Chris Smith

Over 20 years ago, the U.S. Congress approved and the President signed legislation, historic bipartisan legislation that I authored, known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

It passed 413 to 2. It's sitting over in the Senate now for six months and I can't get it out on the floor for a vote.

Addressing the root of this issue requires being willing to engage in tough, robust, and effective diplomacy and partnership with partners and allies bilaterally as well as in international forums.

The TVPA created a bold domestic and international anti-human trafficking strategy and established numerous, dozens and dozens of new programs to protect victims, prosecute traffickers, and to the extent possible, prevent human trafficking…

the outcomes are so much better when there's a faith-based component.

Thank you for the work you do. Your unwavering commitment and leadership in combating human trafficking here in the United States and around the world is truly remarkable.

At the time too, many people thought when we said trafficking, including a number of U.S. attorneys that I talked to about what were they doing, they said, you're talking about weapons, right? You're talking about drugs, right? And I said…

It's absolutely too important. And this issue, in my view, supercedes all other considerations.

International Megan's Law seeks to protect children from sex tourism by notifying destination countries when convicted pedophiles plan to travel.

We cannot show favoritism in this issue to countries that we may have an allied relationship with because we're worried about upsetting a balance of trade or some other issue.

I thank my good friend and colleague for writing such an important bill, and I thank Chairman Graves and Mr. Larsen for the great cooperation between both sides of the aisle. Mr. Chair, my amendment, cosponsored by Jeff Van Drew and Dr…

Our recommendations are supported by Members of Congress in H. Resolution 82 introduced by you, Mr. Chair, Chris Smith, earlier this year.

The Chinese Communist Party has committed horrific crimes against believers, including genocide against Uyghur Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

Are we doing enough? We have passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Act, which needs some amending.

Many Africans I met with are deeply disturbed by what they understood to be threats to humanitarian assistance.

Promoting religious freedom remains the pillar of the U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. should tirelessly advance and defend internationally recognized human rights around the world.

I mean, this man is an incredibly brave man of God, and he is being persecuted horribly.

We have to do more, but the administration has to do more, as well. I mean, a genocide in 2023 against Muslims.

I want to go. Now, I would hope maybe we could go together.

any time you think facts warrant it, you can designate a country to be CPC.

We should take full advantage of it in order to promote freedom of religion, human rights here at home and abroad.

Religious believers of every persuasion are harassed, arrested, jailed, or tortured.

We are not going to enable a dictatorship that is committing every kind of human rights abuse imaginable, forced organ harvesting, which is an atrocity that is reminiscent of the Nazis.

I will say that the Iranian people felt that then what? Zero from that administration at the time.