Providing for Consideration of H.R. Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017

Floor Speech

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Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me.

Mr. Speaker, I love this opportunity to testify on the rule for H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA. This legislation has been born, sadly, out of necessity, but has been truly a labor of love for me since I was first elected to Congress over 5 years ago. The bill is the result of meetings with trafficking survivors across the country who have been victimized by the online sex trade and unable to access either justice or relief in our court systems.

Today's consideration of the bill is an historic achievement, a long- awaited clarification from this Congress that the businesses that sell our children online can no longer do so with impunity. It is a clear statement that there are serious legal consequences for websites that actively profit from the exploitation of our most vulnerable. It is a wake-up call to America's judicial system, making clear that section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not provide immunity to websites that are actively engaged in modern-day slavery.

FOSTA is a recommitment to Americans that Congress never intended to create a system that allows businesses to commit crimes online that they could not commit offline. It is in many ways just a simple statement of the obvious: Congress does not believe--and did not ever believe--that rape was a perquisite of a free and open internet.

This bill is a promise to our State and local law enforcement and prosecutors. Congress is making it clear that we believe in and support their missions to protect our communities. Combined with the Walters amendment, which reinstates victim-centered provisions from my original bill last April, this legislation is now a guarantee of the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable members of our society. It is a message to the children and victims who have been robbed of their basic dignities that Congress hears them and is responding to the injustices that they all have faced.

It has not been an easy journey to get to this point, to find middle ground with the tech industry and the victims' advocates to incorporate the concerns of prosecutors and the law enforcement community to move this bill through committee and to get both FOSTA and the SESTA Walters amendment to the floor today. So I am very grateful for the many, many people who joined my crusade to restore justice to the brave children, women, and men across our country who have been sold online.

I am grateful to Chairman Goodlatte and his team for going the extra mile in helping us include a strong, new crime that will enable prosecutors to better target online trafficking and prostitution. I am grateful for the Energy and Commerce Committee and House leadership and their willingness to prioritize this issue.

I must give a big thank-you to Majority Leader McCarthy, our Whip Scalise, and Speaker Ryan for leading the way in doing the right thing for America's children.

I am grateful for Senators Portman and Blumenthal and Senators Cornyn and McCaskill for carrying SESTA on their shoulders and advocating for a solution that allows victims to access the civil remedies that they deserve. I am grateful to each and every one of our 176 bipartisan cosponsors, many of whom personally stopped on the House floor to hear and express their concerns about victims of online sex trafficking. I especially want to mention Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty who fought the good fight on the other side of the aisle for what is truly a landmark, for a bipartisan piece of legislation that is going to save lives.

I am also so thankful for my dedicated staff who have poured their hearts, their minds, and their lives into this fight in more ways than the public will ever know.

FOSTA, combined with the Walters amendment, which is SESTA, will provide better civil justice for victims, more prosecutions of bad actor websites, more convictions, and more predators behind bars. Because of this package, fewer businesses will ever dare to enter the sex trade and fewer victims will be sold into modern-day sex slavery.

Last, but most importantly, I am in awe of and grateful for the contributions of the survivors in this fight to turn FOSTA and SESTA into law. It is heartbreaking to watch survivors struggle to piece their lives back together alone while our justice system shields the websites that sold them. That is why I introduced this bill, and that is why it must become law.

I expect this piece of legislation to sail through the Senate and make its way to the President's desk so that we can put those bad actor websites behind bars, deter others from entering this ecosystem, and make sure that there are rights and justice for our victims.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Chair and our colleagues because, when we vote today for FOSTA and the Walters amendment, our survivors will know that they are not alone and justice will indeed no longer be out of reach.

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