Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, more than 20 years ago, the U.S. Congress approved and the President signed historic legislation that I authored known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, a comprehensive, whole-of- government initiative to combat sex and labor trafficking in the United States and around the world. The TVPA created a bold, new domestic and international antihuman trafficking strategy and established numerous new programs to protect victims, prosecute traffickers, and to the extent possible, prevent human trafficking in the first place--what we call the three Ps. Though it is hard to believe now, the TVPA was met with a wall of skepticism and opposition--dismissed by many as a solution in search of a problem. For most people at that time, including some lawmakers, the term ``trafficking'' applied almost exclusively to drugs and weapons, not to human beings. Reports of vulnerable persons, especially women and children, being reduced to commodities for sale were often met with surprise, incredulity, or indifference. The bill was finally signed into law on October 28, 2000, and within a year after enactment, no one was arguing anymore that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act's integrated 3Ps strategy--prevention, protection for victims, and prosecution of the traffickers--was flawed, unworkable, unnecessary, or counterproductive.…”