[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6993]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       ANNIVERSARY OF THE JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Missouri (Mrs. Wagner) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the 1-year anniversary 
of the signing of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. We are 
grateful for the accomplishments of the legislation over the past year. 
The JVTA has reinvigorated our Nation's commitment to fighting sex 
trafficking.
  The legislation sought to undercut demand for sex trafficking by 
holding buyers and advertisers of trafficking accountable for their 
choices. Under the SAVE Act--my legislation that was signed into law as 
part of the JVTA legislative package--we have given prosecutors the 
tools they need to fight these Web sites and businesses that support 
human trafficking by knowingly advertising victims for profit.
  Right now, tens of thousands of demented online advertisements are 
openly selling children into sexual enslavement. Predators in our 
communities are going online and having children delivered to their 
hotel rooms as easily as they would a pepperoni pizza. Today, human 
trafficking is moving from the streets to the Internet, making it more 
accessible and more insidious. The SAVE Act fights this sick explosion 
of trafficking on the Internet.
  The SAVE Act is already demonstrating that it is an indispensable 
tool to attack online trafficking. Backpage.com and other exploitive 
Web sites, which enable human traffickers by allowing them to post ads 
selling the bodies and the souls of our children, are angry that the 
U.S. is now holding the advertisers of human trafficking accountable.
  Backpage.com claims that their ability to post children for sex 
online is a matter of free speech. It is not a matter of free speech, 
Mr. Speaker. It is a flagrant violation of the dignity and the basic 
constitutional rights of these abused and vulnerable children. 
Facilitating the purchase of children for sex is not a right; it is a 
crime, and it is a crime of the most heartless and evil proportions.
  In December 2015, backpage.com filed a lawsuit against the SAVE Act 
in the United States District Court of the District of Columbia, and 
they specifically named me, Ann Wagner, in their case. They are suing 
us because the SAVE Act has upset their pocketbooks and hindered them 
from making money off human trafficking sales. I take it as a huge 
success that we are finally moving in the direction where adults, Web 
sites, and businesses that exploit victims of human trafficking cannot 
profit and will not be given a free pass for their despicable crimes.
  The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act creates a legal framework 
to ensure that those who sell children and young women for sex, those 
who buy children for sex, and those who profit from human trafficking 
will be held accountable for their choices. But this law will be 
rendered useless until the Department of Justice moves to fully 
implement it. To our knowledge, the Department has not opened any new 
investigations to target advertisers of trafficking.
  The JVTA clarifies those who solicit and patronize victims of 
trafficking can and should be prosecuted as sex trafficking offenders 
under 18 U.S. Code section 1591. Failing to prosecute buyers 
perpetuates demand for trafficking and allows offenders to abuse our 
children with impunity.
  But while buyers have been arrested over the past year, we have seen 
very few convictions. Exactly how many convictions? We don't know 
because the Department of Justice has not released this information. We 
do know that many buyers have inexplicably been allowed to walk.
  America's children are not objects to be bought and sold and abused 
by predators. They are children who we, as adults, have the duty to 
fiercely, fiercely protect.
  We are also waiting on the Department of Justice to levy a $5,000 
assessment on convicted human traffickers, convicted buyers who exploit 
victims, and offenders of similar crimes. We passed the JVTA 1 year 
ago, but the Department has neglected to assess the vast majority of 
these offenders--perhaps all of these offenders--despite a number of 
related convictions.
  These fines are meant to help populate the Domestic Trafficking 
Victims' Fund to provide assistance for victims of trafficking and 
child pornography and develop prosecution programs. We are waiting on 
the Department of Justice to establish and populate this fund to get 
survivors the services that they need.
  In short, there is much work to be done and we will not just walk 
away. It is our most fundamental responsibility to fight to protect our 
most vulnerable from sexual enslavement. This is our most basic duty.

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