[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 41 (Monday, October 16, 2000)]
[Pages 2446-2447]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Congressional Action on the ``Victims of Trafficking and 
Violence Protection Act of 2000''

October 11, 2000

    I congratulate the Congress on its bipartisan work to pass the 
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, which 
contains legislation to combat trafficking in persons, especially women 
and children, as well as legislation to strengthen and reauthorize the 
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). These initiatives have been important 
priorities of my administration, and I look forward to signing this bill 
into law.
    My administration strongly supports this comprehensive anti-
trafficking legislation as part of our vigorous campaign to combat 
trafficking in persons, a modern day form of slavery, and to punish the 
international criminal organizations that engage in it. Trafficking is 
one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the world, ensnaring 
up to 2 million additional victims around the world each year, including 
50,000 annually here in the United States. On March 11, 1998, I issued 
an executive memorandum directing my administration to combat this 
insidious human rights abuse through a three-part strategy of 
prosecuting traffickers, providing protection and assistance for 
trafficking victims, and preventing future trafficking. This strategy 
has established the framework for our work in this country and abroad. 
The legislation approved by Congress today will strengthen this 
approach, providing new tools to protect trafficking victims and punish 
traffickers. It will institutionalize our Government's response, laying 
the groundwork for future administrations to carry this important work 
forward, and will ensure that trafficking of persons assumes the 
prominent place on the world's agenda that it deserves until we put an 
end to this horrible practice.
    I signed VAWA into law as part of my crime bill in 1994, and during 
the last 6 years, VAWA has made a crucial difference in the lives of 
hundreds of thousands of women and children. The Violence Against Women 
Act has enabled communities to expand prevention efforts, enhance the 
safety of more victims, and hold perpetrators of violence against women 
accountable for their acts. But more needs to be done. From 1993 through 
1998, on average, 22 percent of all female victims of violence were 
attacked by an intimate partner. The legislation approved by the Senate 
today will do more to help these women by reauthorizing critical VAWA

[[Page 2447]]

grant programs, providing important protections for battered immigrant 
women, reauthorizing the domestic violence hotline, and helping State 
and tribal courts improve interstate enforcement of protection orders. 
It is especially fitting that Congress passed this crucial legislation 
in the month designated as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.