The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EMPOWERING LAW ENFORCEMENT TO FIGHT SEX TRAFFICKING DEMAND ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H5488-H5492 on July 12, 2017.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EMPOWERING LAW ENFORCEMENT TO FIGHT SEX TRAFFICKING DEMAND ACT
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2480) to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to include an additional permissible use of amounts provided as grants under the Byrne JAG program, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2480
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act''.
SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL AUTHORIZED USE OF BYRNE JAG FUNDS.
Section 501(a)(1) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3751(a)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(I) Programs to combat human trafficking (including programs to reduce the demand for trafficked persons).''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
general leave
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 2480, currently under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Today, Mr. Speaker, we continue our battle against the scourge of human trafficking with H.R. 2480, the Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act. This bill, introduced by our colleague, Congresswoman Hartzler of Missouri, adds antihuman trafficking efforts as an allowable use for funds under the Byrne JAG program, the Justice Department's flagship grant program for State and local governments and law enforcement. It specifies that the JAG funds may be used for demand reduction operations.
Mr. Speaker, there is no question that the fight against human trafficking starts at the local level. It infects every community, and our local officials and law enforcement are on the front lines in this battle. They are in the best position to assess how to address this issue in their communities and how to use these taxpayer dollars.
As part of any comprehensive approach in combating trafficking, local government and law enforcement must address what many call the demand issue; that is, going after those who are buying young victims off the street and, very often, off the internet. This is simple economics applied to a horrific crime.
Human trafficking is driven by the demand for commercial sex, and this is costing victims their sense of worth and their dignity. By deterring demand, traffickers will have fewer buyers and may abandon their illegal and horrifyingly reprehensible activity.
These demand reduction operations and programs are most often carried out at the local level, and it is important to ensure local governments have the tools they need to prevent this destructive crime by deterring people from buying victims.
{time} 1530
We cannot tolerate sex trafficking and must be able to act swiftly to combat this horrific crime. H.R. 2480 ensures our communities will be able to do just that.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Hartzler for introducing this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support her bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, let me thank the chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee for the work that we have done in a bipartisan manner on human trafficking, sex trafficking. Let me thank the gentlewoman, the sponsor, and the cosponsor, Mr. Clay, for their leadership on this legislation and for recognizing that we must give direction, as Members of the United States Congress, to how grants are to be utilized. This is a very, very important initiative to be able to help our law enforcement.
Let me give you the real life of some of those who have been sex-
trafficked.
The life of Esperanza: She was waiting for a cousin outside her high school in Mexico one day when a strange man drove up in a car and forced her inside with him and sped way. At that moment, Esperanza had, in effect, become a sex slave. ``He beat me; he raped me,'' she told CNN.
A few times, she tried to escape and failed to escape. The gentleman, the person, the perpetrator, the heinous man, Poncho, now 47, always tracked her down and then beat her again.
Eventually, Esperanza realized she was pregnant. Three months later, she said Poncho drove her across the Mexican/U.S. border and on to Houston, Texas, where he forced her to work in a cantina called La Costenita.
This is a story that reads inside Houston's sex trade. I am a Representative of the congressional district in Houston where we have recognized that it is one of the hot spots of the sex trade.
But I do want to acknowledge that law enforcement, a sheriff, the police chief, the mayor, the head of the city, local government, and county government have all come together, Members of Congress, faith organizations, and recognized and made a resistant stance to stand against this sex trade. In fact, I want to applaud them for recognizing the plight of Esperanza.
I want to, with enthusiasm, support a bill that would amend the omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to include an additional permissible use of amounts provided as grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, also known as the Byrne JAG Program, to combat human trafficking, sex trafficking, including programs to reduce the demand for trafficked persons.
The legislation was introduced by Mrs. Hartzler and joined by her colleague, Mr. Clay. I am glad to be a cosponsor, as are members of the Judiciary Committee and others.
Sadly, sex trafficking, like labor trafficking, is a modern-day form of slavery. It is slavery. The epidemic of this abhorrent practice of sex trafficking continues.
First, sex trafficking occurs nationwide, and the data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline shows that reports of human trafficking were almost doubled, from 372 reported cases in 2012 to 670 reported cases in 2016, with sex trafficking accounting for more than 75 percent of all human trafficking.
Let me be very clear that sex trafficking is easy. It is very profitable because, unfortunately, you use the vulnerable victim over and over again.
Take Esperanza. She was waiting to go to high school. She became pregnant. You would think there would be some form of mercy, but she was forced to be used again, to be sex-trafficked again, and to find herself in a cantina in Houston, Texas, all the way from Mexico.
``I really wanted to speak up, to ask the police for help,'' Esperanza said, but she got caught up by the threats he would make against the little baby girl that she was now raising.
After waiting for this horrific nightmare to end, Esperanza eventually was rescued in a raid of that cantina that I remember very well, thanks to the bravery and steadfast approach of Houston's finest, like Agent Steven Roskey, a native Houstonian, then, believe it or not, with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission that was really going after the cantina for liquor violations. But he was astute and he was law enforcement. Esperanza's prayers were answered.
And so, thankfully, although traumatized, Esperanza survived the horrors of sex trafficking, human trafficking. But not all victims are as lucky as that. Esperanza, who fell victim to human trafficking, should absolutely not be treated as a criminal for her involvement.
Mr. Speaker, I include the CNN article on Esperanza in the Record.
Inside Houston's Sex Slave Trade
(By Thom Patterson)
(CNN) Esperanza was waiting for her cousins outside her high school in Mexico one day, when a strange man drove up in a car, forced her inside with him and sped away. At that moment, Esperanza had in effect become a sex slave.
``He beat and raped me,'' she told CNN's ``The Hunt with John Walsh.''
She said the man--who called himself Poncho--brought her to a madam who showed Esperanza how to charge clients and how to use a condom.
A few times Esperanza tried--and failed--to escape, but she said Poncho, now age 47, always tracked her down, and then beat her.
Eventually, Esperanza realized she was pregnant. Three months later, she said Poncho drove her across the Mexican-US border and on to Houston, Texas, where he forced her to work in a cantina called La Costenita.
She gave birth to a baby girl, but Poncho took the infant away as insurance that Esperanza would keep working as a sex slave and wouldn't escape.
``I really wanted to speak up, to ask the police for help,'' Esperanza said. ``But I got caught up by the threats he would make towards my daughter. I didn't want anything to happen to her.''
Esperanza--whose real name is being withheld for her protection--had become just like the more than 19,000 sex trafficking cases reported in the US since 2007, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
The site says more than 2,600 sex trafficking cases have been reported in the US this year alone, most of them in California. Texas ranks as the nation's number-two sex trafficking state, on the website.
For the uninitiated, it's hard to imagine that thousands of young people--overwhelmingly women--have been kidnapped in Mexico or elsewhere and taken against their will to the United States, where they serve as sex slaves.
``I thought human trafficking was just this crime that happens in third world countries. Until I started to look into my city,'' said Rachel Alvarez, a human trafficking case worker for the Houston YMCA.
Texas authorities first met Esperanza when they raided La Costenita in 2010.
``Her initial demeanor was just kind of stoic,'' remembered Steve Roskey, who took part in the raid when he was an agent with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. ``But then, all of a sudden, we noticed tears start running down her face. She started telling us her story: how she got here, what she was forced to do.''
When she told police that her pimp, a man named Alfonso Diaz-Juarez who also went by ``Poncho,'' was holding her daughter, authorities sprang into action.
``We knocked on Poncho's family members' houses, we knocked on his friends' houses,'' Roskey said. ``It irritated the family and friends so much that (Diaz-Juarez) eventually dropped off the child to a cousin, and at about 3 o'clock in the morning, we got a phone call. The child was safe.''
But Diaz-Juarez was nowhere to be found.
Pimps will often lure women from Mexico across the border to the US by promising them better lives, perhaps a better job, Alvarez said. These pimps may get help from people the women already know and trust, like a neighbor.
Once they're kidnapped, these women are no longer viewed as people in the eyes of their handlers. They've been reduced to a commodity that can be bought and sold repeatedly in an open market. In the United States, Houston has become one of those markets.
``People see Houston as a hub for human trafficking because of its proximity to the border,'' said FBI special agent Suzanne Bradley. ``It also has access to the I-10 highway corridor, which goes across the country, so if they're smuggling people in and trying to get them into human trafficking in other areas of the country, it's very easy to get them on that I-10 route and disperse them throughout the country.''
After the kidnapped women are brought into the US, the beatings begin as a way to keep them from trying to escape. Their captors threaten to hurt family members. Pimps use fear to keep their sex slaves in bondage.
``Poncho was one of the most violent pimps I've come across in the 11 years I've worked human trafficking,'' said Edwin Chapuseaux, a former investigator with the Harris County Sheriffs Office. ``He did a lot of brutal things, bordering into torture, to make the girls do what he wanted.''
A former sex slave we'll call ``Laura'' said Poncho knew her ``mother's name, her address, everything. He would threaten me, tell me if I talked to anyone that he would hurt my family.''
A pimp would have a lot to lose if a girl walked out the door.
``If a pimp has, let's say, four or five girls, and each one is making him, you know, $2,000, $3,000 a week, do the math, tax-free,'' said Chapuseaux. That works out to a maximum of $780,000 per year.
Laura recalls one night when she counted 70 women working.
``The usual was 30 men. We each had to tend to 30 clients a night.''
For years federal and local authorities had been gathering evidence against a huge Houston-area sex trafficking network led by Raquel Medeles Hortencia-Arguello.
The woman everyone knew as ``Tencha'' owned a brothel called Las Palmas that offered minor-aged girls to customers who would pay up to $500 an hour, according to the FBI.
Coincidentally, as a cautionary move, Tencha had distanced herself from Las Palmas by leasing it to Diaz-Juarez.
When police found out, they arrested him on a previous warrant.
Diaz-Juarez pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors that led to his release several months later. Poncho was back on the loose.
Authorities continued to gather evidence in the big sex trafficking case.
``We realized early on that we had potential financial crimes, money laundering involved in the case, so we got the
[Internal Revenue Service] involved in it,'' said Bradley. The IRS began following the money, reviewing bank statements, locating assets.
``We did an estimate on how much she made from the room rental, entrance fee, and the condoms for the whole entire period she was operating Las Palmas and that estimated to be about $12.5 million,'' said IRS Special Agent Lucy Tan.
When it was time for police to move in and raid Las Palmas, 13 people were arrested. Diaz-Juarez wasn't among them. But Tencha was.
Twelve pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors charged Tencha with one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, one count of conspiracy to harbor aliens, three counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to money launder.
Tencha pleaded not guilty.
When Tencha began crying in front of the judge, saying she was innocent and she had no idea what was going on, it stirred something inside the freed women who once worked for her.
They began to get angry.
One by one they decided to take the stand and testify against their former captor.
``You didn't have to speak Spanish to see how much pain they had over what had been done to them, and what they had to do,'' remembered Bradley. ``You could just see it in their face, hear it in their voice.''
Ultimately, the jury found Tencha guilty and the judge sentenced her to life in prison.
Despite the legal victory against Tencha, authorities are disturbed by the fact that Diaz-Juarez remains free.
``It's very important to get Poncho arrested and prosecuted, because he will not stop doing what he does until he is arrested and put behind bars,'' said Chapuseaux.
Laura, who still fears Poncho, admits she'll ``feel safer when he is captured. There aren't any words to describe what a terrible person he is.''
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, second, we must provide our law enforcement with the necessary tools to fight the epidemic.
I would like to thank Agent Roskey, our fervent Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, and chiefs before him for their entire effort and collaboration. Houston law enforcement has been working diligently, but they have limited funds.
To be able to use the Byrne grants in this effective way to save one more life, to stop another little girl from detouring from high school involuntarily and then be steered off, become pregnant, and no mercy given, driven to another country to continue to be utilized, abused, victimized, beaten, I think this legislation clearly speaks to the millions of little girls and boys who are not in line but apt to be victims from all over the world coming to the United States, finding themselves in hot points, victimized, and maybe even tragically losing their life.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss H.R. 2480, the ``Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act of 2017.''
This bill would amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to include an additional permissible use of amounts provided as grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, also known as the Byrne JAG Program, to combat human trafficking (including programs to reduce the demand for trafficked persons).
This legislation was introduced by Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-
MO) on May 17, 2017 and I am proud to be a Co-Sponsor in this step forward to addressing concerns about sex trafficking in our cities.
Sadly, Sex Trafficking, like labor trafficking, is a modern-day form of slavery that includes U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, women, men and children as victims equally.
The epidemic of this abhorrent practice of sex trafficking is growing, which makes the need for consideration of all measures to help law enforcement prevent these crimes from occurring even more imperative.
First, sex trafficking occurs nationwide, and data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline show that reports of human trafficking cases have almost doubled in most states, including Texas, from 372 reported cases in 2012 to 670 reported cases in 2016; with sex trafficking accounting for more than 75% of all human trafficking cases reported.
Too often, thousands of young people--overwhelmingly women--have been kidnapped around the world and taken against their will to the United States, where they serve as sex slaves and become victims of these horrendous crimes--especially children--whom are afraid to seek help from law enforcement because of the risk that they will be treated as criminals rather than the victims they undoubtedly are.
Take Esperanza for example. She was waiting for her cousins outside of her high school in Mexico one day, when a strange man drove up in a car, forced her inside with him and sped away. At that moment, Esperanza had in effect become a sex slave.
Esperanza was an innocent child when she first became a victim of sex trafficking. Her 47 year old trafficker brought her to a madam at a Cantina, who taught her how to have sex with adult men for profit, and the trafficker would beat and rape this young child whenever she tried to escape.
Eventually Esperanza became pregnant and was driven across the Mexico-U.S. border onto Houston, Texas my congressional district, where her baby was taken by her perpetrator as insurance, in order to force Esperanza into his world of sex slave trade.
Like so many children living the daily nightmare of human trafficking, Esperanza was terrified to tell anyone what was occurring.
``I really wanted to speak up, to ask the police for help,'' Esperanza said. ``But I got caught up by the threats he would make towards my daughter. I didn't want anything to happen to her.''
After waiting for this horrific nightmare to end, Esperanza eventually was rescued in a raid of the Cantina, thanks to the bravery and steadfast approach of Houston's finest, like Agent Steve Roskey, a native Houstonian, then with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission in Houston.
Esperanza's prayers were answered because once she started telling Agent Roskey and the other Houston officers her story of how she got here, what she was forced to do, the identification of her trafficker and the taking of her baby, Houston's finest and Agent Roskey immediately started knocking on the perpetrator's family members' houses, knocked on his friends' houses, and after the family and friends became irritated, they eventually dropped off the child to a cousin. The child was safe.
Thankfully, although traumatized, Esperanza survived the horrors of human trafficking but not all victims are as fortunate because there are many sad stories laced in this practice, which is why these unfortunate victims, like Esperanza, who fall prey to human trafficking, should absolutely not be treated as criminals for their involvement in these sex, and labor acts.
Second, we must provide our law enforcement with the necessary tools to fight this epidemic. I would like to thank Agent Steve Roskey, our fervent Houston Police Chief, Art Acevedo, his entire department, and various other entities for all the hard work they are doing daily to combat this epidemic in sex trafficking.
Houston's law enforcement are working diligently to take our city back from the grips of those who seek to perpetuate this appalling practice of sex trafficking.
Like Houston, law enforcement everywhere are fighting mightily oftentimes, with limited funds to crush the glaring statistics reported across this country by the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Hence we must provide them with meaningful resources to make this goal a reality, and ensure that victims are not penalized for the illegal enterprise of the traffickers that exploit them.
This is why we must empower our law enforcements everywhere, through the Byrne JAG Program, to fight the demand for sex trafficking by supporting this bill.
Finally, we understand it is already possible for state and local jurisdictions to use JAG Grant Program funding to combat human trafficking, including demand reduction, under the current purpose areas.
However, I support adding an additional purpose area for these grants that emphasizes the need to fund initiatives that target and fight human trafficking, as proposed under this bill.
H.R. 2480 will ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies have the funds needed to implement more programs to combat human trafficking such as that which occurred at the Cantina in Esperanza's case and all the trafficked victims rescued there that day.
The addition of this purpose area would allow state and local jurisdictions to target and penalize buyers who drive the demand for sex acts, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation; including the demand for sex trafficking involving children.
An example of a project that could be funded by the addition of this purpose area is training for a multi-jurisdictional task force to conduct proactive stings on buyers in an effort to combat human trafficking, like the Cantina raid in my home district in Houston.
Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to support this measure.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler), the chief sponsor of this legislation.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask for support for H.R. 2480, the Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act.
I would like to thank Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers for their support, as well as Congresswoman Karen Bass, Congressman Steve Chabot, and Congressman William Lacy Clay from Missouri, my friend, who have all co-led this effort with me.
The Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act expands the authority of the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grants Program, or Byrne JAG, to enable law enforcement agencies to compete for Federal funding specifically to develop and execute sex trafficking demand reduction programs. Adding this provision provides State and local agencies more flexibility in balancing precious resources to address sex trafficking.
Today, when many Americans hear the term ``sex trafficking,'' they might envision a young woman in Eastern Europe being abducted or a far-
away brothel in Thailand. While both of these instances, sadly, happen, Americans must realize that sex trafficking happens in thousands of neighborhoods and cities all across our great country.
As recently as May, in the city of Springfield, Missouri, there were two young girls, ages 13 and 14, that were recently rescued. Those two innocent girls were locked in a neighborhood home and forced to do drugs and engage in sexual acts for money. After some heroic police work, the man responsible was caught, but not before he robbed these two young girls of their innocence and confined them to years of mental torment.
This type of event occurs all too often and serves as a stark reminder that this horrendous crime can occur anywhere. It is a domestic problem that we cannot ignore.
Since 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has reported 22,191 sex trafficking cases in the United States, and countless cases remain unreported.
According to leading researchers and law enforcement agencies, one of the primary causes of sex trafficking is consumer-level demand for commercial sex. Sex traffickers have discovered that illicit support of commercial sex is a lucrative business. In 2014, the Urban Institute estimated that the underground sex economy ranged from $39.9 million in Denver, Colorado, to $290 million in Atlanta, Georgia.
Despite the fact that demand is the ultimate cause of commercial sexual exploitation of women and children, buyers are frequently overlooked as offenders in crimes of domestic sex trafficking. Recently, leaders in the law enforcement community have discovered that the only effective practices for combating sex trafficking are those that include combating demand for commercial sex.
There are two primary ways to directly influence actual and potential buyers of commercial sex, and these are termed ``demand reduction programs.'' They are: education of actual and potential buyers of commercial sex, and law enforcement interventions aimed at deterring those who might buy sex and punishing those who do.
Many law enforcement agencies execute demand reduction programs, such as reverse sting operations, john schools, and community education. However, resource limitations preclude them from expanding these efforts. This bill provides law enforcement expanded funding opportunities to support demand reduction efforts.
This is a huge step in the right direction because the Byrne JAG grant is the cornerstone Federal crime-fighting program, enabling communities to target resources to their most pressing local needs.
Byrne JAG's hallmark is its flexibility; thus, States and localities are able to deploy Byrne JAG funding against their most pressing public safety challenges, such as sex trafficking. This allows communities to design complete programs, fill gaps, leverage other resources, and work across city, county, and State lines.
The crime of sex trafficking rips through the fabric of our communities and our country. We as Members of Congress must shed light on this horrendous epidemic and provide our law enforcement agencies with adequate resources to attack this problem at its source. H.R. 2480 will do that. It is a bipartisan solution to a nationwide problem.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this effort.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguish gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass), a member of the Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, who has a long history of dealing with the vulnerable children, children who have been in the foster care system, and a leading voice on the issue of sex and human trafficking.
Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2480, the Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act, a simple but powerful bill that will amend the Byrne JAG Grant Program to include funding initiatives aimed at disrupting and reducing the demand for sex trafficking.
As we know, dismantling the multifaceted web of sex trafficking requires collaborative and comprehensive action at every level of government. I am pleased to join Representative Hartzler and so many of my colleagues as we continue to address this problem.
In conjunction with a number of bills introduced this Congress to strengthen and reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, H.R. 2480 acknowledges that a comprehensive approach to eliminate sex trafficking necessarily requires the inclusion of demand reduction efforts. Specifically, this bill provides support to State and local jurisdictions working to eliminate sex trafficking by expanding the designated use of Byrne JAG funding to include the express purpose of combating sex trafficking demand.
It is important that we support concrete and effective measures in furtherance of demand reduction as a critical component of law enforcement. Yet in nearly every State across the country, especially when it comes to underage youth, the buyers of sex tend to be treated as johns. When we are looking at underage girls, anybody that is purchasing sex should be viewed as a child molester.
Just as we are beginning to see the need to acknowledge the shift in how we see and respond to victims of sex trafficking--most of whom are minors, 59 percent of all reported cases in 2016 per Polaris National Hotline, and nearly all of them having involvement in the child welfare system, 86 percent as reported in the 2016 National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children--there must be a paradigm shift in how we see and respond to those engaged in the illicit buying of women and children for sex.
{time} 1545
Sex trafficking reduction programs under this bill would support enhanced efforts to arrest and prosecute these offenders. This bill would further help jurisdictions implement and facilitate necessary training programs designed to help law enforcement understand, identify, and appropriately respond fundamentally to those who buy and perpetrate sex trafficking.
Just as law enforcement must make critical efforts in distinguishing and identifying victims in need of services from petty criminals, so, too, must efforts be made to identify and prosecute dangerous and predatory sex offenders. Thus, State and local justice systems would be eligible to receive Byrne JAG money to support innovative advancements in developing and acquiring cutting-edge technology.
For example, H.R. 2480 would support the use of programs like Spotlight, a web-based tool used by over 4,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada to enable them to collaborate across jurisdictions for streamlined tracking of child sex trafficking victims.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, over the past year, reports showed that Spotlight identified, on average, five kids per day, and that law enforcement using Spotlight daily are seeing a 60 percent time savings in their investigative process.
For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill and the need to invest in comprehensive measures to prevent and attack sex trafficking demands.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay), a colleague of the sponsor of the bill, Mrs. Hartzler from Missouri. I thank him for his leadership on the issues of sex trafficking and human trafficking.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for yielding.
I rise today as an original cosponsor of H.R. 2480, the Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act, along with my friend and distinguished colleague from Missouri, Congresswoman Hartzler, and other colleagues.
This bipartisan act aims to provide local law enforcement with additional tools to fight the heinous epidemic of sex trafficking by expanding the authority of the vital Byrne Justice Assistance Grant act to enable law enforcement agencies to compete for Federal funding, specifically to develop and implement sex trafficking demand reduction programs.
Our legislation would also add an additional provision for Byrne JAG funding to allow State and local agencies more flexibility in prioritizing precious resources to combat domestic sex trafficking. The trafficking of mostly young people for the purposes of sexual exploitation is a form of 21st century slavery that is pervasive around the world, around this country, and even in my home State of Missouri, as we heard earlier.
Sadly, because of my district's central location and easy access to cross-country interstates and modes of transportation, the St. Louis area is one of the top 20 markets for the horrific and inhuman crime. Most of the victims are minor children, and some of them have been kidnapped, beaten, and deceived by organized criminal enterprises who are exploiting their bodies for profit.
But the sick and the inhuman practice could not continue without steady demand, and reducing that market is exactly the purpose of this important bill.
According to a recent report by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, this multibillion dollar slavery system victimizes over 20 million young people worldwide, with at least 1\1/2\ million of those victims in North America. Yet, last year in the United States, only about 5,000 cases were actually reported, leaving tens of thousands of other victims in the shadows with no protection, no help, and no hope.
As reported in the February 23, 2016 edition of The Atlantic magazine:
According to the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime, sexual exploitation is the most commonly identified form of forced labor worldwide. And as a whole, human trafficking is a lucrative industry that, around the globe, rakes in at least $150 billion.
But it is unclear whether the numbers are an accurate representation of the problem, because many cases are not reported, according to Monique Villa, the CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which works to combat human trafficking.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Missouri.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, the article continues on:
The problem with human trafficking is that, of course, the victims are silenced. We don't have good data about it. You don't know how many slaves there are around the world.
Traffickers also play into the narrative by telling victims who are exploited for sex that they are offenders, threatening to call the police and report them for prostitution if they push back. This makes sex trafficking particularly challenging because victims might be fearful of going to law enforcement and being charged with a crime.
Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support this legislation.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me thank the sponsor of this bill for her leadership. I am delighted to work with her as a cosponsor. And the speakers on the outside who are cosponsors, I thank them for their important contribution.
I simply want to take this time to close and to say to all of us: Don't forget the Esperanzas--plural--and their little boys as well, who are sex trafficked. Let us not forget them.
The addition of this purpose area added to the Byrne grants would allow States and local jurisdictions to target and penalize buyers who drive the demand for sex acts, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation, including demand for sex trafficking involving children. An example of a project that could be funded by the addition of this purpose area is training for a multijurisdictional task force to conduct proactive stings on buyers in an effort to combat human trafficking, just like what was done at the cantina raid in my home community in Houston.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officer was one of those who helped bring this cantina, this substitute for sex trafficking kingpin down, and saved Esperanza.
Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to thank Members on both sides of the aisle for their hard work on this, especially the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler) for taking the lead on this, also the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay), as well as the ranking member of the full Judiciary Committee, Mr. Conyers; and of the subcommittee, Ms. Jackson Lee; and the subcommittee chair, Mr. Sensenbrenner.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this very important legislation that will help direct important resources to State and local governments to reduce demand for sex trafficking, and help to maybe protect and save a few young people and other people from this horrible crime.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2480.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
