Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. I do want to thank the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Maloney) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), who are both sitting here together to show their support for this bipartisan legislation. I believe that important, good legislation passes this House when it is bipartisan, and nothing could be more important than trying to protect the greatest resource we have in our community, which is those young children who live among us. This legislation is important for a whole lot of reasons. It is ironic, Madam Speaker, that in international sex trafficking, if we have that situation in the United States where, say, a young girl is trafficked into the United States from Honduras, and she is rescued by law enforcement, she is treated like a victim of crime because she is an international individual. If the same situation occurs where an American citizen, a young girl, is trafficked from Sacramento to Houston and she is rescued in Houston, she is not treated as a victim of crime; she is generally treated as a criminal. That especially is true in places like Texas, where domestic trafficking victims are treated as criminals. Not to blame law enforcement, but they don't know what to do with these young girls. There is no place to put them. There is no place to take them. So they file charges on them for prostitution, minors committing prostitution, so they can protect them by locking them up. That is why many times they file charges.…”