Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the chairman from the Committee on the Judiciary, the gentleman from New York, and the manager who is joining us…”

“I thank the chairman from the Committee on the Judiciary, the gentleman from New York, and the manager who is joining us on these bipartisan bills, which many of them had their origins in the House. I am delighted that the Senate was able to join us. These bills come under the Senate name because of the fact that we are working with the Senate on many of these similar bills in order to have them become law, because they are important. I rise now to support S. 2991, the Countering Human Trafficking Act. I thank the Senator from Michigan who offered this legislation, and it deals with making the Center for Countering Human Trafficking permanent and requires other changes to strengthen the center's contribution for the fight against human trafficking. Let me be very clear on the floor. Human trafficking is an epidemic. It is a pandemic. It is a scourge on the fabric of America. Human trafficking is one of the greatest threats to human rights in the United States. In 2020, 11,190 instances of potential human trafficking were reported to the United States National Human Trafficking Hotline, with at least 70 percent of these instances involving sex trafficking. The one thing about sex trafficking, it is more profitable than drugs, because you utilize, unfortunately, the tragic human being who has been made part of the bounty of your profit and recycle them over and over again, and they are young girls and boys in many instances.…”