out of this pointless contrived 
fight.
  It also rejects an expansion of the Hyde language to any taxpayer 
dollars where it did not apply before. This is really good news. I 
thank the senior Senator from Washington, Patty Murray, for the work 
she put into brokering this compromise. But I have to say and throw a 
bouquet to Amy Klobuchar, who has worked so hard on this for weeks and 
weeks. She has been very relentless in working toward an agreement on 
this.
  She has worked consistently to arrive at the conclusion that we have 
arrived at. I express my appreciation to Senator Leahy on the Judiciary 
Committee, who has been available for us at any given time to help us 
work through these issues.
  It was not easy, but their efforts--the Senators I have mentioned--
have been extremely important to fight human trafficking, which is 
really very, very important for us to do. But we also rejected efforts 
to further obstruct a woman's access to services they deserve and need 
and which we believe are within the law.
  I also want to say something about Senator Cornyn. John Cornyn--I 
talked to him Thursday. We thought we had something worked out. He has 
been very reasonable in helping us arrive at a conclusion to this. I 
express my appreciation to him publicly for that. This compromise is 
evidence that when Democrats and Republicans sit down together and work 
toward a solution, good things can happen. The Senate needs more of 
this.
  But let's hope that post-agreement amendments do not ruin the 
agreement that we have reached. Each side is going to have to be 
cautious in what they offer, because any one of those amendments, as we 
know, can cause a minifilibuster or a maxifilibuster, according to how 
you look at it.
  We do not need to get involved in that. We need to move forward on 
this legislation. We are going to have opportunities on other matters 
to offer amendments. I think we better be very, very careful on 
amendments that are offered. I say to my Republican colleagues: Be very 
careful that you do not destroy this human trafficking legislation that 
is so important. You can do it with--I have looked at some of the 
amendments that are being talked about being offered.
  My Senators are not going to sit back like shrinking violets and let 
this stuff go forward without responding by action that will also cause 
some difficult votes for my Republican colleagues. So let's get rid of 
this quickly. Let's get Loretta Lynch confirmed quickly and move on to 
other matters.

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