[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 649]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS DAY

  (Mr. YOHO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, today is National Human Trafficking Awareness 
Day, an issue close to my heart.
  Human trafficking is nothing more than modern-day slavery. Last 
Congress, the Foreign Affairs Committee shined a light on this scourge 
that affects millions around the world and passed into law the 
International Megan's Law, which attacks child sex tourism by child sex 
offenders, improves international law enforcement cooperation, and 
improves notices of child sex offenders traveling to the U.S.
  We have come a long way in creating awareness, but more must be done. 
According to the Polaris Project, from 2007 to 2015, over 25,000 cases 
of human trafficking were discovered in the United States, and 7,700 of 
these were minors. Over 100,000 calls were made to the National Human 
Trafficking Resource Center hotline.
  We all know this is an issue that does not discriminate. It can 
affect everyone. In north Florida, over Christmas, a man was arrested 
for trafficking a woman across five county lines. This case started 
with him luring her to Florida over the Internet and ended when law 
enforcement were able to save the victim after seeing her in adult 
advertisements online.
  I want to thank all those who were involved in bringing this person 
to justice.
  On this National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, we in Congress will 
not look away. We will continue to fight the scourge called human 
trafficking.

                          ____________________