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“STRONG SUPPORT FOR BILLS TO PREVENT CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND TO ENSURE JUSTICE FOR TRAFFICKERS AND ABUSERS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E693-E694 on May 22, 2017.
The Department provides billions in unemployment insurance, which peaked around 2011 though spending had declined before the pandemic. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, claimed the Department funds "ineffective and duplicative services" and overregulates the workplace.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STRONG SUPPORT FOR BILLS TO PREVENT CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND TO
ENSURE JUSTICE FOR TRAFFICKERS AND ABUSERS
______
HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Monday, May 22, 2017
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to offer my strong support for all six bills under consideration tonight to prevent children from suffering the horrors of sexual exploitation and ensure justice for traffickers and abusers.
I would also like to offer my sincere thanks to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for his consistent work to fight human trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation of children.
As the prime author of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and of its 2003 and 2005 reauthorization, I know the heavy lift such bills can be--and also their critical importance. The Majority Leader's personal commitment to tonight's legislation, as well as to moving other anti-trafficking bills over the next few weeks, builds upon the work he has done in previous congresses to effectively help the victims of trafficking who are primarily women and children.
Sexual exploitation of children is a human rights violation that results in serious, lifelong consequences for the physical, psychological, and spiritual development and well-being of a child In many instances, it is a form of human trafficking.
According to the International Labor Organization, almost 2 million children are still victimized every year by commercial sexual exploitation, which includes the use of girls and boys in sexual activities remunerated in cash or in kind, child sex tourism, the use of children in sex shows (public or private), and the production, promotion and distribution of pornography involving children.
Millions of other children suffer the honor and wounding of other forms of sexual abuse; most do not come forward out of misplaced shame, or the fear that the justice system will re-traumatize and then fail them.
The Strengthening Children's Safety Act of 2017, H.R. 1842, seeks to strengthen our efforts against repeat child sex offenders and ensure they are subjected to increased penalties. As drafted, the bill will crack down on sex offenders who fail to register and then commit violent crimes under state law. It will also ensure that an offender's prior child-related sex offenses under Uniform Code of Military Justice are taken into account in subsequent prosecutions.
The Targeting Child Predators Act of 2017 (H.R. 883) also seeks to improve accountability for suspected crimes against children by ensuring that offenders are not tipped-off to law enforcement investigations of their IP addresses before law enforcement has a chance to gather the critical digital evidence of crimes against children.
The Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 2017 (H.R. 1188) ensures continued finding for the original Adam Walsh Act with important updates. The original Adam Walsh Act created a national registry of sex offenders and the means to enforce registration. While each state has its own registry, the national registry provides an efficient way to track sex offenders who move between states, and helps to systematize standards across states.
The Child Protection Improvement Act of 2017 (H.R. 695), ensures that organizations serving youth have access to the national sex offender registry--so that they are not limited to background checks within their state. This ensures that children are protected from sex offenders whether or not the offender has followed the law and registered in their state.
Last year, I applied this concept worldwide with the International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders (P.L. 114-
119), so that countries are warned when individuals on a U.S. sex offender list for a crime against a child is traveling to their country. Since my bill became law, more than 2,000 notifications of pedophile travel have been sent to 64 countries, with a particular emphasis on countries known to be primary destinations for child sex tourism.
One of the other bills under consideration tonight, the Global Child Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 1862), will make it easier to prosecute known offenders and others who abuse children abroad by expanding the definition of the term ``illicit sexual contact'' to cover any sexual contact with a child.
The TARGET Act (H.R. 1625), encourages accountability for international traffickers by allowing the State Department to provide rewards to people who are willing to bring down international criminal organizations trafficking in women and children. I am a cosponsor of HR 1625 and pleased to see it and all the aforementioned legislation advance tonight.
In addition to the legislation we adopt tonight, Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues may know that a strong bipartisan coalition is also working on the comprehensive reauthorization of America's leading anti-
trafficking legislation--The Trafficking Victims Protection Act(TVPA). This additional legislation, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 2200), honors the 200th birthday of slavery survivor and great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and will reauthorize $130 million in current funds across several federal programs dedicated to fight human trafficking over the next four years.
I am pleased to be the prime author of the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act with lead Democrat cosponsor Rep. Karen Bass along with a strong bipartisan group including Chairman Ed Royce, Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Susan Brooks, Lois Frankel, Ann Wagner, Tony Cardenas, Ted Poe, and Ryan Costello.
H.R. 2200 is also endorsed by a broad-based coalition of NGOs that work on the frontlines in the battle against human trafficking including.
Mr. Speaker, for the past 17 years, we have seen progress on a number of anti-trafficking fronts: more than 250,000 victims have been rescued worldwide; the Department of Justice has federally funded some 42 anti-
human trafficking task forces across the United States and more than 85,000 law enforcement officers have been trained. Additionally, over 300 laws around the world, influenced by American leadership, have enacted to combat trafficking.
We look forward to building upon this record through passage of The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention, Protection, and Reauthorization Act. Some of the important provisions of H.R. 2200 include:
Ensuring vulnerable children and other at-risk populations are educated to avoid traffickers;
Focusing grants for survivor care on housing for vulnerable groups;
Preferring in government travel contracts airlines and hotels that have in place anti-trafficking training and victim reporting policies for their employees;
Creating a special complaint mechanism in embassies whereby the U.S. is warned of traffickers exploiting the U.S. entry system;
Increasing transparency and oversight of U.S. government grants to fight trafficking;
Facilitating trafficking-free supply chains in private business by clarifying in Department of Labor reports the products that incorporate slavery-made goods;
Encouraging enforcement of the Tariff Act of 1930's prohibition on the importation of goods made with forced labor;
Strengthening federal efforts to reduce demand for services from trafficking victims by increasing prosecution of those who purchase services;
Designating one prosecutor in each of the Department of Justice's focus districts to investigate and prosecute labor trafficking cases;
Preventing abuse of domestic servants in embassies and diplomatic homes in the U.S.;
Encouraging credible and effective use of the trafficking tier ranking system by the U.S. Department of State in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report;
Educating procurement officers in U.S. government agencies to apply all U.S. law and regulations preventing purchases of goods made with trafficking or services from contractors who participate in human trafficking;
Ensuring that U.S. military assistance does not go to foreign governments that use child soldiers; and
Encouraging USAID to integrate human trafficking prevention into disaster relief.
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