Political Quotes

“I saw on television my friend from Vermont, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, talking about the virtues of the House human trafficking bill, and I thought it would be worthwhile for Members and whoever else is listening to understand the difference between the two bills. First of all, our bill, the one that is being filibustered by our Democratic colleagues--I should say, all but four of them--contains a $30 million fund that is financed through criminal funds. This is analogous to a crime victims compensation fund. For example, when I was attorney general of Texas, we administered one, and we were able to make grants to various organizations. That is what this $30 million fund would be. The bill on the House side actually has no fund. It is an authorization. It is a $5 million authorization. It has no money. It has no mechanism to generate funds like ours does. Our bill contains language increasing restitution for trafficking victims by using criminal assets to satisfy these needs and allowing law enforcement to pay witness-assistance award money to victims. The bill in the House does nothing. In other words, we have an asset- forfeiture provision in our bill to take the people who profit from human trafficking and to forfeit those funds and use that to add to the fines and use that money to help rescue and heal the victims. The House bill has nothing in it in that regard.…”