Chairman Goodlatte Floor Statement on S. 178, the “Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015”

Chairman Goodlatte: We are here today to consider comprehensive legislation that will help address the scourge of human trafficking generally, and child sex trafficking specifically, that is occurring in every corner of the United States as we stand here today. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sex trafficking is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world. One organization estimates that child sex trafficking in the United States alone is a $9.8 billion industry. Criminal organizations, including some of the most violent criminal street gangs like MS-13, have realized that selling children can be more profitable than selling drugs.  This is because drugs are only sold once, but minor children can be, and are, prostituted multiple times a day, every day.  It is time for Congress to send a clear message that we won’t stand for this. Today marks the third time that I have stood on the House floor urging the passage for the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.  The House passed similar legislation in May 2014, and again in January of this year.  S. 178, the bill we consider today, and its predecessors are comprehensive legislation that, among other things, provide additional resources to law enforcement and service providers through a victim-centered grant program; help to facilitate investigations by providing that child sex trafficking and other similar crimes are predicate offenses for state wiretap applications; address the demand side of this crime by clarifying that it is a federal crime to solicit or patronize child prostitutes or adult victims forced into prostitution; and strengthen the existing federal criminal laws against trafficking through a number of clarifying amendments. I am very pleased that a number of separate trafficking bills that were originally passed by the House Judiciary Committee, and then by the full House, are contained within S. 178 – including the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act of 2015, introduced by Mr. Paulsen of Minnesota; the SAVE Act of 2015, introduced by Ms. Wagner of Missouri; and the Human Trafficking Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery Act of 2015, introduced by Ms. Noem of South Dakota.  I thank all of my colleagues for their dedication to ending this terrible crime.  I also thank Judge Poe of Texas for sponsoring the two previous House versions of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. S. 178 is not perfect legislation, and I thank both House and Senate Leadership, as well as the bill’s sponsor, Senator Cornyn, for agreeing to fix technical issues with the bill in future legislation.  But, it is my belief that this legislation will do much good in the fight to end human trafficking and, for that reason, I urge my colleagues to support the bill and thus send it to the President to be signed into law. I reserve the balance of my time.