Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Today the House considers this important bill, S. 2925, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010. The bill was introduced by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and was recently amended and passed in the Senate by unanimous consent. We had a similar bill introduced in the House this year by my friends Mr. Smith from New Jersey and Mrs. Maloney from New York. I would like to thank them both for their leadership on this important issue. Domestic minor sex trafficking is modern-day slavery and a scourge on our society. According to Shared Hope International, at least 100,000 minor children are used in prostitution every year in just the United States. Some sources estimate the number of minors may be as high as 300,000, though the actual number is difficult to really track. Girls as young as 11 years of age are sold on Internet Web sites, exploited by men for their youth and by gangs for their quote, ``reusable qualities.'' These traffickers and the customers who buy them are the filth of humanity. In my other life, I was a judge in Texas, and a former Texas Ranger told me, ``Judge, when you find one of these traffickers in court, just get a rope.'' Not that we'd do that, but this is how bad this crime is affecting our communities. In my hometown of Houston, Texas, we have a Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance. It's one of 42 in the Nation.…”