Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I am pleased to learn that Senator Cory Booker, our colleague from New Jersey, is the 73rd cosponsor of the Fix NICS bill, which I have introduced and which I hope will be passed out of the Senate soon. This bill is designed to fix the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which, if it had been working the way it was designed to, would have caught the shooter at Sutherland Springs, perhaps saving the lives of 26 people who lost their lives in that little Baptist church outside of San Antonio; 20 more were shot and will suffer those wounds the rest of their lives.

Today the news brought us the fact that apparently there had been a recommendation by mental health professionals that Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in Parkland, FL, be committed for involuntary treatment, but apparently that never materialized. That was the recommendation, but it never actually happened. If that had happened, under the current law, his name would have been included in the Florida upload of background check information, and that would have prevented him from legally buying a firearm.

So we are starting to see the different data points that begin to paint a picture of the sorts of things that we could do here in Washington, DC, to save lives in these future mass shooting events. We know the President has said to the Department of Justice that he wants bump stocks banned. Of course, that was the instrument used to kill dozens of people in Las Vegas and injure 851 more.

So by addressing things like the background check system, improving the mental health response, eliminating the bump stock--which takes a semiautomatic weapon and makes it operate essentially like an automatic weapon--and by providing assistance to our schools so that they can harden themselves against potential attacks, we can begin to see a picture of the sorts of things we ought to be doing to prevent future mass shootings like the one we saw most recently in Parkland, FL. It is simply our responsibility to make sure we do everything we humanly can.

I know that after these horrific events, people throw up their hands and say: We need to do something. Well, we need to do something that matters and that will save lives in the future. I think we now begin to have a picture of the sorts of things we can do, starting with the passage of the Fix NICS background check system. It is the only piece of legislation I know of that now has 73 cosponsors, with Senator Booker of New Jersey being added as the 73rd today. It is the only bill I know of that has that kind of broad, widespread support and that will actually, if implemented, save lives.

Mr. President, this week we will be discussing another important subject--one that perhaps people do not want to hear about; rather, they would prefer that it not exist at all because it is a manifestation of evil. The subject is online sex trafficking. Unfortunately, it happens in the shadows of our society. Today, the internet and other forms of technology have made certain forms of predatory, perverted behavior easier to engage in without getting caught.

The legislation we are voting on this week aims to protect our children, provide justice to victims of human trafficking, and to make sure Federal laws do not protect profiteering web domains where sex trafficking occurs.

The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or SESTA, would allow sex trafficking victims to have their day in court by eliminating Federal liability protections for technology providers that knowingly-- knowingly--facilitate online sex trafficking. It would allow State and local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute providers that violate Federal sex trafficking laws.

I am proud to be one of the original cosponsors of this legislation and to have been working on it with my colleagues to get it to this point today. The bill was introduced last summer after a 2-year inquiry by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which culminated in a report. The report found not only that sex trafficking has run rampant in certain online spaces but also that websites have tried to cover it up. Well, no longer. Last fall, the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved SESTA, and the House passed it last month. This week, it is our turn.

Senator Portman, the junior Senator from Ohio, has been this bill's greatest champion since its inception. He has been informing us time and again of the ways in which sex trafficking has moved--as he likes to say it--from the street corner to the smartphone. He spoke on the floor earlier this year and reminded us that even as technology develops and gives us new opportunities to learn, to innovate, and to connect with one another, it is not an unalloyed good. In the wrong hands, by the wrong people, it can be misused. As Senator Portman urged us, we need to shine a light onto the ``dark side of the internet,'' an area he called a ``stain on our national character.'' He is absolutely right, of course. The buying and selling of young people for sex is a moral scourge, and how we respond is a measure of our national conscience.

In the committee's investigation, one website in particular came up over and over and over again; that is, backpage.com, which is responsible for perhaps three-quarters of all child trafficking reports--three-quarters. It eventually became clear that even though that site was actively helping to sell young women for sex and even though the victims and their families were suing backpage.com in response, none of the lawsuits were successful because of what some people are coming to believe is an outdated immunity for technology providers under a Federal law known as the Communications Decency Act. Courts have repeatedly emphasized that the broad reach of one section of that statute protects websites that help to buy and sell underage girls for sex. Judges across the country have said it is up to Congress to change the law, and now it is our time to do just that.

The original law was intended to protect free speech, which, of course, is important. I, of course, like all of our colleagues, am a firm believer in the First Amendment, but free speech is no license to engage in illegal activity. Free speech can't be used as an excuse to offer young people into sexual servitude. And the internet cannot be a safe place for terrorists and child sex traffickers.

At last count, 67 Senators have joined this effort as cosponsors. We are joined by anti-human trafficking advocates, law enforcement organizations, State attorneys general, the civil rights community, faith-based groups, and tech companies like Facebook and Oracle. We have all made clear that we stand behind SESTA.

I hope our colleagues will join me in voting for this important legislation this week and ensure that websites and online platforms can be held accountable for facilitating sex trafficking. Yemen Resolution

On another matter, Mr. President, this week, the Senate may vote on a privileged resolution offered by three of our colleagues--the junior Senators from Utah, Vermont, and Connecticut--which would direct the President to cut off financial support and other support for the Saudi- led coalition in Yemen. This, of course, is a proxy war, in many ways, between Iran, which has intervened in the civil war in Yemen, and--not only to allow the Saudis the means to defend themselves against incursions and attacks by the Houthis, Iranian-backed rebels, but also to facilitate our relationship with the Saudis and the Emirates, which is very important in terms of our anti-ISIS and anti-al-Qaida effort, with cells of these organizations located in Yemen too.

Our support, of course, is already narrowly circumscribed--our support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. General Mattis, our Secretary of Defense, has described this as our alternative to putting American boots on the ground. We operate by, with, and through our allies by providing logistical support, intelligence, and some technical advice. Currently, in Yemen it takes the forms intelligence- sharing, military advice, and logistical support, such as air-to-air refueling. This is very clearly noncombatant support, at least as traditionally defined and historically known, and it is meant to improve processes and procedures and increase compliance with the international law of armed conflict.

The very support we are providing aids in mitigating civilian casualties and the deteriorating humanitarian crisis brought on by the Iranian-backed Houthis. I know the Presiding Officer has been leading the charge on addressing the humanitarian crisis there, which is mind- boggling, to be sure.

Contrary to the resolution's sponsors' claims, though, the U.S. military is not engaged in hostilities in Yemen, as that term has historically been understood and applied, since it is not in direct conflict or exchanging fire with Houthi forces. Of course, we all share a concern with what is at stake in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia and in the gulf region but also civilian casualties, which this resolution creates problems with. Almost everyone is aware that Yemen has been suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis for years. Were we to remove U.S. targeting and logistical support from the Saudi coalition, then the humanitarian situation could get even worse than it has been.

Both political parties recognize the important role the United States plays in support of our partners' efforts to push back against the malign forces that have been coalescing in Yemen. In fact, President Obama was the one who first implemented the refueling and logistical support policy that remains in effect today.

In 2016, Senator Menendez--now the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--criticized the international community's failure to address the Iranian-fueled conflicts that included support to a Houthi insurgency that helped topple the internationally recognized Government of Yemen. Senator Menendez went on to say: ``I have a sense we are creating a permissive environment.''

I agree with Senator Menendez that we should not abandon our partners and leave a ``permissive environment''--a vacuum, a void--for bad actors to fill.

If there is one lesson that I thought we learned after 9/11, when 3,000 Americans were killed when two planes were hijacked--actually, four were hijacked; two went into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one landed in Pennsylvania because passengers on the plane overwhelmed the hijackers--what we learned is that what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East. What happened in Afghanistan is that the Taliban provided a safe haven for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, and they used that safe haven to train and export their terrorist attacks against countries around the world but primarily against the United States. That is what happened on 9/11/ 2001.

That is why we can't allow a safe haven, a void, in Yemen, not to mention the fact that Iran continues to use proxies in places like Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, among others, to try to fight the United States in a low-grade war that has been going on literally since 1979. I should mention Iraq as one of those countries as well.

It is precisely because of the delicate and desperate situation in Yemen that I am making the argument that any consideration to withdraw U.S. troops from fulfilling their limited auxiliary role in this conflict would have broad impacts on our global partnerships and counterterrorism efforts. It is not a decision to be made in haste or a decision to be made lightly; therefore, I believe the idea deserves the careful consideration of the committee of jurisdiction, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If the Senate takes this vote without adequate preparation and deliberation and passes this resolution, we lose that chance for careful consideration. We lose the chance to have the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issue a thoroughly researched and deliberated recommendation to the entire Senate.

Even more troubling is the prospect that this resolution could set a precedent--one in which a few Members' preferred policies are prioritized over the normal Senate procedures and more thoughtful committee deliberation, with unintended global impacts. Yemen is not the only place where we are addressing challenges to peace and to our country by, with, and through allies, without Americans engaging in direct hostilities. So this would have unintended global impact.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has voiced his concerns over this resolution. In a letter to congressional leadership, he said that new restrictions on the U.S. military could increase civilian casualties and jeopardize our partners' cooperation on counterterrorism efforts. On top of that list would be the Saudis and the Emirates, among others, and other people are watching as well. And it will reduce our influence in the key region.

He warned that a withdrawal of our noncombat support in Yemen could embolden rebels in the area, enable further missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, and threaten shipping lanes in the Red Sea--one of the key chokepoints for international commerce--right there on the western border of Yemen. All this combined could stoke the embers of an even greater regional conflict in the Middle East with unknown consequences. More importantly, it would damage U.S. credibility and strengthen Iran's position in Yemen and throughout the Middle East more broadly.

I hope our colleagues will think soberly and thoughtfully about this resolution and insist that a fulsome debate take place where it belongs, initially, and that is within the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I have talked to Senator Corker, the chairman of that committee. He will speak for himself, but I think he certainly believes that the committee can help the Senate make a good decision after giving the committee an opportunity to have hearings and to consider all the intended and unintended consequences of this resolution.

I know our colleagues who have offered the resolution mean well and their intentions are good, but sometimes--particularly in the area of international conflict and global interactions with different countries--our actions beget an unintended consequence. I think it is good to be safe in the first place and to take this matter through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where I have every confidence that Senator Corker, as the chairman, and Ranking Member Menendez can guide the members of that committee through a process that will help us in the end to make a better decision.

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