Human Trafficking Legislation

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am very happy today that we have
reached an agreement. I want to thank Senator Murray for her leadership, and Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Senator Cornyn. The two of us have worked on this issue for years. Finally, we are going to be able to move these really important bills forward.

What this compromise does is really set up two funds. The first uses
Senator Cornyn's fund, which is fees on perpetrators, and it uses that
for things such as shelters and law enforcement, things that we had
envisioned would be used for people to combat sex trafficking. The
second fund is a medical fund. It is really based on the same principle
that we used with the SGR fund that we just voted on.

That bill passed 92 to 8. The fund will receive a minimum of $5
million and would be matched up to $30 million, as funding in the
Cornyn fund goes up. It really is a parallel fund but serving the exact
same purpose.

This is the way we were able to eliminate extraneous provisions but
still keep the spirit of this really important bill and allow us to
move on to my bill, the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act,
which really is about not prosecuting kids under 18. There was huge
bipartisan support over in the House. It passed unanimously through the
Judiciary Committee and will be one of the amendments to this bill.

Again, I want to thank Senator Murray for her leadership. We have
been a team on this. We have been able to work with Senator Cornyn and
our friends across the aisle to get this done. It is also time--I will
end by saying--to confirm the next Attorney General of the United
States, Loretta Lynch.

I yield the floor.

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