Providing for Congressional Disapproval of a Rule Submitted by the National Labor Relations Board
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I wish to acknowledge Senator Mikulski
and her leadership. Anyone who wondered how hard she was going to keep
working after she announced she wasn't running again for the next
year--I think we just saw the answer right here. She hasn't slowed down
one bit. She is already here advocating for some incredibly important
bills, and I am also glad to see that Senator Shaheen and Senator
Hirono are here. They are going to speak shortly.
Given I have been able to talk about this at length on the Committee
on the Judiciary, I will be brief and say this:
I have an important bill with Senator Cornyn, and it is a bill, a
version of which has already passed the House, a bipartisan bill, the
Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act. Also, Senator Cornyn has a
bill with me and a number of other people called the Justice for
Victims of Trafficking Act. My bill passed through the Committee on the
Judiciary last week after the hearing that Senator Mikulski referred
to, 20-0, on a vote. And Senator Cornyn's bill, which I have also
cosponsored, passed on a near-unanimous vote. Senator Leahy and Senator
Collins, as was mentioned by Senator Mikulski, have an important bill--
the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act. We are
hopeful we can get these done, along with what Senator Feinstein is
doing, and many others, in the coming days on the Senate floor.
I think the first message here is this is bipartisan. I don't think
any sex trafficker wants to hear we are doing some tougher stuff to go
after them, but we are. It is very important that this be bipartisan.
I give you one example of a case charged last week out of Minnesota.
A 12-year-old girl--not even old enough to get a driver's license, not
even old enough to go to her first prom--gets a text. She goes to a
parking lot at McDonald's. She thinks there is a party. A guy puts her
in a car and drives her to Rochester, MN--the Twin Cities--rapes her
and then takes pictures of her and puts it on Craigslist. The next day
two other men buy her off of Craigslist and rape her.
That happened in Minnesota. That is happening all over the country,
where 83 percent of the victims are not from other countries, 83
percent of the victims are from our own country. This is the third
biggest criminal enterprise--international criminal enterprise--in the
world. Only after illegal drugs and illegal guns comes selling young
girls and young boys for sex. This is going on in the oil patch in
North Dakota. It is going on in the city streets in Baltimore. It is
going on in small towns in Minnesota. That is what we are seeing
happening across our country.
I appreciate all the support of my Democratic and Republican
colleagues. What this bill does that we passed 20-0 out of the
Committee on the Judiciary--the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking
Act--is it takes this model that has been really successful in
Minnesota. We just got a 40-year sentence last year against someone
running a ring who basically says, are you going to prosecute the 12-
year-old? No. That 12-year-old is a victim.
When you start thinking like that and you start thinking of these
victims as actual victims, then you give them services. Then they turn
their lives around, and then they testify against the guys who are
running these rings. That is how you make the cases. If you prosecute
them, my guess is they are going to go right back to that pimp who
brought them into this world in the first place.
That is why this has been adopted already in 15 States, and 12 States
are looking at it. What our bill does is simply takes an existing grant
program and creates incentives so that other States will adopt this as
well.
We also have the ability for these victims to access programs that
help people get jobs.
Finally, the national sex trafficking strategy. We do not have one in
this country. That is in this bill as well. You can see why it got
widespread support.
I am excited about these bills because finally we are working on
something together. I would like to get them done as soon as possible.
There are a lot of bills that have passed in the House. We are going to
have to coordinate all these efforts, as Senator Mikulski said. But
this is the moment in time where we can finally say not just to the
rest of the world but to girls in our own country that we are going to
stand up for them and we are going to stand up against these people
running the rings.
Why has this gotten worse in the last few years? We love the
Internet, but people are advertising on the Internet. They are getting
away with it, and we have to make sure we are sophisticated, more
sophisticated than the perpetrators who are committing these crimes.
I see that our great Senator from New Hampshire, Mrs. Shaheen, is
here.
I yield the floor.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, we also are joined today by Senator
Hirono, who for many years served with me on the Committee on the
Judiciary. She is now on the Intelligence Committee, but has been very
active in this issue as a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, and
we thank her for being here today.
I yield the floor.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source