Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 178, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, a comprehensive bill authored by Senator Cornyn, with input from many.

This extremely important legislation includes numerous bipartisan bills passed by the House earlier this year under the extraordinary leadership of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and our own good chairman, Bob Goodlatte.

When enacted into law, S. 178 will provide powerful new tools in the struggle to abolish modern-day slavery, including a domestic trafficking victims fund designed to provide assistance to victims of human trafficking and grants to States and localities funded by a $5,000 penalty assessed on convicted offenders.

The bill seeks to protect runaways from the horror of trafficking, strengthen the child welfare agency response, aid victims of child pornography, and criminalize advertisement for the commercial exploitation of children.

Each year, Mr. Speaker, as you know, there are approximately 100,000 American children, mostly runaways, trafficked in the U.S. The average age of initial enslavement is 13.

These children, when found, are often charged with prostitution, fined, or put in juvenile detention, where there are, or should be, other options available. These children, mostly young girls, need to be protected and cared for and treated with compassion and respect, not prosecution. The pending bill moves us towards this goal.

Indeed, title VI authorizes DOJ to give preferential treatment in awarding public safety and community-oriented police grants to an applicant from a State that treats a minor engaged in commercial sex as a victim.

Title VII was inspired by a groundbreaking study conducted by Laura Lederer and funded by several foundations, including the Charlotte Lozier Institute, that found that approximately 88 percent of domestic trafficking victims ``had contact with a health care provider while being trafficked, with the most common being a hospital'' or a hospital emergency room, almost 64 percent.

Situation awareness coupled with best practices will, without a doubt, help victims escape from this cruelty to freedom and protection.

So, in response, Title VII requires HRSA to award a competitive grant to an eligible entity to design and implement a pilot program utilizing evidence-based best practices to train health care professionals to recognize trafficking victims and respond effectively.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, anti-human trafficking bills are often difficult to pass. When I first introduced the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, in 1998, the legislation was met with a wall of skepticism and opposition. People both inside of government and out thought the bold new legislation that included sheltering, asylum, and significant protections for the victims long jail sentences and asset confiscation for the traffickers, and tough sanctions for governments that failed to meet minimum standards was merely a solution in search of a problem.

So as the prime author of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 as well as reauthorizations of that law in 2003 and 2005, I believe the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act will further prevent the horrific crime of human trafficking, protect and assist victims, and aid in the prosecution of those who exploit and abuse.

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