Chris Smith: “I thank my good friend for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Violence Against Women Act offered…”

“I thank my good friend for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Violence Against Women Act offered by Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers. It authorizes $2.2 billion for VAWA to help victimized women & children seeking assistance to break the cycle of violence & live free from intimidation, fear, abuse, & exploitation. I just want to point out something that little attention has been paid to. A little over a decade ago, I authored the Trafficking Victims' Protection Act of 2000, the landmark law that created America's comprehensive policy to combat modern-day slavery. The TVPA created the State Department's Trafficking in Persons Office, now led by an ambassador-at-large with a robust complement of over 50 dedicated and highly trained people. The Leahy trafficking amendment to S. 47, title XII, guts the TIP Office and represents a significant retreat in the struggle to end human trafficking. The only way to fix it is to pass the McMorris Rodgers amendment, go to negotiations, and get this legislation fixed. The TIP Office is an extraordinary advocacy mechanism and has had a huge impact worldwide. In addition to best-practices advocacy, the office monitors labor and sex trafficking and makes recommendations for whether or not countries be ranked tier one, tier two, or tier three. For over a decade, the Trafficking in Persons Office has been the flagship in our struggle to combat human trafficking.…”