Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I wish to acknowledge Senator Mikulski and her leadership. Anyone who wondered how hard she was going to keep working after she announced she wasn't running again for the next year--I think we just saw the answer right here. She hasn't slowed down one bit. She is already here advocating for some incredibly important bills, and I am also glad to see that Senator Shaheen and Senator Hirono are here. They are going to speak shortly.
Given I have been able to talk about this at length on the Committee on the Judiciary, I will be brief and say this: I have an important bill with Senator Cornyn, and it is a bill, a version of which has already passed the House, a bipartisan bill, the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act. Also, Senator Cornyn has a bill with me and a number of other people called the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. My bill passed through
the Committee on the Judiciary last week after the hearing that Senator Mikulski referred to, 20-0, on a vote. And Senator Cornyn's bill, which I have also cosponsored, passed on a near-unanimous vote. Senator Leahy and Senator Collins, as
was mentioned by Senator Mikulski, have an important bill--the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act. We are hopeful we can get these done, along with what Senator Feinstein is doing, and many others, in the coming days on the Senate floor.
I think the first message here is this is bipartisan. I don't think any sex trafficker wants to hear we are doing some tougher stuff to go after them, but we are. It is very important that this be bipartisan.
I give you one example of a case charged last week out of Minnesota. A 12-year-old girl--not even old enough to get a driver's license, not even old enough to go to her first prom--gets a text. She goes to a parking lot at McDonald's. She thinks there is a party. A guy puts her in a car and drives her to Rochester, MN--the Twin Cities--rapes her and then takes pictures of her and puts it on Craigslist. The next day two other men buy her off of Craigslist and rape her.
That happened in Minnesota. That is happening all over the country, where 83 percent of the victims are not from other countries, 83 percent of the victims are from our own country. This is the third biggest criminal enterprise--international criminal enterprise--in the world. Only after illegal drugs and illegal guns comes selling young girls and young boys for sex. This is going on in the oil patch in North Dakota. It is going on in the city streets in Baltimore. It is going on in small towns
in Minnesota. That is what we are seeing happening across our country.
I appreciate all the support of my Democratic and Republican colleagues. What this bill does that we passed 20-0 out of the Committee on the Judiciary--the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act--is it takes this model that has been really successful in Minnesota. We just got a 40-year sentence last year against someone running a ring who basically says, are you going to prosecute the 12-year-old? No. That 12-year-old is a victim.
When you start thinking like that and you start thinking of these victims as actual victims, then you give them services. Then they turn their lives around, and then they testify against the guys who are running these rings. That is how you make the cases. If you prosecute them, my guess is they are going to go right back to that pimp who brought them into this world in the first place.
That is why this has been adopted already in 15 States, and 12 States are looking at it. What our bill does is simply takes an existing grant program and creates incentives so that other States will adopt this as well.
We also have the ability for these victims to access programs that help people get jobs.
Finally, the national sex trafficking strategy. We do not have one in this country. That is in this bill as well. You can see why it got widespread support.
I am excited about these bills because finally we are working on something together. I would like to get them done as soon as possible. There are a lot of bills that have passed in the House. We are going to have to coordinate all these efforts, as Senator Mikulski said. But this is the moment in time where we can finally say not just to the rest of the world but to girls in our own country that we are going to stand up for them and we are going to stand up against these people running
the rings.
Why has this gotten worse in the last few years? We love the Internet, but people are advertising on the Internet. They are getting away with it, and we have to make sure we are sophisticated, more sophisticated than the perpetrators who are committing these crimes.
I see that our great Senator from New Hampshire, Mrs. Shaheen, is here.
I yield the floor.
Given I have been able to talk about this at length on the Committee on the Judiciary, I will be brief and say this: I have an important bill with Senator Cornyn, and it is a bill, a version of which has already passed the House, a bipartisan bill, the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act. Also, Senator Cornyn has a bill with me and a number of other people called the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. My bill passed through
the Committee on the Judiciary last week after the hearing that Senator Mikulski referred to, 20-0, on a vote. And Senator Cornyn's bill, which I have also cosponsored, passed on a near-unanimous vote. Senator Leahy and Senator Collins, as
was mentioned by Senator Mikulski, have an important bill--the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act. We are hopeful we can get these done, along with what Senator Feinstein is doing, and many others, in the coming days on the Senate floor.
I think the first message here is this is bipartisan. I don't think any sex trafficker wants to hear we are doing some tougher stuff to go after them, but we are. It is very important that this be bipartisan.
I give you one example of a case charged last week out of Minnesota. A 12-year-old girl--not even old enough to get a driver's license, not even old enough to go to her first prom--gets a text. She goes to a parking lot at McDonald's. She thinks there is a party. A guy puts her in a car and drives her to Rochester, MN--the Twin Cities--rapes her and then takes pictures of her and puts it on Craigslist. The next day two other men buy her off of Craigslist and rape her.
That happened in Minnesota. That is happening all over the country, where 83 percent of the victims are not from other countries, 83 percent of the victims are from our own country. This is the third biggest criminal enterprise--international criminal enterprise--in the world. Only after illegal drugs and illegal guns comes selling young girls and young boys for sex. This is going on in the oil patch in North Dakota. It is going on in the city streets in Baltimore. It is going on in small towns
in Minnesota. That is what we are seeing happening across our country.
I appreciate all the support of my Democratic and Republican colleagues. What this bill does that we passed 20-0 out of the Committee on the Judiciary--the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act--is it takes this model that has been really successful in Minnesota. We just got a 40-year sentence last year against someone running a ring who basically says, are you going to prosecute the 12-year-old? No. That 12-year-old is a victim.
When you start thinking like that and you start thinking of these victims as actual victims, then you give them services. Then they turn their lives around, and then they testify against the guys who are running these rings. That is how you make the cases. If you prosecute them, my guess is they are going to go right back to that pimp who brought them into this world in the first place.
That is why this has been adopted already in 15 States, and 12 States are looking at it. What our bill does is simply takes an existing grant program and creates incentives so that other States will adopt this as well.
We also have the ability for these victims to access programs that help people get jobs.
Finally, the national sex trafficking strategy. We do not have one in this country. That is in this bill as well. You can see why it got widespread support.
I am excited about these bills because finally we are working on something together. I would like to get them done as soon as possible. There are a lot of bills that have passed in the House. We are going to have to coordinate all these efforts, as Senator Mikulski said. But this is the moment in time where we can finally say not just to the rest of the world but to girls in our own country that we are going to stand up for them and we are going to stand up against these people running
the rings.
Why has this gotten worse in the last few years? We love the Internet, but people are advertising on the Internet. They are getting away with it, and we have to make sure we are sophisticated, more sophisticated than the perpetrators who are committing these crimes.
I see that our great Senator from New Hampshire, Mrs. Shaheen, is here.
I yield the floor.
