On the recordMarch 19, 2015
I come to the floor again today to talk about the importance of getting the bill passed, and we have seen today for the first time--I talked I think 3 hours yesterday--the need to change the tone and try to work across the aisle on some ideas to move forward with this bill. That is happening in many conversations in this Senate Chamber and in offices, and I am pleased that we have had a change in tone and that we have some possibility of moving forward. I thank my colleagues for that. Senator Cornyn and I have worked on this issue for a long time. In addition to the bill that is on the floor today, we also have the important safe harbor bill that I am leading and that Representative Erik Paulsen is leading in the House. This is a bill--since it went out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously and has none of the issues and controversy involved in the current bill on the floor--I hope will be able to get through this Senate Chamber in the coming week as either part of this bill or on its own. This safe harbor bill, of course, is about treating the victims of sex trafficking as victims and not treating them as criminals when they are 12 years old. It is taking a model from Minnesota and 15 States and now creating incentives to bring it out to the rest of the country. So what is it we have been talking about here over this last week? We are talking about 27 million people around the world who are victims of some kind of trafficking every year.…
