Political Quotes

“I appreciate the Senator mentioning Congressman Smith's resolution on child sex trafficking. That was a separate resolution that was approved by the parliamentary assembly. The Helsinki Commission has been in the forefront on trafficking issues. The Trafficking in Persons Report that is prepared annually is used by the State Department and is known globally as the document on evaluating how States have proceeded on trafficking issues. The work started in the parliamentary assembly of the OSCE, to the leadership of our commission and Congressman Smith who has been our champion. It led to the passage of legislation in 2000 that had the Trafficking in Persons Report and followed up with this year's parliamentary assembly on child sex trafficking. I do congratulate Chairman Smith and our delegation for continuing the sensitivity. The OSCE now has a special representative in trafficking. So you do provide technical assistance in each of our participating States to deal with the trafficking issue. I wanted to point out that we do a lot of our work in the three committees, and one of those committees is where Senator Harkin was extremely valuable in pointing out that the original document prepared by the committee did not mention the very important human rights concerns of people with disabilities. There is no stronger voice in the Senate than Senator Harkin with regard to the rights of people with disabilities.…”