Ted Poe: “Congress has made it clear that it will not stand for this new scourge that we are finding in our country of human sex…”

“Congress has made it clear that it will not stand for this new scourge that we are finding in our country of human sex trafficking. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act passed the United States Senate 99-0, and it passed the House of Representatives before that with only 3 Members voting against it and all 400-plus voting for it. Modern-day slavery does happen in the United States. It is a multibillion-dollar business. It is second only to the international crime syndicates of drug trafficking for the amount of money that is raised. It is not time for us to lower the amount of money we have for grants that will assist the victims of this scourge. That is why my amendment brings in just $17.3 million to this fund that was cut. This $17.3 million will bring it up to last year's level so that $43 million will go for victim services and victim grants. Where does this money come from? From where are we taking it? We are taking it out of the periodic censuses and programs and applying it to this fund. The periodic censuses and programs--let me make it clear--is not the constitutional census counting that is required to be done by the Census Bureau. This is another program that the Census Bureau has. It is sometimes called the American Community Survey, which is very intrusive. Without really much choice, it asks citizens numerous questions that are an invasion of their privacy. For example: What time do you go to work? What time do you get home from work?…”