Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5111, a bill to improve the response to victims of child trafficking. First, I would like to commend my colleague, Representative Joyce Beatty, for her commitment to transforming the language that we use to discuss child victims of sex trafficking and for taking the lead on this important legislation. While antitrafficking advocates and organizations have worked tirelessly over the years to ensure that the framework and language that we use to describe child victims of trafficking recognize that they are, in fact, victims, we still have a long way to go. For example, men who exploit the children, we call them ``johns.'' We arrest the traffickers, we arrest the victims, but the men are seldom arrested, and when they are, it is for soliciting. As we change the way we speak about the girls, we must change the way we speak about the men, the men who are not johns, but child molesters. Representative Beatty's bill is another critical building block to transforming the framework and dialogue around child victims of sex trafficking. I look forward to continuing to change the conversation and urge my colleagues in the House to support this important legislation.”