Missing Children's Assistance Amendment

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 5111, a bill I introduced which would help victims of child sex trafficking by decriminalizing their behavior.

I thank Chairman Kline from Minnesota and Ranking Member Miller from California of the Education and the Workforce Committee for bringing this important bill to the floor for consideration. I also thank Representative Walberg from Michigan, who is managing the bill today for the Republicans.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank Senator Portman, whom I partnered with on this legislation earlier this year. Together we introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation in order to assist victims of child sex trafficking and ensure that they are viewed and treated as victims and not criminals. We participated in a roundtable discussion with the Dominican Sisters of Peace in my district with diverse stakeholders who shared stories of victims and ideas of what we could do to further help these children who are trafficked.

We heard story after story, just like on the House floor today: the story of Caroline, in my district; the story of Teresa, who was a victim herself at a very young age and now is a national advocate against child sex trafficking.

As we know, human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world. In fact, according to the United States State Department, human trafficking is the world's second-largest criminal enterprise after the illegal drug trade.

In the United States, some 300,000 children are at risk each year for commercial sexual exploitation. Many of them come from family and social backgrounds that render them particularly at risk. These are children who fall through the cracks in our society.

Mr. Speaker, many are runaways, homeless, and in and out of foster care. These children deserve better. The average age of a traffic victim in the United States is 12 years of age.

Mr. Speaker, this is shameful. At 12 years of age, girls and boys should be playing youth sports, participating in their school science fair, learning a new language, or just being able to be a child.

In my home State of Ohio, each year, an estimated 1,078 Ohio children become victims of human trafficking, and over 3,000 more are at risk. Ohio is the fifth leading State for human trafficking because of its proximity to a waterway that leads to an international border and a system of interstate highways that allows an individual to exit the State within 2 hours to almost anywhere.

The I-75 corridor--which runs through Toledo, Dayton, and Cincinnati--is infamous for subjecting children to the horrors of sex trafficking, with reports of victims being repeatedly abused.

Just last week, my hometown paper, The Columbus Dispatch, reported that Ohio children younger than 6 years old have been sexually trafficked by their parents in exchange for drugs, for rent, or cash.

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Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, more must be done to assist these children, these children who are victims, not criminals, and need our help.

We know that no single system can successfully combat trafficking. Preventing, identifying, and serving victims of trafficking requires a multicoordinated approach across all levels of government. We need to encourage all people, when they see something, say something.

Currently, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children operates a CyberTipline, which receives leads and tips regarding suspected crimes of sexual exploitation committed against children. More than 2.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation have been made to the CyberTipline between 1998 and March of this year.

In identifying the types of sexual exploitation that should be reported to the CyberTipline, current law does not specifically mention ``child sex trafficking'' as one of its reporting categories, even though the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children encounters child victims of sex trafficking and currently uses this term on its Web site in order to encourage the public's reporting of these types of crimes.

Instead, the statute uses the term ``child prostitution,'' which we know does not fully and accurately capture these types of crimes against children.

My bill would add the phrase ``child sex trafficking,'' including ``child prostitution'' to the section b(1)(p) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act.

Working with my colleagues on the Education and the Workforce Committee and Congressman Chris Smith from New Jersey, we have crafted legislation in order to improve and update the law in order to reflect the current state of Federal law and to reinforce that children who are sex-trafficked or sexually exploited are victims and not criminals.

Mr. Speaker, children in sex trafficking situations are often misidentified as ``willing'' participants. We know there is widespread lack of awareness and understanding of trafficking.

By adding the term ``child sex trafficking,'' including ``child prostitution,'' the Missing Children's Assistance Act will continue to fight the perception that sex trafficking is a voluntary, victimless crime.

Child sex trafficking is an issue of abuse and exploitation of children.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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