children go missing. this information will all go to the fbi where we can keep a comprehensive database and will also classified that these victims are just that the victims, not criminals, which they are sometimes labeled as. many to make sure they're able to come forward without the fear of prosecution and given the proper care and protection and not just thrown in jail. ..

>> 400,000 children are in the foster care system, and there's great improvements in terms of reducing the numbers of children in foster care, and increasing the number of children who find permanent and loving homes. we should acknowledge and be proud of the advances that have been made, particularly the focus on supporting youth as they age out of the system. the fact of the matter is majority of foster care parents are loving and supportive individuals who open their hearts and their homes. foster care patients can be the better angels among us, and they deserve to be recognized for incredible difference they make in the world every day, but far too many children don't have that benefit. even for those incredible chance

is protecting young people in foster care from the threats of the outside world is a very big challenge. statistics tell us that foster children are especially vulnerable to those who seek to exploit children. as congressman pallson has told us. the national center for exploited children tell that 60% of run aways victims of sex trafficking were at one time in the custody of social services or in foster care. in my home state of new york, 85% of the trafficking victims have prior child welfare involvement. to say i'm completely appalled and embarrassed by that number is an understatement. while state's specific numbers vary throughout the country, they tell us much more needs to be done. i'm proud to be one of the cosponsors of hr2744, the child sex trafficking data and

response act sponsor by my colleague, mr. paulson. this bill, to go over it again, and i know you heard it, but we can't hear it too much. this is such an important bill. that must be addressed if we're going to reduce incidents of sex trafficking in the united states, which is growing at a terrible rate. first, identify the children within the welfare systems, and trains the child protective service workers to identify and provide services needed to victims of sex trafficking, coordinates efforts with state law enforcement, juvenile justice, and social services, and reports the number of children known or suspected to be a victim of trafficking each year. all approaches are good and necessary, but the part of the bill of primary importance to me is that child abuse prevention and treatment act is amended to

require that child victims of sex trafficking will now be considered victims of abuses and negligent making them eligible to receive services within the child welfare system. the idea that a young person rescued to be considered an offender within the juvenile justice system is shocking to me and you as well, i'm sure. these are victims in strong sense of the word, preyed upon boy those who take advantage of the situation that fear and loneliness that comes in the foster care system to use them to their own advantage and profit. those children deserve help, healing, and wholeness, not a criminal record. i worked for many years on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault in the military. in 1994, i drafted the original violence against women act with my former representative, and in recent years, fought to pass

numerous protections into law that provide servicemen and women with the resources, support, and the agencies to seek justice in cases of sexual assault and to successfully prevent cases of sexual assault before they occur. in the process, i watch women go from victims to survivors after receiving services funded by the legislation on domestic violence have been able to offer. we watch the incidence of domestic violence fall by 67% since the bill was passed. i believe we have seen the same kind of impact from the addressing sex trafficking among our foster youths. the same millions of victims of domestic violence have been brought out of the shadows and given a chance to stand because of the violence against women act, and i believe this legislation we're talking about today and other ideas considered before this committee are the path forward for these young

people that deserve all the assistance that we can provide. thank you very much, mr. chairman, members of the committee for your time and your consideration today. thank you. >> thank you, ms. slaughter for your hard work and concern on the issue and the team you have with you at the witness table. mr. pole, who i call judge, and he calls me sheriff, he's done a lot of work in this area, and i'm so pleased to have the judge here. judge, you're recognized for five minutes. >> [inaudible] >> i spent 22 years at the criminal courthouse and eight years before that as a prosecutor. that's where i first heard about you, sheriff, and the whole country appreciates your relamentless work on the green river murders, even to this day. child abusers, sex predators are

the worst predators in the society. too often, the justice system, unfortunately, ignores the victim of the crime. when i first came to congress, we founded the victims rights caucus. the drc is focused on combating human trafficking. this topic is of interest to me because my hometown of houston texas is a hub of this dispickble crime of human trafficking. many are not aware that modern day slavery occurs right here in the united states as the ranking member has mentioned. the problem is very real, especially among vulnerable youths in the welfare system. this is anna's story, given to me by share hope international. after her family passed away, she's placed in foster care at the age of 3, shuffled from home to home until the age of 12 when she was finally adopted by a

family. she hung out at the wrong place, corner store, and the family did not know she was there. she met a person she thought she could trust, but the person she met at the corner store was not a friend at all. one day she got into a fight with the parents, called the one friend she thought she had who picked her up. she didn't know the call would change her life forever. this individual was actually a sex trafficker. he was violent. he beat anna. he sold her body. the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse continued for a long time. he threatened to kill her family if she ever called the police. he told her that if the police found her, they'd arrest her, and that's exactly what happened. she was arrested and charged with prostitution, treated as a criminal, but she was a victim of crime. she was convinced her family didn't want her any longer, felt helpless and scared. this is a typical situation, unfortunately, for girls like this. after four years of abuse, she

escaped and was reunited with her family, and through strength and resilient spirit with the help of her mother, anna vowed to make a difference one victim at a time, and she runs a ministry for sex trafficking survivors and has an outreach program for at-risk youth. unfortunately, her story is not that unique this this country. the scars from the foster care system stayed with her making her vulnerable to trafficking. many foster youths experience neglect, physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse. these factors make the children more susceptible to trafficking. the child welfare system has many problems, and one major challenge is not only to put a roof over the child's head, but to instill values like self-worth into all of the children. we must remember that child sex predators, when they commit these crimes against our youth are trying to steal the soul of

the victim when they commit sexual assault. i will soon introduce the justice for victims trust act along with the congressman from new york. this bill will be offered in the senate by senator wyden. this creates a program to help state and local governments develop and implement comprehensive victim-centered programs creating a domestic tragic victims fund at the treasury, financed through the fines on persons convicted of human trafficking and child exploitation which can be used to fund support programs for victims. criminals pay for the crime in the -- they will serve jtle, and traffickers and buyers are prosecuted. sheriffs across the country have 5,000 shelters for animals. i got one of my three dalmations from the animal shelter. i love those places, but in the

whole country, there are only 226 for minor sex trafficked victims. we can do better. the justice for victims act that i introduced, and i have introduced the end sex trafficking act, this bill combats human trafficking targeting criminals who purchase sexual acts and ensuring they are prosecutorred like the trarvegger. this goes after the anonymous buyer of sex trafficking and targets the demand to stop the sale of our children. the days of boys being boys in this country are over when it comes to exploitation of our children. the long arm of the law is to go after these consumers. i commend you for holding this hearing today, and that's just the way it is. [laughter] >> now you know why we call him judge. [laughter] thank you, mr. poe.

ms. bass has been passionate on the issue, attended events together, speaking out, and really appreciate your presence here. you're recognized for five minutes. >> well, thank you, thank you very much for holding this hearing, and ranking member, for providing me the opportunity to testify today, but also your leadership today as well as yesterday on the bill we passed on a bipartisan basis yesterday on the floor. as the cochair of the congressional caucus on foster youth, i'm appreciative of the ongoing commitment for foster families. as i travel throughout the country as part of the foster youth caucus national listens tour, it's been devastating to hear children involved in the child welfare system, particularly those with multiple placements are especially susceptible to coercion and manipulation by traffickers. in los angeles, there's a specialized collaborative courthouse. this court is designed to serve

commercially exploited youths. they report that 80% of the girls have been previously involved in the child welfare system. increasingly in the los angeles area and other large cities, gangs are engaging in commercial sexual exploitation too, selling girls in addition to drugs and guns. it's clear we need a comprehensive approach to prevent victimization of our children. child welfare has to work together to meet needs of young survivors and prevent the exploitation of others. unfortunately, the child welfare system as a whole has not truly recognized trafficking as a crisis within the foster care population, and they have not incorporated protocols and systems to address the problem. i had an experience in los angeles where i was talking to a child welfare director, and i asked him about the problem of sex trafficking in the area around the office. he told me it didn't exist. the day before, i had been with the fbi, and they said the area right around that neighborhood

was one of the most -- one of the most trafficked areas, and so the child welfare agency was not even aware of it. to address the gaps, i've introduced hr173 # 2, the strengthing child welfare response to trafficking act along with my colleague and coshare of the congressional caucus on foster youth, and the bill establishes local plans to combat trafficking as well as ensuring data collection in several important ways. the bill requires child welfare agencies to report missing abducted or traffic youth to law enforcement within 72 hours for entry into the national crime information center data base. oftentimes, the children are just viewed as runaways. the bill amends the child protection and treatment act to ensure states develop comprehensive multiagency plans to identify and provide as much ass to all victims of

trafficking. this would be inclusive of foster youth as well as other youth who might be commercially exploited. in addition to local planning and data collection, the bill directs the department of health and human services to submit a report to congress that outlines the prevalence and trends of trafficking amongst child welfare youth, both state by state and nationwide, develops a proposal to collect annual data from state agencies, and proposes an ongoing method of supporting and monitoring efforts of local child welfare agencies to prevent trafficking and serve victims. timely, the strengthing child welfare response to trafficking act directs the department of health and human services to develop and publish guidelines to assist child welfare agencies in serving youths who are victims of trafficking and preventing exploitation of youths becoming victims. they relosed guidance to welfare agencies on the topic, there is room for additional resources

and specific tools. as outline in the bill, the guidelines provide example, training materials, and screening tools, serve as delivery strategies, protocols for effective cross system collaboration, best practices related to residential placement, recommendations for documentation and data collection. something else that needs to be addressed on a state level are girls who have been involved in the system who have criminal records, and have turned their life around and need -- now they need to have records expunged because we understand moving forward these girls should have never been arrested for soliciting to begin with. in conclusion, we cannot continue to fail our nation's children. as federal legislators, we have a tremendous opportunity to ensure that local plans to prevent exploitation are in place as well as collect necessary national data to inform future federal strategies. while many of the social services needed to properly serve trafficked youth require a mop tear investment, the first

steps do not require additional federal funding. it's been encouraging to see momentum on this issue throughout the three years served in congress, and i look forward to continuing working with my colleagues. thank you very much. >> thank you, ms. bass, for your testimony, and as i said earlier, senator hatch wanted to be here today to testify. he is the author of legislation that also seeks to prevent trafficking of youth in foster care, so we asked him to testify. he couldn't be here, but he provided a video for us. next, we'll watch senator hatch's testimony, but before we begin the video, if our member panel wants to leave, i know everyone has a busy schedule. you are free to live or stay and listen to the senator's testimony. any of the members on the pam here who have questions, will meet you on the floor or send them to the office. is that all right?

okay. thank you for being here today. >> chairman, ranking member, and members of the subcommittee on human resources, thank you for holding this important hearing on preventing and addressing sex trafficking of youth in foster care. i'm pleased to have the opportunity to tell your committee about legislation i've introduced in the senate. mr. chairman and ranking member, as you know, there is an epidemic of abuse taking place in america today. recent reports estimate that hundreds of thousands of children and youths were at risk for domestic sex trafficking. the risk of sex trafficking is compounded every year for up to 30,000 young people who are quoting from foster care, unquote. too many e mans paletted youth attorney pack a few belongings in a trash bag driven to homeless shelters leaves them vulnerable to traffickers and

other predators. while in foster care, children and youth are also at increase the risk for trafficking. in order to come back trafficking and improve outcomes for children and youth in foster care, changes need to be made in the conder system. the legislation introduced in the senate, improving outcomes for youth at risk for sex trafficking otherwise known as io youth, addresses the epidemic and conditions in the child welfare and foster care systems making children and youth particularly vulnerable to be sexually trafficked. i'd like to describe the highlights of the legislation for the sub committee. mr. chairman, i'm sure many americans would be surprised to learn that most child welfare agencies will not serve trafficked children and youth who are not in the custody of a bilogical or foster family or living in a group home.

children not legally able to get concept for sex are arrested for prostitution and referred to the juvenile justice system. in many states, the courts in the juvenile justice system are ill-equipped to deal with the trauma these youths endured. this bill requires states to provide services to youth who have been trafficked or are at risk of being trafficked. it also redirects social services, block grant funds to address the system to better identify and address needs of trafficked youths. my bill includes a number of provisions to encourage, enhance, and support youth in foster care to allow them to participate in age appropriate activities and social events. i hope these provisions will promote healthy development, increase opportunities for foster children to form meaningful connections, and reduce risk of vulnerability to domestic sex trafficking and other negative outcomes.

another major risk factor for vulnerability for older youth in the child welfare system is a continued reliance on congress agree gat care facilities referred to as group homes. these facilities are routinely targeted by traffickers and warehouses for youth who are rarely, if ever, welcomed to engage in healthy social activities. this refocuses priorities on connecting vulnerable youth with caring, permanent family, and limits reimbursement for very young children, and after a certain duration for older youth. for those remaining in group care, those facilities, the bill requires that youth have been improvedded access to normal, age appropriate activities. many youth in foster care report that they might not have gone into foster care in the first place had preventative services been available to their biloming

call family that could have kept them safely at home. io youth responds to the needs for preventative services such as mental health and substance abuse help by redirecting funds from the block grant to address the need as well as enhance and improve child welfare systems. youth in foster care routinely report that they feel uninvolved, unaware, and disconnected to any planning around their care or future. they are not informed of their rights while in foster care. this can lead to a sense of disenfrance chiasment and a lack of connection to siblings, relatives, or other caring adults. in many cases, this lack of connection crickets to the void preyed on by traffickers. my bill requires that state child welfare agencies provide ongoing family funding for older youth and foster care as well as

greater participation of youth in planning for their future. we want to find those families for them. it also encourages states to find individuals willing to be involved on an ongoing basis with the youth in foster care. individuals who work with victims of domestic sex trafficking tell us that the single biggest challenge to successful intervention with these victims is the lack of accessible and affordable housing. for older youth who have been emancipated from foster care not having a place to sleep is often a reason why they enter the sex trade. in order to improve housing options for these at-risk youths, my bill redirects funds from the social services block grant in order to provide housing to trafficked and other vulnerable youth. chairman and ranking member, thanks a lot, and thanks again for the opportunity to share highlights of my legislation. i look forward to working with

you and other members of the subcommittee moving forward to prevent and address sex trafficking. >> well, again, if any members have questions for senator hatch or any of the other colleagues that have testified today, you are free to submit them in writing. we'll move on to the second panel, if they'd please take their seats. [background sounds]

[background sounds] >> well, welcome. happy to see you all here today. on our second panel this afternoon, we'll be hearing from, i'm going to call her, t, because she said i could do that as well as all the other members can call her t and she's a board member of human rights project for girls. welcome.

mr. john ryan, ceo, national center for missing and exploited children. thank you for being here. the honorable bridge, thank you, judge. ms. melinda, ph.d. director of youth care, thank you, and ashley harris child welfare policy associate tex cares for children. thank you, all, for being here. t? you have five minutes or a little more if you want to. >> thank you so much, chairman. i want to say thank you to you, members of the committee, and human rights project for girls. you can call me t, and i am now 24 years of age, and i'm currently a student here in washington, d.c. at trinity washington university. previous to being a student, i was one who grew up in foster care for pretty much the first 18 years of my life.

throughout that time from the ages of 10 to 17, i was a victim of sexual exploitation and trafficking here domestically in the united states, throughout the state of california, oregon, nevada, and wash. i'm here to tell you why we are more vulnerable to be sexually trafficked. first of all, we accept and normalize being used as an object for financial gain and experience various people who control and come in and out of our lives, lack opportunities to gain meaningful relationships and positive attachments, and the traffickers exploiters, and i use the term interchangeably in the testimony as they all mean the same thing, have no fear of punishment due to lack of attention when young people of the population go missing. in addition, the ability makes it easier for exploiters to hide involvement continuing to perpetuate vulnerability.

how do we accept and normalize being used as an object for financial gain? as you all know, there's many provided to care givers by agencies to provide and serve the youth. often, this is for personal use or use of their families or bilogical children, and, currently, from my knowledge, there's no setup to guarantee the money's actually utilized for the child within the placement. often times what happens is a foster parent says something of sorts of, you know, i don't care what you do, it's not my worry as long as, you know, you don't die, you know, i'm going to continue to get my paycheck. it's nothing by a paycheck ideology puts the youth in a compromising situation in regards how they are supposed to feel, and so what we begin to do with the youth is normalize and accept that our purpose is of being a financial benefit of

others. so this, because of this, it makes it harder for our youth and even for myself in my story to have seen the difference in bringing in finances into the foster home or of the bringing money to an exploiter and their stable. this normalizes that other people control our lives and circumstances. multiple roles such as public defenders and social workers come in and change in and out of lives, most of whom are strangers to them. these are the people who dictate what happens in their lives, where they live, what school they go to, and what decisions are made for them socially. this creates an ever-changing environment to adapt to life making decisions, and this is conducive to the parallel profit of those who seek to keep control of life. we lack opportunity to gain meaningful relationships and positive attachments. this plays out for others and myself that opportunities to

build skills like problem solving or for what it means to reconcile after an argument are denied, and instead, we're moved to another placement. for myself, as unfortunate as it is to say, due to the over 14-plus placements endured, the most consistent relationship i ever had while in care was that of my pimp and his family. like me and many other in care, we become accustomed to being isolated like the victims of domestic violence by adapting to moves from home to home. this allows us to easily adapt to when traffickers move us multiple times from hotel to hotel, city to city, and state to state, and these exploiters go without fear of punishment due to the lack of attention when young people from the population go missing. no one looks for us. i really want to make it clear, no one looks for us. no one keeps us on the radar. the system makes no effort. there are no amber alerts, no posters, from the foster

children care system. group homes avoid reporting missing because of interrupting payment. often times from the system, it's always assumedded that we have willingly run away. many times, that's not the case. many times we're kidnapped or other circumstances. this is used to exploiters' advantage. the life and stability of foster care makes it easy to hide involvement, continuing to increase population vulnerability. i believe child welfare agency should be working with local programs and provide programs to enhance responses with working with the youths to transition into a healthier lifestyle and can learn ways to identify these youths. for myself in care, there's many times that i have many absences and people knew i was ab sent, but they were red flags that should have been paid attention to.

agencies have to figure out ways to make children visible when they go missing. i'm pretty sure there's many people in society that would be willing to help, but they are not aware the children are missing and that somebody cares about what's happened to them. you should also be provided trauma informed council and care at all times meaning the agency should be actively working to gain and maintain resources to do so. in addition, i believe sfn hot lines oar other ways to respond and interagent with youths when they reach out should be developed, and they need to be actively involved in the decision making process of their life and circumstances. in california, they have meetings called tdms, and new york has something along the same processes called family teen conferences. these are great examples of youth involvement as they have the youth and their families come together, and this is

families both bilogical and created, come together to make decisions about placement, choices, and things of that sort. you should have a confident ally throughout their time in care as it is a great resource that some agencies do work with mentorship programs. oftentimes the mentoring goes uncontinued if youth is not in placement. i believe they should be provided an an ally throughout the care and the person is available whether or not it's currently in placement helping in regards to when the youth are on the streets or in the process of being exploited. lastly, we need to ensure conversations are followedded with federal actions from the input received here today. in addition to all that i've said, stated here, i also serve on the national foster care use, and we've also been actively working to provide recommendations to address the issue among the population. i say thank you again, chairman, members of the committee, and

human rights project for girls and the audience to receive the contribution. thank you, all, who work on behalf of the children. you are all appreciated with all you do to end as a rule inert of all children. thank you. >> good job. thank you for your testimony t, and i let her go long because we agree that special testimony that we all need to hear. it doesn't mean that the other four witnesses -- [laughter] don't have something important to say, so you'll be held to the five minute rule, mr. ryan. [laughter] >> dually noted, mr. chairman. thank you, t, for sharing your powerful story. mr. chairman, members of the sub committee, thank you for inviting me to speak for the problem of sex trafficking and foster care in the united states. the national center is a private nonprofit operation since 1984,

designated to serve as the nation's clearinghouse on missing and exploited chirp's issues. we have several program to address child sex trafficking like the cyber tip line and online mechanism for child exploitation and child sex trafficking and child pornography. additionally, our sex trafficking team made up of dedicated analysts who support law enforcement's efforts to arrest and problem of sex -- our critical, run away unit, special case management teams that handle cases of missing children who are also possible sex trafficking victims. partners with the fbi and justice department in the innocent loss national initiative. since 2003, they serve as the clearinghouse for information and provides analytical support to the 66 innocent task forces

throughout the country. these task forces operate -- operate across country, a targeted, coordinated three-day sweep of child sex trafficking venue, and these have rescued more than 2700 children who have been trafficked and arrested more than 1300 pimps. several of these prosecutions have resulted in life sentences. this year the youngest child recovered was 13 years of age. when they hear the term "child sex trafficking," most americans say it only happens in other countries or that foreign children are brought here to be sold in large cities. in fact, we have learned that most of the victims are american kids trafficked in small towns and large urban areas. if people are not aware of it, they are not looking for it. how prevalent is child sex trafficking? in 2012 alone, one out of eight

endangered run aways were likely sex trafficked victims, one out of eight, this tripped since comparing children to missing children to traffic children. often overlooked aspect is that it is a problem of missing children. many victims are missing from their parents, and are the most vulnerable. traffickers know this, target run aways, and lower them into the sex trade using psychological manipulation, illegal drugs, and violence. foster children are easy targets for pimps. these chirp are the most susceptible to the manipulation and false promises that traffickers use to secure trust and depends sigh. children roberted missing in 2012 who are likely child sex

trafficking victims, 67% in the care of social services or foster care when they ran, 67%. let me give one example. the national center reports of the young girl who was 15 had been reported missile 13 times before she was placed in foster care. law enforcement was involved, and the pattern continued of running away. we found through reports that the child had tattoos, many pronounced, tattoos are a sign of branding by pimps. they market products, these young girls, these victim, and we were able to develop public access data that she was trafficked on an online classified service; and we sent the information to law enforcement, set up a sting operation, made a call to arrange a date with this young girl, and they were able to rescue her. this girl reported for the last

two years, she was victimized on average five times a night for that two-year period. the most important thing to do is to change the conversation from juvenile issues to child protection issues. these children can want just walk away. they must be rescued and treated as victims. all child welfare agencies must report missing foster children to law enforcement. the national center, working with law enforcement when we have the information, we can interdict, find the child before they are victimizeized. we have systems in place in some states, but it needs to be universal, consistent, and mandated. thank you for the interest, and we look forward to working with this committee and proposed legislation here today. thank you. >> very good, thank you, mr. ryan. i would like to take just a moment to introduce our next witness who has beens to be from

washington state, and it's an old friend of mine back in the criminal justice days together. justice bridge, from the home state as i said, has more than 19 years of experience with child welfare and has been recognized as a leading advocate for foster care in juvenile justice reform. justice bridge founded the center for children and youth justice in 2006 to reform washington state's juvenile justice and child welfare systems, and, recently, 2010, you were given the advocacy national spirit award by the defender of rights and dignity for our youth award in january of 2010, so good to see you, happy you were able to be here, and that coincides with a

conference held tomorrow. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, who i resist calling sheriff as well, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting my system today, it's an honor and effectively intervene and rad kate commercial sexual exploitation of vulnerable children in the communities, especially those in the foster care system. i'm founding president and ceo of the center for children and youth justice, the center formally known as ccyj, a private notary public profit established in 2006 to advance justice for and to enhance lives of children and youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems through juvenile justice, child welfare, and related systems improvements. as chairman noted, prior founding ccyj, i was a judge in court for ten years during which time i presided over hundreds of child abuse, neglect, and

juvenile cases. with it i had known the right questions to ask. in the eight years of service as an associate justice of the washington state supreme court, i reviewed the same cases and became involved in system change efforts in child welfare. i learnedded valuable lessons. no one part of the system, no one system can alone address multiple and complex needs of neglect the children in youths. there's a robust history of collaboration in cross system of child welfare. the history led to a number of changes in practice in our child welfare system that resulted in better outcomes for our chirp in youth and foster care. information that is coming to us now regarding the extent to which these children who have been in foster care or currently in foster care are victims of sex trafficking or commercially sexually exploited children,

presents a new realty that brings a new approach. there's a brief time on a systematic approach that could prove valuable in response to this reality. a lot remains unknown about csec, but by bringing professionals by the various systems that interact with those who are either at risk together with survivor and community voices in authentic, collaborative, and coordinated responses, we're likely to create successful outcomes for the children. the state of washington is in the process of implementing such a collaborative model. project respect is the working title for the ccyj led project which resulted in the development of the washington state's model protocol. the purpose of the project and of the protocol is to implement that statewide coordinated response that is best practiced and data driven that will identify, engage, and better

serve commercially sexually exploited youth in washington state. children and youth who are victims, not criminal, and to hold perpetrators accountable. with the combination of public and private funding, last year we brought together over 200 people, survivors, system professionals, advocates, and community members across the state to discuss the context in their community. the responses that were currently used, the gap in data and services, and to explore what the component of ad 340 -- of a model response protocol should include. a draft protocol was prepared and presented to leaders and finalize the. this year working with foster youth care, five sites are trained on the protocol and best practices. also during this year, the washington state center for court research of the administrative office of the

courts is leading an effort to work with stake holders and sites to develop a data collection plan involves law enforcement, courts, child welfare, and service providers. the progress of the protocols, policy implications of the work at the local sites are reviewed by the newly created washington state coordinating committee established by the legislature in 2013 legislative session and convened by the washington attorney general. lessons learned led us to some promising systemic actions that could be undertaken by the subcommittee. first, providing guidelines, directions, and resources for the cooperative and consistent collection of data on the prevalence, and their pathways to becoming trafficking victims, and to effective practices for prevention and intervention, providing guidance and incentives for collaboration and cooperation at the state and local levels to develop model

protocols to improve responses and critical to success is the necessary participation of the state and regional child welfare agency at the highest level, providing direction and incentives to welfare agencies to focus on children missing from care and recruit and train specialized foster homes to receive those who were found. safe and stable housing should be available to those for whom independent living is the best option. providing options for judicial training and identification and advocates as a resource to the courts when a foster child is identifieded. providing training to child welfare workers on the io identification and use of special assessment tools and case work practices that reduce running from care. mandating changes in welfare laws to include a trafficked child in the definition of an abused child.

i thank you for the opportunity to be a part to find solutions to the sex trafficking youth and foster care. i would submit whatever efforts jurched taken to address sex trafficking of our former and current foster youth should be research based, collaborative, coordinated, data driven, and sustainable. these efforts should focus on identification and support of the victims and recognize this is a crime of mobility which requires a unified and consistent response, a response that does not merely move the incidence from one neighborhood, one county, one state to another, and hence the beauty of the federal leadership on these issues. thank you very much. >> i'd like to introduce another friend from washington state who is 27 years of experience in

reengaugement programs for out of school and homeless youth, the executive director of youth care helping homeless youth and operates the only program in washington state providing residential services for sexually exploited youth. you are recognized for five minutes. >> good afternoon, chairman and members of the subcommittee. i'm grateful for the opportunity to address you on this important topic. i'm the director of youth care located in seattle, washington. since 1994, youth care provides services to help run away and homeless youth get off the street and prepare for life, founded to eliminate sexual exploitation of children in our community. our agency's dynamic program and collaboration is a model for working with run away, homeless, exploited youth locally and nationwide. run away and homeless youth are at high risk of exploitation.

recent studies estimate there's prevalence between these two populations prior to the young people entering our services. to better serve the clients of youth care, we operate the bridge continuum of services for sexually exploited youth consistenting of identification, outreach strategies, community based advocates, lifelines, emergency shelter programs, long term housing, and most important, education and employment training to over opportunities. they are trama informed, victim informed. the city of seattle estimates there's between 7 # 00 homeless youth on the streets every night, and the seattle area has a significant problem with sexual exploitation in the trafficking of children. in 2008, a study in king county conducted by dr. debra boyer identifieded 238 unduplicated

minors involved in prostitution and determined the prevalence of sexual exploited youth in king between to be between 3 and 500 a year. the effects are well-documented, but in the recent year, the prevalence of trafficking in foster care is widely recognized. many run away and youth are part of the foster care system or have aged out and more have histories of involvement through reports and investigations. we see youth every day trafficked and exploited and who are system involved for whom the system failed. it is the system's involvement combined with homeless status making them uniquely vulnerable to pimps and traffickers. today, i'll highlight five key issues and address each of these. youth and foster care are at risk for victimization and sex trafficking due to prior abuse and familiar support and frequency of running away.

youth care recommends the child welfare agencies create a plan to prevent the trafficking among youth in care and respond so youth who are victims to sex trafficking. second, the youth in foster care are victims of sex trafficking before social workers and foster parents and other providers are aware. youth care recommends that screening intake, and ongoing service planning should have trafficking and childhood sexual abuse and recommend all staff and foster parents receive mandatory training on identifying and responding to sex trafficking and that specific resources be dedicated to meet needs of victims and foster parents and social work staff. timely, we recommend welfare agencies participate in tax forces or protocol developments in effort to respond to sex trafficking and responding with the programs across the nation to help lay frame work for a

cross country and very deep intervention strategy for the people. state dependent youth missing from care cannot legally be housed in programs receiving run away and homeless youth act money or hud funds. we recommend rhy hud language be amended for state dependent youth if other places are deemed inappropriate. there's a scope and prevalence of sex trafficking and youth in foster care is not tracked and quantify and there's a significant bairier to the effective response. data strategies is recommended and should be implemented to quantity my how many youth in the system and in the run away systems are sex trafficked. timely, responses to sex trafficking at the state and local levels are very inconsistent. youth care recommends policies enacted where be they are

screened for investigation by child protective services and the definition of abuse and neglect reflects abuse and harm caused by pimps, traffickers, buyers of commercial sex, and other custodial perpetrators accessing children through the commercial sex trait. youth in foster care are at risk for damaging and impactful outcomes, not the least of which is victimization of sex trafficking. they should be impolicemenned in order to identify victims and increase capacity of child welfare agencies to protect youth from the harmful and devastating experiences. thirty years ago, youth care ran a program helping 36 young women off the streets and out of victimization of prostitution. i sit here 30 years later with the same recommendations i would have had then. i see and hear from many of the 36 young women that i knew. they call. they say thank you. they have jobs. they have college degrees. they have families. they have lives.

the young people i see now were not even born when they were in my care. how many thousands of young lives have been lost in those 30 years? how many more before we recognize that these are not incorrigible to be dealt with, but children victims of the most heinous forms of abuse in the community, and they need help, support, care, and dare i say love to regain their lives. how many more and how long before those chirp become our children? i would sincerely like to thank sub committee for interest of hearing youth care for improving the systems response to sex trafficking for youth in foster care. in closing, we appreciate the dedication of this sub committee, and particularly of you, chairman, to provide leadership and bipartisan commitment to combating sex trafficking. we look forward to the continued efforts and collaboration and honored to be a resource in any

way necessary moving forward on this important issue. >> thank you for your testimony. ms. harris, you are recognized. >> good afternoon. we are a statewide nonpartisan, nonprofit advocate organization dedicated exclusively to improving lives of texas children through policy change. as a former caseworker for child protective service in texas for over four years, i truly appreciate the opportunity to provide a first hand account of how the horrible crime impacts foster kids and those guided to protect them. i have to first acknowledge t's testimony because we can agree who the real experts are, and those are former foster youth and those currently in care so thank you for your testimony. with my testimony, i hope to over recommendations for consideration and opportunities for improvement including additional io tempts for additional consideration, but because of time, i'll highlight the role that training, lower

case loads, and monitoring has on identification and vulnerable children. those removedded from home due to abuse and neglect and placed in foster care and recent reports that majority of children and trafficking victims reported missing ran away from foster care or group home, i'm reflecting on the days as a former caseworker and one of the former kids on the case load. she was a bright, beautiful, and funny young adult. i worked with her for over three years, my runner, due to the monthly habit of running from everything placement. since birth her life and since of self was used by those who used and abusedded her body. running away from care, selling herself to others, was exerting control over her body and life. a tragic and flawed way of thinking, a direct cons consequence of all endured. each time she returned, i pick

her up, she was fine, and on we went to the next place. i never stopped to ask the questions that would have allowed me to truly understand her experience and the impact of being away from foster care. all alone,ics ploited, and broken without a person or system to protect and support her. with a case load, well above recommended case load of 12-15 per caseworker, giving her shelter was more a priority than ensuring well being. caseworkers are people charge with protecting the most vulnerable children. it should be provided a manageable case load ensuring appropriate supervision not leaving children at risk for further abuse and child's ability to thrive in and out of the child welfare system. i regret training received as a caseworker did not provide me the skill and support to understand the impact of trauma on healthy child development and identify behaviors and characteristics that increase likelihood that children in

foster care will be victims of exploitation and trafficking. for many agencies, training on these topics is not part of the initial basic skills development provided to newly hired caseworkers. basic training on human trafficking, reporting laws, and information on appropriate resources should be provided to all professionals who are likely to come into contact with possible minor victims who may be on run away. stephanie's story represents the experience of many homeless teens and those in foster care living on the streets by themselves with no one to protect them, and, frankly, no one looking. when they run from state custody, the system must respond in an expedited manner and locate the child and address their safety and well being. as their parents, the child welfare system has a responsibility to address needs of foster children and ensure their supervision and security. the susceptibility of children in foster care and human

trafficking must take precedent of the plans of the state and child welfare organizations. needs children are all our children, and as the nation combats human trafficking, we must do a better job of identifying, protecting, and supporting vulnerable youth like stephanie to prevent them from becoming another statistic, helping them thrive and become healthy, productive, and happy adults. thank you so much. ..

>> sadly some lives were taken by a monster who is prowling the streets. and what my memory brought me back to were some of the things that you all said, especially melinda, your comment about 30 years ago, you made the same recommendations and i see that so clearly, thinking back and not much has changed. a little bit. some has changed, but not nearly enough. we have so much work to do. what i also appreciate out our first panel in the legislation that can be helpful, what i appreciate is not only what you described with the problem of the members here today from your perspective that you also provided input with solutions

and i am really curious and my first question is we have a chance to meet a little bit i know that every other member up here you an eyewitness this earlier and so i thank you for being here and i thank you for having the courage to come and testify today and you have heard some of the ideas to prevent kids from entering into a life of human trafficking.

so what can the federal government do to help ensure that young kids get a really good perman loving home and stay out of the world and the streets that we know are so destructive. >> thank you again, mr. chairman. and i think something is very important to me, everything and someone who has the perspective of living in reality. one thing that i think was really helpful, i know from my own story and many other stories is that we all do this in different ways and it comes down to comprehensive gender specific emphasis, and that means for both girls and boys and translators and i think that what is so important is that we really have it where it is

comprehensive. what i mean is that it's not just professionals. and i think that that is the best way that we can really start to fix the holes in which i thought that we were actually following through. for myself it started with the connections which is very much informed and knew about my story for years previously. so it really takes a conglomerate of different people and officials who say that we are going to stand up for the youth. does that answer your question? >> yes. >> and i think that to come back is another thing. >> in addition i think that we need to leave have in addition to this where we are thinking outside of the box and we have a

policeman to maintain contact. and i also think that we need to retreat to the read terminology of things and we need to understand that the labeling is real as well as the well-intentioned that our work is and it becomes very offensive and it really is making a hard time to overcome the victimization. these young people should never be referred to this because they often time are of not legal age to consent to this. so i think that even as a survivor, i wouldn't say that

i'm just a survivor but a clever and they overcome it. this is something that we are all integrated in. >> thank you. we are going to think about this and answer some of your questions as well. so what do you see as a coarse role in helping to reduce youth in foster care and how can we work with the child welfare agencies to ensure that these are kept safe from harm? >> will first, i will put this on speed dial as well and the courts definitely have part of this and we get silos and especially in regards to juvenile justice, we know that these are representing the same, and the same pathway and with

that said, the courts have done a better job of the agency to ensure that our work is consistent and this includes data that exists rather than by anecdote. this includes the people who will hop on board and i think all of this is very important and one of the things on this issue that is so critical for us is identification of the key elements. including a specific elements with you these children are. many children in the state of washington do not end up in the juvenile justice system by being labeled as prostitutes, but they come through a variety of

offenses in the life and drug possession being the most frequent felonies in the midwest and they're all kind of good learnings that we have and can and should know because that is the courts rule in that regard by not criminalizing a person, this child who was a victim who can intervene to impact this child's life and make sure that they are referred to resources which can intervene and interrupt. interrupting the process towards being deeply traffic. one of the things that we have learned in developing this in the state of washington is that in many instances this is true for foster kids and children who

are not in the foster care system. in the early days are when they are being trafficked in the early days, they are still connected. they might even be connected because they are on the ru

i are of of written testimony that you provide us this council counsel and i think you have done some of that with you and yours in some of the other witnesses as well. we are looking to see now

immediately that we have some of those bipartisan legislation that might help supplement this and what you all are doing at the state level. >> i would like to talk a little bit about what is already being done in another arena. if we look at how we are treating young people through refugee resettlement, we received a $1.000000 grant to be able to serve 20 young people and these people have an education special, people working on legal issue, appropriate supervision and care and including those who are here without papers that are undocumented that haven't happened across the border.

the average programmer seems $109 million for programs across the country as well. so originally to serve the needs of sexually exploited children in our communities, including nationally to become the infrastructure to respond a lot easier than to set up another system. can we work in parallel to use the resources to have some equity with how we treat our local victims. >> would you like to have something there? >> and this includes marketing be appropriate timeframe the mandating and state child welfare laws include a traffic

trial and right now i believe this is part of the bass note as well, that it's the third party and perpetrator of the abuse. federal government can and should be the leader in that because 99% nemec with the federal statute provides and that is -- these are kids and how could this not be abuse. and i think as was mentioned, these are children in the most fundamental way because we have taken him from their homes and we have made a determination that the homes are not safe or provided for their well-being and not the best permanent place for them. but when they run, we just don't look and it is shameful. >> you have any comment there? >> yes, we know that resources

are tight and it's always going to be that way. there are administrative things to make this work better for the people. but as it stands now, they cannot have access to this program funded by hud or one of the networks because they are part of the jurisdiction that hasn't worked. including access to the care that they need and if you have a foster care young person, instead of being able to go into a transitional living program funded, which we operate, you are not eligible because you can't be in the same place. it makes no sense on the ground for those of us are doing the work and it seems like we could make some small changes that would make a huge difference in the lives of our young people. >> to the extent they are not already part of the written testimony, feel free to supplement so that we can look

for a way to respond quickly to our recommendations. >> thank you. mr. young, you're recognized. >> we have an excellent panel. your testimony was inspiring, your life story is certainly is riveting and we are personalizing and humanizing this right now that all of you are doing good work to address and i appreciate that. i am particularly struck with your systematic approach to address the sexual trafficking in the state of washington and i think we need to do more hard analysis of data and i know that you and your teammate and stakeholders have been doing that with the protocol here and i would like to dive deeper into that with you with several brief

questions. we have best practices or generally accepted practices in other states and how does that inform the development of washington state's protocol, how did you divine these best practices from other states? >> that might be easier, the process for the protocol includes this and what it meant, focused interviews and individual interviews with survivors and folks in the community on the ground. this is part of the small summits which have brought together judged attempts and workers and juvenile probation counselors and school people and community activists and advocates and social service

providers and social and health services and welfare administrators all coming together, as i said briefly, to share experience on the ground and the best practices with the perspectives of the various disciplines. in addition before we went out into the field as it were, we also did independent research with an individual who is a nationally known expert with the commercially sexually exploited children and we developed a protocol about best practices. >> it sounds like you did a lot of focus groups, so to speak, that is oftentimes how this information is gathered. perhaps we should follow-up with respect to some of the homework then it occurred in the data

analysis going into those meetings. but i do wonder as with so many other areas of public policies, in terms of robust information related to this. >> without a doubt. >> do you use the opportunities and do you see the opportunities to improve that nationally, or do you think that there should be a state-by-state database, so to speak of information collected from case files, as i know you are in the process of doing and other things as well and maybe you could speak to that? >> i will let him do this, but certainly the answer is yes. when i mentioned about not just moving this and the population from one county to the other, we have federal leadership that will come and we will try to figure out what data is being

collected. and there should be consistent definitions of what sex trafficking means and that leadership needs to come from the federal government and when law enforcement or the courts are collecting data. how are they collecting this so it means the same thing in the federal database. >> one final point with the director of the center of prevention of child sexual abuse at johns hopkins, she indicated that much of the emphasis needs to be placed not just on treatment or punishment, but also interventions to prevent the occurrence of sexual not trafficking and that includes public investments that we need to make that will not only save money but protect persons and i

am open to that testimony either written after the fact or putting this forward. >> just some quick thoughts that we have tried to do in washington state were released in the seattle area is institute a national safe place around king county and as you have provided, we have been apart of this in the community summers and it will be over 3000 sites right now and the bus driver says, how are you doing, and he calls us and in 45 minutes we meet the bus and one of the largest counties in the nation within 45 minutes and help recover the young person who may have set foot without of the outside of their house to the national safe place model is eight interesting way to get the

community involved. there's lots of adventures with families who end up with shelter programs to do some family reconciliation but to actually try to duck tape that family together for a long time this includes our long-term services and there would be a lot that we could do with foster care, identifying and training with them with what we need to do and what is beginning to get into this or perform the survival and our communities. it is like training and not very perspectives safety net for our young people. >> thank you and i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you for holding this hearing on addressing sex trafficking.

i am interested in working with the members of the previous panel. and especially from both sides of the aisle on how federal laws and part of use and the prevention of abuse and neglect. many people are living in foster care each month. many turned 18 and i am not only worried whether these individuals are prepared for life after foster care, but whether they get the protection that they deserve. our job as representatives is to ensure that the foster care system prepares him for the successes in life. i thank you for your dedication to really helping others out and fostering youth. you have mentioned your testimony, at least once, and i read it about the red flags that

go unnoticed. can you tell us what these red flags are? >> in particular at age 10 to 13 i was still part of the education system that i was in and out of. i want to go back to the absences and i think that it would be good to integrate the identification system in regards to educating them about this population and i think that is very much important because i think that if someone would've asked me at 13 what was going on. i would've told you and this is just like the education system and i seek to find a new me and the different me. so i think that definitely is part of the education system and

the cell phone thing is very important and you have to really take that in there and not even that, but just the context of the language. often times you see people using different language for different things. so there is certain terminologies and referring to one another and things like that and saying that that is my wife, that is my mom, that is another girl that has been victimized. so really not only the terminology being used by the education and incorporating the education system and our hopes to make progress in identifying and helping the victims. it's important because one thing

that i felt was very important for people to understand is that if you were to ask me at 13 years old, i wouldn't have seen anything wrong because i was trained to perceive my life in this way because no one educated me to say something is wrong. also we need to understand that young people are not taught about healthy relationships and we need to understand that that is a problem where we have relationships that are not clearly visible as to what the relationship is. so i think that the biggest thing that we need to say is it's taken a long time for me to be able to speak the way that i have and use the semantics that i do. and if i was 13 years old, i didn't have the opportunities, but my story is just a conduit of many others. and my hopes is that we can make these changes so that others can come and show their times as

well. >> one other follow-up, the foster system hinders decision making. what kind of foster you should be in control? >> in regards to a young person sleeping in a friends house, that is not the decision of the caregiver, oftentimes you have to get approval from the social worker or just on the case or things like that and i also want to say that in addition to that, we should be more aware of the rights because there are disruptions in the home to the foster parents and you can call this person or that person actually goes against maybe the state rights. and only a judge can make that decision. >> does that answer your questions? >> yes, many report missing children in this information and wire the states doing this?

>> actually, the members save numbers states including ohio are getting great feedback and there is momentum that we have a proof of concept and we have led to the early location in the finding of these children before they have been exploited. so i think about is encouraging and the fear that may have been prevalent, this is a partnership that we all have a role to play here. many times they are not even looking for these children. at the age of 18, when they age out, that means no one has vouched for them and are forever lost and they could be in this area. unless we get to the reports. it is a cycle that is almost

part of this. i think at the federal level if we want uniform and consistent approach, that is the best model. i know that there is proposed legislation, every child affords the same level of this. >> okay, thank you. i ask unanimous consent in an excellent article. protecting foster children from sex trafficking. the president of the policy institute for children includes a number of specific policy recommendations for us to consider. if you haven't read that article, you might want to take a look at usa today. >> thank you to the panel for the testimony. so we are almost done.

obviously this is something that is across party lines and part of people, saying that this type of abuse in the problem that is something that we stand united against and i appreciate what you guys are doing. what i found in your testimony was i will read you a statement here is that my social workers were aware of is being exploited and did nothing about it. i would like to know how that happens and what do you mean by that. >> what i mean is that one trying to get some of the documents of my upbringing, of course, it was clearly part of

documents that she has, dear due to years of exploitation. but at the time there were not resources for ways to help these youths and even though i am only 24 years old and we have made so many strides within this will certainly, i mean, literally it will be something that we have to -- i'm sorry. >> that's okay, you are doing fine. >> we just have to pay attention and stay focused to the vulnerability of this. >> that really concerns me with the people and they are just outstanding people and dedicated their lives for the mission.

when i hear something like that, that tells me that something in the system is failing and a what i like to do is hear from the other panelists as well as to how does that happen and how that is not discovered in the system and how does a worker whose mission is to take care of a child fails to do anything about it even though they are aware of it. can anyone explain this? >> i will admit that more often it is not as explicit as to use part of this as the case record. reflecting on some of the young women that i work with, i'm thinking that they were victims and i just did not have the skills and training to identify that. but when it is explicitly documented in case record, i

think a lot of us, given the high turnover rate, that information may not be shared with the new caseworker or have that long history of understanding the behaviors and being able to determine that this is something that a child is often and how can we ensure that they are not re-victimized. i think that that is additional training that is a skill set and when they are new at the job and many new caseworker's especially in texas are young and right out of college, they don't have experience working with children and families and we just don't have the knowledge to be able to understand what this problem looks like and how to respond to it appropriately. and i think access to resources is another issue. i know that in texas there are limited resources with trafficking and those resources are not available. so i think that that is a huge part. when it comes to those times when you know a child is being

victimized, you have to -- the system has to provide that caseworker ability to respond appropriately in the skill set to actually be able to identify that. >> i would like to say that i think that this happens way more than is acknowledged. especially inside of child welfare and in very few states is at the purview of child welfare to intervene and i have been shocked day after day with those who call to report a marked drop in center than a young person is being trafficked. they say that this is a 12 or 13-year-old, an issue of no one takes ownership over this and no one adopts them as they're concerned or ongoing concern, so this multidisciplinary team of justice bridges talking about resolving that and we will all

be accountable, but also we need to have policy that says where does the jurisdiction lie. and there is a lot of truth to the notion and i am always humbled to be with them on teaching young people agency. it is not rocket science. adolescents are not green monsters from the blue lagoon. we know what makes young people feel self-confident and maybe even do some reporting of their own and these young people have not afforded the opportunities opportunity is to learn to drive so you take a ride from somebody and you can't go overnight with her girlfriend. so we figure out a way and we are not affording the milestones and opportunities that we would be in a regular home and i think that is one of the biggest the services that we do to these young people out of fear of liability and i think that that goes again with who is responsible for creating this

person as a young adult in fostering that make them vulnerable. >> the judge would like to respond as well and we will let them talk. >> well, i would like to say that there are some who are at law for these cases and it is a failure on the judicial system is part in a huge magnitude because it stems back in part to lack of training and a lack of ability to be alert to the cases to be presented and to approach the caseworker into the court and say that we have this child on her caseload and where issue. >> i appreciate that input.

when i was starting my practice i dealt with child protective services and it was a burnout factor and a tough job and not to have that central casework, it these should be the cases that rise to the top that say that we have something very significant going on here and to take care of this. >> i have one thing to say, that i think that one thing out of lack of knowledge and fear of protection it happens all too often and we have judges who are misinformed or not clearly educated and they are walking the young people up in detention and i think that that needs to be really clear with no informant. they are basically waiting for

someone to pick them up and i would really like to make that clear as we do furthest to the judges that they need to be educated and informed and abilities in ways and protocols to deal with this. >> thank you very much. ideal back. >> we thank all of you for being here, a little of her two hours of the hearing and i would just like to say how much i appreciate what you are all doing to help our young people across the country and we thank you for being here today to testify a number of things that really struck a lot of the members here today. i know for me that always brings me back and i didn't really

understand what that relationship wise. and when you say that i really didn't know what that was, i didn't know what love were a family was what that was, people don't get it. but i get it. >> and it was about children being children and allowing foster kids to be children and get a drivers license and communicate with coaches and do normal things and that is a part of this whole effort and this includes what legislation might

look like to get your input so that we can make sure that this is right. it is about saving lives and the lives of our children. if members have additional questions, they will submit them to you in writing, and we would appreciate receiving your responses for the record and the committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> coming up on c-span2, a federal judge talks about the u.s. constitution and the rule of law. then look at market competition in the health care system. you can watch the hearing later on our schedule. >> members of a house committee talk about the development of the health care website in pulling people into health care exchanges. live coverage begins tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span.

friday, texas republican senator ted cruz will headline the iowa republican party reagan dinner in des moines. watch live coverage at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> just hours after the japanese attack on pearl harbor and before her husband addressed the nation, eleanor roosevelt was on the radio talking with america. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. i am speaking to you tonight at a very serious moment in our history. cabinet is convening and the leaders are meeting with the president. the state department and army and navy officials have been with the president all afternoon and the japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the very time that japan's airships were bombing our citizens in hawaii and the philippines and sinking one of our transports

loaded with lumber on its way to hawaii. by tomorrow morning, members of congress will be ready for action and in the meantime, we the people are already prepared for action. for months the knowledge that something of this kind might happen has been hanging over our heads, and yet it seems impossible to believe and drop the everyday things of life and feel that there was only one thing which was important, no matter where it struck. that is all over now and there is no more uncertainty. we know we have to face and we know that we are ready to face it. >> watch our program at c-span.org/first ladies and see it at 7:00 p.m. eastern.

>> studentcam video competition asked what is the most important issue congress should discuss in 2014. be sure to include c-span video. it is open to all middle and high school students for the grand prize of $5000. this year we have doubled the number of winners and prizes and entries are due by january 20, 2014. if you need more information, visit studentcam.org. >> a conversation of the u.s. constitution and the rule of law from the ninth circuit court of appeals. this is a part of a series from the heritage foundation on judicial restraint. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> good afternoon and welcome to the heritage foundation we welcome those were joining us on our heritage website those who are also joining us on c-span this afternoon we would ask everyone in house to make sure that your cell phones have been turned off for all of our recordings going on. we will post this for everyone's future reference and our internet viewers are always welcome to e-mail us at speaker at heritage.org. hosting our discussion and introducing our special guest today is the ronald reagan distinguished fellow american is here at the heritage foundation and also the 75th attorney general of the united states. edwin meese. [applause]

>> we joined you in welcoming here in welcoming you this evening to which as we know, it includes those that are familiar with history is named in honor of a distinguished judge who epitomized thankfulness to the constitution and this lecture is part of a series that we have in preserving this series and it marks a very important part in the series. in november of 1811 at the age of 32, the story became the youngest justice appointed to the supreme court and he served in that capacity from 1811 through 1845. she is last remembered which was first published in 1833.

this work is part of many experts in the field. it is the first on the provisions of the united states constitution and remains a critical source about the american public and the novel idea that the founders put together an independent judiciary the story of joseph was known as a statesman of the old republic in the sense that he was one that did much to shape the concepts and ideas in accordance with the ideas of the founders as they look for our constitution and how it should be utilized and interpreted and how it should be the basis upon

which the courts should make their decisions. of course that continues to be something very important to us here at heritage. not only did it act as a justice but as a pillar of the legal profession. he was even, while sitting on the supreme court, a professor of law at harvard and he was also a prolific writer writing many law review articles and magazine articles and the like and a frequent order on patriotic occasions and other public events. and published a variety of books relating to the law and books are recognized even in those early days within the united states and also internationally. our speaker tonight has demonstrated throughout his

career his fidelity to the constitution and i might say in a circuit that has frequently had guidance. as a judge on the u.s. court of appeals for the ninth circuit, he has participated in over 10,000 federal cases and has written hundreds of published opinions on a broad range of subjects. in this makes him a large speaker here. he has also worked in a number of ways as a cause of justice and she was appointed as chairman of the federal judicial centers and appellate judge education and chief justice roberts has appointed him to the international judicial relations committee of the united states judicial conference and appointed him as chairman of

that body, which is very critical in bridging the gap between the united states and other countries in the discussion of the judiciary and constitutional matters. his professional interests include administration and reform and legal education and he has been the chair of this division of the american bar association and chair of the appellate judges conference and their committee on appellate practice. also an adjunct professor at the lewis and clark law school and has been a judge throughout the country and the number of distinguished law schools. he retired from the united states army reserve where he served for a number of years in the corps and he worked in both the army reserve and the national guard. he and his wife who's with us

here tonight have eight children and 18 grandchildren, so he is literally helping to carry on the spirit of constitutional fidelity. an outstanding speaker that is truly worthy for his fine work as a judge and defender of the constitution. [applause] [applause] >> thank you for that very kind introduction. it is a singular honor to be delivering this here at the heritage foundation and your presence here tonight makes this honor all the more meaningful to me. for those of us who believe that judges enforce the constitution,

the general is a real hero. not only instrumental in the appointment of judges and the value of the original meaning of the constitution, but also made the case for this interpretive approach in high-profile speeches during his time as the attorney general of the united states. those speeches had a tremendous impact and it is fair to say that without ed, the effort to restore the original meaning of the constitution would not have been as nearly as successful as it has been in for that, all of us owe him a debt of gratitude. [applause] [applause] the name of this lecture carries with it a great legacy. her opinions and essays, it

continues to astound to american thought and rightly so. his breadth of knowledge is extraordinary, is buried as promissory notes and constitutional law and even natural law. james mcclellan is a legal scholar associated with russell kirk once said that the stories stand out like a ray of light in the midnight hour of american political theater. indeed, it is a natural law philosophy that i wish to focus on this evening and a comprehensive analysis with tears. and it's far beyond the scope of this lecture. i offer a sketch of his views on the natural law with the modest goal of showing how some of his

insights on a few of today's hotly contested legal disputes. my analysis must begin by acknowledging the limits of my inquiry. to speak of the philosophy is to imply that they had a consistent and coherent understanding of natural law. but the truth is that there was a good deal of confusion about the natural law in the late 18th and early 19th century. the natural rights theory and other enlightenment thinkers was unwittingly conflated with the theory offered by philosophers like thomas aquinas and story himself was guilty of this confusion on occasion. fortunately, however, we need

not detain ourselves with the differences between natural law and natural rights. what i wish to examine tend to parallel fairly well, albeit perfectly, those of the classic natural law tradition. let us begin by examining stories understanding the relationship of natural law, the law that exists without any human author and positive law, the kind of man made law that congress passes and that i interpret in my everyday role as a judge. in addition to being a justice of the supreme court, the story, as you have heard, is one of the great legal scholars of the day. he was a professor at my home or on the matter and as a professor

that he produced his famous commentaries on the constitution would serve as the a textbook for his course on constitutional law. given his extensive body of scholarship, it is unsurprising that he penned an encyclopedia entry on natural law, which appeared in this encyclopedia essay remains the most complete exposition of his views on natural law and it is appropriate that we focus our examination of stories and philosophies they are. the essays open by defining the natural law, as that system of principles, which human reason has discovered to regulate the conduct of man and all his

various relations. let me reread his definition that natural law is that system of principles which human reason has discovered to regulate the conduct of man in all of his various relations. immediately we should notice that they see natural law as something pertaining to reason to use the words of thomas aquinas and it's something that we can all access to reason rather than something known only by revelation. but unlike the laws that are passed by congress, natural law does not change. story says that god has fixed the laws of mankind's been in has a supreme knight to prescribe rules to which man shall regulate his conduct. and again we see this agreement

that it is altogether unchangeable in its first principles. it is important for us to posit and understand that the natural law applies to man because of the nature of man and that natural law thinkers believe that man's nature is an important respect of inherent in unchangeable. this is critical as to why the natural laws are universally binding and indeed our declaration of independence explicitly assumes a fixed human nature from which we can derive certain principles. ..

>> these are manmade law, sometimes positive law. in classic, natural law theory, positive law is derived from and implements the natural law. as the reverend martin luther king, jr. explained in the letter from a birmingham jail to the extent that a positive law conflicts with natural law, there is no obligation to obey such a law because in the words

of agustus, there is no law at all. now, the story was an agreement with dr. king's description of the relationship between natural and positive law using the example of marriage to illustrate his view. he observed miernlg arrises from the law of nature because it channels otherwise dangerous sexual appetites towards the mutual good of the spouse, and the responsible procreation and raring of children. from these premises, story concludes if marriage be an institution derived from the law of nature, then whatever that ha natural tendency it discourage it, destroy its value is by the same law prohibited. in other words, story believes positive law must confo