Ann Wagner: “I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I love this opportunity to testify on the rule for H.R.…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I love this opportunity to testify on the rule for H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA. This legislation has been born, sadly, out of necessity, but has been truly a labor of love for me since I was first elected to Congress over 5 years ago. The bill is the result of meetings with trafficking survivors across the country who have been victimized by the online sex trade and unable to access either justice or relief in our court systems. Today's consideration of the bill is an historic achievement, a long- awaited clarification from this Congress that the businesses that sell our children online can no longer do so with impunity. It is a clear statement that there are serious legal consequences for websites that actively profit from the exploitation of our most vulnerable. It is a wake-up call to America's judicial system, making clear that section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not provide immunity to websites that are actively engaged in modern-day slavery. {time} 1130 FOSTA is a recommitment to Americans that Congress never intended to create a system that allows businesses to commit crimes online that they could not commit offline. It is in many ways just a simple statement of the obvious: Congress does not believe--and did not ever believe--that rape was a perquisite of a free and open internet.…”