Political Quotes

“I appreciate the recognition and the cosponsorship and support. Mr. Speaker, this bill came from a meeting I had in Memphis with nurses at the University of Tennessee. They were discussing human trafficking and ways that victims could be identified, and the idea came to fruition through the work of the University of Tennessee Nursing School. Human traffickers exploit tens of thousands of people in the United States. When we talk about human trafficking here, we are basically talking about sexual trafficking. I mean, the trafficking of workers, the trafficking in a variety of occupations, but these are women who are trafficked for sex. The actual number is difficult to determine, but it is one of the reasons we introduced the SOAR Act several years ago. I am pleased it passed, and it has done much good. It has shown that, when nurses are trained, they can identify victims of sexual trafficking. Oftentimes they end up in health facilities because they get beaten by the people who put them into this position. They have wounds, and they have to come to emergency rooms. The nurses are there to observe. If they are trained, they are the initial source. They can then get these women out of the human trafficking and prevent this scourge on human society.…”