Annie Kuster: “I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri, Representative Ann Wagner, for her friendship and her leadership, and I thank my…”

“I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri, Representative Ann Wagner, for her friendship and her leadership, and I thank my colleagues, Representative Maloney, Representative Scott, and others. I am so proud to join my colleagues here on the floor of the House today in passing this commonsense bill to strengthen and protect victims of sex trafficking. This legislation would penalize individuals who knowingly host and sell advertisements for the commercial exploitation of minors and trafficking victims. Just last week, I hosted a roundtable in New Hampshire with advocates, prosecutors, and survivors who confirmed in harrowing detail that human trafficking is a crime that is being committed all too frequently across this country. It remains a serious problem both here and abroad. Recently, I was proud to reach across the aisle and work with my colleagues to lead a letter that all House women Representatives signed urging the Obama administration to push the United Nations Security Council to add Boko Haram to the Al-Qaida Sanctions List, following the abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls threatened to be sold into sexual slavery by this terrorist group. Through this effort, we became a powerful voice against the horrors of this and other instances of human trafficking that are taking place around the world.…”