Fight Illicit Networks and Detect Trafficking Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. DEAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the FIND Trafficking Act, H.R. 502. Over the last several years, the work of law enforcement has gotten significantly harder. One difference, cryptocurrencies; virtual currencies such as bitcoin, Ethereum, and others, have changed consumers' relationships with money in profound ways, allowing them to conduct anonymous transactions outside the traditional banking sector.

Criminal networks have taken advantage of these new tools using virtual currencies to carry out drug sales and sex trafficking operations. That is why the FIND Trafficking Act is so important.

This bipartisan bill would require the Comptroller General of the United States to study how virtual currencies enable criminal activity and propose solutions to stop it.

Based on these findings, Congress would design legislation to regulate virtual currencies. Our law enforcement officials are already working hard to tackle this challenge.

In November of 2016, for example, during an investigation into an illegal fentanyl operation, Federal law enforcement seized $2 million in virtual currency. Nonetheless, human traffickers and drug dealers have gravitated to virtual currencies because they provide an unprecedented level of secrecy and anonymity.

According to DEA, online marketplaces now use virtual currencies to sell fentanyl, a prime contribution to America's deadly opioid crisis. We are now living and dying through the consequences.

According to the CDC, in 2017, more than 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. My own State of Pennsylvania is ravaged with the third highest rate of overdose-related deaths and untold suffering for families in our communities.

The bottom line is we know that virtual currencies are being used to fund sex and drug trafficking, but we don't know the true scope of the problem, nor do we have a full set of tools to address the challenge. That is why we need H.R. 502.

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