Cornyn Introduces Legislation to Crack Down on Sex Trafficking
CORNYN INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO CRACK DOWN ON SEX TRAFFICKING
Bipartisan, bicameral bill seeks to target and reduce demand for sex trafficking
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Bill Text
Letters of Support
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced bipartisan legislation in the Senate on Thursday to combat sex trafficking, a crime that disproportionately victimizes women and children. The bill will target and reduce demand by focusing prosecution efforts on traffickers and exploiters of unlawful commercial sex acts, and assisting non-government organizations that specialize in providing services to victims of such terrible activities.
Joining Sen. Cornyn to introduce the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005, were U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), in the Senate and U.S. Reps. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) in the House.
"We must expand our fight against the most coercive forms of human trafficking our society has ever witnessed, to include an effort to combat sex trafficking and prostitution as well," Cornyn said. "It is appropriate to target demand as an essential element of our strategy to eliminate sex trafficking within our borders. This is important legislation to protect victims and to reduce demand. I urge the Senate to quickly move it forward."
Cornyn noted that President Bush made clear last July that ending demand for sex trafficking is a critical component of the effort to combat the scourge of human trafficking and slavery at home and abroad. President Bush spoke last year to the first national training conference on Human Trafficking in the United States: Rescuing Women and Children from Slavery, hosted by the Justice Department in Tampa, Florida. He said: "we cannot put [human traffickers] out of business until and unless we deal with the problem of demand."
The Senate unanimously passed a Cornyn-sponsored resolution last year urging all states to adopt legislation that will ensure the full coordination of local, state and federal efforts to fight the scourge of human slavery and sex trafficking. The Cornyn resolution was based on recommendations made at the Tampa conference that states should adopt an anti-trafficking criminal statute similar to the models already in place in Texas, Florida, Missouri and Washington State.
Sen. Cornyn served last year as chairman of the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights subcommittee where he held a hearing on Examining U.S. Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery. Witnesses included Michael Shelby, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, and Johnny Sutton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, who testified on efforts to prosecute human trafficking cases in Texas - including a number of pending investigations. Also testifying at the hearing were several representatives of organizations involved in the fight against trafficking and slavery, including Sister Mary Ellen Dougherty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Dr. Mohamed Mattar, Co-Director of The Protection Project at Johns Hopkins University.
--The End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005--
· Findings and purposes. The bill expresses Congress's commitment to reducing the U.S. domestic demand for sex trafficking, which disproportionately victimizes women and children.
· Prosecution of purchasers, sex traffickers, and exploiters. This provision establishes a new federal grant program to encourage the development and implementation of demand-side strategies for the enforcement of laws against sex trafficking. The bill would authorize the appropriation of $45 million per year for fiscal years 2005 through 2007 to fund the grant program. Grants could be used (1) to focus prosecution efforts on purchasers of unlawful commercial sex acts - such as through educational programs, shaming penalties, the use of decoys, and other demand-side law enforcement strategies, (2) to focus prosecution efforts on traffickers and exploiters of unlawful commercial sex acts - such as through surveillance efforts, prosecutions for rape, sexual assault, and tax evasion, and civil actions for restitution, and (3) to fund NGOs specializing in providing services to victims of commercial sex activities, including protection, education, food, and shelter.
· Strengthening prosecution and punishment of sex traffickers and purchasers and exploiters. This provision strengthens and clarifies federal criminal law by amending the 1910 Mann Act. The original 1910 version of the Mann Act prohibits the transportation of "any individual" across state or national lines, with the intent that such individual engage in prostitution or some other criminal sexual act. The bill would make clear that "any individual" includes the transportation of consumers across state lines, as well as the transportation of persons used for prostitution across state lines. This alteration would ensure that the Mann Act can be used to combat sex tourism. (The sex tourism provisions of the PROTECT Act apply only to sex tourism involving minors.)
· Senior Operating Group Participation. This provision simply ensures that federal agencies involved in combating sex trafficking coordinate with the Senior Policy Operating Group established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
· Reports. This provision contains a number of reporting requirements to strengthen future efforts to combat unlawful commercial sex. It would require the Attorney General to release an annual report on best practices for reducing the demand for unlawful commercial sex at a national conference sponsored by the Justice Department. The report would review the outcomes achieved by grant recipients and examine the Department's use of the Act's amendments to the Mann Act. The bill would also require the Attorney General to undertake a biennial comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence of unlawful commercial sex nationwide.
--Below is Sen. Cornyn's statement entered into the Senate Record regarding his new bill--
Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation to combat the scourge of sex trafficking within our borders, by targeting and reducing demand. The bill is entitled the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005.
For the last four years, the President has been a stalwart champion of strengthening efforts to combat the scourge of human trafficking and slavery, not just abroad, but within our very own borders as well. Last July, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing I chaired highlighted many of the Administration's landmark efforts in this area to date.
Most Americans would be shocked to learn that the institutions of slavery and involuntary servitude - institutions that this nation fought a bloody war to destroy - continue to persist today - not just around the world, but hidden in communities across America. It has been nearly two centuries since the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and well over a century since the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Yet to this day, men, women and children continue to be trafficked into the United States, and coerced into lives of forced labor and sexual slavery. The stories they tell are tragic, disturbing, and heart-rending. And the acts they endure are not just unconstitutional, not just criminal - they are profoundly evil, immoral, and wrong.
Shortly after the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing I chaired, the President made clear that ending the demand for trafficking is a critical component of this effort, in remarks he delivered before the first national training conference on Human Trafficking in the United States: Rescuing Women and Children from Slavery, hosted by the Justice Department in Tampa, Florida, and attended by a representative from my office. As the President stated, "we cannot put [human traffickers] out of business until and unless we deal with the problem of demand."
Moreover, as the State Department's 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report notes, "[c]onsiderable academic, NGO, and scientific research confirms a direct link between prostitution and trafficking. In fact, prostitution and its related activities . . . contribute[] to trafficking in persons by serving as a front behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate. . . . [P]rostitution directly contributes to the modern-day slave trade and is inherently demeaning. When law enforcement tolerates . . . prostitution, organized crime groups are freer to traffic in human beings."
So it is appropriate to expand our fight against the most coercive forms of human trafficking and slavery our society has ever witnessed, to include an effort to combat sex trafficking and prostitution as well. And it is appropriate to target the demand for sex trafficking as an essential element of our strategy to eliminating sex trafficking within our borders.
Accordingly, for the past several months, I have been working with various anti-trafficking organizations to craft legislation to focus attention on the demand for sex trafficking within our own country. Last October, Senators Schumer and Specter and I introduced an earlier version of the legislation I introduce today (S. 2916). Representatives Pryce and Maloney introduced a companion bill on the House side that same day. And today, I am introducing a revised version of the bill, designed to achieve precisely the same objective: ending demand for sex trafficking. I am pleased that Senator Specter has again agreed to co-sponsor the legislation. Moreover, Senator Schumer remains a close partner on this bill. Our offices are still working out some drafting issues with some of the anti-trafficking groups, and I am hopeful that Senator Schumer will once again be the lead Democrat co-sponsor of the bill. A parallel bill will be introduced in the House later today by Representatives Deborah Pryce, Carolyn Maloney, and Bobby Scott.
This legislation is the product of extensive discussions over the last several months between my office, Senator Schumer's office, and major anti-trafficking organizations, as well as the offices of Representatives Pryce and Scott. I am pleased to report that, as a result of those discussions, we now have a bill that is supported by a broad coalition of anti-trafficking and human rights organizations - including the Ministerial Alliance of Midland, Texas, Faces of Children, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Concerned Women for America, the Hudson Institute, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, the Leadership Council for Human Rights, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Polaris Project, the Protection Project, the Religious Freedom Coalition, the Salvation Army, Shared Hope International, the Southern Baptist Convention, Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE), the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, World Vision, and other organizations and advocates. I ask unanimous consent that letters of endorsement from various anti-trafficking organizations be included in the record.
In conclusion, this is important legislation to protect the victims of sex trafficking and to reduce demand. I hope that the Senate will act favorably on the bill. I yield the floor.
Below is a letter Sen. Cornyn sent to Secretary of State Rice and Attorney General Gonzales last week requesting support for the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act:
Dear Secretary Rice and General Gonzales,
For the last four years, the President has been a stalwart champion of strengthening efforts to combat the scourge of human trafficking and slavery, not just abroad, but within our very own borders as well.
Last July, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing I chaired highlighted many of the Administration's landmark efforts in this area to date. Later that same month, the President made clear that ending demand for trafficking is a critical component of this effort, in remarks he delivered before the first national training conference on Human Trafficking in the United States: Rescuing Women and Children from Slavery, hosted by the Justice Department in Tampa, Florida, and attended by a representative from my office. As the President stated, "we cannot put [human traffickers] out of business until and unless we deal with the problem of demand." Moreover, as the State Department's 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report notes, "[c]onsiderable academic, NGO, and scientific research confirms a direct link between prostitution and trafficking. In fact, prostitution and its related activities . . . contribute[] to trafficking in persons by serving as a front behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate. . . . [P]rostitution directly contributes to the modern-day slave trade and is inherently demeaning. When law enforcement tolerates . . . prostitution, organized crime groups are freer to traffic in human beings."
Accordingly, I ask that the Administration support the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005, a copy of which I enclose here. Senators Chuck Schumer and Arlen Specter and I plan to introduce that legislation by the end of next week, and we expect a parallel bill to be introduced in the House by Representatives Deborah Pryce, Carolyn Maloney, and Bobby Scott. The legislation is the product of extensive discussions over the last several months between my office, Senator Schumer's office, and major anti-trafficking organizations, as well as the offices of Representatives Pryce and Scott. I am pleased to report that, as a result of those discussions, we now have a bill that is supported by a broad coalition of anti-trafficking and human rights organizations - including the Ministerial Alliance of Midland, Texas, Faces of Children, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Concerned Women for America, the Hudson Institute, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, the Leadership Council for Human Rights, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Polaris Project, the Protection Project, the Religious Freedom Coalition, the Salvation Army, Shared Hope International, the Southern Baptist Convention, Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE), the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, World Vision, and other organizations and advocates.
Thank you for your leadership and for your commitment to combating human trafficking and slavery. I look forward to working with you both to ensure the swift enactment of the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005.
Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator
cc: Hon. John R. Miller, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Department of State
Hon. R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Department of Justice
http://cornyn.senate.gov/releases.cfm