Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005
TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 14, 2005)
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding me this time.
I rise in support of this bill. The trafficking of persons as work slaves, sex slaves, or other exploitive and illicit purposes is a modern slave trade that occurs all too often around the world, including in the United States. Through the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, we have begun a concerted effort around the world to address this terrible business of trafficking in persons, internationally as well as domestically. We must continue that effort by reauthorizing that law by passing H.R. 972.
At the Judiciary markup of this bill, we added a section to implement the essential provisions of H.R. 2012, the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005, which is designed to more effectively get at the issue of domestic trafficking and commercial sex acts in this country as part of the overall effort to address domestic trafficking in persons.
For over a year, I have been working with a bipartisan and politically diverse group of Members of the House and Senate, along with nongovernmental organizations, committed individuals, and others to get at an aspect of trafficking in persons in this country that is just as pernicious as the trafficking in persons anywhere in the world, and that is the brutal pimp system of prostitution of women and young girls. The horrific nature and the appalling magnitude of this scourge is evident by the following information:
It is estimated that the number of women and children trapped in prostitution in the United States ranges between hundreds of thousands to well over a million; the average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is estimated to be about 16 years old; nearly 85 percent of the women and girls in prostitution in the United States have a pimp to whom all of the proceeds of their activities go. Among these women and girls are some as young as 11. Most are physically abused or sexually assaulted; most are controlled by drugs and are isolated, confined, and restrained. Many have weapons used against them and have death threats against them and their families.
Pimping is a lucrative criminal practice. Oakland, California, had a study just a few years ago where they identified 218 minors ages 11 to 15 being prostituted by 155 pimps. They found that the average revenue was about $200,000 a year for each pimp.
When we try to get cooperation of other countries to go after sex trafficking in their country, some point to our toleration of this brutal system of prostitution in this country to suggest that we have no moral authority to criticize them. H.R. 972 with the provisions of the End Demand Act strikes a crushing blow against this brutal system of domestic trafficking in this country; and it is done in a way that is most effective, by funding local law enforcement rather than creating new Federal crimes that will require us to divert Federal assets to this problem. We can fund local law enforcement where it is most effective.
I would like to thank Ms. Pryce of Ohio and Mrs. Maloney of New York, the chief sponsors of the End Demand Act; Chairman Sensenbrenner and the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Coble; the ranking member, Mr. Conyers; Chairman Hyde and the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Smith; Mr. Lantos, the ranking member; and the subcommittee ranking member, Mr. Payne, and their staffs. My staff person, Bobby Vassar, has been working on this extremely hard over the course of at least a year. I thank them for their hard work in putting together an End Demand bill and getting its provisions in a bill in a form on which we can all agree. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.
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