Executive Session - Human Trafficking

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, all week we have been on an important piece of legislation on the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. Just to remind everybody, this is a bill to treat child prostitutes not as criminals but as the victims they are--obviously, beneath the age of consent--and to recognize that the criminal organizations that traffic in human flesh for sale, economic, sex, and other reasons, are a real problem in our society. So much of what happens in this trade is really nothing more or nothing less than modern-day slavery--something we thought was relegated to the history books and didn't exist in the United States of America, the freest country in the world.

We got here through a rather strange set of circumstances, because the legislation that I introduced was broadly bipartisan--which is a novelty these days. We had 10 Democratic cosponsors of the legislation.

Then, when we had a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee--Chairman Grassley kindly called up that bill in February--we had a unanimous vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee. All Republicans and all Democrats voted for it.

Then we had another unusual development. Majority Leader McConnell was left wondering: Am I going to have to go through procedural steps to get the bill to the floor? The minority, our Democratic friends, said, I think, fairly: This is not a controversial piece of legislation. We are going to agree to get on the legislation.

But then something very strange happened. All of a sudden, some of our Democratic friends, including the Democratic leader, said: We are going to filibuster this legislation. You can imagine my surprise after that bipartisan record of cooperation leading up to that point.

I was even more surprised when the stated reason for that was a provision in the bill, which was as plain as the nose on your face, and it actually was a provision of the law that was voted on unanimously by all of our Democratic friends late last year.

So it is a provision that has been the law of the land for 39 years, which they reaffirmed with their vote just late last year.

This is what one of the 200 groups--law enforcement and victims groups--had to say about this discovery this week of this appropriations provision known as the Hyde amendment. It said: ``Senate Democrats are choosing a phantom problem over real victims.''

So I wish to take a minute to think about who is actually paying the price for the political games that are going on in the Senate. Who is bearing the consequences? Is it going to be the Republican Party or the Democratic Party in the next election? That seems to be the rage in Washington, DC. People want to talk about the politics.

But here we have children, typically between the age of 12 and 14, mainly girls, who are trafficked for sex and who have nowhere to turn. Our bill gives them an opportunity to begin to heal by penalizing the very people who demand this sex trade, taking that money and diverting it into services for the victims.

Reflecting on what has happened this week and thinking that surely we can all get together on something as bipartisan as combatting human sex trafficking for children, surely we can finally come together, all join hands together and support this important legislation, I had to reflect: Why in the world would they ever want to come to the Senate if they are not going to try to help make the lives of these victims of human trafficking just a little better? I mean, we are all used to the hardball of elections and politics. We get it. We are all volunteers. We are grownup men and women. But these children shouldn't have to pay the price for the political games that are going on in the Senate. And it is not only this legislation.

I think it really speaks to: Why in the world would anybody want to serve in a body where all we are doing is filling space and throwing obstacles to the passage of bipartisan legislation that is going to help some of the vulnerable people in our society?

If this is our legacy, I just have to say: Shame on us. Shame on those who would put partisan political games and phantom problems ahead of the welfare of these child victims of human trafficking.

Is this the legacy that any Member of the Senate, Republican or Democratic, would want to be known by? Yes, they served in the Senate, the greatest deliberative body in the world. But do you know what they are remembered for? For stopping help for child victims of human trafficking. That is their legacy. Does anyone want that? I don't think so.

Why in the world would we squander a perfectly good opportunity to do everything we can? This isn't a panacea. This isn't going to all of a sudden wipe out the issue of human trafficking in America, but it is a small first step to dedicate $30 million in a crime victims compensation fund--paid for by the very people who purchased these services and who are convicted and pay fines. This is a first step to take that $30 million and to divert it to help the victims of this sordid crime to begin to heal.

So I ask our colleagues to reconsider, to reflect on why they are here--just to play partisan games, or are they actually here to do some good? Is this what they want to be known by?

Is this how you want to be remembered by your children and grandchildren? Is this how you want to be remembered in our history books? And why in the world would you come to the Senate only to squander the opportunity to do something good for the most vulnerable people in our country by blocking this legislation over a provision of law which has been the law of the land for 39 years and which all of our Democratic friends have repeatedly voted for time and time again, as recently as late last year in the Omnibus appropriations bill?

This is a phantom problem, and they are choosing a phantom problem over real victims. It is beyond belief and I think deeply depressing. But there is an opportunity for our colleagues to rise above this partisanship they have displayed and to do the right thing. One would think the 10 people who have been cosponsors of the legislation would be for advancing this legislation, as well as all the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans and Democrats alike. One would think that since they have already voted for this provision, they would do so again and let us consider it, along with an open amendment process.

In the end, this isn't hurting us or other Senators. This isn't just poisoning the well here in Washington, DC, making it harder and harder for us to get things done; this isn't just poisoning our reputation in the eyes of the people we represent around the country who look to Washington and see nothing but dysfunction; it is squandering an opportunity to help vulnerable children who are the victims of this sordid sex trafficking. I hope my colleagues will reconsider and allow us to proceed.

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