WILLIAM WILBERFORCE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia: Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007. Human trafficking for exploitive labor, sex or other exploitive reasons, is equivalent to modern-day slavery in many instances and requires a concerted effort among the nations of the world not only to control it, but eventually to end it. I am pleased that the United States is leading an effort to root out this dreadful form of misery and suffering, and I am proud to be part of that effort.

Of course, we need to make sure that we do what we can to stop and prevent it here in the United States. In this regard, I am particularly pleased with the provisions in the bill which strengthen the ability of the Department of Justice to deal with abusive commercial sex traffickers who have been able to victimize women and children with relative impunity because of the difficulty of getting victims to testify as to force, fraud or coercive tactics or to show that they were trafficked across State lines.

The bill also strengthens the ability of the Department of Justice to address domestic sex trafficking by transferring the responsibility of the prosecuting domestic sex trafficking cases from the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice to the Criminal Division, both when it is commercial sex trafficking, where force, fraud and coercion can be proved, and when it is trafficking where force, fraud and coercion cannot be proved. The Civil Rights Division continues to have jurisdiction in cases where slavery is involved, but the existence of force, fraud or coercion in commercial sex trafficking cases in and of itself does not constitute the conditions of slavery which the Civil Rights Division prosecutes as a civil rights violation.

For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I support the bill and urge my colleagues to support it.