Fight Illicit Networks and Detect Trafficking Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6069) to require the Comptroller General of the United States to carry out a study on how virtual currencies and online marketplaces are used to buy, sell, or facilitate the financing of goods or services associated with sex trafficking or drug trafficking, and for other purposes, as amended.

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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend from California, Juan Vargas, and my colleague from Pennsylvania, Keith Rothfus, for their work together to cosponsor H.R. 6069, the Fight Illicit Networks and Detect Trafficking Act.

This is extremely important, and it is in keeping with the work that we have been doing in our subcommittee on terror finance, illicit financing, and also the work we have done on this House floor about stopping human trafficking that we see in this country and, also, the intensive work in the last 2 weeks on opioid legislation in trying to stop these kinds of drugs coming into our country.

This legislation would require the Government Accounting Office, the GAO, to study and report to Congress on how online marketplaces, including those on the dark web, are used as platforms to facilitate the financing of goods associated with drug trafficking or sex trafficking.

They would study payment methods, including virtual currencies and peer-to-peer payment services, that are also being used in drug and sex trafficking online; illicit funds that have been transmitted online and how virtual currencies are reintegrated into the U.S. financial system; and finally, Mr. Speaker, the study would have the participants of sex trafficking or drug trafficking trade online that benefit from the trade.

Although virtual currencies can be used for legal purchases, they have become a common financial payment method for criminals.

Online marketplaces, including the dark web, have become a prominent platform to buy, sell, and advertise for illicit goods and services associated with sex trafficking and drug trafficking.

According to the International Labor Organization, in 2016, 4.8 million people in the world were victims of forced sexual exploitation, and in 2014, the global profit from commercial sexual exploitation was $99 billion.

According to the U.S. Treasury's 2015 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment, an estimated $64 billion is generated from U.S. drug trafficking operations.

Illegal fentanyl in the United States originates primarily from China and is readily available to purchase through online marketplaces. Certainly, all of my colleagues have heard extensively, over the last 2 weeks, the stunning horrors of how fentanyl has entered our marketplace, with one estimate that, just last year alone, enough came across our borders in this country to kill half the U.S. population.

According to the DEA, in 2017, the National Drug Threat Assessment, transnational criminal organizations are increasingly using virtual currencies. This bill will allow Congress to fully understand the extent to which virtual currencies are being used to facilitate drug and sex trafficking.

The bill will also study how virtual currencies can be used to detect and deter illicit activities and propose legislative solutions to fight these crimes.

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, for the bipartisan work on this bill, I want to again thank Mr. Rothfus and my good friend Mr. Vargas. You can see that he has the heart of a Jesuit and the mind of a Harvard lawyer.

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