Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I just want to speak up in favor of, not necessarily the bill because I need to review the bill, but the legislation's purpose and the intent of the authors to approach this issue of human trafficking because it is so critically important. I am glad that we are working on a bipartisan basis to do that.

I am going to demand the yeas and nays in a minute because of other issues involving the floor I am not going to get into right now, about time to review bills and other things we are discussing with the majority, and that is why we are making decisions on the floor to force votes.

But on the substance, human trafficking is absolutely devastating. It is devastating to the people of Texas, it is devastating to the people of the district I represent, it is devastating to young children, people whom I have met when I have gone to various centers in Texas where they are dealing with these, mainly children, but also adults in trafficking.

Also trafficking goes well beyond, obviously, the sex trafficking trade and goes to the slave labor that exists in the United States of America today and that is absolutely unconscionable.

I appreciate the bipartisan work on this topic. I am certainly delighted to work with both Members on it. I just didn't want the fact that I am going to demand the yeas and nays to be an indication of not supporting the purpose of this bill. There are other factors that are in play involving the floor and spending and other stuff. I appreciate it.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for his very fine statement, and I look forward to a recorded vote.

I also want to say very clearly that we have a very, very broad bipartisan group of stakeholders who are for this, including, as I mentioned a moment ago, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, the Douglass Leadership Institute, Frederick Douglass Foundation, along with 300 anti-trafficking and human trafficking organizations, over 500 advocates and survivors, and they have worked tirelessly with us over the last 18 months, with both Karen Bass and me in crafting this legislation. We even had more. Some of them did drop out, but we will come back some day in the future to get some of that. But it is a good solid bill.

Survivor leaders like Bella Hanoukey and Robert Lung provided valuable insights and expertise for this bill. As I said, Kenneth Morris was outstanding in the work that he provided for us.

As a matter of fact, as the special representative for human trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, a couple of years ago, I brought him into one of our big parliamentary assembly meetings, and there were at least 100-plus lawmakers from the European space that heard him speak about the importance of prevention. If young people know what is out there and what is waiting--particularly run-aways-- they will be forearmed and forewarned and, hopefully, can mitigate the possibility of being trafficked themselves. He hit it out of the park, and he has been a great friend on this.

We also have 3Strands Global Foundation; the Safe House Project; America First Policy Institute; End Child Prostitution and Trafficking USA; ECPAT, with whom we work very closely; the American Hotel and Lodging Association; the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, that is known as ATEST. They have a great group and consortium of groups.

We have the International Justice Mission, IJM; World Vision; United States Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking; Shared Hope International; Hope for Justice; National Child Protection Task Force; Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, also known as RAINN; the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who also worked with us closely on it; the National Center on Sexual Exploitation; and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.

They all provided valuable insights, as I mentioned a moment ago.

I want to thank Mark Iozzi and Jamie Jackson from the majority leader's office for working closely with Chairwoman Bass and me and who helped bring this to the floor today; Chris Bien and Will Dunham from the minority leader's office; Janice Kaguyutan--I want to thank her for her help as she has done before on trafficking and legislation; and Doug Anderson.

I want to thank Mary Vigil who is sitting right behind me. For the last 18 months she has been meeting with all the groups working and drafting this legislation. She has done an amazing job. I want to thank her for her leadership. She used to work at USAID. She has got a heart for vulnerable people, and I can't thank her enough for that.

I thank Piero Tozzi, our chief counsel for the Lantos Commission on the Republican side and Mary Noonan, my Chief of Staff, Tomekah Burl and Meghann Galloway, Karen Bass' staff who were also outstanding.

It was a full court press and a great deal of collaboration. I thank them and my distinguished staff and all the Members who got together behind this.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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