Blake Moore: “I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas and the gentleman from Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of…”

“I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas and the gentleman from Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 159, the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act, which has been so diligently pushed through with the superb partnership of Congressman Erik Paulsen of Minnesota. It has been a thrill to partner with him throughout this process. This is a bipartisan collaboration because, unfortunately, this is a bipartisan problem. Solving the problem of sexual exploitation of children will require work on all of our parts because it is a financial boom. People become multimillionaires in this illicit trade. Also, the gentlewoman from Texas has worked so diligently to combat sex trafficking in places like Nigeria, and I joined with her on that initiative. It is very disheartening to know that right here, within our own borders, the FBI estimates that at least 100,000 children in the United States of America are currently trafficked and another 200,000 are right on the cusp. They are at risk of sexual exploitation. These victims are not ``women of the night'' or sexualized women who are doing it of their own free will--no. The average age of these victims is 13. It is an embarrassing statistic. It is embarrassing to report that my own hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has become known as a sex trafficking hub for both children and adults. In 2013 alone, just on a random day, the FBI did a sweep and rescued 10 juvenile girls from sex traffickers in Milwaukee.…”