Missing Children's Assistance Act Amendment

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 246, and I
yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today, the House of Representatives continues its
commitment to bolstering enforcement efforts against human traffickers
in the United States and ensuring that we properly identify and serve
victims.

I want to thank Congresswoman Joyce Beatty for her leadership on this
issue and for introducing H.R. 246, which will improve the ability of
law enforcement officials and others to respond to and assist these
victims.

The House voted 409-0 to pass this legislation last summer, and as
previous House efforts have done, the bills being considered today
attempt to change for the better how we view victims.

For too long, these victims have been seen as willing participants
and treated as actors in the criminal scheme; however, we now know
that, oftentimes, individuals are trapped as victims by human
trafficking organizations and, sadly, many of these victims are
children.

Congresswoman Beatty's legislation will ensure that we view victims
of sex trafficking not as participants, but as victims, and ensure that
child sex trafficking crimes are reported.

Under current law, the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children operates the CyberTipline to provide online users and
electronic service providers a means of reporting Internet-related
child sexual exploitation in many areas, including child prostitution.

H.R. 246 would replace the term ``child prostitution'' with ``child
sex trafficking'' in the CyberTipline reporting categories to reinforce
that children who are sex-trafficked or sexually exploited are victims
whose situation should be taken seriously when reported.

It would also ensure the public recognizes that child prostitution is
included in how NCMEC uses the term ``child sex trafficking'' and thus
should still be reported to the CyberTipline.

Again, I want to thank Congresswoman Beatty, along with the Education
and the Workforce Committee and House leadership for recognizing the
need to steadfastly address this dreadful practice.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 246, and
I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of my time.

The passage of this legislation shows the House's commitment to
providing the necessary tools and policies to help reduce child sex
trafficking and better serve these victims, and on the recommendations
and admonition of my colleagues today, again I would say, these victims
in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, this is good work that we are doing here. I submit, it
is probably the type of work that our constituents are calling us to
work across the aisle to accomplish.

During the human trafficking roundtables I have held in my district,
law enforcement officials have consistently raised the need to make
community members aware of the real and present threat of human
trafficking. We must work to not only educate children, but also
families and the general public, about the safety risks.

The statistics on sex trafficking and exploitation among young people
are startling. Approximately one out of six runaway youth are likely
victims of sex trafficking, and roughly one out of three youth are
lured into prostitution, victimization, sex-trafficked within 48 hours
of running away from home.

This is happening all over the country and not just in my home State.
Therefore, I urge all Members to lead efforts in their districts to
continue the conversation about human trafficking to learn what more we
can do in our communities and to curtail this heinous crime.

H.R. 246 is another step to educating our communities about human
trafficking victims, and it continues our work to ensure that we are
doing what we can to help reduce this horrible crime.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 246.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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