: live now to the u.s. house. >> going live now to the u.s. house. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered today by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. god of the universe, thank you for giving us another day. it is your nature to hold us in your living presence always. it is our nature to think of you and of others only momentarily or in passing.

be with each of us that we may be our very best and prove ourselves worthy of your love and your grace. bless the members of this people's house in their work and deliberations today, that they might merit the trust of the american people and manifest the strength of our republican democracy to the nations of the world. without you, o lord, we can do nothing. with you and in you, we can establish a community of peace, goodness and justice now and forever. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance today will be led by the gentleman from illinois, mr. quigley. mr. quigley: thank you mr.

speaker. please join me in reciting the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: the chair will entertain up to 15 requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentlelady from kansas rise? ms. jenkins: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker: without objection. ms. jenkins: i rise in support of h.r. 5629, a bill that congressman kind and i authored for college savings plans. 529 plans enjoy growing popularity. primarily with middle-class families who are looking for ways to responsibly prepare for the growing cost of college. the 12 million 529 account holders across the country are able to choose a plans whose

plans will grow tax-free to pay for tuition or room and board. 529 will make technical changes to 529 plans. it will able to purchase a computer, remove the unnecessary distribution aggregation requirements from the account and allow 529 funds to be redeposited if they withdraw from college. this will help families get the most out of their savings. i ask my colleagues to join me in this effort and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from illinois is recognized for one minute. mr. quigley: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the gentleman is recognized. mr. quigley: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, the chicago cubs baseball has lost a legend. ernie banks, mr. cub, passed away last friday. from humble beginnings ernie won two m.v.p.'s as a power-hitting shortstop became an all-star and a hall of famer. but perhaps more importantly, he overcome the racism he faced

to become an amazing ambassador for the cubs, his beloved wrigley field and the game itself. you could not have met a more decent, kinder happier soul on any field of endeavor. it was for these roles that he was honored with the presidential medal of freedom. ernie, thanks for reminding us that baseball is a game that should be watched and played for fun. indeed let's play too. you will be missed. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> request permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> madam speaker january is human trafficking awareness month and i'm pleased that the house is taking up a number of bipartisan members this week to help eradicate this disturbing crime and assist its victims. to most americans, human trafficking is something that happens in farahway lands. unfortunately, the reality hits

much closer to home. right now over 300,000 young americans are in danger of falling victim to this fast-growing criminal enterprise. mr. fitzpatrick: as both a member of the human trafficking task force and a representative for anti-trafficking organizations and advocates in my district in pennsylvania i'm well aware of the devastating impact of this modern day slavery here in our nation and in our community back home. but 2015 can be the year we take significant steps to end this scourge. the work on the ground in montgomery county such as organizations as the and face-based groups law enforcement and concerned citizens is in fact making an impact and increasing awareness and strengthening our response locally. the legislation under consideration this week here on capitol hill allows this congress to work together to ensure we can support those impacted by this crime and combat and ultimately defeat human trafficking in our nation

and hopefully around the world. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from new hampshire seek recognition? ms. kuster: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. kuster: thank you, madam speaker. today i rise to honor the lives of ronnie burr lack, a member of the united states ski team who were taken from us far too soon by a tragic avalanche by training in austria in early january. they dedicated themselves to representing our country with skill and dignity as members of our national ski team. they were both very talented but sadly we will never know how high their stars may have risen. ronnie and bryce touched many others with their love of life, their drive to compete and their commitment to their teammates. ronnie was a native of franconia, new hampshire, the same town that producing skiing

great bode miller. he started skiing at cannon mountain before attending burke mountain academy in vermont and coming into their own as a ski racer. bryce speeked weekends skiing with his family at alta and sky bird. they first met in f.i.s. races before training together last summer and becoming great friends. in the wake of this horrible tragedy, everyone who knew these two young men have spoken to their integrity, their adventurous spirits and their big, big hearts. they spent their lives working hard at the thing they loved the most. my heart goes out to their family, their many, many friends and the entire ski racing community. thank you, madam speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized.

>> madam speaker, it's shocking. human trafficking is the fastest growing business of organized crime and the third largest criminal enterprise in the world. in my home state of ohio, the most common age a child becomes victimized by trafficking is 13 years old. at 13, a child should be looking forward to their first days of high school, not living in fear. in 2014 alone in ohio, 98 arrests were made in human trafficking investigations involving 181 potential victims. now, the house is fighting back. the anti-trafficking bills this week will take aim at modern trafficking networks and the criminals who seek to abuse the lives of their victims. these bills encourage states to adopt safe harbor laws, enhance services for homeless youth around protect children further in our nation's our foster child system. we must increase collaboration among governments. our founders declared inherent and inalienable, the rights of

life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. human trafficking violates these core rights. mr. wenstrup: a strong commitment to human life will helps that suffer in the dark suffers of this heinous crime. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. >> madam speaker, i rise today along with my colleague, mr. butterfield, to congratulate coach mike krzyzewski of duke university on becoming the first coach in the history of division incaa basketball to win 1,000 games. mr. price: blue devils everywhere are proud of this remarkable feat, the crowning achievement of a career that has seen coach k win four national titles and two olympic gold medals. many of these 1,000 wins came against other storied a.c.c. programs such as carolina, n.c. state, wake forest. that makes coach k's historic achievement all the more impressive.

i taught at duke and then represented the campus for a number of years. i know firsthand of mike krzyzewski's character and integrity. he's not a world class coach, he's also a committed educator that trained his players to succeed in whatever they take in life. emily krzyzewski center stands as a memorial to his mother and the sign of his dedication to at-risk youth as they aspire to a college education. so on behalf of the duke community whose core values that coach k exemplifies and on behalf of the house of representatives, congratulations. we look forward of watching you build on your winning tradition for many years to come. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> madam speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to rrks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, earlier this month, the united states department of agriculture announced 370

million dollars for 115 conservation projects in 50 states. these dollars are the result of the regional conservation partnership program which was recently created in the 2014 farm bill by the consolidation of numerous regional conservation programs previously authorized under the 2008 law. this rcpp funding will reach an additional $400 million through nonfederal matching funds. roughly 40% of these total dollars are going towards national or multistate projects. about 35% towards critical conservation areas which includes the great lakes region the chesapeake bay watershed as well as other high-priority water regions. as chairman of the agriculture subcommittee on conservation forestry, the committee will be closely watching how usda administrators this critical program through the oversight of the conservation title in the coming year. i strongly support commonsense, volunteer agriculture conservation and i look

forwarded to working with usda and the various stakeholders on how to make these programs effective and results driven as possible and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? mr. butterfield: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. butterfield: madam speaker, i rise with congressman price to recognize the head coach of duke university men's basketball team on becoming the winningest division i men's basketball coach in our nation's history. coach mike krzyzewski, his 1,000th career victory came sunday afternoon in new york city at madison square garden against the red storm of st. john's university, a thrilling second half. over his 35 years as their head coach, he has led the blue devils to four ncaa division i championships, 13 a.c.c. tournament championships and 12 a.c.c. regular season championships. people like grant hill and johnny dawkins and shane

battier and even my son-in-law, dahntay jones all honed their skills under the watchful eye of coach k went on to successful careers in the nba. coach k is a four-time olympic gold medal winner in 1984, in 1992 as team's assistant coach and in 2008 as head coach. in his most recent book entitled "the gold standard: leading a world-class team" he said leading the team to gold was one of the most gratifying things in his life. his career is impressive by any measure. perhaps most impressive though, is through his work off the basketball court. in addition to supporting countless charities over the years, he and his wife mickie founded the emily krzyzewski center named in honor of his mother. the center mentors school-aged children to mentor them for skills of college and beyond. when asked what he wanted to be remembered for he said just for the fact i'm honest man, a truthful person and someone

that cares about people, not just himself. coach k serves as an inspiration to so many around the nation and the world. i ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating coach mike krzyzewski on his most historic 1,000th victory. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? . without objection, the gentlelady from florida is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: i'm proud to join my south florida colleague, congressman deutsch, in a resolution commemorating today the international holocaust remembrance day and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the nazi extermination camp at auschwitz. today serves as a somber and grim reminder of the evil mankind is capable of. as over 1.3 million people were systematically murdered in auschwitz alone, including over 1.1 million jews. as painful as it is to speak

about the horrors of auschwitz, we have a moral obligation to honor the memories of those who were murdered during modern humanity's darkest peemplt as anti-semitism grows throughout europe, we must take a solemn vow that these deaths were not in vain and that we will never forget that we will never allow such atrocities to occur again. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from michigan is recognized for one minute. mr. kildee: it's now week four and the new republican congress there's still no jobs bill anywhere in sight. instead of taking up a infrastructure bill or a minimum wage bill, to give working families bigger paychecks, we are seeing a dangerous immigration bill that will actually hurt our nation's

security. next week republican leadership is abandoning a bipartisan border security bill from the last congress and instead trying to pass an irresponsible and unworkable $10 billion bill that simply appeases the extreme voices within their caucus. border security experts say this bill would be ineffective. they call it unserious and dangerous for our nation's security. secretary jay johnson says if enacted it would actually leave the border less secure. this does not combat threats or secure our border it simply requires the federal government to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money on unnecessary projects. if we really want to do something here in this house about border security, let's bring up the border security results act that was unanimously passed by the homeland security committee in the last congress. bipartisan and unanimous. it would get things done.

with that mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new hampshire seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. guinta: madam speaker, granite staters are fed up with washington's wasteful ways. the government's irresponsible spending has led to billions of your dollars being wasted to fund projects that already exist. instead of ensuring that most -- the most truly in need receive a hand up, your taxpayer dollars are instead being handed out to increase washington's bureaucracy. that's why i launched operation taxpayer an ongoing initiative it designed to eliminate the wasteful plaguing our government. running up our debt, and crowding out funding for worthwhile programs. as part of this initiative, i have introduced house resolution 45, a bipartisan bill to fundamentally alter the way the legislation is brought to the

house floor. under house resolution 45, every piece of legislation awaiting consideration by congress would receive a duplication score by the nonpartisan congressional research service. with the goal of providing members the necessary knowledge to identify whether or not a new bill creates a new program or project that already exists within our government. this is a commonsense bipartisan step that will allow our government to finally take sizable bites out of our debt and deficit while ensuring the protection of safety nets for all americans. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized. mr. higgins: cancellation of this week's vote on the secure our borders act is a relief for northern border communities, including my western new york district. this legislation would require a biometric exit system at every border crossing which would duplicate inspections and significantly slow the flow of

people and goods across the northern border. ynd the border -- beyond the border agreement already allows for it to be shared between canadian and u.s. official, thus the implementation of this system at the northern border would be redundant at least. already congested border crossings such as the peace bridge in western new york, would see longer delays which would ultimately create disastrous economic effects and compound security concerns. the officials said implementation of this program would effectively shut down the northern border. investments and personnel and infrastructure should be made along our borders, but we must take into consideration the unique needs of northern and southern border communities and protect the strong economic relationship that is essential to the united states and canadian economies. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from washington seek recognition? mrs. mcmorris rodgers: permission to address the house

for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. miss madam speaker -- mrs. mcmorris rodgers: it's with heavy hearts i join in remembering one of the darkest stains on the history of the world. today on the international holocaust remembrance day, we pay homage to the lives that were lost and remember the freedom that triumphed the day the death camps were liberated. on this day 70 years ago, thousands of prisoners were liberated at auschwitz. the nazi death camp where over a million jews lost their lives. in all more than six million jews were killed by the nazis. wiping out a part of european culture that existed for more than 1,000 years. today europe confronts a new wave of anti-semitism as we witnessed in the murders recently at the kosher market in paris. what the world needs is religious freedom and promotion of faith as a force for good. we also need strong military alliances that suppress racial hatred and genocide whenever it

raises its ugly head. after the death camps were liberated, jews confronted still an anti-semitic europe and they made their way to israel. when they fought for the war of independence in 1948, half the soldiers were survivors from the death camps. so today when we remember the victims, let us also remember that it was the liberation of the survivors that helped found a new state. the state of tolerance democracy, and freedom that israel so proudly embodies. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? illinois. the gentleman from illinois is recognized. >> madam speaker as the 114th congress continues to set its course for the coming term, i rise today to honor jerry "j.r." mcbride, a member of the due page county board who died of canser in october at the young age of 47. i rise not to dwell on his passing but suggest that we all

make -- take a moment to learn a few lessons from his life. mr. foster: j.r. focused on the needs of others. he was a family man. he cared deeply about his wife becky, and his five children. he was a community man, helping more area nonprofit organizations than i have time to mention here. and perhaps most important for those of us in congress, j.r. was a public servant who put the needs of his community and his constituents ahead of politics and partisanship. j.r. was an equal tune listener and a friend -- tune tsh-opportunity listener and a friend. he knew the importance of cooperation and compromise. of humor and humanity. he saw in his fellow public servants the common aspiration to do what is right for the people that we have been elected to represent. mr. mcbride was recognized --

recognized we are all in this together and he was committed to working together for the greater good. that lesson, along with his accomplishments for due page county, and his memory, will live on. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. shuster: -- >> we'll take up legislation that will help dwat one of the most despicable criminal enterprises in the world human trafficking. in my home state of pennsylvania, we had a report of 82 incidents of human trafficking cases last year and a report of 426 calls of human trafficking violations. mr. costello: i am pleased late last year pennsylvania added itself as a state that enacted stricter human trafficking laws as have most other states nationwide. pennsylvania was also named as one of the five most improved states. our work on this issue though, is far from over. legislation this week takes important steps in the right direction by streamlining law

enforcement resources. it enhances victim services and it criminalizes those who knowingly advertise commercial exploitation of children. it also allows federal grants to support shelters for vick tifments i applaud the efforts of my colleagues in the house for raising awareness of this heinous crime and i encourage bipartisan support of all of the human trafficking legislation that we are considering this week. madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from illinois seek recognition? the gentlelady is recognized. >> i rise today to commemorate international holocaust remembrance day and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the auschwitz concentration camp. ms. kelly: 70 years ago following the atrocities of the holocaust, which left six million jews, one million roma 250,000 mentally and physically disabled individuals, and 9,000 homosexuals brutally murdered

simply because they were different. the world's democracies stood together and declared, never again. these two simple and powerful words greet visitors to the united states holocaust memorial museum as a reminder that is our collective responsibility to promote religious tolerance. and stand up against persecution or totalitarianism in any form. the recent attacks at a kosher market and at the satirical magazine charlie hebdo in paris the kidnapping of 276 christian school girls by boko haram in nigeria, and beheadings of journalists and 13 teenage boys last week for the simple act of watching a soccer game underscore the unfortunate and troubling reminder that we must remain vigilant and undeterred in our fight to protect the most human rights. never again must be more than an aspirational statement, it must be fact.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from iowa seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> madam speaker i rise today to address the tragic yet growing reality of human trafficking. this evil exists even in the united states of america here at home 300,000 young americans are in danger of becoming victims of sex trafficking. most trubble something how quickly these youth vanish in the shadows. within 48 hours of being on the street one in three kids will be lured into sexual exploitation, according to the nabble network for run away -- national network for run away youth. that's why we must build awareness. education is power. please, seek out the organizations that could educate you so that you can make a difference. in iowa, we have the iowa network against human trafficking, iowa teens against human trafficking, and breaking

traffic, and many, many other fantastic community and religious organizations working to raise awareness. mr. young: and combat human trafficking in the state. look them up. get involved. we will build together to end trafficking because our women and children are not safe. this isn't something that just happens across the oceans. this is happening at home. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? >> ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. hahn: thank you, madam speaker. in world war ii more than 200,000 brave americans answered the call of duty by joining the merchant marines. braving troubled seas to deliver crucial supplies to the battlefields of europe and the pacific. they faced enemy attack thousands perished at sea, and hundreds more were captured. unfortunately the veterans of

merchant marine who risked their lives in the service of this nation were never eligible for the provisions of the g.i. bill that helped millions of veterans go to college, secure a home, and transition seamlessly into civilian life. to right this wrong i'm introducing the honoring our world war ii merchant mariners act of 2015. this bill would provide the one-time payment of $25,000 to fewer than 5,000 survifling world war ii mariners. with many of these forgotten heroes well into their 90's, time is running out to repay this debt of gratitude. i encourage my colleagues to act quickly in co-sponsoring this important legislation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. >> i was pleased that the speaker expressed support for

infrastructure improvements on "60 minutes" last sunday. mrs. davis: america is in desperate need of repair. officials in san diego just reported that it would take $3.9 billion to maintain our infrastructure, and there's no doubt that my colleagues are facing similar circumstances in their home districts. the longer we wait the longer we drag our feet on this issue, the bigger the price tag grows. . the economic benefits is clear. s&p is estimates $1.3 billion in infrastructure investment creates 29,000 construction jobs, and that's not including indirect job creation. but we all know this is more than an economic issue. we're risking the safety of the american people who are traveling every day on crumbling roads and bridges. madam speaker, what are we waiting for? there is much to gain by acting

and yet so much to lose by doing nothing. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? ms. jackson lee: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, please. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. jackson lee: thank you. madam speaker, i join my colleagues in honoring today, recognizing and respecting those who travel through the devastation and horror of the holocaust, to those who lost their lives, i prayerfully mourn them. for those who have survived, i champion them and thank them and make a commitment as we have done as brothers and sisters republicans and democrats and as americans, never again. i rise as well to speak of the heinousness of the acts of boko haram. in the killing and murderous acts against innocent children in flibe jeeria. we -- in nigeria. we must stand together and act

against this crisis. we must recognize that this bloodshed will not stop. i'm grateful that secretary kerry is in nigeria and collaborating on what the incomes steps are. i want to thank the united states military that has provided insight and cooperation, but madam speaker, there needs to be more. we need to have a waiver of some of the provisions dealing with utilization and collaboration in the nigerian military and ask them to do what is right, but we cannot sit by while the blood letting boko haram continues to kill women and children across nigeria. enough and it must stop now. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from nevada seek recognition? the gentlelady is recognized. ms. titus: last week house republicans voted to eliminate a program that would protect

nearly 40% of undocumented immigrants, promote family unity and boost our economy. they also voted to end daca, which has helped some 630,000 dreamers, including 10,000 in nevada, come out of the shadows and pursue the american dream. this republican attack is not only being waged at the federal level yesterday, nevada's attorney general joined more than two dozen other states in a lawsuit challenging president obama's executive action on immigration, although every president since eisenhower has used similar executive authority to protect immigrants in our country. so what then is the real reason for this declaring war on immigrants? could it be they want to keep a desperate underclass to fill those low-wage, no-benefit jobs? or do some fear these folks might become citizens and vote them out of office? regardless of the reason, these modern-day no-nothings should

be ashamed of themselves. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? mr. mcdermott: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcdermott: madam speaker, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the global sigh movement which celebrates the teachings and ideals of saii baba, the most respected 19th century indian perfect masters and renowned for his teaching of respect and compassion and acceptance. he transcended religious barriers, earning accolades from both-dues, christians and muslim -- both-dues, christians and muslims. he deserves great credit for his earnest and global leadership of the global saii leadership.

since 1979, he's proven to be an exemplary leader, working to improve the welfare of others and the spirit of the teachings. he has established nearly 350 cultural and community centers around the world and has sponsored international cultural and spiritual festivals. at a time when many parts of the world are in turmoil, much of it is due to sectarian divisions. the doctor and the global saii offer a bridge of goodwill for a peaceful future. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? ms. castor: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. >> madam speaker, today i rise to honor leon county sheriff larry campbell who after 50

years of public service lost a long-fought battle from cancer on december 24, 2014. ms. graham: sheriff campbell first joined the sheriff's office during his senior year at florida state university. after serving in the marine corps. he was elected sheriff in 1996, a position of trust he would hold until his passing. sheriff campbell was represented by law enforcement across our state for his leadership. he was also well-known for being an avid supporter of charitable causes, including the united way and american heart association. sheriff campbell is survived by his wife, michelle, his son jack and two daughters, janette and stephanie. our community will remember sheriff campbell as a dedicated public servant. we owe him and his family a great debt of gratitude. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back.

pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. recorded votes on postponed questions will be taken later. for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 350, the human trafficking prevention intervention and recovery act of 2015. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 350, to direct the interagency task force to monitor and combat trafficking to identify strategies to prevent children from becoming victims of trafficking and review trafficking prevention efforts, to protect and assist in the recovery of victims of trafficking, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. sensenbrenner, and the

gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee, will each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r. 350, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker i rise today in favor of h.r. 350 the human trafficking prevention, intervention, and recovery act of 2015 introduced by representative christy noem of south dakota. as we have heard on the floor repeatedly this week, human trafficking generally and child sex trafficking specifically, is a horrible crime that sadly exists in all corners of our country. studies suggest that over 290,000 youth are at risk of human trafficking in the united states with children as young as 12 years old becoming

victims of commercial sexual abuse. while federal, state and local law enforcement have meat great strides to combat and eradicate human trafficking, there remains work to be done on this. as in all things to effectively combat human trafficking, we must first fully understand the problem. h.r. 350 requires the existing interagency task force to monitor and combat trafficking, to survey and catalog the methods being employed by our federal and state governments to deter individuals from committing trafficking offenses and to report on the best practices that can improve that response. the bill also directs the government accountability office to report out federal and state efforts to fight trafficking, including the grant programs aimed at assisting victims and fighting this crime. finally, in order to help young

victims move on from their trauma, h.r. 350 clarifies that existing federal trafficking grants may be used for programs that programs for victims of -- for housing for victims of sex trafficking. this provision would help address that travesty. similar legislation was passed in the house last congress that was not enacted into law. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle here and on the other side of the capitol to pass this bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman. -- the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. i rise in support of h.r. 350, the human trafficking prevention, intervention, and recovery act of 2015. according to the federal bureau of investigation, sex trafficking is the fastest growing business of organized crime and the third ladgest

criminal enterprise in the world -- largest criminal enterprise in the world. it is estimated to be a $9 billion industry in the united states and as much as a $30 billion industry worldwide. all of the criminals and all of those who wish to do wrong realize that it is a bigger and better business than drugs because tragically and unfortunately and with great sadness, they use their product over and over again. they use these innocent persons, many women many children, many boys over and over again. because this criminal activity rarely occurs in public view it is difficult to say exactly how many children are being victimized. what we do know, however, that the problem is extensive. and all you have to do is walk along any of the streets of major cities and find homeless teenagers or even younger than that and you will find out that in some way they have been tainted and touched and

brutalized by sex trafficking. madam speaker, an estimated 290,000 american children are at risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking, and the national center for missing and exploited children estimates that one of every seven endangered runaways reported to the center are likely victims of minor sex trafficking. i am told that the average age of minors entering the sex trade is between 12 and 14 years old. vulnerable youth are primary targets. they are more easily lured into prostitution and other forms of child exploitation, while runaways and children in foster care are especially vulnerable. child victims of sex trafficking can and do come from a type of home or socioeconomic background that makes them particularly, if you will in the line of fire. the bottom line, however madam speaker, is that all of these children are deserving of rescue, recovery protection and shelter. one of the advocacies that i

had in my own hometown is to provide for children in foster care that have aged out, because those are likely victims unbeknownst to themselves and they are worthy of saving. the bill before us, h.r. 3 50, the human trafficking prevention, intervention, and recovery act of 2015 is an important step of those. it mandates a review of federal and state prevention activities by the interagency task force to monitor and combat trafficking and this review is to be done in consultation with nongovernmental organizations. that is a great partnership. the purpose of this review is to identify best practices and the prevention of trafficking. this study, along with the mandated g.a.o., will provide much-needed intelligence to be shared among those federal, state and local agencies dedicated to combating sex trafficking. and might i add, madam speaker, what also is needed is a commitment, an investment of

resources to not just have the studies but to make sure we match the importance of this legislation with resources. witnesses at a homeland security subcommittee field hearing in houston in march of last year, which i convened and brought members of congress to houston, which has a particularly serious problem, first, one of the biggest limitations on the ability of area law enforcement agencies to successfully combat human trafficking in and around of houston is our lack of data sharing. another witness said, we, local enforcement, needs the feds to build a houston trafficking regional database accessible to only -- only to vice, human trafficking personnel to store, share and search data on all aspects of houston area human trafficking investigations. madam speaker, the need for the information that will be collected by the g.a.o. study and interagency task force to monitor and combat trafficking is not only needed it is long overdue. this bill also addresses a

major concern that anti-trafficking advocates have shared with me, the lack of housing or shelt early for survivors. trafficked kids need a way out. some place to escape -- to escape to. without such refuge, these children will return to their traffickers and their traffickers will be waiting for them. this bill provides funding for local shelters to get the support they need to house survivors and get these young people started on the path to recovery. madam speaker today we are considering several bills that address domestic minor sex trafficking, and it is right that we do all we can to protect our children. most statistics indicate that the average age of a female when she is first victimized in human trafficking is very small years of age. for this fact alone we can understand why the majority of federal investigations and prosecutions of trafficking involves minors, and one of the statements that were made on the floor today, with all of these bills, is to say that the

minors are victims. they are not the criminals. they need to be saved. . i'll share with you the testimony of another witness at the hearing. the witness said, many of the females that my officers are encountering on streets, massage parlors, and strip clubs and internet sites are typically 18 to 21. we know from experience while these young women may be adults now, they in all likelihood have been under the control of pimp trafficker for many years. madam speaker i met those women and yes they have been under the horrible domination of these traffickers for many years. some were sold by their parents. we need to take steps to ensure this group of victims does not fall through the cracks because we are focusing on minors and the system we established is also available to the young women. in closing, madam speaker i encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting h.r. 350, human

trafficking prevention and recovery act. i compliment the sponsors and co-sponsors and i encourage them to remember that there's still those other victims of human trafficking who are equally deserving of our consideration and protection. while we'll accomplish much in combating human trafficking by action today, let us commit ourselves to doing more. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from -- mr. sensenbrenner: i yield such time as she may consume to the author of this bill, the gentlewoman from south dakota, mrs. noem. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. noem: thank you madam speaker. madam speaker, for many years my perspective of human trafficking was based off a scene i had seen in the move a movie. it was a scene a father came to the playground took the hand of her 6-year-old daughter, took her off to have sex with swub someone and brought her back to play. it was a scene from a country far, far away but changed me forever. hover those years i would think about it being far, far away

from home. he then i began to learn about what a problem we have here in the united states and that it's not just happening in another countries, that it happens here. it happens in states like new york and florida and california but it also happens in south dakota. and that's devastating for me. for many reasons. because not only do i have children, i have two daughters, and i know that the average age that a young girl is tasked is between the ages of 12 and 14. i have a son who is 12. the average age average age of boys who are trafficked is between 11 and 13. i cannot imagine my children having to go through what some of these victims have to go through. i also spent my life involved in many different youth organizations. i have been a children's minister for many years. i still teach sunday school. i have been involved with 4-h, i spent my life with kids trying to help their lives to become better so they can build the kind of traits and character they need to benefit the world. i recognize that many children don't have those opportunities, yet i see the devastating effects of this industry here in

our country. they say one of the first steps to recovery is admitting you have a problem. and we have got a huge problem in this country. and that is why you will find these bills on the house floor today. it's because we want to make sure that we not only recognize that there's a problem but we give our law enforcement officers as many tools as possible to get rid of this industry and to help as many victims as possible. hundreds of thousands of children are trafficked every single year in the united states. most of these victims are women and girls. many come from tough backgrounds that have led them to the situation they are in today. did you know that most of them, if they are involved in the sex trafficking industry, are forced to have sex 25 to 48 times a day? that is unfathomable to me. so we as a nation have a responsibility to do everything that we can to prevent trafficking. and when prevention efforts fail we have a responsibility to have those -- help those victims recover. i know many of my colleagues

today have also made this a priority, and i'm grateful for their leadership on this issue. last year we passed many of these bills through this house but they got hung up in the senate even though they were extremely bipartisan over here in the house. so that's why they are back again today. it's because we need to get these bills signed into law to save our children. and now as we begin the 114th congress, our resolve is brought forward again to fight against human trafficking. and i'm grateful for everyone here today who has sponsored the bills, who has worked on behalf of these bills, and i'm grateful for their leadership to make sure that we pass these bills and we get them signed into law. the bill that i have sponsored here today is going to make sure that when we spend federal resources, it is spent in a manner that will help kids and help people get out of this industry. it's going to make sure that we are cooperating with nonprofits and other organizations who have been involved in the industry before that were being effective while we put those efforts forward. then it's going to make sure that we have the dollars

available to have shelters for 240es victims trying to come out of -- for those victims trying to come out of this situation. we have less than 200 beds available for victims in this country who want to recover, heal, and get on to a life pursuing the american dream like so many other people in this country have. that's why this bill is important. that's why all of these bills are important. why we need to pass them. madam speaker with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i ask the gentleman does he have any other speakers? it the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady virginia tech. ms. jackson lee: madam speaker, i have no further speakers. i just close my remarks by saying our children need our response. they are suffering. and it is important that we work together to minimally provide them with the shelter that they need, the resources that they need to eliminate the scourge of human trafficking and sex trafficking. with that i ask support of the

underlying legislation, h.r. 350, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i think this is an example that this house can do important things on a bipartisan basis. i commend the gentlewoman from south dakota for introducing the legislation. i commend the the gentlewoman from texas for supporting the legislation. i urge an aye vote. yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 350. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek

recognition? mr. sensenbrenner: i move the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 159, the stop exploitation through trafficking act of 2015 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 159, a bill to stop exploitation through trafficking. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. sensenbrenner, and the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r. 159, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, this weekend is one of america's greatest sports tradition, the super bowl. as most americans huddle around the television either rooting for their teams or against a

rival as the case may be, sadly many american children are huddled on the streets or in hotel rooms, the victim of sex trafficking. a sinister side to major sporting events and other large events is that a portion of the attendants come looking to abuse young children. as much as they come for the headline of them. while no one knows exactly how much the incidence of child sex trafficking increased during these events, it is known that pimps do bring children and other victims from around the country to offer them for sale at the super bowl and other similar events. during last year's super bowl, the f.b.i. and other law enforcement agencies arrested more than 45 traffickers and rescued 16 child victims of sex trafficking. including victims as young as 13 years old and some who had been reported missing by their families. compounding this tragedy is the

fact that most states have no exception to their prostitution laws for minor victims of trafficking. these children must often fear arrest and prosecution when law enforcement manages to locate and rescue sex trafficking victims. this must stop. recognizing the need for protection and support for the growing number of child victims of commercial sex trafficking, and increasing number of states have taken steps to establish so-called safe harbor provisions that either decriminalize minor prostitution or divert minor victims to the services and support needed for recovery. h.r. 159, the stop exploitation through trafficking act, introduced by mr. paulsen of minnesota and ms. moore of my own state of wisconsin, seek to continue this trend by encouraging the states through preferential treatment in the

federal cops program to enact safe harbor legislation that ensures these victims are treated as victims and not criminals and are directed to support services and not detention facilities. the bill also codifies the national human trafficking hotline that ensures young victims are eligible for enrollment in the job corps program and requires the attorney general to report on sex offender convictions, clarifies the authority of the u.s. marshal service to help locate and recover missing children, many of whom are vulnerable and becoming a sex trafficking vick tifment the bill passed the judiciary committee by a voice vote. similar legislation passed on the house floor unanimously last congress but was not enacted into law. there is no such thing as a child prostitute. just victims of commercial sexual abuse it at the hands of adults. i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 159 and reserve the balance

of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to yield myself such time as i might consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: the manager, mr. sensenbrenner, is right. these are certainly both cases and legislation that, one we are appalled at, with the case studies we have seen and legislation we seek in a bipartisan manner to solve that exploitation. i rise in support of h.r. 159, the stop exploitation through trafficking act of 2015. the stop exploitation through trafficking act is another weapon in the war against sex trafficking in our country. madam speaker, we are truly at war. as we stand here today, some child is being sex trafficked. some run away, away from their family, not being able to be found, not finding a place of refuge, is falling into the deadly hands if you will of

someone who will take advantage of them almost for the rest of their lives. in houston i met women who had engaged or have been subjected to that in the early part of their life and they will tell you how it follows them for a long, long time subjecting themselves to drugs and alcohol to eliminate the pain. this bill contains important victim-based initiatives to help combat sex trafficking. one of those initiatives, the national safe harbor law is essential to making sure that victims of sex trafficking are not criminalized but instead are diverted to child protective services. only 12 states have safe harbor laws for minor victims sex trafficking. that is far too few. obviously we need all 50 states to have this safe harbor. my colleagues there is no such thing as a child prostitute. there are only child victims of rape, children cannot give consent. there is no such thing as a child prostitute.

likewise, it is illegal for adults to have sex with children who by their very age are under the age of consent. sex with a minor, again is rape. the seriousness of the offense is not diminished by having the john pay for the sex. making him feel good. it is still rape. and it's time we start referring to the customer the person having sex with a child with such a polite title as a john. in addition, we must label those who provide the johns with children, with minors as what they are horrific and horrible and vial criminals. a person who is a john is a rapist, a child rapist. we must punish those who prey on the vulnerable, that includes not only the pimps and traffickers, but also the rapists. on the other hand, we must not contain victimized victims in an effort to help their recovery. this bill empowers victims with a national hotline to request help. the importance of this national

hotline must not be underestimated. in my earlier statement i spoke of a field hearing i convened in houston as a member of the homeland security committee last march. during that hearing mr. mccullen the chief of the houston police department testified, an 18-year-old female victim of human trafficking contacted the national human trafficking resource center hotline, asking for help to escape her violent pimp. the young victim had been forced to have sex with a john who stabbed her and leaving without paying any money. stabbing. she fearful and wanting to get the money a whole horrible situation. while her injuries were not life threatening, she did require medical attention for her injuries. however the pimp refused to take her to get treatment. she owed him until she payed the mon which she owed him to make up the money the previous john did not pay. vice human trafficking unit personnel received the information from hotline personnel were able to contact,

locate and rescue the young female and also arrest the pimp and charge him with felony prostitution. madam speaker, i wish there was a harsher charge, but good for the local law enforcement. . madam speaker, this story ends well. she was reunited with family the same day. it's how law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations can successfully work together to not only rescue victims of human trafficking and also arrest perpetrators of the crime and get them off the street and away from other victims who are still out there. h.r. 159 also helps victims retain restitution and this is what i like. it puts them on the right track by giving them eligibility for the job corps program where we've seen lives turn around. it ways wants to say to them you are valuable, you are worthy and you have a future. this bill will help ensure that all victims of sex trafficking are treated as victims in every

state and every jurisdiction. for these reasons i join with my colleague, mr. sensenbrenner, and urge my colleagues to support this legislation as well. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from minnesota, mr. paulsen, the principal author of the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. paulsen: i thank the gentleman for yielding. madam speaker, it's easy and comfortable to think that sex trafficking occurs in countries outside the united states and the truth is more than 100,000 children are at risk for trafficked for commercial in america. we have a word for a situation when one group of people is dehumanized and they have their basic human rights snuffed out for someone else's economic gain and that word is slavery. and the problem that we have today is not a thing of the past, it's not from some remote corner of the world you can't find on a map. slavery in the form of human

trafficking is happening right now. it's happening in our cities, it's happening in our suburbs, it's happening in rural communities. it's happening in each and every one of our congressional districts. i'm sad to say that minneapolis, in minnesota in my home state, has actually been listed as 13th largest center of sexual exploitation for children in the country. now, i realize now how critical it is to educate our community about what i've learned from talking to victims, victims like diana who became a 13-year-old trafficking victim. diana didn't get a lot of love and attention from her family, from her mother. while she took it upon herself to take care of her siblings, her brothers and her sister, she longed for someone else to give her some love and attention. she was ended up being seduced by a man who promised to be, quote, her boyfriend. well, guess what he even within days at age 13, within days after running away with him, she found herself being trafficked in chicago and in

philadelphia without a home, separated from her family and only a daring jump from a second story window actually allowed her to escape. now, many might think if diana had come from a different family situation she wouldn't have been trafficked and sadly, that's not the case. i'll never forget meeting also with the mother of another young woman named brittany. brittany was a very young girl who was violently raped murdered and found for dead in a lot last february. unlike dei anna, brittany had a loving family. she worked with children at a local recreation center. she taught dance lessons and despite these circumstances, brittany was also a victim of sex trafficking, but she was too embarrassed to speak out until it was too late. and as brittany's mother told me, it doesn't matter if victims have a home because if sex trafficking can happen to my daughter it can happen to any young girl and that's exactly what we're talking about. young girls who are only 12, 13 or 14 years old.

they're not old enough to have graduated from college. they're not old enough to have voted in an election. they're not even old enough to pass their driver's license exam. in fact, these states these girls would be considered criminals and charged with prostitution instead of being treated as victims. we found that criminalization isolates them from the community and the services that they need and that they deserve and that's why, madam speaker we need this legislation, h.r. 159, the stop exploitation through trafficking act, which focuses on incentivizing states so have safe harbor laws. it ensures that these girls are treated as victims. safe harbor laws will give legal protection for minors and provide them with specialized social services. so we know that by bringing these victims out of the shadows we can make sure they get the services they need, including medical and psychological treatment housing, legal services, educational assistance, job

training and more. law enforcement can then focus on actually bringing the perpetrators of these awful crimes to justice, and this bipartisan legislation incentivizes states to adopt these safe harbor laws so we can expand on the successes we've seen in states like minnesota. it was in 2011 that minnesota became the fifth state to approve state harbor legislation -- safe harbor legislation and after their safe harbor laws went into effect, guess what, law enforcement in minnesota began arresting more johns than ever before and human trafficking convictions more than doubled. best practices, evaluations of law enforcement and victims group show that by removing the fear of prosecution from victims this actually works. now, today only a little over a dozen states have full safe harbor laws, so we got to do more to protect these victims and ensure that pimps and the johns are brought to justice. this legislation also helps victims by codifying a national human trafficking hotline and making victims eligible for job

corps services. by giving them an avenue to access for job skill training, they can begin to rebuild their lives. and madam speaker, the bill also allows and helps law enforcement by allowing the u.s. martial service to support other law enforcement agencies that are investigating missing child cases. and finally, the bill increases oversite by requiring additional reporting to congress restitution orders on trafficking cases. these provisions are all essential pieces. i want to thank congresswoman gwen moore for her advocacy, her passion on this legislation and moving it forward in a bipartisan basis. i want to thank the members of the judiciary committee team to recognize this is a top priority and moved it quickly early in this session of congress and i look forward to working with my colleague, senator klobuchar from minnesota, as well and continue to pass each one of these anti-trafficking bills and get them on the president's desk so

we can continue to save the lives of children. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. and the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, madam speaker. it's my pleasure to yield three minutes to the distinguished lady from wisconsin, ms. gwen moore, who has championed these causes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for three minutes. ms. moore: thank you so much, madam speaker. i want to thank the gentlelady from texas and thank the gentleman from wisconsin. i rise today in support of h.r. 159 the stop exploitation through trafficking act, which has been so diligently pushed through the sue push partnership of congressman paulsen of minnesota. it's been a thrill to partner with him throughout this process. and this is a bipartisan collaboration because this is a

bipartisan, unfortunate problem, and solving the problem of sexual exploitation of children will require work on all of our parts because it is a financial boom. there are -- people have become multimillionaires in this illicit trade. you know, ms. -- the gentlelady from texas, who 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 f.b.i. estimates in the united states of america at least 100,000 children are currently trafficked. and another 200,000 are right on the cusp they're at risk of

sexual exploitation. these victims are not women of the night of sexualized women who are doing it of their own free will. no, these victims, the average age is age 13. you heard me right, madam speaker. i said age 13. and it is an embarrassing statistic and data, and 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. why, in 2013 alone, just on a random day, the f.b.i. did a sweep and rescued 10 juvenile girls from sex traffickers in milwaukee. and trafficking is just all too common in communities across the coast, from urban settings rural settings, suburban

settings, from coast to coast. predators victimize vulnerable young people, such as those in the foster care system. they prey upon those living in poverty, but what we do know is that they also seek out higher income children, going after those children who may have problems in their own homes, some that are lgbt identified. there is no safe harbor for children unless we created through law such as this. to address this victimization the solutions -- thank you. i would yield -- ms. jackson lee: i yield an additional 130ekds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. moore: i'm proud of this legislation. i'm pleased to co-sponsor it and i urge all my colleagues to support h.r. 159. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentlelady from texas

reserves. and the gentleman is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, may i inquire how many more speakers the gentlewoman from texas has? ms. jackson lee: we have no additional speakers. i'm prepared to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: madam speaker we've all come together with a -- with an important project and that is to help save our children. i wouldn't want to leave on this very important bill that talks about saving our children from sex trafficking to let our colleagues know that we want every possible act of human trafficking to be reported.

1-866-347-2423. and we want those who are victims to know that they can seek help, too at 1-888-373- 7888. the statement we are making is that we're doing everything we can to extinguish and eliminate this heinous tragedy in our country. with that, i ask my colleagues to support this legislation and to recognize that we must stop exploilt ace -- exploitation through trafficking and i ask my colleagues to support h.r. 159. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas yields back the balance of her time, and the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield myself the balance of the time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker this is another example of bipartisan cooperation in the house of representatives. i do wish to commend the principal author of the bill,

mr. paulsen from minnesota, original co-sponsor, ms. moore from wisconsin, my colleague who is the ranking member of the crime subcommittee, ms. jackson lee of texas. we've all worked together. hopefully we can send this bill over to the other body and that they will promptly pass it. and with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 159, as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does jatcht wisconsin seek recognition? -- the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker i ask that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 285 the stop advertising

victims of exploitation act of 2015. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 4, h.r. 285 a bill to amend title 18, united states code, to provide a penalty for knowingly selling advertising that offers certain commercial sex acts. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. sensenbrenner, and the gentlewoman from texas ms. jackson lee, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin. . mr. sensenbrenner: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r. 285, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, the stop advertising victims of exploitation act h.r. 285, introduced by mrs. wagner of missouri, is an important yet modest bill. it uses one word, just one word

to clarify that just that it is against the law to prostitute a child on the street. it is likewise against the law to prostitute a child through an advertisement. by adding the word advertises to the existing federal sex trafficking statute at 18 united states code section 1591, this bill makes clear that congress intends to prohibit knowing advertising of child sex trafficking to the same extent as the other conduct prohibited by law. h.r. 285 is a technological neutral bill and applies to all advertisements that sell children for sex over which there is federal jurisdiction. regardless of whether they appear on the internet or somewhere else. it is important to remember that these advertisements is all

speech promoting illegal activity are specifically not protected speech under the first amendment. in order to bring a case against a trafficker under this legislation, the government must prove that the defendant knew that they were advertising and knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that the add involved a minor or someone involved through force fraud, or coercion. however this legislation raises the bar even higher for defendants who while not directly placing the ads, knowingly benefit from the placement of advertising. specifically the bill requires the government to show that these defendants knew that the advertisement involved a minor or a coerced adult reckless disregard is not sufficient. h.r. 285 only clarifies the people who advertise sex trafficking can face criminal liability. repeat, criminal liability. under current law, there is the additional possibility of civil

liability for dependents who violate the federal sex trafficking statute. however under sex 230 of the communications decency act online publishers of third party advertisements are generally immune from civil liability for such advertisements. h.r. 285 does nothing to disrupt or modify the immunity already provided by sex 230. congress has criminalizing advertising multiple times in recent years. title 18, the federal criminal code prohibits promoting counterfeit curncy section 491, obscene or treesonous material, section 552. the unlawful sale of military medals section 704, among other things. it is wholly appropriate for congress to prohibit the advertising of illegal goods or services.

having done so for illegal advertisements involving animal cruelty, prescription drugs, and counterfeit items, today we take the commonsense step of prohibiting advertising that offers sex with children and coerced adults. while the internet has undisputably done much good, u.s. law enforcement has identified online advertisements as the primary platform for buying and selling sex with minors. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: thank you, madam speaker. it's my pleasure to yield three minutes to the distinguished gentleman from georgia, mr. johnson, an active and committed member of the house judiciary committee and rahm on the commercial -- and ranking member on the commercial -- commerce subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for three minutes. mr. johnson: thank you madam

chairwoman and madam speaker. i rise in opposition to h.r. 285, the save act. human tasking is never ok. it's a vial crime that no one should be subjected to, but the save act goes too far. this bill would impose a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 to 15 years for posting or facilitating the posting of advertisements online. we should be eliminating mandatory minimum sentences not creating new ones. this bill is not specific enough . it could potentially apply to communications providers and facilitators who are not actually engaged in sex trafficking. for example an employee at an online advertising network that has no control over the types of ads they receive could face 10 to 15 years in prison for simply

going in to work every day and helping advance the business. web hosts and ad networks oftentimes do not advanced warning of the ads that are being sent to them. during our judiciary committee markup, i offered an amendment that would have removed mandatory minimums from the legislation giving the judge hearing the case, of course, the discretion to impose a wise and just punishment. i believe in the overall goal of the legislation, but i do not agree with its execution. judges working with the sentencing guidelines should determine sentences not legislators. mandatory minimums fail to reduce crime, they waste taxpayers' money and often violate common sense. i urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back of the the

gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield five minutes to the author of this bill, the gentleman from missouri, mrs. wagner. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for five minutes. mrs. wagner: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the chairman for his leadership on this very, very important issue. madam speaker, i rise today in support of my bill, h.r. 285, the stop advising victims of exploitation or the save act. madam speaker, i also rise today in support of all the good work done by my colleagues here in congress on the issue of human trafficking. madam speaker as a former united states ambassador, i was exposed first hand to the horrors of human trafficking on an international level. i witnessed and reported on the devastating consequences of human trafficking where innocent women and children were dragged into the dark abyss of sexual slavery. but never, never in my wildest dreams did i ever think human

trafficking was so rampant right here in the united states of america. madam speaker, right now there are young women being forced into prostitution in virtually every district across this nation. in fact, i was shocked to learn that my own hometown of st. louis, missouri, has been identified as one of the top 20 areas for sex trafficking in the united states. madam speaker, this is a problem that is hiding in plain sight. every year thousands of young american lives are impacted by this despicable crime. however, there is hope. i take hope from the work that's done by law enforcement professionals who are on the frontlines every day protecting our nation's children from those who would seek to exploit them. i seek help from those who work in victim services and their tireless efforts to help survivors recover heal, and forge new lives out of the horrors of sexual enslavement.

most importantly i take hope from all the survivors of this hideous crime. this bracelet, madam speaker, was made by survivors at a safe house, called crisis aide international, in my own hometown of st. louis, missouri. their strength gives us strength. the resolve gives us inspiration. and their steadfast commitment to ending sex trafficking gives us the courage to fight. i am grateful that -- for the many colleagues that i have that have supported legislation and held events in their home districts to raise awareness and education of this crime. our work has yet to begin. however, madam speaker, there is much, much work to do still. legislators we have an obligation to come together and to do something because we can because we should, and because we must. over the last 10 years prostitution has slowly but persistently migrated to an

online marketplace. classified services like backpage.com and others are the vehicles for advertising the victims of sexual slavery in this world. pimps and traffickers blatantly advertise their victims, sexual services with provocative photographs and unsettle messages, complete with per hour pricing. the traffickers pay websites like backpage and others to display their messages and these websites accordingly reap enormous profit at the expense of victims of sex trafficking. many of these victims feature children of trafficking victims and the results in thousands of children every year being openly sold for sex on the internet. madam speaker, government intervention is necessary to end facilitation of sex trafficking by websites like backpage.com others who commercially advertise this criminal activity. companies that base their business models on the profits

made by selling sex with children should not be allowed to operate. the save act seeks to criminalize this behavior thereby dramatically reducing the victimization of vulnerable children and women forced into sexual slavery in the united states. madam speaker, this legislation passed the house last year in overwhelming bipartisan vote of 392-19. i recognize that it is critically important that innocent actors are protected from the liability while giving prosecutors the means to combat human trafficking. to be clear madam speaker, this legislation prohibits only those advertisements that the government can prove actually offers sex with a child or sex with an adult who is involved due to force fraud, or coercion. there is well-established precedent for congress to criminalize the advertising of legal goods and services as the chairman has outlined previously. surely advertisements of

offering sex with children should also be the subject to the same restrictions. criminalizing the advertisement of trafficking victims will stem the flow of money resulting in a reduction of both demand and supply. the victims of sex trafficking are not nameless, faceless children. they are our daughters, our granddaughters, our nieces, and our neighbors. they are the vulnerable youth of our society, the ones who should be protected the most, madam speaker, not exploited for money and greed. i urge my colleagues to support the save act because it will provide the tools necessary for law enforcement to combat the sexual exploitation and enslavement of women and children in the united states. i thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: my privilege to yield three minutes to mr. bobby

scott, who served so ably on this committee and we congratulate him for his ranking position on the education committee, mr. bobby scott. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. scott: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentlelady for yielding. i rise in opposition to h.r. 285, the save act. while i support the underlying goal of ensuring that those who facilitate sex trafficking through advertising are prosecuted the full extension of the law, i'm opposed theth to the minimum sentencing provisions. minimum sentences have been study extensively and been found to distort sentencing systems, discriminate against minorities, waste money, and often require a judge to impose sentence that is violate common sense. to add insult to injury, studies have shown that mandatory minimum sentences fail to reduce crime. under this bill, the advertising of sex trafficking will result in a mandatory penalty of 10 or 15 years depending on the circumstances of the crime.

there's no doubt that many of the individuals prosecuted under this bill should receive long prison sentences, but in some cases a mandatory sentence of 10 to 15 years may not be justified. this is particularly troublesome when you consider the possible scope of defendants who could be prosecuted under the bill. notably the prohibition and advertising does not only apply to the sex trafficker who plateses the ad or the employee who accepted the ad, but also includes those who benefit financially from the ad. that's all the employees. including the receptionist or computer guy. everybody on the payroll who might have seen the ads or read in the paper that the company publishes illegal ads but decided to look the other way. they should be held responsible under the provisions of the bill and many of them would certainly warrant a sentence of 15 years or even more, but not all of them. madam speaker, mandatory minimum sentences didn't get into the

criminal code all at once. but one at a time, each one part of an otherwise good bill. we expect to get rid of mandatory minimums, we have to first stop passing new ones like this. madam speaker, people ask why judge in florida had to sentence marissa alexanderer to 20 years for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband or why some drug dealer as girlfriend got 25 years when she had no meaningful role in his drug dealing, or why the united states has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. they would not understand why anybody said they had to vote to further expand mandatory minimum sentences. 15 years in prison, mandatory, everybody on the payroll gets caught number this bill, that's what in this bill. in discretion afforded the judge. the sentence would have to be imposed whether it makes sense or not. . madam speaker the first order of business is to stop passing

no ones. this bill has a mandatory minimum that would require a judge to impose a sentence that violates common sense and therefore i urge my colleagues to vote no. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from texas reserves. the gentleman is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield three minutes to the distinguished chair of the judiciary committee, the gentleman from virginia, mr. goodlatte. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. goodlatte: madam speaker, i thank the chairman of the crime subcommittee for his hard work on this issue and i appreciate the time. while it goes without saying that the growth of the internet and smartphones has proved to be a great value in many aspects of our lives, these tools can also be used by criminals to facilitate the commercial sexual exploitation of children and other victims by providing an easy way for pimps or traffickers to market child sex trafficking victims to those who seek to do them harm. with just a click of a button,

individuals can now use websites to 'tis, schedule and purchase -- advertise schedule and purchase sexual encounters with minors just as they would use these services to hire a ride home. the saveb act makes a technical clarification to an existing federal sex trafficking statute to make sure the law extends to traffickers who knowingly sell sex with minors and victims of forced, fraud or coercion through advertising as well as to people or entities that knowingly benefit from the sale or distribution of such advertising. many much is on the internet, this technology is neutral and applies to all advertising of children for sex regardless of the medium. it is important to note that these advertisements, as with all adds and other speech promoting illegal activity, are not protected under speech

under the first amendment. h.r. 285 was the subject of robust committee process, both last congress and this, and the bill was reported out of the judiciary committee last week by voice vote. the legislation that is on the floor today strikes the right balance by protecting victims from commercial isual exploitation while also ensuring that constitutional rights are respected and innocent third parties are not wrongly prosecuted. this legislation simply clarifies and modernizes federal criminal law to keep pace of the evolving trend of exploiting sex for criminal gains. this bill was not enacted into law. i want to thank congresswoman wagner for sponsoring this bipartisan legislation. i urge my colleagues to support this bill. i urge my senate -- the united states senate to take up this bill and let's get it signed into law by the president of

the united states. it would help save our children from horrors that people understand but do not want to see. and it's good legislation. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i thank you madam speaker. i'm speaking for the first time, i ask unanimous consent to speak for such time as i might consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: we started out this afternoon by saying that we join together in stopping the scourge of human trafficking and sex trafficking and i still stand by that premise. i support the stop advertising victims of exploitation act. and i do believe adding advertising and having the provision in the law that includes mens raea is an important protection that must be an intent to sale and

advertise the victims of exploitation. this of course, is a number of -- part of a number of proposals that we're considering today and our only goal, we hope we're successful, is to combat sex trafficking. but as we discussed with respect to these other bills, must be done to prevent sex trafficking as well as to aggressively investigate and prosecute these crimes. h.r. 285 amends the current federal sex trafficking statute so advertising would now be the prohibited means of exploiting this type of criminal conduct. we know, of course, that technology however is sometimes tricky. the bill correctly recognizes the fact that sex traffickers obtain customers for their illegal acts through the means of mass communication, either through various forms of print media or via the internet. maybe they throw in the cell phone or hardline as well. but they are out to get their victim.

they're out to get that child. they're out to get that young woman or young man boy or girl, and we must stop them in their tracks. in fact sex traffickers use generallyized webpages as well as sites and pages devoted to advertising the availability of commercial sex. while the internet has enriched our lives greatly, these sex traffickers are only interested in using it in the most vial manner and use the internet to perpetrate heinous criminal schemes such as selling of minors for sex. without question, sex traffickers who advertise their scheme should be penalized for their criminal acts. while i recognize that some have raised questions about how the advertising prohibitions on this bill would apply to online companies, i am concerned that we have a free use of that. if i might throw in a word, net neutrality. because of this, we adopted an amendment during the judiciary committee's markup last congress. then again in a bipartisan effort to address such

concerns. that amendment is included in the text of h.r. 285. we know, for example, however, that the way the internet is, some innocent person might wind up finding things on their internet or their site that they may not have had anything to do with. we hope the standard of mens raea will help those individuals have a defense. so as it relates to this legislation, i raise concern, as my colleagues have done about the utilization of conduct of mandatory minute mums. primarily because the vastness of the internet and our friends who make the point that this advertising could wind up or some act could wind up without their knowledge. we know that one-size-fits-all approach, which is part of the mandatory minimum mum approach, in the form of mandatory minimums have contributed to

our crisis of overincarceration and our judiciary committee rightly so, has looked at this over the years. in the markup of this bill, the judiciary committee did not adopt an amendment that would have removed applications of statutes of manned more minimum penalties under the circumstances of the case up to the statutes existing penalty, which i support enthuse assically, life in prison. -- enthusiastically, life in prison. given the communication networks with respect to how advertisements are delivered, it might carve through, to fare it out the facts and determine the level of guilt. so authorizing life in imprisonment is good thing. it would allow for the imposition of extremely lengthy sentences where appropriate. i'm hoping as we move forward with this legislation that has a very important primis and point that we'll have -- premise and point that we'll

have an opportunity to discuss with our colleagues in the senate to make sure this bill works to in essence target the bad guys and make sure that it does it fairly and directly. because sex trafficking, as i've always said and said on this floor, should be weeded out. sex trafficking should not be. i ask my colleagues again, to consider the mandatory minimum. i ask my colleagues to support this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlelady yield back the balance of her time? ms. jackson lee: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield three minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. farenthold, a member of the judiciary committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for three minutes. mr. farenthold: thank you, madam chairman. madam speaker. you know, i am an an avid supporter of the internet. i've been one since the 1970's,

late 1970's. however, there is a dark side to the internet. there are back pages out there websites, that have a business model just to make money off of exploiting child sex slaves advertising child sex slaves. this bill gives law enforcement the tools they need to investigate and prosecute those who advertise child trafficking. it advances a compelling government and humanitarian interest, to protect our children from those who seek to buy and sell them like products. this bill makes it illegal to knowingly profit from the distribution ortizing, that offers a commercial sex act in violation of section of the criminal code that deals with sex trafficking offense. the safe act hasn't seek to restrict free speech or the legit mate exchange of information and ideas. i heard some of my colleagues on the other side, the gentleman from georgia and others express concern about innocent employees of websites

or sites like google that may accidentally index one of these sites or somebody who has an online forum on their website, somebody makes an offtopic post. that's why we added the word knowingly. the legislative history of this bill shows knowingly is important. they got to know that they're advertising for victims of human trafficking. it was carefully crafted, the legit mate interest of these -- legitimate interest of these companies and legitimate websites are protected. we need to go after those who are trafficking persons and advertising and profiting off of it. they absolutely need to be held accountable. the protection of first amendment right, freedom of speech, is one of the guiding principles of creating this. you know less regulation of the internet, low regulation of the internet is important, but there are some things -- and

profiting off of advertising or profiting at all from child sex trafficking is unacceptable and this law fixes that to the best of our ability while still protecting folks' first amendment rights. i am proud to work with my colleague, representative wagner and working to combat this terrible crime of human trafficking. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i ask the gentleman from wisconsin, the chairman, do you have any further speakers? mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker i have two. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i'll continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: i yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from arizona. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from arizona is recognized. ms. mcsally: thank you, madam speaker. thank you, chairman sensenbrenner and congresswoman wagner and for those who put forward tonight and today to combat human trafficking. human trafficking is a 21st century form of slavery and it's devastating lives across

the country. in arizona's second congressional district, a lack of resources to identify victims, prevent instances of trafficking and prosecute those that participate leads to many young girls and boys being victimized by these traffickers. i spoke very recently with jerry payton, the founder of an organization called sold no more, dedicated to ending trafficking in tucson, arizona. jerry experienced the devastation of trafficking firsthand in his own family his daughter, lisa, who was a high school honor student, ran away from home after the death of her boyfriend, where she quickly was preyed upon by traffickers and forced into smuggling and prostitution. jerry found his daughter living with five men who had ran a drug ring and was able to rescue her. yet, the police never apprehended the man who victimized lisa. the only police record reads, quote, a juvenile returned to the custody of her parents, end quote. jerry's family's experiences

highlight the growing need for resources to train law enforcement to identify and respond to instances of trafficking. he told me that there is not a lingle law enforcement officer in any -- single law enforcement officer dedicated to trafficking. there was not a case of sex trafficking despite arrests for prostitution that treat victims like criminals. and when they place online ads in back pages for clearly young victims, within 24 hours there's 100 calls that come in looking to exploit these victims. this is wrong. we can start raising awareness of trafficking by changing the perception of trafficking victims. it's estimated only about 10% of those trafficked in our country have come across the border. the overwhelming majority are runaways and vulnerable children who are preyed upon. these are our neighbors being trafficked in our communities, not some distant far-off place.

under the surface of our communities, sex trafficking is a prevalent and devastating reality, widely attended events like the super bowl coming up in glendale arizona, or the annual gem show in tucson, act as a magnet for traffickers and unfortunately their victims. it's critical that we pass this bill to prosecute all offenders who victimize and participate and advertise, including online, in the trafficking of children. we also must support efforts to raise awareness and educate those who work in law enforcement, health care, child protective services and elsewhere to prevent all trafficking. give law enforcement the tools they need to be proactive and care for the victims after they have been rescued. i support this legislation and the 11 other bills put forward to combat human trafficking and i urge support from my colleagues. i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, i yield one minute to

the gentleman from michigan mr. huizenga. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. . mr. huizenga: it came to me last week when my 13-year-old daughter turned 14 and as i looked at her and have seen her with her friends, just the scourge that -- the horrendous things that are done to these young ladies, whether it's here or internationally. i was brought back to a visit i had last year to an organization called war, women at risk international in my district, second district in michigan where they are trying to use first civilian first responders to identify those signs of trafficking, to make sure that those aren't those police reports saying, minor return to a parent. and that they are able to utilize the things that they see or suspect as a way of pulling those girls out of those situations.

and i just so heartfully want to make sure that this body pursues this issue. i commend all of our colleagues who have dealt with this as we are trying to create these circles of protection and hope around these women and children that are in this horrible situation. i commend everybody for this legislation and urge a yes vote. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i ask the gentleman does he have any other speakers? the speaker pro tempore: gentlelady is recognized. ms. jackson lee: how much time remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady has 10 minutes remaining. ms. jackson lee: i yelled myself in closing such time as i might consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: we have had three bills so far and we are getting ready to offer two others that all speak to this very devastating impact on our children. human trafficking and sex trafficking. i think the stop advertising victims exploitation act, h.r.

285, does focus on a particular niche that is heinous. our children are on the internet. they are tech savvy. and they are easily can become victims of an attractive site or attractive sounds and music. so i think that this legislation again pinpoints a very serious issue. the bill is an amendment of an existing legislation that includes a mens raya there must be intent. we do know in the course of legislation we have the opportunity to make sure that what we do does meet the test of getting those who are truly the perpetrators. i would hope as this bill moves to the senate as we recognize the importance of this legislation we again be reminded that one size does not often fit

all and that judges can rightly have discretion to a sentence of life. but i ask my colleagues to support this legislation so that we can have a comprehensive approach, the legislative bills that have been on the floor today, to attack head-on, if you will those who prey on our children, young men and women, people who find themselves lost with no place to go, and become the serious victims of child pornography, sex trafficking, human trafficking, and for every member we know that many times entire life of that individual is changed forever. i yield back my time with the asking of the support of the underlying bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time much the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. sensenbrenner: i yield myself the balance of the time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. sensenbrenner: madam speaker, we have spent about an

hour and a half today talking about how bad this problem is. the two previous bills were passed unanimously by a voice vote. there seem to be two arguments against the current bill. one is is that the net might be too broad. that has been responded emphatically by putting a knowingly standard in so that somebody who is innocent will not be caught up if an ad advertising sex trafficking appears without their knowledge. the second is the philosophical debate on mandatory minimum sentences. i think there is some crimes where there ought to be a mandatory minimum sentence. i know many of my colleagues sincerely disagree with that. believe me advertising kids, minor kids more sex should be something that puts you in jail for some time. i'm glad this bill allows for life sentences in case of

egregious offenses, but i think that even in ones that might be less than egregious spending some time in jail will show this country and maybe others who may be tempted to get involved in this horrific business that if you are caught, you are going to spend some time. i urge you to support this bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 285. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. poe: madam speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 181, the justice

for victims of trafficking act of 2015, as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 181, a bill to provide justice for the victims of trafficking. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas mr. poe, and the gentlewoman from texas ms. jackson lee each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe. mr. poe: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material to h.r. 181 currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. poe: madam speaker, i ask for as much time as i consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. poe: i thank you, madam speaker. as has been stated today, we are dealing with a very important and critical issue in america. it seems, however, that the super bowl's coming up this weekend, the national media and

americans seem to be concerned more about the disappearance of air in footballs than they are about the disappearance of america's greatest resource, our children. children that are being trafficked throughout the united states bought and sold for sexual assault. it's not just an international crime, it's a crime here in america. unfortunately my hometown of houston, texas, is one of the hubs for trafficking because of its location. but we have today several bills, bills that passed yesterday, bills that will come up today, and hopefully all pass, that deal with this scourge and slavery taking place in america. i want to thank the chairman of the committee, mr. goodlatte from virginia and also the chairman of the subcommittee, mr. sensenbrenner, the ranking

member sheila jackson lee, and also the former ranking member bobby scott, for their work on these types of legislation. it came up last year, and because the senate didn't act on them, those bills are being brought up again. the justice for victims trafficking act i'm glad to be a sponsor, original sponsor, but i'm also thankful that my friend, carolyn maloney from new york who has been working on trafficking issues long before i was ever in congress is the original co-sponsor on the democrat side. madam speaker, you don't get much more bipartisan than a new york liberal democrat and a conservative republican from texas. we are just separated by a common language. other than that we get along quite well, especially on this issue. when brook was 7 madam speaker,

her mother was ill in the hospital. her care then was entrusted to a nanny. but protecting her was not what the nanny had in mind. instead of taking care of brook and making sure that she was healthy an safe the -- and safe, the nanny sold her into sex slavery. she was a trafficking victim. she was 7. as -- brook was also a victim of child pornography. she was subjected to the most sadistic forms of abuse. she was 7. all she wanted to do was be safe. stories like brook and other survivors make it clear that human trafficking is quite serious. it's occurring with the most vulnerable group of americans. young children.

i have four kids three daughters, i have 11 grandkids, seven are granddaughters. and we all believe i think, the greatest resource of america is our youth. and their lives and their souls are being stolen every day for money. for filthy luker. this crime happens in america it happens across the seas. and it is all about money. i understand that the greatest criminal enterprise for money is the drug trafficking. close behind is the sex slave trafficking. why is sex slavery such a money maker? well, unlike drugs that are sold one time, children are sold numerous times. as our friend kristi noem, mentioned earlier, children are

sometimes sold up to 50 times a day. plus, the consequences for the criminals is not as great as the consequences for drug smugglers. and the risk of apprehension is not as great. so this bill tries to deal with all three entities that are involved in sex trafficking. there is the trafficker, the slave master, there is the consumer, child abuser, and then there is the child. they are victims of crime and the american social conscience needs to change to understand these children are not criminals, they are not prostitutes, they are children that are victims of slavery. we need to change that conscience and change it legally as well. in all fairness to police, many times they see a child on the

street, they arrest the child for child prostitution file juvenile crime case against that individual, but many times they don't have a place to take the child. we have approximately i understand 3,000 animal shelters in the united states. i got one of my three dalmation from an animal sherlt. we need those. but there are less than 300 beds for child sex trafficking victims. why is that? there is no answer except when you deal with it. police don't have place to take the rescued child except they put them in the criminal justice system which is not a good thing. it doesn't help the child at all recover, even though everybody knows that that child is a victim. we need places to take children. we need to treat those children like victims of crime. that's what this bill does. it helps restore victims of crime. on the other hand, the slave master, well, it punishes them. as chairman sensenbrenner said,

life sentences are appropriate for some people, and that is what is quite appropriate. at least a minimum sentence of life. and that's what this bill does as well. but also the bill goes after the demand. the consumer. those men primarily are child plesters -- molester, they are child abusers. for too long society has kind of looked at that situation as, oh well, boys will be boys. madam speaker, those days are over. the days of boys being boys is over in america. and this law will go after the consumer. we need to know who they are. you talk about photographs on the internet. their photographs ought to be on the internet after they are convicted. the law goes and punishes them as well. it gives law enforcement child welfare, health care officials, and others who will come in contact with victims training.

it also clarifies some state and federal wiretap laws. it allows law enforcement officials the flexibility to obtain warrants in all federal human trafficking investigations. so that they are better able to follow evidence and target criminal networks because there are criminal networks throughout the country that are taking children and selling them every night. madam speaker madam speaker we'll only be able to reduce demand by putting the men behind bars where they belong. girls are not property they're little girls. the same is true of boys that are being trafficked in the united states as well. the legislation here also strengthens and clarifies the trafficking victim's protection act by making it clear for judges, juries, and prosecutors , and law enforcement, that those who purchase sex acts from trafficked victims should be a

priority and be prosecuted. that's why we build prisons for people like that. the demand and the traffickers. i'm encouraged by this tremendous support in the house on this 12 bills, bipartisan bills, coming up and i do want to commend the ladies of the house who have been the ones on both sides of the aisle advocating and making sure that this legislation comes to the house floor. this passage of justice for victims of trafficking act will be a major step of ridding our country of modern day slavery. brooke and her mother have worked through the issues of brooke when she was trafficked at 7. they're working together. she's been rescued and restored and she is an advocate for better legislation and

protection of children like she was when she was trafficked. but the message is, madam speaker, our children are not for sale. period. so i will reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: thank you, madam speaker. i ask to address the house and to consume such time as i may. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much. i am glad that the manager congressman poe, set the tone again for the vigorousness of the bipartisanship around what all of us want is to in essence cut out the cancer of human trafficking, sex trafficking. let me first of all congratulate mr. poe judge poe, a texan whose language i can fully

understand, and as well his partner congresswoman maloney. we have worked together over the years and she has championed the right to -- rights of women and the empowerment of our children. what a great partnership judge poe and congresswoman maloney. i'm delighted to join with them in my commitment and work on fighting human trafficking and sex trafficking, in supporting h.r. 181 the justice for victims of trafficking act of 2015, marked up in judiciary with many amendments that were accepted system of this bill has a holistic approach. i'm also glad that we did not run away from this issue in houston, as we convened a hearing that i called for with my colleagues republicans and democrats, open the -- to openly and forthrightly listen to law enforcement, people who had been victimized, adults who are still

suffering from what had happened to them as a child. this hearing was held in march, a field hearing combating human trafficking in our major cities. it was a fitting venue because regrettably, houston has been noted as a human trafficking hub in the united states. but it was the important contributions of my colleagues, many of whom are on this floor today, who added to the record to begin to craft or to continue to work on important legislation such as the justice for victims of trafficking act. i am glad we are here again to move it so that it can ultimately be signed by the president of the united states. at that hearing, i heard testimony from federal, state and local law enforcement officials regarding an operation the day before in which they discovered and rescued 115 from a packed rancid stash house in

south harris county. it's not completely vetted as to whether or not all the individuals in the stash house or some of the individuals or a few were victims of human trafficking and sex trafficking. i would venture to say their future was not going to be a future worthy of promoting. 99 of those victims were men. 16 were women. one of whom was pregnant. 19 others were juvenile. you wonder what would happen to the juveniles. i went to that stash house. it was a terrible scene. all of them had been kidnapped and smuggled into the united states. as previously said, human trafficking, sex trafficking is a great business for those who are of that kind of vile mind because they can use them and use juveniles over and over again. some of whom however have been driven to such low ends of the earth, meaning the victims, that their life is ruined and some have probably been driven

suicide. trafficing of any human being, especially domestic child trafficking has no place in civilized society. the term slavery has been used. it is true that slavery exists around the world. we need to ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies have the tools, resources and training necessary to identify apprehend and prosecute criminals who hurt children. they are deserving of comp -- these children are deserving of comprehensive and tailored services to assist in their recovery. we need to ensure that funding in -- is in place for these services. this bill is a first step in combating domestic minor sex trafficking and helping victims begin their new lives. throughout the afternoon we have said that they have to have an opportunity to change their lives. while the rescue of trafficking victims is necessary, so is the prosecution of traffickers. while we habitually refer to those as customers and john,

i've said that on the floor these the cold, hard fact is these people are nothing more than child rapists. we need to stop being polite and call them what they are child rapists. let us not let them hide behind polite names such as johns particularly when they prey on our children. federal courts interpreted the existing statute, title 18 u.s.c., to cover the acts of patronizing and solicitation. therefore the terms patronize and solicit in these bills esmfa size that these actions are covered. those who patronize and solicit are already criminally liable under the language contained in the original text of 1591. under this legislation, child rapists will no longer be able to find refuge in any jurisdiction. this bill will also promote the coordination of investigation on federal, state, and local law enforcement and enhance reporting data for missing children. everything that the witnesses at

the march, 2014, hearing told us called for this. let me say that i'm also grateful that this bill emphasizes the local state, and federal collaboration. as a member of the homeland security committee, which is what the hearing was held on, under the us a pises of the homeland security committee, we recognize that that is part of the threat to the national security. the utilizing of our children, the victimizing of our children, the co-opting of our children, the solicitting of our children, this bill gets right at the target. human trafficing is the second fastest growing criminal industry in the world, generating over $32 billion annually. this bill is the most comprehensive piece of legislation to deal with this problem over the years and it is a great foundation upon which to continue to build, to weed out every nuance, every person hiding behind the rock, who is dealing in sex trafficking and human trafficking. for years we have labeled child victims of sex trafficking as prostitutes, juvenile delinquents, rather than as the

victims they are. we've seen runaways and condemned them for being the runaways and we don't know the horrible stories of what they experienced. they are victims of criminal conduct and we need to treat them that way, not prostitute, not juvenile delinquents. this bill recognizes and treats victims as victims and provides resources to law enforcement, child welfare, health care officials and others who will come into contact with them. one of the early organizations, the centers -- center for missing and exploited children which i associate with throughout my kyler time raised the claire job call we must do something about the exploited and missing children. i know they are celebrating as we have been on the floor talking about human trafficking and sex trafficking. mr. speaker i'm pleased that the judiciary committee saw fit to adopt section 11 the jackson lee amendment which expresses the sense of congress that human trafficking has no place in a civilized society and that perpetrators of such vile acts should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and we

can build on this for finding those who may be thinking that they are squeezing outside the law. mr. speaker as the global leader in combating human trafficking throughout the world, the united states must hold all nations to the same standards of which we hold ourselves. the demand for commercial sex is a primary cause of the human rights violation of human trafficking. elimination of that violation requires the elimination of that demand. i am glad that we are here confronting it head on and i ask my colleagues to support this underlying legislation and with that i yield -- i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. poe: i yield three minutes to the chairman of the judiciary committee who has made it a priority to stop and combat this scourge of human trafficking by bringing numerous bills before the judiciary committee. i yield three minutes to the gentleman from virginia

chairman goodlatte. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. goodlatte: mr. speaker, i first want to thank the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, for his long dedication to addressing this very serious problem and for yielding me this time. few nightmares equal the terrible reality that thousands of american children awake to each day. held against their will, before the day is out, they will be forced to share perhaps a dozen strangers' beds and be subjected to arbitrary violence for any real or imagined infraction. child sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in our country and we must update our laws to combat it. house -- h.r. 181, the justice for victims of trafficking act of 2015, is a targeted effort to deploy our law enforcement and social resources against the worst offenders, those who sexually exploit children and

other vulnerable victims. rather than simply increasing penalties, the justice for victims of trafficking act directly aids the survivors of this crime. the bill creates a comprehensive victim-centered grant program to train law enforcement, rescue exploited children, prosecute traffickers, and restore the lives of victims. the bill also streamlines existing law enforcement tools by providing that child advocacy centers can and should use their resources to help victims of trafficking and other types of child exploitation. h.r. 181 clarifies that state prosecutors may obtain wiretaps pursuant to a showing of proximate cause for trafficking and other child sex crimes. additionally the bill adds several of the federal anti-slavery statutes as federal wiretap predicates, something that should have been done a long time ago. these important tools simply give police the same investigatory tools they would have if these criminal gangs

sold drugs or stolen property instead of sex with children and other victims. the bill makes the law clear that the men who purchased these children's nebs will be held to the same standard as those who make it available for sale and hold sex traffickers accountable by increasing the standards for claiming an affirmative defense by requiring defendants to show by clear and convincing evidence that they believe these victims to be 18 years of age or older. we in congress have no higher duty than to protect the innocent children of this nation. the justice for victims of trafficking act introduced by my friend and judiciary colleague judge poe is a critical step toward banishing human trafficing to where it belongs. the rem of nightmares. please join me in supporting this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: it gives me great privilege, mr. speaker,

to, as congressman poe indicated, to yield time to the gentlelady from new york, mrs. carolyn maloney who as i indicated has worked without ceasing on empowering the most vulnerable, particularly in her work on empowering women, vulnerable women, around the world providing them rights and then of course the work she's done in collaboration with congressman poe and our committees on this bill. we thank her and i yield four minutes to her. thank her. mrs. maloney: thank you, and i thank my good friend and colleague for her leadership on this issue and so many others. i want to commend the republican and democratic leadership for bringing to the floor a large number of bipartisan bills to address the problem of human trafficking. i particularly want to thank judge poe for his enlightened leadership. he has brought a -- an informed, intelligent, effective focus on this crime and brought new

momentum that is helping this country address it. i thank the bipartisan women's caucus that has made this goal this common goal of attacking the exploitation of children as a joint priority for our caucus and for this congress. it is an important way to mark the human trafficking week and this modern day form of slavery happens all across the world and we don't like to admit it it is happening right here in america and it's happening in our small cities, our big cities, every state, every race, creed, and color. and there are no reliable estimates but by some accounts there are as many as two million minors trafficked within the u.s. alone. . when they have missing children reports, many of their parents believe their children have been stolen into sex trafficking.

most of these child victims are sex traffic -- who are sex trafficked are united states citizens. or here legally in the united states. human trafficking, as my colleague pointed out, is the fastest growing crime and the third largest criminal activity in the world. but unlike drugs and guns that are sold only once, human lives can be sold repeatedly over and over and over again until their lives are shattered and destroyed. it destroys lives and comes with a huge social and economic cost. we can all agree that no child should be for sale in america. not now, not ever. our children should not be for sale. but they are for sale under the guise of human traffickers and pimps. i am very pleased to work shoulder to shoulder with

congressman poe on the justice for victims of trafficking act. as a former judge and a former prosecutor he knows first hand how damaging this crime is to the lives of our young people and it involves young boys, too. and how difficult it is to get a conviction. so his knowledge in this area is tremendously appreciated and it's on -- it is really -- his knowledge is in this bill and i thank him for having been the key author on it and for his passion and hard work on it. this bill directly and specifically supports law enforcement training and prosecution of sex trafficking crimes. and it creates a domestic trafficking victims fund. within the treasury department to support critically needed services for victims. we know there are not enough beds. there's no treatment. many trafficked women tell me

they get saved but then they are put in a park with no place to go. and the traffickers come up and try to get them back into it. it goes after those who are trying to exploit children and vulnerable women. those who would profit off the misery of others by going after their wallets. it targets the demand side, the child abusers, the child molesters. our victims fund will be financed through fines leff have ied -- levied on those convicted of child pornography, human trafficking, child prostitution sexual exploitation, and human smuggling offenses. will the gentlelady grant me another minute? ms. jackson lee: be delighted to yield another mnt. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one additional minute. mrs. maloney: the bill also makes it clear it's not the victim who is sold and exploited who is the crime cal. the criminal -- criminal. the criminal is the john, child

abuser, who solicits a minor or trafficker, who puts a woman or man out on the street to be bought and sold. human trafficking is harmful not only to the victims but to society at large. last may, this house passed this bill in total agreement, an i urge the senate to follow it and pass it also. it's time to help the survivors get the resources they need to rebuild their lives and to punish the evildoers who purchase and sell these innocent children. i thank my colleagues for yielding me time. i yield back. thanks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. does the gentlelady from texas reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. poe: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. pittenger. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina is recognized for two mnts. mr. pittenger: thank you, judge poe for your golden state leadership -- for your great

leadership in this very important area. it's so encouraging to see the bipartisan commitment. thank you, congresswoman lee and congresswoman maloney for your strong support. when i came to congress it was my perception that human trafficking was a concern found in other parts of the world. certainly not in north carolina. soon i found out that north carolina after talking to our law enforcement was within the top 10 states for human trafficking. as such, i realize we needed to take care of our own in our own region and hosted a meeting for public officials, church leaders at the billy graham center. we brought in wonderful organizations, justice mercy compassion act, others who have been there on behalf of these women. but there's so many important ways that we can provide safety, security, safe haven for these

precious young girls that they have been brought into slavery. human trafficking is one of the most tragic issues in our world today. only 21 million human beings living in modern day slave rism domestic servitude for slavery and sex work. as nation we have both a moral and constitutional obligation to protect the most vulnerable in our society with horrific exploitation. i therefore urge all my colleagues today to join in supporting for justice, for victims -- victims trafficking act of 2015 presented by congressman poe. we need to ensure that we can provide to these young domestic human trafficking victims the support that they need. this week, yes, we in the house will devote ourselves to raising awareness of this heinous crime and passing legislation to take

significant steps toward the eradication of trafficking both domestically and abroad. however, even as human trafficking awareness month draws to a close, our dedication must not waiver. i thank the chairman for his leadership. i thank my colleagues for the support. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: does the gentleman from texas have additional speakers? mr. poe: i'm ready to close. ms. jackson lee: i will close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the previous speaker indicated that we are in the national month acknowledging and recognizing the gravity of human trafficking. and i believe that it calls upon us to stand by the most vulnerable who really can't help themselves. my last comment before yielding was the demand for commercial

sex is a primary cause of the human rights violation of human trafficking. so eliminating that violation requires the elimination of the demand. what i might not have added, which a number of members have said is the violence that goes along with sex trafficking and human trafficking. the violence that goes along when some entity, person called a pimp which is an old time term really becomes an abuser, violent abuser, and abuses the frail, small body of a little girl or boy. because they really have -- haven't risen to the occasion, provided them with their daily infusion of dollars to continue to do their dastardly work. as i have heard mentioned on this floor, we are not alone here in the united states. for those of us who met the victims of sex trafficking and

human trafficking around the world, we understand that america's standards will help others. that's what's good about what we are doing today in the underlying bill. that we set a standard that the world can look at. that we are not going to tolerate or be sufferers of the abuse of little children. yesterday as i listened to a great success story, spoken about by the prime minister of jamaica, relating their economic success, she was willing to talk about jamaica's concerted effort at fighting human trafficking. an island where it might be easy for that trafficker to move from one place to the next. here was a leader of government acknowledging the scourge of human trafficking and that jamaican children were suffering and subjected to sex trafficking and that it remains a serious problem, but we are going to

fight it. and i felt very good about that. because you would think in an island that is very much dependent on tourism and entertainment, would not have that calling and that cause, but, yes, the fight is spreading. i believe the jamaican government should congratulated and i ask other governments to take heed of the underlying legislation rise to the standard be part of the total elimination of cutting into the lives of children, of little boys, little girls, of cutting them off from any kind of aspirations and hope that they could ever ask. maybe if we don't necessarily connect it, but we know the story of the three women that were held for a period of time in our own nation some started out as children when they were ultimately found, they were women. one cannot help note that the

violence that they described was a vial sex trafficking hughman trafficking episode. we don't know how many -- human trafficking episode. we don't how many around the nation that today as we stand on the floor of the house suffering. i thank representative poe. i thank my colleague representative maloney, committee staff on both sides of the aisle to help address this issue. and as well i'm glad that this particular legislation will set a standard that this dastardly series of acts will not be suffered by any human being, not only in this nation but around the world. with that i ask support for h.r. 181 and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. poe: may i inquire of the chair as to how much time is left on this side? the speaker pro tempore: 5 1/2 minutes. mr. poe: i yield myself such time as i may consume.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. poe: thank you, mr. speaker. there were a lot of different entities involved in bringing this and other pieces of legislation to the house floor. there are numerous organizations throughout the united states small and large that are determined to stop human trafficking, and i want to thank all of them for their input into this cause and this legislation. i call them the victims posse. they are going to -- they have rounded up and made sure that we are going to deal with this important issue. i also want to thank the members of the house who are co-sponsors of this bill. especially carolyn maloney, my friend from new york, and her tenacious work on this and other pieces of legislation. and also i thank the members of the house because many times when they go back home on this specific issue, as mentioned by my friend, jacksonville from

texas, they are holding public forums and hearings about this crime of human trafficking. in fact there's another one in my district this weekend in houston. i want to commend the members for bringing public awareness to this horrible rm situation. -- horrible situation. but not all is gloom and doom and despair exmr. speaker. this legislation and other pieces of legislation, but more importantly, the moral will of the house and i think america is to get a grip on this slavery. when a crime like this is committed against pearn especially a child call it sexual assault, it's rape. it's rape, mr. speaker. of children. and a rapist commits that crime

to try to destroy that person, destroy their identity, destroy their self-worth, to steal their soul. that's what rapists do. that's why we are going to solve this case or solve these cases best we can by preventing them from owe considering. by going after those rapists. going after the trafficker. and rescuing the most precious thing we have in our country, which is our children. we are not going to allow the situation where america's children are bartered and sold on the marketplace for sexual assault. those days are going to be over. i appreciate all those who have brought this bill to the floor both sides, and i ask that the house of representatives vote unanimously on this legislation.

i yield back the balance of my time. that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 181 as amended. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. .

for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> i move to suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 460, the human trafficking detection act of 2015. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 460, a bill to direct the secretary of homeland security to train department of homeland security personnel how to effectively deter, detect disrupt and prevent human trafficking in the course of their primary roles and responsibilities and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from north carolina, mr. walker, and the gentlewoman from texas ms. jackson lee each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina, mr. walker. mr. walker: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on h.r. 460, the bill now under

consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized. mr. walker: thank you mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. speaker, i rise in strong support of h.r. 460, the human trafficking detection act of 2015. the first bill i have introduced as a member of congress. a few weeks ago we took an oath promising to protect the people this great country. i am convinced that part of this high calling is protecting those who are victims of human trafficking. north carolina is often ranked as a top state for labor and sex trafficking. this insidious industry is in our own backyard and unfortunately, it is growing. just this week, in my own district, local officials announced the formation of the anti-human trafficking advocacy county to respond to the growing human trafficking throughout the

county. however, they cannot do it alone and we must come together to fight this unconscionable industry. i feel strongly that the men and women of the department of homeland security have a crucial role in preventing human trafficking. up to an estimated 17,500 people are trafficked each year into the united states. many of these victims will pass by either border patrol or t.s.a. we must make certain that these agents are properly trained in the current trends and practices to end human trafficking. this bipartisan legislation requires the department of homeland security to train transportation security administration, customs and border protection, and other relevant d.h.s. personnel to counter human trafficking in a manner specific to the professional roles and responsibilities. the bill also ensures that such training will be assessed by the secretary of homeland security on an annual basis so that it is based on the most current human trafficking trends and

intelligence and directs the secretary to report to congress on the numb of suspected cases reported by the d.h.s. officials. lastly, this legislation recognizes the critical role that state and local authorities play in preventing human trafficking by authorizing the department of homeland security to make training curricula available to state, local, tribal, and private sector partners. according to the department of homeland security, human trafficking is one of the most profitable forms of transnational crime in the world. second only to drug trafficking. it is incumbent upon congress to take action and ensure that the d.h.s. personnel are better equipped to prevent this serious threat and modern day form of slavery. the human trafficking detection act of 2015 builds on the good work already under way in d.h.s. by mandating position-specific relevant training to enable effective trafficking counter

measures at points of entry, transit hubs and other high-risk locations across the country. i would like to thank congressman meadows for developing and championing this legislation in the 113th congress and for working with me to reintroduce the measure of this congress. additionally i would like to thank the chame of the homeland security chairman mccaul, for his work on this issue and his support of this bill as well as the chair of the subcommittee for sponsoring this legislation. finally i would like to thank each of the bill's co-sponsors including north carolina's own alma adams, mr. pittinger, and the aforementioned mark meadows, for their great support in this important legislation. i urge my colleagues to support this bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for such time as i might consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: i indicated

this afternoon was an important afternoon. i thank the gentleman for his legislation and his leadership, and i add my appreciation to the ranking member of the homeland security committee, mr. thompson and as well, the ranking member of the judiciary committee, who previously did bills, mr. conyers. it seems we are have been bipartisan support on a very important crisis in our nation and around the world. in 2014, mr. obama, president obama, said at home we are leading by example. my administration is cracking down on traffickers, charging a record number of perpetrators, we are deploying new technology in the fight against human trafficking, developing the federal government's first ever strategic action plan to strengthen victims' services and strengthening protection against human trafficing in federal contracts. in the past year the white house has hosted events on ideas to continue to fight that scourge as i have called it.

the president -- the present legislation before us, as i rise to strongly support it, h.r. 460 is a human trafficking detection act of 2015. this is a great partnership between homeland security and judiciary, between homeland security, a committee of which i'm a senior member on, and judiciary, to fight against human trafficking. and in particular this bill has a very important purpose. because our homeland security personnel are in our airports and ports, they're along our borders, they are the eyes and years -- and ears, they're the first responders. it's crucial that this bill is effectively working with personnel to train to deter detect, disrupt and prevent human trafficking through the course of their primary roles and responsibilities and for other work. this is a very good idea. human trafficing is not only a crime but also a horrible violation of human rights.

human trafficing is often a hidden crime. victims of human trafficking may be afraid to come forward and get help because they may be forced or coerced. they may fear retribution or they might not have control over their document. according to the most recent estimates from the department of state, approximately 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked across global borders each year. according to the u.s. department of justice, houston, texas, one of the nation's largest hubs in human trafficking. there are over 200 active brothels in houston more strip clubs and ill list spas than las vegas. these businesses serve as fronts for sex trafficking. let me be very clear. it's not a condemnation of my city, it's a recognition that every single elected person, local, county, and state government our law enforcement are working every day and we're being successful in, in essence, shutting down strip club, ill list spas and others. the main factors that contribute

to high levels of trafficking throughout the nation and texas are proximity, demographics and large migrant labor population. houston's proximity to the mexican border and i-10, a highway running across country through houston and the port make it a popular point. but that is not solely the site of human trafficking. as my colleague mentioned, it is everywhere. it's a national problem. and therefore our homeland security personnel, thank goodness, will now have the opportunity to have special training that in the capacity of their work, their eyes and ears will be extra framed to de-- extra trained to detect those trying to move past the law. houston's huge geographic size and large eth mick -- ethnic and culturally diverse population is seen in and around the nation which creates optimal conditions. they're not the only city with that. to combat human trafficking the

department of homeland security recognize there needs to be a national campaign, has launched the blue campaign in 2010. through the blue campaign d.h.s. works with government and nongovernment organizations to bring those who exploit human life to justice. this legislation will begin to institutionalize the training. last year this training was credit when two men were arrested due to training at miami international airport. t.s.a. who had been trained observed the interaction between a young man and young woman and noticed the signs. what we want to do is institutionalize and codify this effort so that no human trafficker, no child, being held by an adult but being trafficked can escape the eye of our trained homeland security personnel and they can break that hand away from that adult

that is trying to do that child harm. because they will know that is not the friendly parent or wonderful grandparent or best aunt or uncle. they'll know it is a dastardly act. i support the underlying bill and ask my colleagues to support it and reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. walker: i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from indiana, ms. brooks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. brooks: i rise today in strong support of the human trafficking detection act of 2015 and commend my colleague from north carolina and the gentlelady from texas for their advocacy on this really important issue. many of my colleagues that i've heard speak today said they learned about this when they came to congress. i learned about this devastating modern day slavery when i was a united states attorney in the southern district of indiana between 2001 and 2007. we started one of the first task

forces in the country and there are task forces across the country that have been focused on human trafficking now for quite some time. but we must do more. because even now, an estimated 17,500 people are trafficked throughout the u.s. each year. sadly, this problem disproportionately affects young girls between the ages of 12 and 14 who are lured by these crime networks. mr. speaker, i rise today because i learned during that time with that task force and with my time in the u.s. attorney's office, these are very difficult crimes to prosecute. and the reason they're so difficult to prosecute is because they're difficult to detect, they're difficult to lure victims out of these crime networks, and so we have to do more. we have to educate our law enforcement, we have to educate those who are standing -- standing at our ports of entry those who are standing at our airports and mass transit areas and teach them about the warning

signs, what they need to be looking for, so we can stop trafficking at the source prosecute those who are responsible, and save the victims. that's why i support this bill, which requires the department of homeland security to implement comprehensive training programs on deterring detecting and disrupt this human trafficking. our law enforcement are standing on the front line they have to be equipped with the best practice methods for identifying the victims and the perpetrators so they can bring these perpetrators to justice. criminals change their methods all the time and i'm pleased that this bill also requires an annual reassessment of training programs. they have to continue to train. it's time for congress to act decisively, we need to do more and i urge my colleagues to support this bill and yield become. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from north

carolina is recognized. mr. walker: i have no further requests for time i'm prepared to close if the gentlewoman is prepared to yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. ms. jackson lee: i'm prepared to close and yield back the time. let me emphasize what i just said earlier. two people were caught at a miami international airport, caught by officers of t.s.a. who received training to detect trafficking, observed the interaction between the two men and a young woman. the exact description that i gave holding a little girl's hand holding a teenager's hand, looking innocent, but our d.h.s. personnel could be the saviors of the day. and our own airport just a few years ago a number of chinese nationals, young women, were brought in, ultimately to be

held against their will. it was astute personnel who knew that even though girls travel together, something was wrong. that's why this legislation is so important. the bill before us today seeks to codify in law the training of d.h.s. personnel on how to deter, detect and disrupt human trafficking and where appropriate, interdict a suspected trafficker during the course of their primary roles and responsibilities. our frontliners from the department of homeland security are everywhere. there's not a place where you can travel entering this country or throughout airports or throughout ports -- throw our -- throw -- through our airports through our ports, that officers are not there. our officers at ports of entry will be trained how to identify victims of trafficking. smuggling. human slavery. for t.s.a. it means screening personnel who screen approximately 1.8 million people a day will be knowledgeable about signs of trafficking.

the bill requires that train regular seved be appropriate for the particular location or environment perform their duties. streamlining it to make it work. this will help tailor the train regular seved so it's sfesk to the personnel receiving the training. mr. speaker with this bill we have an opportunity to call attention to the human rights crisis that is human trafficking. i'm gld that this bill is generated out of the homeland security committee comm emphasizes the security of this nation but as well this important act of making sure america stands against human trafficking. january is national slavery and human trafficking prevention month and to ensure that continued attention be paid to this crime, i urge the passage of h.r. 460. . the bill before us today may not eliminate human trafficking, it may help prevent it by ensuring that d.h.s. frontline work force is properly trained to fight it.

in conclusion, let me say that we are all committed. again i refer to all of us to report suspected human trafficking, dial 1-866-347-2423. to get help if you're a victim, call the national human trafficking resource center at 1-888-373-78 many 89 -- 7888. i thank the gentleman from north carolina for his leadership and thank the committee chairman and ranking member for their leadership. with that i yield back and ask support of the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. walker: thank you congresswoman jackson lee for your eloquence on such an important issue. mr. speaker, there are millions of victims trapped in the united states and around the world suffering in silence. in many cases the men and women on the department of homeland security on the frontlines of the fight are trying to end this heinous crime and help these victims. this legislation codifies some

of the good work already being done to train d.h.s. personnel to detect and prevent human trafficking. while also ensuring that such training is specific to the professional rolls of the personnel who will utilize it. moreover this bill will enable d.h.s. to equip its nonfederal partners to better counter the devastating effects of human trafficking. in clausing -- closing i urge my colleagues to support this critically important bipartisan bill. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 460. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, by direction of the committee on rules, i call up house resolution 48 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number

5, house resolution 48, resolved that upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill, h.r. 351 to provide for expedited approval of exportation of natural gas and for other purposes. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. the bill shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one, one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on energy and commerce. and two, one motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for one hour. mr. sessions: mr. speaker thank you very much. for the purpose of debate only, i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman, my friend from florida, judge hastings, for which such time as he may

consume. and i yield myself now such time as i may consume. during consideration of this resolution, all time is yielded for the purpose of debate only. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. session: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, today i bring to the floor on behalf of the rules committee and republican conference a rule in the underlying legislation which helps address a problem that has been created by the obama administration. the administration has decided to slow the export of liquefies natural gas to countries with which we do not have a free trade agreement with. this means that american companies who have liquefies natural gas to sell to our allies across -- have plenty of gas to our allies across the globe, but delays by the administration are spreenting them from selling it. this decision, i think, comes at

a terrible price for the millions of americans who cannot find work. this decide also comes at a terrible price for those in need of a good-paying job perhaps even a long career, that will help support their families, their communities, and most of all, to help make america stronger. the administration's inaction comes at a terrible price also of our friends in europe who are being bullied by thugs namely the russian government. currently, many of our allies in europe are forced to buy natural gas from russia instead of the united states of america. we have seen how they use this legislative to push around our allies. our other friends around the globe such as india, japan, and haiti also need energy. and this administration's inaction is costing these allies

dearly also. let me see if i can paint a picture how the administration's decision has been executed. the administration's department of energy has slow walked they have taken an antiquated approval process for applications to export liquefies natural gas, which is known as l.n.g. since 2010, the department of energy has only issued final decisions on five of 37 applications to export l.n.g. to countries with which the united states does not have a free trade agreement with. these delays have nothing to do with the environment. in fact, natural gas is one of the cleanest sources of energy in the world. yes, i think we know what the problem is. the problem is they simply do not want to participate in this marketplace for americans to have jobs. as a result of these delays, we

all of us in america are squandering the boom in liquefies natural gas that has made the united states the world's largest provider of natural gas and oil really beginning in 2013. here we are now two years later and it is time for america to come to action. that is again why the united states congress, the republican congress, is coming to the american people with a bill to help do something about this. the administration's broken application process destroys and is delaying good-paying jobs at a time when labor participation rate in our marketplace is at historic lows. that hurts real people. that hurts real people who want and need opportunities to have a job today. not to look up and find out that washington is broken and keeping

them from a good-paying job. i have much to say about this. i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: i thank you very much mr. speaker. i thank the chairman, my good friend, for yielding the customary 30 minutes. mr. speaker, i rise today in opposition to the rule and underlying bill. the enduring reputation of the 113th congress will be as the least productive ever. the previous house was also the most closed as it pertains to rules, ever. passing more closed rules than any other congress and despite controlling both chambers of the

114th congress, my friends across the aisle have picked up the dysfunction right where they left off. trying to jam through another piece of legislation regardless of its merits, and without giving the house a chance to review it through regular order. must be understood that there are a significant number of new members here who didn't have an opportunity, as i did and the chairman, to vote on this measure in the previous congress. dysfunction raines supreme. but don't just take my word for -- reigns supreme. don't just take my word for it, last week 3450eu friend from pennsylvania, dongman dent, offered a summary of the 114th congress accomplishments so far. and i quote him, it week one, we had a speaker election that did not go as well as a lot of us would have liked.

week two, we got into a big fight over deporting children something that a lot of us didn't want to have a discussion about. week three we are now talking about rape and incest and reportable rapes and incest for minors. i just can't wait for week four. that's my colleague, mr. dent. well, here we are in week four. in my view wasting time and taxpayer money to abate a situation for a problem that does not exist. since the department of energy completed its economic impact study, export applications are receiving a decision within about two months. in fact, four l.n.g. export projects have already won all necessary federal permits from the energy department and the federal energy regulatory

commission. with the first project scheduled to come on line this year. therefore, despite h.r. 351's clever name, the only uncertainty regarding the bill is why the house is considering it at all. this bill originated in the last congress. when we were told that it would help ukraine shake its energy dependence from russia. let me repeat that. this bill originated in the last congress when we were told that it would help ukraine shake its energy dependence from russia. i'd like for some of my colleagues on the other side to tell me how ukraine will be able to benefit from this legislation in light of what i believe the fact to be, and that is that

they are not prepared to receive liquefies natural gas from us. and in my view, since most of this takes place in the spot neverland of oil and gas sales, i believe that when complete that this gas will reach ukraine. you know where the highest prices for oil liquefies natural gas are, both now and apparently in the near future? asia. this gas is going to asia. not ukraine and not eastern europe, i heard from discussion yesterday evening about it and i dispute any of it will go out there. what was true then remains true

now. even when the united states finally becomes capable of exporting liquefies natural gas, ukraine doesn't have, as i pointed out, the capability to receive it. so i hope you'll understand my uncertainty as to why this bill is on the floor. h.r. 351 will not make gas prices cheaper here, either. . l.n.g. is already cheaper. in fact, this bill is more likely toin crease our natural gas prices since we're going to be sending more gas overseas. and it will be hardworking americans paying the cost. it's not like there's a whole lot of projects waiting to be approved either. with natural gas futures and crude oil prices well below the levels where natural gas is competitive companies are putting l.n.g. export and

developmental -- and development projects on hold, leaving only more uncertainty as to why we are considering this bill today. this bill is also incredibly misguided. we cannot solve our energy problems with fossil fuel. it requires a certain kind of arrogance to deny an overwhelming scientific consen tuss -- consensus regarding climate change. importing or exporting more fossil fuels, more drilling more fracking, more pipelines, it doesn't matter fossil fuels are a dead end, full stop. a serious renewal -- renewable energy plan is the only way to ensure energy independence.

clean energy is the only way we can be sure that we don't leave a devastated planet for our children. this congress is starting just like the last one, mr. speaker. the american people deserve better. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. poe: thank you very much -- mr. sessions: thank you very much. this issue about natural gas and liquefied natural gas perhaps comes naturally to texans. aye been around i've seen the attributes of energy policy, how important it is. let me tell you what. the republicans have taken up -- have taken a keen interest in this. that's why the marketplace is producing $1.72 a gallon gas

leeb. that's why gasoline prices have fallen. that's why natural gas, plenty available, great price, but mr. speaker, it's also jobs that is behind this. but i'll tell you one other thing. it's also a bipartisan idea. and yesterday, this gentleman that i'm going to introduce a sponsor of the bill yesterday, bill johnson, 26-year member of the -- veteran of the united states air force came up to the rules committee and had one of the most delightful conversations on a bipartisan basis with other democrats and republicans, talked about the attributes of jobs and natural resource. thank god we live in america and have these opportunities to where we can help other countries. mr. speaker, at this time, i would like to yield five minutes to the original sponsor of this the gentleman from ohio, mr. johnson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. johnson: thank you, mr.

speaker. thank you, mr. chairman. i rise in support of h.r. -- of the rule in support of h.r. 351. during the 113th congress, identical legislation passed the house of representatives as h.r. 6. the domestic prosperity and global freedom act. long before its passage it moved through the entire legislative process at the house level. this included a hearing as well as an eventual markup at the subcommittee on energy and power. a subsequent full committee markup followed and it was placed on the calendar. they established rule 636, the rule for consideration of h.r. 6. after that rule was adopted it was debated, amended and ultimately passed the house of representatives with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. the president did not issue a veto threat. the energy renaissance that's swept across america over the

last few years has transformed the united states from an increasingly energy dependent nation beholden to the whims of opec, to our current position as the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world this transformation has provided with us a historic and unprecedented opportunity not just to bolster our economy but to also fully leverage our energy abundance on the international stage by selling a portion of our natural gas abroad. through this abundance of natural gas america has an opportunity to significantly affect geopolitics if we enact smart politics. it could and should be a game changer. allowing the export of liquefied natural gas, for instance will create significant american jobs and wealth for the united states enhance our energy security, and provide a reliable source of fuel to our allies. some of whom depend on the mood of vladimir putin to meet their energy needs. unfortunately our policies have not kept pace with the

industry's development. producers seeking to export l.n.g. face a constantly changing approval process which costs millions of dollars and takes years to navigate. not only does this undermine regulatory certainty but with dozen os projects seeking approval washington is making it difficult for businesses to make the investment decisions needed to take advantage of this abundant resource. and this delays job creation here at home and reduces our ability to positively influence global politics abroad. my bill the l.n.g. permitting certainty and transparency act, aims to address this growing problem by cutting through the bureaucratic red tape and implementing a deadline on the department of energy to issue a final decision on l.n.g. export applications. given the amount of time that has already passed since many of the l.n.g. applications have been filed an their dockets closed there's no more information to consider and no

reason for d.o.e. not to adhere to a deadline. and there's very real risk to inactivity. if washington waits too long to move forward with export licenses, other countries with their own natural gas resources canada, qatar, australia, to name three, will step in to meet the demand. our competitive advantage along with the opportunity to create more domestic energy jobs and serve as a check on russia will be lost. numerous studies have found that l.n.g. exports will create hundreds of thousands of american jobs, many of them in manufacturing. including the refining petrochemicals and chemical sectors. inch c.f. international estimates that these jobs will occur across the entire value chain. translating into roughly $1 billion in new wages for american workersers. export terminals will also generate millions in tax revenue while increasing our g.d.p. and lowering the trade deficit. it's worth noting that this

won't come at the ex-opinions of domestic consumers. the u.s. energy administration stresses they expect increased overseas demand will be met by development in new -- development in new resources. they conclude that each of the different export scenarios are welfare improving for u.s. consumers and would result in an increase in u.s. households' real income. the recent turbulence in eastern europe and throughout the middle east has shown all too clearly that energy can be used as a geopolitical tool. adding a new reliable source of natural gas to the world market will diversify our ally's sources and greatly reduce their vulnerability to a single, monopolistic supplier. i'm proud to offer this legislation, it's a job creator it helps america in leveraging the geopolitical stage across the globe. we've seen enough delay. i encourage my colleagues to support this legislation and with that, i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas

reserves. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: would you inquire as to whether or not my friend the chairman has additional speakers? i have no additional speakers. mr. sessions: i thank the gentleman, in response to him i want him to know i do have several speakers. i cut my time short in the beginning to allow them to be here so if the gentleman is advising me is all but done, we'll go ahead and consume the time with the agreement with the gentleman. mr. hastings: i'm prepared to reserve but i reiterate that i would hope that some of the speakers from the other side would answer the question as to whether or not this elect we fied natural gas is going to reach -- lick fied natural gas is -- liquefied natural gas is going to reach eastern yumpe, i doubt that. and just as an aside, the fact

of the matter is that for years the discussion was of the price of regular gasoline and now that it's nearing $2 and we are the world's biggest producer of natural gas and moving pretty well, i might add, and i'm glad to see along the clean energy line, i just am curious whether president obama gets any credit at all for any of these changes? because those who argued that gasoline would be at $6 and $7, i even saw one $8 a gallon, i'm just curious as that didn't occur, what the thought is? i recognize we're here on another subject but i would hope that we would get an answer regarding the l.n.g. and ukraine

especially. that said, mr. speaker, i'm prepared to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: thank you very much. we really do want to address both of your questions. i think they're both legitimate questions. first of all, according to hungary's ambassador at large for energy security, he says lifting restrictions on import would send an extremely important message of strategic reassurance to the region which currently feels more threatened than at any time it has since the civil war. i'm going to yield here in just a second to the gentleman, the author of the bill, because he understands the piece of pie that russia we talk about thugry from rush -- about thuggery from russia, the ukrainians had to renegotiate the amount of money that they were paying just to stay warm to

get natural gas because the russians raised that price on them and we think that's gouging and taking advantage of people and i'd like to yield, if i can to the gentleman from ohio two minutes to discuss this point that you asked about. the gentleman would be yielded that time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. right now, today about 50% of russia's revenue comes from taxes on oil and gas. mr. johnson: about 80% of that resource goes through the ukraine. the ukrainian people are under tremendous pressure, as are other european allies by the russians. but regardless of where u.s. natural gas is shipped, increasing supply and competition in the global marketplace will help provide international consumers with greater choice. in fact a representative of the u.s. state department made a similar statement on the

benefits of u.s. natural gas exports at a january 8, 2015, atlantic council forum. this is from the state department. and i -- and i quote. now, where the gas will go, doesn't matter. the fact that we have approved exports of natural gas has already had an impact on europe. just the fact that america is getting into the game has put the russians on notice that our friends and allies and people that they are currently putting under pressure the ukrainians and others are going to have a choice and it's going to make a different conversation happen at the table. mr. chairman, i hope that helps clarify. mr. sessions: let us keep going on the second part of the question which was can president obama just get any bit of credit, just any bit, just a small measure? well i would respond to the

gentleman, yes but when he earns it. the president has made it known from the very beginning that he opposed energy policy that the free market tried to produce, take example, even though he was at the ground breaking for the keystone pipeline he's been incapable of making a decision for six years. on something that multiple people, including at least two former presidents and lots of other people said it makes just a lot of sense to do it. but also the facts of the case are the congressional research service reported that domestic natural gas production has risen by 19% since 2009. but decreased by 28% on federal lands. so the idea that the president

has tried to help this while reducing it by almost a third from federal lands, the evidence is just not there to give him credit. so i know that there are people who want to get credit for things even though they didn't do things, even though they didn't complete the task that was in front of them, making decisions, making wise decisions showing the american people what you stand for i would do this to the gentleman and help him out, but the administration clearly has been on simply the other side of that issue and that ball. mr. speaker, at this time i would like to yield five minutes to the gentleman from corpus christi, texas, who was with me on the border this last weekend as we looked at border security but he comes from an energy-rich section of our nation and represents some of the most vibrant companies that are trying to make this country

energy sufficient and to help make sure that what's at the pump is at a great price and great product for consumers, five minutes to the gentleman from corpus christi, texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. flores: thank you mr. speaker, mr. chairman, it's important we get this rule done and move on to consideration of h.r. 351. . mr. farenthold: when i first came to congress, i was visited by folks from a company that was looking to put an l.n.g. liquefication plant in the district i represent. in fact, we have two pending in the district that i represent. but the first one, shnear energy. billion-plus plant to liquefied natural gas and import it, has been waiting since longer i've been in congress, over four years now, to get this plan approved and online to start selling energy. i want to address some of the

questions that the gentleman from the other side has raised with respect to this. first and foremost, the technology is there. there's no point for ukraine or any other country to build the facilities to receive this natural gas until there is a sure and steady supply of this natural gas. and it's a lot easier to get these facilities built in other countries where they don't have to go through the exhausting and sometimes -- i would go so far to say insane permitting process that we have to go through here in the united states. in fact, there's a company looking at putting in another l.n.g. facility in port lavaca that's going to build the facility to liquefy the natural gas on a barge pull it up, hook it up to the pipeline and liquefy it. this same barge technology can be used for regasification. you can literally pull a barge into a sea port at the ukraine, hook up the ship, hook it up to the pipeline and they could be receiving l.n.g. in a very short order. so it's there for any country.

and listen, there's this talk about it could possibly run up energy prices and natural gas prices here in the united states. the liquefication process consumes some of the natural gas. the numbers i hear very -- from around 20% or so. and so it will always be cheaper to deliver the gas by pipeline here in the united states. so we'll always have a competitive advantage with the natural gas that we produce. but we got to have a market for that natural gas. right now pretty much the only natural gas we're seeing produced out of the eagleford shale in texas is produced with oil. you drill a well, you get both oil and gas. we've seen a huge dropoff in drilling for natural gas because the demand is so low and the supply is so high. to the point we're drilling wells -- oh, we discover gas. we shut that well and don't produce it. we got to strike while the iron is hot.

we can help improve our balance of the trade with the world. we can put pook back to work and it can be done without government expense. we have to get the regulators out of washington, d.c. out of our hair and let our country do this so we can improve the economy for everybody in america. we can have a much more secure economy. we can have people back to work. we can have a plentiful supply of energy for the foreseeable future. there's a huge -- you got marcellus shale you have the eagleford shale, you've got the barnett shale you've got pennsylvania you've got texas, you've got north dakota. there's plentiful natural gas. we need a market for it, and by approving this rule and the underlying legislation, that will happen. americans will go back to work and america as a whole will prosper. i'll yield back. mr. sessions: i'll thank the gentleman very much not only for taking time to discuss these important issues but

really for his representation of an industry who can do so many great things not only for the american people but really to help out our friends around the world. it becomes a part of a very positive foreign affairs policy that the united states instead of going overseas to get energy we can be delivering that energy. instead of having to have a blue water navy, a navy that is stretched to keep shipping lanes open we can be handing these off to other countries to take them. and yesterday, mr. speaker there was a vigorous opportunity on a bipartisan basis, a discussion that not only did bill johnson take part in but mr. garamendi, the gentleman the democrat from california, ed whitfield, the subcommittee chairman, about the delivery of this l.n.g. can be on american ships, a

shipbuilding industry to build the ships to the meet the specifications that will be necessary to put them in the water to deliver these around the world can be an american-made product also. mr. farenthold: if the gentleman would give me 30 more seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 130ekds. mr. farenthold: i do want to point out that even the president understands there's an ability there for the ukraine. speaking in ukraine recently, he said we welcome the prospect of l.n.g. exports in the future since additional global supplies will benefit europe and other strategic partners. that's a quote somebody sent me from president obama. mr. sessions: i thank the gentleman. and by the way, mr. speaker, yesterday at the rules committee for the first time in a long time, we did not receive a statement of administrative policy that the president's opposed to this. it was a bipartisan presentation in the rules committee yesterday. not unprecedented but a really

good feeling about us working together for the common interest to make sure that the american worker comes out on top of this, that the taxpayer comes out on top of this, that we're producing good legislation that can go to the united states senate this time to be heard and passed on so that we can get this legislation so the president does earn that part of his check on the box that says, and thank you, mr. president, for agreeing and working with us. thank you for helping us out. i think this can get through the house. i think it can get through the senate and i think the president will sign it. mr. speaker, if that's not a positive declaration about the president seeing great things and me wanting and needing and expecting the president to do what i think is the right thing, then we're simply mis-- this is a good thing for america. this is a good thing for both

parties, but this is a good thing for our friends around the world and diplomacy also. mr. speaker at this time i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from friendswood texas, my dear colleague, mr. weber. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for three minutes. mr. weber: i thank the gentleman and thank the speaker. folks, the world is an inherently dangerous place. watch the news. think with me for a minute. when the world has a catastrophe -- and it doesn't matter if it's a tsunami, earthquake, fire pest atlanta, war, when the world has a catastrophe and dials 911, who is it that answers? it's america, isn't it, with our military? it's america that answers that 911 call. now, how do we do that? it's because this country has the strongest, most stable

most reliable, affordable energy capacity and capability in the world. america is able to produce goods. i often say the things that make america great are the thing that america plakes and our fossil fuel energy -- makes, and our fossil fuel energy supply is what underwrites that. you don't think that's right? and i would argue that not only is it america's security when america's strong the world is strong. if you don't think fossil fuel energy is important, try powering a tanker or jet plane with solar panels, mr. speaker. you won't get very far. we must remain strong for -- as i said -- for the world to be safe america's got to be strong. this rule and this bill h.r. 351, is important not only to america's economy but also our national security and i would argue by extension the world depending on us, international security. yes we have a stable,

long-lasting, reliable source of energy here in america. we have the -- we have the opportunity to export that to our friends around the globe and help them to be safe, help them to be productive. we will produce america jobs in the process. we will improve our balance of trade, as my friend from corpus christi, said earlier. l.n.g. is not helping not only for the national economy, but national and international security. i have three plants in my district. they need the processing -- the permitting process needs to be expedited and moving forward. that's why i rise today in support of the rule and support of h.r. 351. two l.n.g. fiments in my district and more on the books, they mean jobs, they mean security. i urge my colleagues to support this rule to support this bill, put americans to work, help america continue to be a

leader, to be safe and indeed help keep this world safe. i thank the gentleman, the chairman of the rules committee, and, mr. speaker, i yield back. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, i'd like to have the gentleman stick around for a minute, because as a member of the foreign affairs committee, he is most genuinely involved in trying to make sure that discussions about america and our allies and how the world sees us is well understood. as a man that comes not only from friendswood, texas, and which like mr. farenthold is right, in the center of this enterprise where we ship our natural resources around the world i'd like to -- i'd really like to give the gentleman two minutes to talk about the impact of foreign affairs, the gentleman, mr. hastings, had asked a question -- why does this matter? i yield to the gentleman.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. weber: thank you. great questions. i didn't talk about the fact that i have five ports in my district on the gulf coast of texas, more than any other member of congress. some have four. i have five. l.n.g. plants l.p.g. plants. 60% of the nation's jet fuel is produced in my district. 60% of the nation's jet fuel. an extremely large amount, a classified amount of the military's fuel. they won't tell me how much. but a large amount of the military's fuel. strategic petroleum reserves abound in my district. again we can't find how much, but it's a huge amount. from a foreign affairs initiative -- and i've been over to japan. i've been over to the philippines. i've been to hong kong, south korea, taiwan. they want our l.n.g. they would much rather buy it from us than from the russian bear. don't you know the people in ukraine would much rather be dependent on us because we're not a dictatorship.

at least not supposed to be. and we're not -- we're not going to cut off their fuel because we have a disagreement with the way the russian separatists act or believe. so it is a foreign affairs -- it is a foreign policy initiative. as i said earlier, it helps make the world safer. it helps create jobs over here. it helps with our balance of trade -- or imbalance of trade. it's an important issue and it's one that bears supporting. support the rule. support this bill because it's not only important for america, from an energy perspective from a security perspective, but an international or world trade perspective as well as world security. for foreign policy, it matters. i thank the gentleman from texas, and i yield back. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. sessions: i thank the gentleman from friendswood, texas, who mr. speaker, has a keen understanding about not only what's in america's best interest by serving on the foreign affairs committee but

also a proud man who understands that people who work hard have jobs clean, natural gas, an opportunity for america to get the benefits of one of god's greatest gifts to the united states that we can share with others. now mr. speaker, i think that there are a whole lot of ways for us to look at not only what lies ahead with opportunity but i think we can also look at some models of success. and one of them might be my home state of texas. my home state of texas has incredible opportunities and benefits that have arisen from the ability to have energy abundance, the ability to have oil, natural gas and other elements that can be used in this industry to make our country stronger.

but what is happening is is that we have also used it to texas benefit and america's benefit. that's right. and just to tell a story that if it weren't for texas net job growth over the last seven years in america would be flat. that means you can take all 49 states, level it out the minuses, the pluses, net it out, america would not have net positive job growth, but because of texas i can tell you that we now have created a net increase of 1.2 million jobs in america, net and that has come because of texas. so entirely, literally entirely a texas product, and that, the essence of this has come from not just lower taxes not just better roads, great schools

better education, good people but it comes from a philosophy of understanding that we need to utilize these natural resources for the benefit of our world to make jobs, job creation important, texas had to instead of delaying things, they had to make sure that what we did is we used it to our advantage. . so instead of not making decisions like this federal government does, by delaying major initiatives, we signed them into law. we got them cone. we made things happen. by doing that -- got them done. we made things happen. by doing that, then you stand a chance to better everybody's life. i'd like to reserve my time and allow the gentleman from florida a chance to finish his time and then i'll close on this. i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: thank you very much, mr. speaker. you know i don't want to in any

way disparage the love fest of my friends from texas. i recognize that everything is big in texas. i also, as a child i even learned the songs of texas, the "yellow rose of texas," "deep in the heart of texas." whole bunch of them i hold dear from my childhood. i would like to have the gentleman who was called upon as a foreign affairs expert because he serves on the foreign affairs committee to know, then i guess, i too, am a foreign affairs expert since i served on that committee for eight years

served on the intelligence committee for eight year, all the countries that the gentleman mentioned, i've been to. i assuredly never got an answer from the chairman or anyone else regarding whether or not ukraine, and it is not the ukraine, it is ukraine, i didn't get an answer as to whether they were prepared to receive liquefied natural gas. i also know we're mindful of the sanctions on russia and how it is impacting them. i did an -- i didn't only just go to ukraine in their -- withdrew crane. in their first election after the orange revolution i was the lead election monitor for the organization for security and cooperation in europe. i don't come to this dance without having some understanding and i would urge that i still didn't get although my friend the chairman

seemed to suggest that the president is deserving of something that he earns, my belief is that the president has allowed for more gas leases than i would have had him to do and i would urge that just off the press embargoed until noon today, is a press release from the united states department of interior that receives a lot of negative comment from my colleagues regarding regulations. the interior department announced their draft strategy for offshore oil and gas leasing. and the draft proposal program includes 14 potential lead sales in eight planning areas 10 sales in the gulf of mexico, three off the coast of alaska,

and one in a portion of the mid and south atlantic. now let me make it very clear, that might make a whole lot of people happy. it does not make me happy because they are discussing leases in the gulf of mexico where i believe that there's substantial infrastructure from areas like louisiana and texas in the western portion of the gulf and i guess we just ignore things like the b.p. oil spill and we ignore the potential for those kinds of disasters so i can't disagree very much with the chairman regarding some of his statistics, but i want the administration and my friend the chairman to know that as i have said repeatedly, i will be the last person standing in this house of representatives opposed to offshore drilling in my state of florida, no matter the views

that others have. i believe there's enough wind from our respective oceans to double the amount of energy that we have. and yes my friend, there are aircraft that are powered without fossil fuel. we were originally scheduled this week to also consider a border security bill. but that bill was scuttled yesterday amidst a number of things. my friends the republicans are pretty lucky. as bad as the snowstorm is, particularly for the new england area of our country, many of our colleagues could not get back here yesterday and probably won't be able to get back here today as well, but the reason i say they're lucky is they can hide under, by pulling the border bill, the fact that there was a snowstorm and people couldn't get in here. that's legitimate, in my view.

but the other part of the concern, we'll see about next week and the week after is many conservatives in the republican party are jumping ship on the border bill and that was out there as well. just like last week. just like last congress. there's a rift in the majority. leaving it unable to even pass legislation that all its members can agree on. unfortunately, we have real problems in this country that my friends are going to have to address so i look forward to my friend's plan to repair our crumbling roads and bridges in this country and i can't wait to see how this body will combat the national security threat of climate change inspite of all your denials. i hope that my friends intend to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work and i look forward to working with my colleagues to make sure that many reforms in our tax structure allow for those

persons who are ultra wealthy to pay their fair proportion of what they earned and to reform our taxes so that middle income americans can benefit and poor americans can rise to the middle class. with america's workers wages stagnant for so long, including our own here in the house of representatives, we're entering the seventh year without any increase in wages. and those of us that are poorer members of congress have experienced the kinds of difficulties just being here in washington and the cost for being here allows for seeking no sympathies it's just a fact. with those wages stagnant for so long i look forward to hearing from my colleague on -- colleagues on how they plan to raise the minimum wage in this country. because until my friend can

address -- friends can address their dysfunction and inability to lead, i'm afraid our country is in for two more years of uncertainty. i urge my colleagues to vote no on the rule and the underlying bill and i yield back the balance of my time after reiterating most presidents get a lot of credit on their watch and a lot of negatives when things go wrong. for once, our gas prices are down and my friends can't even bring themselves to say that this president deserves some credit. i do. i say it. he se everybody -- deserves some credit. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas is recognized he, has one minute remaining. mr. sessions: as i explained earlier, texas is the great american job machine. we talked about how we create jobs because we have effectively used the resources that in many instances mother nature and god have given us. so now it's time for washington

i think to learn from models we do in texas to capitalize on our resources, the energy revolution that's at hand. what republicans have done today is brought a bill that's commonsense to the floor to unleash our natural resources to make sure it helps out not only our foreign policy but workers and jobs in this country and that is important. so it is a policy issue, republican party is dead on, this is going to be a bipartisan vote today. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying legislation. i reserve the balance of my time and move the previous question. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. without objection, the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: i request the yeas and nays.

the speaker pro tempore: those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a a sufficient number having arisen having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 this 15-minute vote on adoption of house resolution 48 will be followed by five-minute votes on the motions to suspend the rules on h.r. 469 and h.r. 246. each by the yeas and nays. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 240 the nays

are 106.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 241, the nays are 169 the resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion is reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from michigan, mr. walberg, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 469 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h r. 469, a bill to amend the childhood abuse and prevention act to enabled state child protective services system to assess victims of child sex trafficking and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill? members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or

commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 409.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 410, the nays are zero. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from michigan, mr. walberg, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 246 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 246, a bill to improve the response to victims of child sex trafficking.

the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 409, the nays are zero.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are -- the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 411, the nays are zero. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without

objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that in the engrossment of h.r. 515, the clerk be directed to make the correction i have placed at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the correction. the clerk: page 9, after line 25, insert the following two, two offenders. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the house will be in order.

the house will be in order. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on additional motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered. or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. any record vote on postponed questions will be taken later. the house will be in order. members are requested to remove their conversations from the house floor. the house will be in order. for what purpose does the

gentlewoman from north carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass the bill, h.r. 398, to provide for the development and dissemination of evidence-based practices for health care professionals to recognize victims of a severe form of trafficking and response -- respond to such individuals appropriately and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 398, a bill to provide for the development and dissemination of evidence-based best practices for health care professionals to recognize victims as severe forms of trafficking and respond to such individuals appropriately and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from north carolina, mrs. ellmers, and the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from north carolina. mrs. ellmers: thank you mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the record on the bill.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mrs. ellmers: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the gentlewoman from north carolina is recognized. mrs. ellmers: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to acknowledge the ongoing domestic problem with human trafficking. h.r. 398, the trafficking awareness training for health care act, will create a program dedicated to training our nation's health care professionals in order to identify the early warning signs for the act of human trafficking. oftentimes members of the medical community encounter these individuals while they are still being trafficked. by training health care professionals and equipping them with the right knowledge we are enabling them to identify hallmark signs of this despicable act for early intervention. this pilot program will test and examine the best practices

needed for determininging the protocol used for -- determining the protocol used for implementing human trafficking awareness within the medical community. as a nurse i know that our country's medical professionals already play a significant role in caring for victims of human trafficking. this legislation will better prepare those on the front lines so theak identify and care for those -- so that they can identify and care for those being trafficked. most americans are unaware as to how prevalent and pervasive human trafficking is within our own borders. but it is time we acknowledge this fact and stand up for -- against this heinous crime. our medical base is in a position to help these victims break free. and i'm proud to push forth legislation further empowering them. this legislation trains health care workers to recognize the hallmark signs of human trafficking. thus allowing professionals to intervene on the patient's behalf. i would also like to thank my colleague, congresswoman waser

hadman schulz from florida -- wasserman schulz from florida, for helping me introduce this in congress. thank you, mr. speaker, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from north carolina reserves her time. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i think that we can all agree that human trafficking is an important problem that deserves congress' attention and that all of us support efforts to ensure that our health care workers are better prepared to identify and assist victims of human trafficking. . h.r. 398, the trafficking awareness training for health care act would set up a grant for the department of health and human services to create and address best practices for health care providers to use in the field. the program would test those practices in 10 pilot programs across the country. the goal of the legislation is

laudable and will certainly take important steps to improve our ability to address the spread of human trafficing in our local communities. however, i cannot support the process that brought this bill to the floor. this legislation is not -- has not gone through a subcommittee or full committee markup in the energy and commerce committee, neither in the 114th congress or the previous session. going through the normal committee process would have allowed members and staff to make substantive and technical changes to ensure that the department of health and human services is able to implement the law effectively. the committee deserves the ability to consider amendments under its jurisdiction. in addition, it does not authorize any appropriations to carry out this initiative. h.h.s. may not be able to do this work within their limited existing resources. advancing legislation, mr. speaker that puts new requirements on the federal

government without authorizing the pounds implement them is not a good precedent to set. mr. speaker, i can't support new legislation that's not gone through the regular order process but i will not object to considering h r. 398 on suspension today and advancing the bill by voice vote. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey reserves. the gentlewoman from north carolina is recognized. mrs. ellmers: i reserve the balance of my time, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves this egentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. pallone: i would like to yield such time as she may consume to ms. debbie wasserman schultz the democratic sponsor of the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for such time as she may consume. ms. wasserman schultz: i thank the gentleman from new jersey and my colleague, congresswoman ellmers, from north carolina, and rise today in strong support of the trafficking awareness training act of 2015, a bill on

which i was proud to join with my colleague and friend from north carolina. thank you mrs. ellmers for your willingness to shine a light on the scourge of human trafficking. i was telling my staff that it's a truly remarkable and sometime taos rare a thing in our congress to find a member who not only reaches across the aisle but is also willing to fight tirelessly to fight for what she believes in and has a staff able to match the effort. it has been a pleasure to work with you on this and on my early act a month ago. i look forward to what we may do together in the future. after passing legislation that made human and sex trafficking a state crime in my home state of florida, i knew that while an important tool we were just scratching the service -- surface. there is still much we need to learn about the way human trafficking works in the united states but we know enough to know it is far too prevalent, preys on the most vulnerable in the nation and addressing it

requires a comp rehence i approach that encompasses treatment and going after criminals. we know that best issues guesstimate there are 100,000 to 200,000 youth in the united states in danger of being trafficked. we know those most likely to be targeted are low-income women, foster children, and women with a history of abuse and estrangement from family. a girl who has been trafficked has a life expectancy of seven years and during that time she will be raped by an average of 6,000 different buyers. if this isn't an issue that deserves all possible help i don't know what is. the trafficking awareness training for health care act of 2015 develops evidence-based best practices for and training of health care providers to be able to identify and properly respond to victims of trafficking.

training means that when a girl 12 to 14 years old 12 to 14 years old, the age range that are most at risk of being trafficked, when she's brought into a health care provider for a routine checkup by an older man not related to her that a red flag goes off in a nurse's flag or health care provider's head. best practices that will mean when a come comes -- a woman come into an e.r. for a broken arm but a doctor discovers bruises and scars indicating a pattern of abutze, they don't just set her arm and send her home. and resources that mean doctors and nurses cannot only identify potential victims but ensure that those victims can become survivors. this bill complements other bills that have been on the house floor. these bills are all pieces of a larger puzzle. initiatives that when put together create a comprehensive

and cross sector response to human trafficking. we all stand up today regardless of political party, say we don't want to raise our children in a world or a nation where a person can be sold as if she's property. i'm proud to join my colleagues and congresswoman ellmers in the battle for human trafficing for my daughters, who are 11 and 15, for my constituents in south florida, and the betterment of our world and as a member of the house committee on appropriations, i can assure the gentleman while i understand his concerns on the process, as far as the appropriations, we are going to pursue unobligated funds so we can make sure that there are resources available to make sure this program is funded. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the jerusalem squm -- the gentlewoman yields back. the gentlewoman from north carolina is recognized. mrs. ellmers: thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to say again to my good friend and colleague from florida, thank you for putting forward this effort to work with us and to my colleague, mr. pallone, i, too, believe that we

need to work together so just know that my door is open, that we will continue to work on these issues together, and i'm just so glad that in a bipartisan effort today we are all coming together to stand up for victims of human trafficking and again get them on a path to recovery. at this point, mr. speaker, i would like to allow three minutes to my good friend from new jersey who has been a tireless and passionate advocate for women and families and children who are affected by human trafficking, really long before many of us were even aware that it was an issue here in this country system of with that, three minutes to the gentleman from new jersey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. >> i thank my good friend for yielding and thank her for her leadership on this extremely important bill, h.r. 398, the trafficking awareness training for health care act of 2015. this bill will dedicate money to

train health care workers to teach them how to respond when a victim comes into their clinic. mr. smith: she was inspired to do this bill in response to a report that showed 88% of domestic trafficking victims sought health care at some point during the time they were trafficking. that is absolutely amazing. these victimized women have come in contact with health care professionals and then they leave and go out the door and nothing is done because the health care professional did not recognize the signs of human trafficking. they were in a clinic, hospital, doctor's office when they were being trafficked, right back out the door to be trafficked again. with 99% of trafficking victims reporting serious health consequences of being trafficked and pimps eager to get their victims healthy for continued

exploitation for profit, medical professionals are on the front line of trafficking interventions. we must make sure that the health care professionals are equipped to i assist in effectuating freedom for trafficking victims whenever possible. we must think carefully about protocols for how to report suspected victims to authorities. we don't want to put her in further danger. we must strategize ways to ensure the victims receive the help that they need. mr. speaker this is a very very important bill and i do hope my colleagues will support it and again i thank mrs. ellmers for her leadership on this. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlewoman from north carolina reserves. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i have no additional speakers at this time so i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman -- the gentlewoman from north carolina is recognized. mrs. ellmers: thank you, mr. speaker. in closing i want to say again how proud i am of our congress and our colleagues on both sides

of the aisle coming together to work on very, very important legislation dealing with those who have been trafficked. human trafficing is a travesty, it is a heinous crime and it is today's modern day slavery. this is something that we must eradicate in this country, this is what the american people need for us to be a part of and work on. and i'm just so happy that we're dealing with an issue that is going to affect so many out there in this country who do not have a voice right now. we have the opportunity now to stand up for what is right, we have the opportunity to do what is right, and by ulls working together and having legislation that will be sponsored in the senate as many of us do, we feel very strongly that this will become law and we will be able to enact it and help those victims so that they can be looking toward recory and empowering their lives. mr. speaker, this is a very

important day with 12 different bills that we are addressing. i'm just so proud to be part of it. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 398? those in favor say aye. those opposed no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

that l the chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? without objection the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. kaptur: thank you mr. speaker. i rise today to call for the immediate release of ukrainian fighter pilot nadia chevchenko who remains illegally jailed in russia. she was captured in eastern ukraine in june of 2014 transferred to a prison in russia. she is still imprisoned there today now in her second month of a hunger strike that

demonstrates to the world the inhumanity of her capture. we recall the shocking footage of her interrogation in which he was handcuffed to a metal pipe yet we are assured by russia she is being treated well. if russia is not invading ukraine as we are so often assured by russia, why should they hold her at all? yesterday, january 16, was free her day a global effort to raise awareness to her plight. it shines a lite on the disrespect for international law the kremlin continues to demonstrate. i was honored to participate in that campaign and introduce along with our colleagues from the ukrainian caucus, house resolution 15 calling to mind her struggle and calling for her immediate release. her hunger strike began on december 15 and her health continues to deteriorate. i salute her bravery in the face of overt russian aggression.

her courage shines like a brilliant brilliant beacon for liberty-loving people everywhere. god bless her, god bless america and god bless ukraine. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, since the congress has reconvened, none of the important legislation that we've considered here has gone through the regular committee process, and yet with each election, we send people to the congress of the united states with a wide range of perspectives lots of good will, lots of good intentions, democrats and republicans alike. mr. nolan: the simple truth is the house leadership has prevented these voices being heard in the regular committee

process. congress has sadly become one of the most undemocratic institutions in america. mr. speaker, stop denying the members of congress the opportunity and the public the opportunity to find common ground. the failure of the process is at the heart of gridlock. it is at the heart of congressional failure. allow bills once again to come up through the regular open committee process where amendments are heard, considered, and voted upon. mr. speaker, give congress the opportunity to work together once again in the spirit of bipartisanship that the american people are so desperately hungry for. thank you mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise to honor a pioneer in

education ms. wilhemina henry, who will be 95 years old this month. she is stockton, california's first black teacher. she graduated high school at the age of 16 and won a degree from the tuskegee institute, one of our country's old etc. and most prestigious historically black colleges. she began her teaching career after world war ii in segregated schools in south carolina, georgia, and alabama before moving to stockton in 1947. though she faced discrimination and resistance, she persevered with courage and dignity, retiring after almost 50 years of educating our children. her legacy is carried on by both her daughter rochelle minneapolis, also a stockton teacher, and a stockton elementary school named in her honor. mr. mcnerney: i urge my colleague to joan me in recognizing her courage in breaking the color barrier for

teachers and paving the way for many others who followed in her footsteps. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from kentucky is recognized for one minute. >> thank you. mr. speaker, this week as we consider measures aimed at combating human trafficking, i remind my colleagues of the estimated 1.6 million runaway or homeless youth under the age of 18 in the united states. mr. yarmuth: the runaway and homeless youth act was enacted in 1974 to help combat these growing numbers and it was the sole federal law targeting unaccompanied youth. through this law we were able to fund important local programs to serve our homeless youth. they provide shelter, counseling, family reunification and after care and redules the chance that young people -- reduce the chance that young people will become victims of human trafficking. i'm proud to have introduced and helped pass the re-authorization of this important funding in 2008. but that five-year authorization expired in 2014 and now action must be taken.

congress has the responsibility to help ensure that homeless young people in america have a place to seek shelter and find safety while laying a foundation for new opportunities. i call on my colleagues to join me in supporting a re-authorization of the runaway and homeless youth act and help the hundreds of thousands of children who sleep on our streets every night. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from texas is recognized for one minute. mr. veasey: mr. speaker work makes you free. today i was thinking about that sign and the psychological impact and the sadness that it must have had up on -- upon millions of holocaust survivors and victims of the holocaust as they walked into concentration camps 70 years ago in auschwitz and saw that sign, knowing that

they would never make it out free. i rise today in remembrance of the 10th anniversary of the international holocaust remembrance day and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. on this day we must take a moment to honor the memory of the millions who lost their lives and those who survived but experienced unspeakable horrors. we must always remember the tragedy of the holocaust in order to ensure that this dark time in human history is never repeated again. injustice or violence against any person because of their race or ethnic background should never be tolerated. today we must honor the memory of the holocaust victims and ensure we renew our commitment to never again. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina seek recognition? without objection the gentlewoman from north carolina is recognized for one minute. ms. adams: thank you mr. speaker. i rise today as a voice for the

thousands of human trafficking victims both abroad and in this country. sadly these voiceless victims are often beaten and starved and forced to work as prostitutes or take jobs as migrant and domestic workers. time and time again we hear terrible stories of violence and death and trauma against innocent men, women and children who have been trafficked through organized crime rings and even terrorist organizations. as a member of congress, we must stand up for justice and human dignity. the bills we're considering today will improve collaboration between government agencies, cut down on human trafficking and better protect victims. ending human trafficking is a bipartisan issue that must remain a priority. our country was founded upon the notion of equality and justice for all. and that's why i co-sponsored a bipartisan bill with my north carolina republican colleague, mr. walker. the human trafficking detection act prioritizes training for the prevention and the detection of trafficked victims and brings us one step closer

to finding a solution to this terrible tragedy of human trafficking. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a following personal request. without objection, the request is granted. the clerk: mr. denazz yo of oregon for today -- mr. defazio of oregon for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the request is granted.

for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? without objection the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: thank you mr. speaker. mr. speaker i rise in opposition to h.r. 285 the save act. i'm sorry. mr. chairman i will -- i think i've mixed up my speeches. so i will withdraw and yield

back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? mr. johnson: to revise and extend after addressing this body for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: thank you mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the republican border bill originally scheduled this week contained a provision buried on page 78 that would expand the pentagon's 1033 program. this program transfers billions of dollars of defense department equipment to law enforcement agencies without

any congressional oversight or community input. the bill adds a border security activities priority to the program that will quietly funnel military-grade weapons to law enforcement for this new poorly defined priority. it appears some of my colleagues did not learn the tragic lessons of ferguson, missouri, last summer as the nation saw the devastating result of a militarized police force. if this bill is brought back up, i urge my colleagues to support my amendment, to curb the expansion of this program. with that i'll yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2015, the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. garamendi: mr. speaker thank you so very much.

this chart's been up well really for the last four years and i keep bringing it back up because it's pretty important. this is about american jobs about how we can rebuild the american economy and how we can at the same time provide employment opportunities, those middle class jobs that we all want to talk about, and do it in a way that actually improves our environment. today i want to focus on one part of this. i've asked some of my colleagues to join us. congresswoman hahn will be joining us in a few moments to talk about a piece of this. but in the make it in america agenda, we have these items. we have international trade which is critically important that we do it right. tax policy of all kinds. our energy policy. oh by the way, in the last five years the energy policy of the administration has almost made the united states energy

independent. we've actually produced four billion -- we're actually producing four billion more barrels a day now than we were six or seven years ago. we do have an energy policy, green energy, moving away from the green house gases. labor -- greenhouse gases, labor policy, education, the training of or our workers, -- of our workers. i really want to focus on this one which is at the bottom because it's foundational. the foundation of the economy of the united states is the infrastructure. way way back. the founding fathers, everybody around here wants to talk about the founding fathers what the founding fathers would do, how they would act. well, i'll tell you. what george washington did in his first weeks in office, he turned to alexander hamilton, the treasury secretary, and said, hey develop an economic development plan for me. how are we going to grow our economy? and alex came back, treasury secretary hamilton came back

and he formed a committee of one, came back with a plan maybe 30, 40 pages, and in that plan was fundamental infrastructure development. he said, the roll of the -- role of the federal government is to make sure that we have roads, postal roads, make sure that we have ports and canals. the infrastructure of the day. and so for those who like to harkin back to the founding fathers i ought to also consider the mothers, but in any case, infrastructure was fundamental. so today i want to talk about infrastructure and i want to do it in a way that will really hopefully excite this body into passing a very robust complete surface transportation and infrastructure bill. president obama and the department of transportation secretary fox have made a proposal called build america.

it's a good proposal that covers all of the elements that we need. the highways the ports, the railroads freight, all of those things are in that bill. unfortunately it didn't have a hearing last year, hopefully it will be foundational this year as we consider in the next three months a surface transportation and infrastructure bill for the united states. because in may the world comes to an end. the programs of the federal government for transportation expire and we need a new law going forward. so what we want to talk about today is that issue. i'm going to take just a few seconds. every now and then somebody sends bro chures and stud -- brochures and studies to us. this one came from duke university, the center on globalization, governance and competitiveness. and it says, infrastructure and

development create american jobs. let me get this executive summary which is really helpful to us. old broken transportation infrastructure makes the united states less competitive than 15 of our mainly trading partners -- major trading partners and makes american manufactures -- manufacturers less efficient in getting goods to market. representative hahn, that's where you want to come in and talk about ports. also the underinvestment of infrastructure costs the united states over $900 -- 900,000 jobs. this is duke university. 900,000 jobs, including 97,000 american manufacturing jobs. maximizing american-made materials when rebuilding infrastructure has the potential to create even more jobs. relying on american-made inputs can also mitigate safety concerns related to large scale outsourcing. i don't have it here, but one of the things that really, really bothers me about my home

state of california is the way in which the state of california decided to build the san francisco-oakland bay bridge. and we're talking about a multibillion-dollar project. $3.9 billion over budget, 12 years late, and the steel in that bridge came from china. how brilliant was that? one of the principle reasons for the delay was the steel was delayed. and the steel was faulty. the welds were faulty. and 3000 jobs in china, zero jobs in the united states. . this tells us why making it in america is important. so there's another example. i don't like to brag about new york since that's a long, long

way from my district, but in new york, the tapanzee bridge, built with american steel, $3.9 billion total cost, 728 american workers were hired and was designed to last without any structural maintenance. well, you know, we brag in california, and i know ms. hahn will probably carry on some bagging and we have a lot to brag about, but we cannot brag about what happened with the san francisco-oakland bay bridge, because it was a financial disaster and jobs disaster for american workers and even today, there are continuing reports coming out about the faulty bridge construction. so, infrastructure investments creates american jobs. and if we require those

investments be made in america, we are going to be talking about americans going back to work all of us talk about the middle class, well, let's build the infrastructure and use american-made materials and let's build american jobs for the middle class. ms. hahn, i believe you have something to say about ports, the fact that you represent the two biggest ports in america, you will argue long beach and l.a. port. have at it. please join us. you could come here, if you like. i'll step over there. ms. hahn: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you mr. garamendi, for having the leadership on -- certainly on make it in america but really reminding our colleagues and really all

americans how important these projects are in terms of repairing our infrastructure as well as creating good american jobs. i'm here today to join you and to join many of our colleagues in really pressing congress this year to take action to improve our nation's outdated, underfunded ports, and repair, and replace crumbling roads and dangerous bridges. i serve on the transportation and infrastructure committee, and i founded and co-chair our congressional bipartisan port caucus. and so i work closely with not only democrats but working very closely with republicans, and i do know, and i believe this to be true, that this is one area that we can agree on. and that's our infrastructure and that's transportation. so i'm really hoping we can work together across the aisle and

understand that making these essential investments in america's transportation and infrastructure will create good-paying jobs, will help american businesses to compete globally and will improve the quality of life for families in every single congressional district. as you said, and i will take bragging rights, i represent the port of los angeles and alan lowenthal represents the port of long beach. together we consider them america's ports and largest ports complex. and account for 40% of all trade that comes through our country that come through our ports. i'm a big advocate for these ports. and as the co-chair of the ports caucus i advocate for all ports in this country because the entire port network, the entire network of highways roads, bridges infrastructure that

move freight across this country need some champions here in congress. this freight network is important for moving goods across our country. it's important for small businesses and even if you live hundreds of miles from the nearest port and whether you realize it or not, everyone depends on our ports to get the goods to the stores, to the factories and to the businesses that many of our colleagues represent. maybe you live or work in an agricultural or industrial area and we know that they produce something that america exports to foreign markets. you may have direct interest in making sure our freight network our nation's transportation system is in good condition. it's modern, it's efficient and safe so cargo can travel to the ports where it's loaded on the ships to get overseas. and i loved it that president obama in the state of the union last week said 21st century

businesses need a 21st century infrastructure. and the deteriorating infrastructure our crumbling roads, collapsing bridges, that are part of our current national freight network are a threat to america's prosperity and our global competitiveness. policy makers here in congress need to recognize the need to make repairs and upgrades, but we have been stuck on how to pay for them. i introduced a bill last congress and i'm going to re-introduce it in this congress that will create a dedicated funding stream for these vital projects -- listen to this -- without raising taxes or without imposing any additional fees. i have come up with an idea to fund our international freight network and i'm hoping i get

broad support in this congress. and does not raise taxes one penny and does not increase any fees to any businesses in america. what it does is divert 5% of the fees that we already collect on imports in this country, money that currently goes to the u.s. treasury, our general fund, and we could create a new national freight trust fund. we collect $39 billion a year nationwide in these import fees. setting aside just 5% of those would give this national freight trust fund about $2 billion a year that we could use to repair roads, highways bridges, the last mile to ease congestion into our ports across this country. and again it's not going to raise taxes or fees. and i know, as you mentioned

mr. garamendi, we need to pass a surface transportation bill. and i'm working with chairman shuster and committee members on our transportation and infrastructure committee to see if my legislation could be a part of that as a way just to fund our freight network, different than funding our -- with the highway trust fund. highways, our normal roads and bridges. this is different. this is about the network that moves goods in this country. i hope you'll support me. thank you for allowing me to speak in this special hour. this is an issue, mr. garamendi, that we agree on and our republican colleagues will agree with us. maybe this is the one thing we can do as a huge gift to the american people. find something in a bipartisan way, some common ground that we agree on that will really repair our infrastructure and create good jobs here in america.

i think this is an issue that will -- i believe make the american people happy. mr. garamendi: thank you so much ms. hahn. the proposal you put forward almost seems magical and if it was magic you would have figured it out and you did. but to use money that is going into the general fund and divert it back to what it was intended to, that is the enhancement of our ports is entirely sensible. i suppose i'm a co-author. >> -- ms. hahn: if not, you will be. mr. garamendi: we need to take a look at our infrastructure, transportation infrastructure here specifically in a universal way. it does us no good to improve the interstate highway system and the link between the ports and the interstate highway system doesn't work.

i-10 in southern california that you and i know is the way you get out of those two ports onto the interstate highway system. it is inadequate. that is the example of the linkage you are talking about. we have many, many more things to talk about. i welcome you to stay. i see my colleague from ohio, and i think there are some ports in ohio and in representative kaptur's district. if you would care to join us. mrs. capito: thank you for your -- ms. kaptur: thank you for this special hour and to be joined by congresswoman hahn, an encredible leader who has made a difference not just in california but in communities across this country, we

appreciate everything she has done over the last five years to help our ports develop, to connect rail to ports, highway to rail. it's amazing what her leadership has done in forming the ports caucus. thank you very much congresswoman hahn. i rise this evening to join both of them. obviously i'm from a different part of the country, but we understand what it means to make it in america. i think the last company in washington, d.c.,, our nags' capital was the old government printing office that used to print some of its goods here, but it doesn't anymore. and so to make it in america creates jobs here. and what's interesting to look at congresswoman garamendi talks about the transportation and infrastructure bill. the bill that this congress could pass, would create jobs than a bad bill. i hope to have it clear.

i know the chairman and ranking member are working hard. i know congressman garamendi are helping lift them across the finish line. and the make it in america agenda will create tens of thousands of jobs in this country. look at every community you go to and look at what is unfinished. old bridges falling down. "london bridges are falling down." i think they are falling down in america. highways not complete. old airports. gentleman, tell us what that is. >> speaking of bridges falling down. this is the interstate 5 bridge in northern washington state that fell down two years ago. and interstate 5 is the main intercontinental highway from mexico to canada through california, oregon and washington. it created a bit of a traffic jam when it went down.

ms. kaptur: i can only imagine. we have so many unmet needs in my community that spans a river the largest that flows into the great lakes. but the challenge there now today is with the weather. ice is forming on the spans and they had to close the bridge for three, four days at a time for fear that these ice plates will fall on trucks and cars. we have to fix this problem. all these issues all over the country. so the transportation and infrastructure bill is essential. i thought in discussing this tonight, i would put a couple of really important figures on the record. congresswoman hahn talked about ports and her championing the ports caucus here and how much gets imported in our country and what gets exported. here's a chart of what gives you

a sense of how many more imports come in here than exports go out. since the 1970's and since the passage of nafta here, this represents the growing share of imports over exports into our country. since -- about the 1970's, our country has has had $9.5 trillion in red ink with the world. that's hard to imagine for most people, but that is 47 million jobs lost to trade and more imports coming in. we lost 2/3 of our manufacturing jobs. so when the gentleman champions investment in america which yields jobs in america, this is just the figures relating to one country with which we held a massive deficit since the

passage of nafta. our country moved into a gigantic deficit with mexico and recently, i don't know -- and this means lost american jobs to other places. and our people struggling, wages not rising. more part-time work, fewer benefits. i don't know if the gentleman was able to see what happened with the recent department of transportation ruling. they gave a green light to long haul cross-border trucking by mexican-based car years despite lingering safety concerns. it's the safety that you talk about. the department of transportation simply looked the other way when the inspector general found serious flaws in the pilot program meant to test this new authority. once again, nafta led to the lowest common denominator for the continent. foreign interests trumped the

safety of the american people and we know that flawed trade deals cost our jobs and hurt our economy and put people at risk on both sides of the border. it's time to start fixing the damage and not creating more. i thank the gentleman for allowing us the time to express our views this evening. . mr. garamendi: our make it in america agenda, we have trade here at the top and you very well pointed out the problems that occur with an unfair trade deal. nafta being but one. at this moment, the president has asked us members of congress, to pass what is known as the fast track, which basically gives authority to the president to cut a deal and then bring it to congress and we don't get to amend it. it's either an up or down vote. they say that's the only way they can negotiate. well, if that's so, then that's no way to negotiate because we

are the representatives. actually, the constitution very clearly leaves to congress the issue of international trade negotiations. it's our responsibility and i'm not about to find a situation in which we give to the administration unfettered authority to cut a deal on international trade when you consider what happened with nafta, when you consider some of the other trade deals that have hollowed out the trading sector. associated with that is jobs for middle-class families. we have over 19 million families in manufacturing in 1990. it went down to just over 10 million as a result of these trade deals that you talked about. we're now beginning to come back up principally because of cheap energy in the united states, natural gas

specifically. so we got a ways to go here. we need to be really really careful as members of congress, representatives of the american people that we don't give away even more american jobs. ms. kaptur: yes, i thank the gentleman so much for pointing that out. you know, when the administration and others talk about this latest nafta deal, they call it p.t.p.p., it's always initials so the american people can't quite understand what all that's about this one they're calling t.p.p. trans-pacific -- mr. garamendi: the trans-pacific partnership. ms. kaptur: and the last deal we had was korea. with korea they promised. they said we will be able to sell 50,000 american cars in korea. well what's happened is they've sold -- the koreans have sold 500,000 here. we never got the 50,000 in there. didn't get it.

closed market. deal not kept. i have a bill that i introduced in several congresses called the balancing trade act which basically says to the executive branch for any country with which the united states has amassed a $10 billion trade deficit, let's go back and figure out what's the problem. why do we have a deficit rather than a balance or a surplus? and before we pass any more trade deals, fix that first. mr. garamendi: well, one of the problems we spent a lot of time talking about this two years ago and it's dropped off the discussion table, although it should come back, is the manipulation of the chinese currency so that china's able to maintain a very very significant trade advantage vis-a-vis the united states by the pricing of the chinese currency. grossly unfair. something that we need, as representatives of the american people and the middle class and the manufacturing sector, to

forcefully address in legislation such as you've just described where the administration is required to look at the problem and then make suggestions or correct the problem if it does not take an act of congress. we just can't give it away. we're talking about american jobs. we're talking about the middle class. the president stood here less than 10 days ago in his state of the union and talked about the middle class. he called it a middle-class economic policy. absolutely correct but at the same time this trade issue intervenes in that program and quite likely will further harm the middle class by hollowing the out -- hollowing out the manufacturing sector. you talked about the transportation for mexico. a few years ago i was the health insurance commissioner elected by the people of

california and we were discussing with mexico the insurance on those instruction that under nafta were supposed to come into the united states. at that time -- and hopefully this has been solved. i'm not the insurance commissioner now, but i remember very well at that time we were unable to develop with mexico an insurance policy in mexico that would transfer into the united states and cover these trucks that were in the united states. they said it wasn't necessary. well, my staff and i looked at the details of the insurance and said well, this is worthy insurance. this isn't going to protect somebody that's run over by a mexican truck. so we demanded, and at that time we actually stalled. it appears that department of transportation is moving forward, and i surely hope this insurance issue has been solved. now, if i might go back to a little bit of the transportation -- of the infrastructure and the

transportation issue, as we pointed out in our discussion thus far, we have to come to grips within the next three months a new transportation -- surface transportation program for the united states. and this is real jobs. for every $1 billion -- again, this comes from duke university who produced this report, infrastructure investment creates american jobs. duke center of governance and except tiffness. in their summary they point out for every $1 billion invested in transportation infrastructure, there are 21,671 jobs created. for every $1 invested in transportation infrastructure $3.54 is returned to the economy. i have one of those little charts here. this is an older study. i used this two years ago and

wow, i'm going to have to rewrite this. because this one says for every $1 invested in infrastructure investment $1.57 is pumped into the american economy. that came from mark zandi. this is now three years old. this new study by duke university indicates that this number $1.57 really ought to be $3.54. so whoa, wait a minute, fellows, this is even better. so let's get this transportation bill done. let's pump it in the economy. and if we just met the minimum needs as we see them today, it's about $111 billion a year for the next five years we should spend on this infrastructure for transportation, that is a lot of money. but even $100 billion we would find that we would create 2.4

-- 2,470,000 jobs. that's 58% more jobs than the current funding level would provide and over $400 billion in total economic impact. so if we want to build the economy, if we really want middle-class jobs, we would pass a very robust surface transportation program so the ports, as ms. hahn talked about, so that the highways and the trade programs that you talked about, so that all those things could come together and we could really jump-start the economy and provide that middle-class economic impact that all of us are now talking about, including the president. so this could be done and we fully intend to do it. i want to pick up another piece if you would like to join our -- come back into our

discussion, ms. kaptur, please do. ms. kaptur: i want to divert just a moment, if i could, to tell the story of one valiant american who's a very hardworking american, and when we don't make it in america what happens to our people and i want to encourage citizens who may be listening to call their member of congress if they have a story like this for someone from their family to please share it with us so that we can be a voice for these families across our country who've been harmed and waiting for a transportation bill to be passed so they can go to work rebuilding america but meanwhile being hurt by international trade agreements that have outsourced their jobs. and tonight i would like to tell very briefly the story of richard hahn, a tradesman from northern ohio, whose job was outsourced to mexico, one of the countries we about and whose current job faces new trade threat as foreign floods

our market. richard spent years as an electrician and 23 years, to be exact. he rose through the ranks to the status of 100th in seniority from his dedication and commitment to york international. but in 2001, york international closed its ohio facility and moved production to monterey, mexico, leaving 900 workers without work, without a paycheck without any assistance to move on. after uprooting production to mexico, york reached status as the world's largest independent manufacturer of air conditioning heating, refrigeration machinery, and this left it as a prime buy for johnson controls, which acquired the company in 2005. mr. hahn and many of his colleagues were given no training or retraining to find a replacement job but york international continued to thrive. its parent company, johnson controls, even continues to

receive department of defense contracts to manufacture the same air conditioning heating and refrigeration machinery. for nearly a year, mr. hahn was forced to accept unemployment as he desperately sought work in ohio. many of his 900 colleagues moved their families out of ohio, not finding any hope for re-employment in their hometown where they wanted to stay. fast forward a little over a decade now and mr. hahn is facing the trade theft of his job all over again. although currently employed with u.s. steel as an electrician, his and 614 colleagues' positions are under threat of layoff. they have to idle its plant in coming months because they cannot continue to secure contracts to keep it running. they've had international trade complaints about foreign dumped steel and unfortunately mr. hahn's story is not unique. in fact, he said his story is depicted best by quoting billy

joel we're all waiting here in allentown but it sure is getting hard to stay. the promise of jobs and lives better than parents is dissolving and free trade deals are to blame for the shuttered factories. millions of americans from across this great land have lived their own tale, in their own allentown, and i encourage them to write or call their member of congress, just as richard hahn has bravely shared his story with me. tell us, tell the members how trade has impacted your life and your ability to provide for your families. the more stories we receive from the american people the more tales we can tell here on this floor and work with congressman garamendi to free our nation from these flawed deals and make goods in america again so that our people can lead a different -- a decent way of life and not have their futures taken from them. so i wanted to thank the gentleman for holding this special order tonight. i used mr. hahn as an example

of someone who has the finest work ethic, so highly trained, struggling out there to try to maintain work. it shouldn't be this hard in the greatest nation in the world. mr. garamendi: thank you so very very much for bringing to our attention one of your constituents who faced this situation. there were eight million other american workers that found themselves unemployed as these trade deals went into effect and american jobs moved to mexico, to china and other places around the world. so we must focus on mr. hahn and on those who share that. earlier, i think before you actually came in, i talked about steel and in this -- again, this was duke university, and they have a chapter here, the tale of two bridges. one is the san francisco-oakland bay bridge. it's a flag behind the bridge.

built with chinese steel. about a $6 billion, almost $7 billion project which $3.9 billion was overbudget. it was three years overlate. 3,000 chinese workers hired and very serious questions about the quality of the construction. . the state of new york tapanzee $3.9 billion. and it's designed to last 100 years without major maintenance. there's mr. hahn's job. it's that u.s. steel. made in america. i want to give very quickly, two examples of where make it in america really really counts. this is one i have often used, this is near my district, a mile or two near my district in

sacramento california. in the stimulus bill in 2009 there was a provision for some 6 -- $600 million for amtrak to buy locomotive. this was a sentence added to that law. $600 million, $7 million. 100% american made. no one was making locomotives at the time. but the german company looked at it and said 70, will 80, made in america we could do that. and so the german company seimens used a plant that was making light rail cars and said

ok, we are going to make light rail cars and make locomotives and they are producing 100% american made. hundreds of jobs in the sacramento area and all across america, there are manufacturers that are making the wheels, probably making the doornobodies -- doorknobs. made in america. why? no republicans voted for it. this was the stimulus bill -- made a law that said it must be 100% american made. we are now in the process of deciding how much of our natural gas we are going to export. called liquified natural gas

l.n.g. there is an export plant $20 billion export plant built on the gulf coast in texas, they are three, five months away from the first export of that natural gas. there's a lot of discussion about how much we can export without driving up the price. and that would be harmful to american consumers, home heating, manufacturing and the like. but what they do export will take 100 ships to export from that single export terminal, 100 ships. and i'm going, let me see now. natural gas is a strategic national asset that has allowed for the cost of energy in the united states. extremely important. american mariners are extremely important to our national

defense as are the domestic ships and thirdly, the ships are essential for the u.s. navy. these are three strategic assets that the u.s. has. i proposed an amendment last night in the rules committee that almost was adopted that said if we're going to export a strategic national asset, then let us also build two additional strategic assets. the mariners, the captains, the mates, the seamen, let them participate in the export of this natural gas and let's build the ships in america. there are five terminals that are presently authorized for construction. it has completed a second terminal about the same size going in in corpus christi, texas and three others. we may be talking about 300 to

400 ships needed to export a strategic national asset. so my legislation would say ok, then let us enhance our nation's security by building those ships in america. we're talking about hundreds of thousands of american jobs in our shipyards, in our manufacturing facilities, in ohio, building the pumps the valves and the compressors that are necessary. this is a big, big deal. and while we guarantee those jobs for the american shipyards we also strengthen the u.s. navy's ability to build ships at a reasonable cost. we can do it. we could do it with one simple piece of legislation that isn't more than 20 lines long. now that's exciting. trains planes ships, in america's future and has been in our past.

and it's policies. policies of the american government that set these in place and in motion. isn't that exciting? we could do that, ms. kaptur and move ohio manufacturing on the east coast and west coast, it's all there for us. ms. kaptur: that is exciting, congressman garamendi. and when you think about our strategic reserve in terms of the military, if america enters conflicts often we don't have those fleets within the department of defense, we have to lease them from the private sector. so we would modernize that capacity for our country in the event it would be needed. mr. garamendi: exactly so. it is critical we have a strong maritime industry. we used to be the biggest in the world. but just given it you away for many different reasons and i'm going to give one more example

and would like to wrap and if you would like to participate in the wrap, we could do that. at this moment, amtrak is out with a request for proposal to build 33 new trains, high-speed rail trains for the northeast corridor, from washington, d.c., to boston. high-speed trains that could go up to 200 miles an hour. reducing the commute time. that request to preems to manufacturers around the world is coupled with a waiver of the buy america requirements. we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of american taxpayer money and waiver of the buy america requirements because amtrak said they don't build them in the united states. that's true.

we don't build high-speed rail in the united states and we never will if we give waivers. if we set in place that american taxpayer money is going to be spent on american-made equipment. we will build in the united states, facilities to manufacture high-speed rail. the same thing applies in california with the california high-speed-rail system. in our future we will have high-speed rail. in our future, will the high-speed-rail trains be built in america or will they be built in china, korea or japan or europe? i want them to succeed, but i want america to succeed, too. and i know if we stick it to this make it in america agenda, we will rebuild the american middle class. let's wrap it up.

ms. kaptur: you are such a leader for jobs in america. i'm sure your constituents are cheering, not just tonight but every day for you and your work here. you keep the congress focused on make it in america, on trade taxes, energy, labor, research infrastructure and over them all, jobs. as we close this evening. let me say this is what the trade deficit looks like today, whether it's tubes trains, enough trucks in this country cars. imagine if we were to turn it the other way and america started making it in america and exporting to the world rather than the reverse. we would have such an economic recovery. it would astound the american people. it is amazing what we have been able to retain even with this hemorrhage that has occurred over the last three decades and

thank you for drawing our attention to the transportation and infrastructure which is the key job creator in this country. if we could pass that bill early this year, what we would do for this economy and add buy america provisions to several of the bills. i will join you in that effort. mr. garamendi: it is exciting, ms. kaptur and exciting that a policy statement, a law put forth by 435 of us can really alter america's economy and do it in a way that doesn't cost us more money but requires that our tax dollars be spent on american-made equipment, so that american workers can prosper. if someone wants to use their own tax dollars to buy goods from china. fine. do it. if it's your tax dollars and

mine, it ought to be made in america. mr. speaker, thank you for the time. we yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today that it adjourn to meet at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2015, the gentleman from washington, mr. reichert, is recognized for 60

minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. reichert: i would like to take some time on the floor of the house of representatives to honor and recognize the service of our law enforcement agencies across this great country. you know, we have been dealing with reactions from the tragic death of michael brown last august almost continually every week we hear of some tragic death, shooting incident across this country. and we all understand and realize that all loss of life is a tragedy. but there's been an outbreak of violence across this great country that is equally disturbing resulting in the brutal assassination of two law

enforcement officers just before christmas. mr. speaker, i was a law enforcement officer for 33 years in king county, which is the county seat of seattle, washington. i started when i was 21 years old, in 1972. i worked in a police car and i was a detective. i worked the street undercover for a short time. and i never knew when i left home if i would see my family when would be the next time i would see my wife, my children. when i told them good-bye for a day, at the office, i didn't know if i was coming back home. and neither did they. and every law enforcement officer across this great country lives with that knowledge and every family member lives with that fear.

i have missed holidays and birthdays and anniversaries and i would be called out in the middle of the day or the middle of the night or on the weekend. i remember one day missing my daughter's birthday. on christmas eve, remember driving around in the middle of the night patroling while others had their relatives parked in their driveway s -- driveways and sharing gifts with family and friends. once a cop, always a cop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. a lot of people think cop is a derogatory remark, but it's a badge of honor. i was the sheriff for the last eight years of my career, but one thing i said when i left if the members of the king county

sheriff's office which are nearly 1,100 12th largest sheriff's office in the country if they said dave reichert is a good cop. if they said i was a good sheriff, that was icing on the cake. but i wanted to know i was a good cop working the beat and serving the public. police officers do what they do because they care. they go to work every day to save lives, not to take lives. they put up with ridicule and harassment and assaults and even the ultimate sacrifice death. always facing dangerous situations, putting their life between their communities, the public and danger. sometimes, as i said the ultimate sacrifice is made and during my career, i lost a

partner and a good friend who was shot and killed in 1982. in 1984 i lost another partner and a good friend who was stabbed to death with a sword. these men died serving and protecting their community, but they left behind a family. they behind sons and daughters and spouses. orphanned children and widowers. they find themselves in life and death far too often and in many instances taking down a bad guide means losing a good guy too. life and death situations are never easy. i remember one instance that i was working plain clothes and went in with a group of my team

of officers on a drug search warrant. and i was the sergeant leading that time. my assignment was to go in the front door and turn to the right and make sure that bathroom in that apartment, that small apartment was secure. we went in the front door, i kicked in the bathroom door and found a person sitting on the toilet. as he stood he revealed that he had a rubber band around his bicep and a heroin needle stuck in his arm and you could see that his eyes were glazed over. i told him to raise his hands. instead of doing that, he grabbed a gun. now, mr. speaker, i could have shot that man. in a split second he grabbed a gun. my life was in danger, but i had a feeling i could talk him out of that gun. i just had a feeling i could reason with this man. even though he was high on

heroin. so i didn't shoot and i was able to talk him out of his gun. in fact, he dropped it in the toilet. what would you do, mr. speaker, if you were standing there with that decision? in an instant you had to make a decision shoot or don't shoot? our men and women who wear uniforms every day have to make that split-second decision. now, they don't always make the right decision, but more often than not, they do. the men and women in uniform across this country are human beings, and they make mistakes as we all do and we need to understand that. but when the mistakes are made, police officers expect to have scrutiny applied. they expect oversight. they expect to have the action they took reviewed and reviewed

and reviewed and they respect the rule of law and the process of the review and the investigation and the judicial process that needs to take place. as all americans across this country, we need to recognize that process too. reacting to bad situations by disregarding the rule of law only makes things worse in this nation and creates harm in our communities rather than harmony. everyone must come together communities and law enforcement should be partners in protecting our families. communities and law enforcement should be partners, just as i was partner with my partners that i spoke about earlier, the community should be our partner law enforcement's partner and what do good partners do? they trust each other. the community must trust their

police department and the police department sheriff's office must trust the community work with one another depend on one another and i think, mr. speaker, if we do that, if we can stop for a moment and listen to the facts and respect the law that exists here in the united states of america, the greatest country in the world -- yeah we're not perfect, but we have the best system and if we all come together and recognize we have the best system and where it needs to be changed, let's change it, but as the process goes through, let's respect it. if we do that together, mr. speaker, we can continue to live in the greatest country in this world. i'll conclude my opening statements just by saying, i really think it's important for us across this nation to pause and remember to thank our law enforcement officers every time

we see a cop. let's say thank you. it's just one of the ways that we can support them and show that support. but i think even more importantly let's pray for them and pray for their families, but let's also pray for the communities that they serve, that the communities see the tough job they have to do and the sacrifices they make and pray for peace, understanding cooperation, trust and let's pray, mr. speaker that we have a partner in each other a partner that we can trust that will back us up. law enforcement backing up the community and the community backing up the police officers. that's where i'd like to see this to go, mr. speaker, and we have some other members here tonight who want to share their comments about their community and their relationship with law

enforcement and i think the first speaker is mr. -- the gentleman from alabama. sorry, i have a long list. you're recognized. >> i thank my colleague, the gentleman, i thank you for the time but i thank you for your service, what you've done for them and you're a proxy for hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers that do that day in and day out. mr. byrne: and we take them for granted. and i'm glad you brought up the subject of families because we sometimes forget that these law enforcement officers, they have families. they have husbands and wives and fathers and mothers and sons and daughters. when they go out, those friends and family are not certain when they come back. how many of us will think,

well they may not come back? how difficult it is for the family. my grandfather was a sheriff in mobile alabama, in the 1920's and 1930's. i wasn't ave live during that period of time but i heard my father telling stories when his father had to go out at night, when they had to go on patrol or go out and apprehend somebody who committed a crime and how upset that would leave him as a child to think, where's my dad going? is he going to be ok? and we take that for granted, but the families can't take it for granted because they have to live with it day in and day out. we so often think about law enforcement officers in terms of how they relate to a criminal. well, oftentimes the most important person or persons they're relating with are victims. they're the protectors and in some cases the saviors of victims people who are getting ready to be hurt by a criminal and but for a law enforcement officer they would be hurt and

maybe even killed and those law enforcement officers rush into an inherently dangerous situation to keep those people from harm and maybe even save them from death. it may be a phone call that goes to 911 in the dead of night, a woman screaming into the phone, my husband has a gun and he's going to use it against me. and a law enforcement officer is dispensed to that environment not knowing in that highly emotionally charged moment whether that gun's going to be used on him or the person he's come to save and time and time again, law enforcement officers find a way to diffuse that situation. no one is hurt. the person that's about to commit a crime is apprehended, charged with a crime less than actually hurting somebody but a person's been saved. a person's been saved from harm or perhaps death. and if you've ever been in that moment and been someone who's been a victim when a law enforcement officer comes up and saves you in that moment,

then you realize that but for those law enforcement officers who do that day in and day out we can all be victims of a horrible crime and we take that for granted. my wife rebecca and i, were victims of a violent crime. we were stopped one night by three young men who tried to rob us. had a knife and said they had a gun. my wife was pregnant. they took our jewelry and then threw her to the ground which could have not only hurt her but hurt the baby. unfortunately, some of the people involved with the main perpetrator realized it was time to run. we as they did we screamed out and neighbors indicate came out and they called the police. i can tell you when you're in that moment and you feel that sense of fear, because people have weapons that they want to use against you and they've already used physical violence

against you when that squad car comes up and the man or men or women in uniform step out, you feel safe. but when they step out of that squad car, they're not safe. because they have to go out in their official duty and try to apprehend that person and do whatever it takes to protect the rest of us. and we take that for granted. and we should never ever take that for granted. last year over 100 law enforcement officers in the united states lost their lives in the line of duty. so far in this young year in the united states already nine law enforcement officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. one of them was lost last night in my home county, baldwin county alabama, a police officer a fine police officer and we take that for granted. got in his car at the beginning of the day, kissed his wife didn't come home. i hope we in america can use

times like this to remember what we gain from people who put on the uniform of law enforcement to serve us and to protect us, serve and protect, that's the motto. all of us tonight, millions of us in america tonight will go to bid, will put our heads on that pillow, we'll go to sleep safe knowing that these men and women are patrolling the streets of our country to keep danger away from us. before we go to sleep every night, perhaps we should do one more thing. let's say a little prayer for those men and women who patrol the streets of our country to protect all of us and maintain the quality of life that we all too often take for granted. so i thank the gentleman for this time tonight, for your service to combrur community and to our country and hope you'll continue to remind us in the days to come what we owe to

those that wear the uniform of law enforcement and i yield back. mr. reichert: i thank the gentleman for his kind comments and for being here tonight to share his support for law enforcement officers across this great nation. at this time i'd like to recognize mr. goodlatte for five minutes. mr. goodlatte: i want to thank congressman reichert not only for yielding the time but also for his service as a law enforcement officer because when he speaks on the floor of the house on behalf of our nation's law enforcement officers, men and women who put their lives on the line every day, he speaks from personal experience. and i've heard those experiences a number of times. i thank you for that. and others. there are others here in the congress who have served in law enforcement. we thank them as well. so i'm particularly pleased that dave is hosting this special order tonight to show

our respect and deep gratitude for the thousands of law enforcement officers across the country who serve our communities and the american people daily. our nation was founded on the rule of law and every day law enforcement officers carry out this legacy. they protect our neighborhoods from criminals, fight crime, ensure justice and keep the peace. they patrol neighborhoods late at night and early in the morning while we sleep in the comforts of our homes. and since 9/11, our nation's law enforcement officers are now the first to respond to terrorist attacks. on that tragic day nearly 14 years ago nypd officers and other first responders were running into the crumbling towers to save people as everyone else was running out. in 2010, an nypd officer was the first one on the scene when a terrorist attempted to ignite a car bomb in times square. and the same was true during the boston marathon bombings in

april, 2013. the boston police responded immediately to aid the wounded and implement emergency plans. sadly, many law enforcement officers have made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. last year alone, 121 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty, including three from the commonwealth of virginia. these are sober reminders that our nation's law enforcement professionals face danger every day as they carry out their duty to protect the american people. . i have the privilege to work with law enforcement agencies. we fail to recognize the dedicated men and women make sacrifices to preserve law and order and keep our communities states and our nation safe. they are heroes and need to be recognized for their service and honor to our country. i thank congressman reichert for yielding me this time and taking

the time to have this law enforcement special order. mr. reichert: thank you, mr. goodlatte for your comments and hard work. as the chairman of the judiciary committee. thanks for sharing your comments. next, mr. speaker, i would like to recognize my good friend, colleague from washington state kathy mcmorris rogers and wants to talk about her sheriff in spokane. mrs. mcmorris rodgers: and to the sheriff, thank you congressman reichert for your leadership and service as sheriff and local law enforcement officer and bringing us together tonight and i see another former sheriff, who is serving from florida, rich nugent we are grateful to those who served and those who

currently serve, you know. our darkest hours will be turned to law enforcement to keep us safe from harm's way and easy to take those for granted. and i'm privileged to stand here and say thank you for your service and commitment and thank you for the sacrifices and all of the acts of heroism. when we drop our kids off at school buckle up our seat belts and hit the roads or kiss our children good night, we know that our first responders will be there if we ever need them, and they will do everything they can to keep us safe. sometimes it is nice to know they are out there on the roads in case something happens. our police officers and firefighters get up every morning not knowing with certainty if they will be home

for dinner. at a time when there are growing threats facing america, these men and women, are ready to answer the call of duty at any moment and do it out of a great sense of duty and commitment to serve and to protect. men and women of uniform throughout eastern washington put their lives on the line every day. in spokane, the sheriff and the police chief and we are pleased with -- so grateful with their leadership, effective leadership, bringing down overall crime rates. it is a testament to them. i had the privilege of working with 10 sheriffs in eastern washington, who are having a tremendous impact on keeping our communities safe. their families take on tremendous sacrifices, because their loved ones go out onto the streets to keep us safe, husbands, wives moms and dads,

whose commitment to our country is worthy of our profound gratitude. we are blessed to live in a nation where law enforcement officers will do everything they can to keep us safe. i thank those for serving. these men and women, they deserve our respect and our thanks and deserve a lifetime of appreciation. mr. reichert: i thank cathy for her support of law enforcement officers and sheriffs that she works with. 10 years ago, or a little bit longer than that, i was the president of the washington state sheriff's association and i worked with the sheriffs and police chiefs in washington state. and i would like to yield some time to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. dent. mr. dent: thank you, mr.

speaker. and i would like to thank the gentleman from washington state and thank him for his distinguished career in law enforcement for all those 30-plus years. he had a great reputation and served honorably and was involved in high-profile cases that are worthy of a lot of discussion. i would like to say a few things first. i wanted to express my strong support for the brave and -- men and women. i would like to honor two new york city police officers officers ramos and liu who are slained in an ambush, targeted because they wore a new york city uniform. sferl ram oost just celebrated his 40th birth day. officer liu leaves behind his

devastated young wife and parents and all across the nation, our thoughts and prayers and grateful citizens go out to all those who serve with them. i live in allentown pennsylvania. new york city is one of the finest police departments. i remember on september 11 2001 when we saw firefighters and police officers and others rush down to the twin towers and we recognized and celebrated their heroism as they gave their last devotion on that day. and there is no profession more nobel than being a police officer at that time. how times have changed in a fairly short period of time. this extraordinary police department has come under fire because they have implemented

very effective police practices have been a model for the rest of the nation, kept crime rates low and something we should be celebrating the men and women working there. it is the most diverse. i would like to point out one other sad tragedy we dealt with. beautiful fall foliage of the pocono mountains that was the backdrop of a horror that the people of pennsylvania had to deal with several weeks. we recently mourned our own loss on september 12, 2014, when a state police corporal was murdered in what appeared to be a similar circumstance of those in new york shot to death because of the badge he wore. trooper douglas was seriously wounded in that same incident and we are pleased to hear he is

recovering and we wish him the best. following that horrific attack and assassination was a truly impressive seven-week man hunt for the shooter and self-trained self-described survivalist. 1,000 officers from pennsylvania and new york and new jersey teamed with the f.b.i. u.s. marshal service and a.t.f. and it was just an amazing, what we witnessed was an amazing testament of police work which ended with the surrender and no shots fired. he is currently standing trial. police work is certainly, as congressman reichert knows better than anyone in this room,

we know that law enforcement work is dangerous. they must enforce the law. from routine traffic stops to domestic violence situations to hostage cases to murder scenes, america's finest must deal with it. they deserve our support and will surely have mine. while we have recently seen a handful of high-profile cases of citizens clashing with police, anyone who has attended a crime watch meeting knows about the police officers. i have attended many of these meetings over the years as a state legislator and congressman, numerous crime watch meetings, and i was impressed with the way the officers immersed themselves in the daily life of the neighborhoods for which they are responsible. no problem was too small. they would deal with it.

now is the time for all of us to work to address the underlying issues that have have had enormous emotions in communities across our country. as a new member of the bipartisan house law enforcement caucus i look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance federal policy that supports all the brave men and women who are sworn to protect and serve and i yield back my time to the gentleman from washington. we spend more time celebrating the fine men and women who service us. mr. reichert: i appreciate the comments of mr. dent and so many of the words that you share. and i could make a lot of follow-up statements, but our time is limited. but i want to focus on one of the points that you made just briefly. one of the hardest things that i ever did in my career was was in

1982 when my partner was shot and killed. it was a three-day manhunt for the person responsible in the cascade foothills. and he was captured and i was the only homicide detective and put me in the back seat of the killer of my good friend and partner. i read him his rights. he had three things to say to me. number one, of course, he wasn't sorry. number two i'm thirsty. number three, i'm hungry. i think he wanted his handcuffs loosened because they were too tight. i loosened his handcuffs. we stopped at a burger king and bought him food and got him something to drink and then, of course he went to jail. but to sit in the back seat with a man who just took my partner's

life, best friend three days before. and those are the kinds of things that cops deal with every day and thank you for recognizing the emotional difficulty not only for the officers but the community. it was a heavy day, heavy week, heavy month for the community and the family still lives on with the loss of their father and husband. i recognize the gentleman from north carolina mr. meadows. mr. meadows: thank you for your leadership on this critical evening to express the will of so many members of congress, but hopefully the will of the american people. i thank you for your service not only here in congress, but serving the people of king county as the sheriff. when we get the call out, mr. speaker some of our dear friends who are sheriffs, police chiefs, many times we don't

refer to them by their name it's sheriff or chief. but tonight, i want to talk a little bit about what i call most of my law enforcement colleagues in western north carolina. i call them friends. and i want to tell a few personal stories, but before i do that's correct i want to share a little bit from the gentleman who is leading this tonight, because it's real easy to see the professional side of a member who serves with distinction here in this body. but sometimes the people back home miss the personal side. and today, we were discussing a number of bills on human trafficking. and the unbelievable bright that is on our nation and our world where we have more people today in modern-day slavery than at the height of the slave trade,

that is personal to this gentleman to my left, because time and time again in meetings, he has brought up the plight of those young girls that are trafficked at the hands of so many out there. and it's that personal side we can aplowed tonight for my colleague but for many of the sheriffs and chiefs that i have the honor of knowing of being in this position. mr. speaker, i can tell story after story, but there's one police chief in my area who shared a story about one of his officers that was working for him that puts his life on the line every single day and does it for a little over $12 an hour. when i heard that, i could hardly believe that, because as we start to see the dedication of which our law enforcement

officers truly put themselves out each and every day, not only them and their families, and we expect them to come home, mr. speaker, as has been shared previously. sometimes they don't come home. and so we must do a better job of standing by our law enforcement officers each and every day to thank them, to go out of our way to thank them for their service thank them for their sacrifice. birthdays and anniversaries that are missed, because when the phone call goes off or the beeper is alert, they are always there. not answering that call is not an option for them. they are always available. and yet in my district back in north carolina, we have sheriffs who are getting involved to make

sure that the homeless have a place a warm bed and a hot meal, a sheriff that is actually gone out in his community in one of my counties to make sure that those that are in need have a place on halloween night to make sure they have a safe environment dedicated volunteers. a sheriff back home who really works tirelessly to make sure that the needs that are most needy in his community are taken care of. story upon story of people who put politics aside and put the interest ofs of -- put the interests of their community first. they all work together to make sure that what happens is their community is safe. mr. speaker, they have my back. and i think it's time that the american people stand up and have their back. we need to make sure that we stand with them.

so i thank the gentleman for his time, for his leadership on this issue and for his service. i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman for his comments. and also appreciate in the meetings and hearings that we've been in your commitment to end not just -- sort of have an impact on human trafficking, but ending, eliminating human trafficking in this country and across the globe. mr. reichert: so thank you for your hard work. mr. speaker, i'd like to recognize the gentleman from florida mr. jolly. joljol thank you, mr. speaker. -- mr. jolly: thank you, mr. speaker, and thank you to my colleague from washington. i join today to rise and pay tribute to our law enforcement. i had an opportunity a few weeks ago on this floor to thank and to recognize my local law enforcement community, law enforcement officers law enforcement leadership in

florida. the cities of st. petersburg and clear water and others. and in tarpin springs we remembered an officer we lost just four days before commals. an officer whose end of watch was december 21. leaving behind a family and children. we can pay tribute, which we should and which the vast majority of americans do every day. but we also are a congress who must offer solutions. and who must act. and one of the ways in which we can act is to ensure, just as we do for our men and women of the military, that our law enforcement have the tools and technology necessary to do their job. and while much of local law enforcement is indeed funded locally there is a program, the 1033 program, that has been debated so much during this past year. that provides equipment, protective equipment, tools and technology for our law enforcement officers to do

their job. that is a federal program that should not be controversial. i've introduced legislation because we are a solutions-oriented congress to continue the 1033 program, and to simply require one thing that addresses the concerns of so many, and that requirement is that local law enforcement leadership have officers trained and capable of using the equipment. it's very simple. this is equipment that our local law enforcement officers need and frankly if it's not available to them through the 1033 program, they will purchase it as required by their local force and it will cost local taxpayers the money to do so. and here's the importance of this legislation. it says two things. first, it says that this congress, your representatives, want to do our part to provide for the safety of our law enforcement officers. but secondly, it subscribes to this radical notion that should not be controversial.

we trust our local law enforcement leadership to set the right policing tone and to provide for the safety of their communities while they also provide for the safety of law enforcement officers that risk their lives every day. officers like charles. and so i would encourage this congress, as we continue to look for ways not just to pay tribute to law enforcement officers, but to support the work they do every day to consider this legislation that ensures this program will continue to provide tools and technology to law enforcement officers and says, you know what we, the congress trust our enforcement leadership back home. because they know best how to provide for the safety of our communities how to set the tone of policing in our communities, and how to protect our law enforcement officers. i appreciate my colleague from washington having this special order and allowing me time this evening. thank you. mr. reichert: i thank the gentleman for his comments and his staunch support of law enforcement. and his support of 1033.

and we'll work together on that and i'm sure other members of congress have an interest in working to make sure that that legislation gets passed -- gets past. -- gets passed. thank you. mr. speaker, i'd now like to yield to mr. lamalfa from california. mr. lamalfa: thank you, mr. speaker. and especially to my colleague from washington, mr. reichert, for this opportunity and really privilege to be able to speak about those in law enforcement that are really on duty for us every day. being able to support and show my gratitude for them across the country, and because we know that they daily keep us safe and secure in our communities. they have an incredibly important role and a vital responsibility to uphold our rule of law which is the core of our constitution and ensures every one is accountable under the law.

everyone needs to be accountable under the law. that's the responsibility. it's up to us whether in congress or the state legislative level or local government, to make sure they have the tools to do their job. in the times of budget cuts and constraints, their jobs get that much harder. and indeed, sometimes they feel handcuffed in their ability to do their work. when you speak to the officers, sometimes they always have an air of professionalism about them, but sometimes they don't feel very appreciated and that they have the tools to do what they need because of things sometimes the government does or frivolous lawsuits, for example. we even see sometimes our elected officials participating in vilifying our people in law enforcement. that's really really irresponsible. because we're all in this together. us as lawmakers and those in the executive branch, down to our beat officer that has that

responsibility. we're supposed to work together in upholding the law and make sure they have the tools, as well as providing oversight, want to make sure everybody's behaving the way they should. but as we see so hyped lately, with a tiny, tiny minority of incidents out there compared to the context -- i heard a statistic the other day. much less than 1% of contacts that officers have with the public results in any kind of physical action needed. much less than 1%. yet would you think from all the hype from all the media, it was a much higher number than that. the vast majority is an officer helping you out. you have brushes with the law here and there but they're very professional in what they do. you really need to do -- what you really need to do is step into their shoes for a minute. think about where they've come from to get where they are.

they had to have a very clean record to get through background, to be accepted into academy and be accepted into whatever force that they are working in. it's a high bar. you can't have a bad record in your background. they've chosen to come forward and put themselves at risk. look what they go through each day in their jobs, if they've made it through and were brought on to a force. if they're called into a situation, they don't really have the option of saying, no, i'm not going to go. if someone is called from a home, they had a domestic problem, what have you they have to get to a solution because someone's lives might be at stake inside that home, even though there might be something outside that would make you uncomfortable. a mean dog in the yard or some characters hanging around outside that you wouldn't normally want to deal with. they have to get to a solution on that. because somebody called them. somebody dialed 911. and we expect that there's going -- that they're going to get to a solution. officers have to go into every situation prepared for the worst because it could mean

their life, maybe their partner's life or someone else in a vulnerable situation that has called upon them. so if you think about being in their shoes, we all have a responsibility to make their jobs more simpler, it could even help us in not being in a mistaken situation. because they have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. so i can certainly feel for them in that they might be a little stressed on every call, every car they might pull over for speeding or a broken tail light or having to answer to someone's household or even a bigger deal like a bank robbery. they have to be prepared every moment because it's their life or the other lives around them. and they have to have the protocol and the training to know how to handle that situation just right. so when you look at that high bar, that amount of stress they're going through to do that, they do an amazing remarkable job of getting it right. we need to give them a little

grace, a little room to do their job as best they can. and then we have a responsibility as a regular citizen to make their job easier. if they ask for your driver's license and i.d., just give it to them. if they ask you to stay in the car so they can see where your hands are and stuff, they don't know who else is in that car. make it where they can do their job. and you're going to have a heck of a lot better interaction with them. use basic common sense. there's instructions on there how to get along. we've even seen comedians out there saying how not to get in trouble with the police. so, pay attention to the common sense on that because we need them. more so than ever. in a country that's becoming less and less safe, it seems, from outside threats as well as people within that don't seem to understand the rule of law. and sometimes governing officials who don't seem to care about upholding it. so we all have the

responsibility as citizens. those costs have been high. because in the previous year, well over 100 officers have been lost in that line of duty and that's tragic. tryinging to defend us -- tryinging to defend us, so i'm -- trying to defend us, so i'm glad to stand here today to recognize their bravery, their devotion and for all of us to remember how to make their job a little bit easier. so i yield back. thank you, sir. mr. reichert: i thank the gentleman for his comments and support. there's a couple of things that you mentioned. one, some of those acts that police officers do each and every day to help families, people don't hear about those officers that buy groceries for families that are less fortunate. i know when i worked on the green river task force and working with families that had missing daughters or had lost their daughter to -- i'm not even going to mention his name,

the monster serial killer from seattle, delivering christmas presents to those families. money out of their own pocket or time out of their own -- off their own time in building a new bicycle for some young brother of one of the victims. so, those are things that the community and a neighborhood might hear about, but you never see on the news, you never see publicized. and you never really hear about. so i appreciate it. the second thing you mentioned was traininging and i really believe that that's one of the -- training and i really believe that's one of the things we can do to help law enforcement officers across this country. the national blue alert is another piece of legislation that we i think can work together to pass. it should be a bipartisan effort. cops improvement and re-authorization act is another tool that we can provide. and a bill to try and expedite the claims process for public safety officers benefits

programs. in some cases it takes three to to to to four years to -- three to four years to decide build whether a family should receive -- to decide whether a family should receive death benefits when their family member is killed in the line of duty. it's my great honor to introduce the next member of congress and yield time to him my good friend and partner who is also a career law enforcement officer for a couple of different departments. his last tour of duty as the sheriff in florida, so there's two career law enforcement officers in congress as far as the two of us and now we're standing right here. so i look at mr. nugent as my backup here in congress and know he considers me his backup and we're partners here in supporting our law enforcement officers here across our country and i thank mr. nugent for his service in law

enforcement and his communities and i know he's faced some dangerous situations throughout his career. sometimes we sit on the floor and share those stories with each other. the only really two that can understand some of these stories are really cops. mr. speaker, i yield to the gentleman from florida, mr. nugent. . mr. neugebauer: i thank sheriff -- mr. nugent: that is a term of endearment. it is an opportunity to lead a great body of men and women. so when sheriff reichert wanted to do this hour, and it was like he said, we have each other's back. we have been through issues that we can relate to. when i first became a law enforcement officer my mom said, you know, i could picture

one of your brothers doing this, but not you. she said, you just don't have that temperment to be that bold, i guess she was saying as compared to my brothers. at the end of the day, last 39 years and last as sheriff, those are 39 of the best years and i guarantee that dave reichert feels the same way with his tenure. i started out as a cop outside the city of chicago and saw issues that i would rather not mention. coming down to florida, it was different. but at the same time that changed over time too from a small sleepy sheriff's office of about 40 individuals to when i left, we had over 500 folks that serve this great nation and that community.

you hear a lot on the news about law enforcement and they want to make us sound like we aren't human. in reality i have been involved in a shooting, where a law enforcement officer had to take someone's life. and that officer was so emotionally distraught, because that is not why they got into the business. i didn't get into that business. you wanted to be there to protect people. that's what law enforcement is about. and unfortunately, sometimes, bad things happen to good people. sheriff reichert mentioned the fact that sometimes police officers and deputies can make a mistake. but when things are moving fast, at the speed of light, you got to think back as to what and why that officer did or didn't do

what he did at the time. and i worry about when elected officials see it is condemning police officers for something that occurred before they ever get the facts. dave reichert sit there on the floor and talk about that. you know what? maybe maybe, you should wait until the investigation is complete before you condemn someone. until you walk in their shoes. i can remember back as a rookie having to work -- and i took the shift of guys that had families because he wasn't married when it came down to holidays. i didn't have a family. i would take the shift so they would be with their families. didn't always work that out but i missed weddings anniversaries

and birthdays because of service. that's all the men and women that serve this country in local law enforcement and other local law enforcement agencies throughout the united states. most of the men and women i served with could make more money doing something else. they were bright, bright people. but their calling was to be a law enforcement officer, to go out there in the dead of night, climb up in an attic -- remember that -- climb up in an attic and you know there is a bad guy up there and somebody has to go there and do it. at the end of the day, these men and women do it because they love the community they serve. congressman reichert talked about what police officers do with their own money in regards to buying turkeys brige christmas presents for children

that would not have a christmas, doing summer camps for free, because these children didn't have the ability to go to one of those paid summer camps that were pretty neat. we would put it on in our sheriff's office, with donations from clubs like kiwan is and rotary and others, so these girls and boys could have the opportunity to interact with law enforcement and actually see that we are human. that when we do these games out there in the field and have water balloons whatever it may be we are real people. the only time they seeal law enforcement officer is possibly during a domestic violence situation where they are arresting their mom or dad. it can jade anybody but it can jade law enforcement.

because the things they see no one would want to see. there are times i went home and got off the midnight shift and walk into my house at 6:00 in the morning and what i had just seen the night before, you have a hard time going to sleep where you grab my child, my youngest child -- my only child grabbing him and hugging him because what i saw what another parent do to their child which is unspeakable. our three sons serve in the military. but middle son is a black hawk pile on the in the florida national guard and also a deputy sheriff in one of the major counties in florida. and you know, he wasn't sure if that wasn't the right job. when they went through the class on child abuse, it struck him as

a core as a new dad, how could anyone do that to them? he has turned out to be a pretty good cop. i say that proudly. not a derogatory term. but the men and women that put on the uniform and that badge do it because they love people, not because they hate them. they do it because they want to make a difference in their community. their families are the ones that suffer the most. when i have had to go to scenes where i had an officer killed in the line of duty, it breaks your heart. and when i was a rookie officer right outside of chicago right out of the academy, one of my academy mates was shot and killed by a 12-year-old in our first year on the job.

you never know when it's going to hit. when the officer down in tarpon springs went to work on the 21st of december, he kissed his wife and kids good-bye expecting to be there for christmas. little did he know that that was the last day of his life. the person who killed him shot him and then ran him over with a car. this is not what we want and where we want to see america that i love is the same respect we give our soldiers returning from war, that we give back to our police officers. that when you see them in a restaurant or you see them on the street or see them on a call, thank them for what they do. they will be absolutely surprised and amazed, but

grateful. you know, when my sons are in uniform and people come up to them in the military and thank them for their service, there's no reason we can't do the same thing for our law enforcement officers. congressman reichert is probably the most humble guy i know. and the stories -- and he would never brag about himself, but he is a consummate professional. his bravery is unmatched. and his leadership, i'm sure at that sheriff's office in washington state is better for him being sheriff than not. and with that, mr. speaker, i want to yield back to my friend and colleague, sheriff reichert. mr. reichert: i thank the

sheriff. and there might be some people back in washington state that might disagree with you. but i thank what you and i have spoken here tonight is to bring the personality, the humanes and the human heart of another police officer to america tonight. and i think with the two sheriffs here it's a powerful way from the floor of the house of representatives to share with people across this nation, through this media, our thanks and gratitude to each and every man and woman who wears the uniform, who puts their life on the line, who knows that someday when they leave, they know there's a possibility they may

not come home and the families live with that too. one quick story, the story i was stabbed in 1973 or 1974. i had my throat slit with a butcher knife, a domestic call. my wife actually found out that i had my throat slit. she was sitting home watching the news and showed me being wheeled into the hospital out of the ambulance. and she finally got a phone call and didn't know if i was going to live or die. that happens every day in this country ladies and gentlemen, mr. speaker. it happens every day here. and officers is injured hurt or killed somewhere across this nation and we need there to be support them. we need to be there to pray them

for their families and pray for our communities to come together and be true partners in protecting our children and our families. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6 2015 the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. tonko for 30 minutes. mr. tonko: thank you mr. speaker. we gather as democrats in this special order 30-minute opportunity to discuss our nation's recent free trade agreements. free trade. there are concerns about free trade being the outcome and we will be talking about that here in this format. this is more important now than ever before. our ambassador testified before the house and senate tonight.

the transpacific partnership negotiations are being held this week in new york city. and some members of congressville suggested a trade promotion authority bill that are referenced as a fast track that may be introduced, it would deny the checks and balances of congress, one that would not allow us to actively overview the impacts of these negotiated settlements, these contracts, and would require a thumbs up-thumbs down vote without the interactive quality that serves that responsibility to the members of congress. but before we give congress' ability to conduct proper oversight ap review these trade agreements that are currently being negotiated, including the transpacific partnership, we

need to discuss how free trade agreements from the past two decades have not delivered on their promises. these trade deals will have impacts on american life. like food safety or affordable medicine or perhaps regulations with the banking industry, the financial industry. let's not be reckless and allow these deals to be moved forward without thorough oversight by congress. president obama indicated as much in his recent state of thedown message where i quote, i'm the first one to admit that past trade deals have not lived up to the hype. whether it was nafta or the korean free trade agreement, supporters of our past f.d.a.'s deals would create a good outcome, create united states'

jobs, create a lesser trade deficit and improve global labor and global environmental standards. but tragically, sadly, this hasn't been the outcome. supporters have said this one will be different. the transpacific partnership which will cover a great economy supporters are saying this is a 21st century agreement. but leaked information from the t.p.p. negotiators shows that it is being modeled or by the negotiators itself showing it has been modeled on trade policies that are proven to offshore good-paying jobs in our economy and force wages down for america's working families. that is why respected economists, including many that supported supported free trade,

have expressed skepticism about the transpacific partnership negotiation. . these trade agreements do not respond favorably to the american middle class. there are comments that, and i quote, indicated that i don't think t.p.p. and tpip rise close to the standard of being 21st century trade and investment agreements. not even close. they are very much 20th century agreements which were already out of date by the time they were negotiated. this is a nafta treaty with large -- or this is the same negotiations that we've had in many other cases. "the new york times" indicated, and i quote, i'm in general a free trader but i'll be a bit relieved if the p. t. -- if the t.p.p. just fades away. the first thing you need to know about trade deals in

general is that they aren't what they used to be. the glory days of trade negotiations the days of deals in the 1960's which sharply reduced tariffs around the world, are long behind us. and then there's a quote based on the leaks and the history arrangements in past trade packs, it is not looking good. there's a real risk that it will benefit the wealthiest sliver of the american and global elite at the expense of everyone else. so tonight i hope we can have a thoughtful discussion about jobs about wages, about environmental standards that could be impacted, about child labor laws that could perhaps be thrust upon us, that have been promised for the past two decades. sadly our constituents are looking for that sort of progressive outcome that has not been realized.

and certainly our workers have been impacted. i represent a district that is tremendously impacted by these trade negotiations. so tonight it's a pleasure to work with my colleagues, to get out the message about broken promises of our trate agreements, and -- trade agreements. and i see my good friend and colleague who has been a very passionate voice on speaking out about these issues and that is tim ryan, a representive from ohio from ohio's 13th district. i yield to mr. ryan so that he can share some thoughts with us. welcome. mr. ryan: thank you so much. i want to thank the gentleman from new york. it's always fun to be here with you. in the later evening hours. but as i'm listening to you talk about fair trade versus free trade and some of these agreements, you have to go to the communities. this is not rocket science. go to the communities that have been impacted over the last 20 or 30 years.

going back to nafta. and cafta and all of these other agreements. and look at them. look what's happened in places like youngstown, ohio or upstate new york, or in connecticut, up and down the east coast. we have in ohio several companies that after the nafta agreement started moving wholesale their manufacturing facilities from warren, ohio, or youngstown, ohio just over the border in mexico, just over the border with cheaper labor and no environmental labor standards to be seen and ship the freight back over and it decimated community as i cross ohio like the ones we represent -- across ohio like the ones i represent -- communities across ohio like the one i represent. there's a state route 7 that goes from the lake, all the way down the ohio river. and if you want to see what these trade agreements have done in the heartland, go take a ride down route 7.

especially the southern part. go through stubenville and east liverpool ohio. go to portsmith. you will see the erosion of what used to be the industrial might of the united states of america. that has eroded communities. and the ripple effect, the job aspect of it, you're unemploying people, now there's no one to support the schools, now there's no one to support the mental health levy, now there's no one to support the libraries, now there's no one to throw $0 in the basket at church on sunday -- $20 in the basket at church on sunday. the ripple effect throughout these communities has decimated the middle class and decimated our communities and reduced opportunity for our young people who we want to thrive in manufacturing in the united states. so these trade agreements, i don't want to see g.d.p., i don't want to see numbers. i want to see what it's doing

for average americans and middle class people. period. end of story. how does it help them? and drive through the communities, you're going to see the evidence that we have not negotiated these agreements. because if there's growth and there's increased profit and the stock market's going up, where's that money going? it's not going to the middle class people or what used to be middle class people in our congressional districts. i have told the story before. we have a billion-dollar steel mill that's located in youngstown now. why? the company asked us to fight to put tariffs on the dump chinese steel tubing that was coming in. and the president, to his credit, put the tariffs on. they built the steel mill. so when you level the playing field when you say, if you're dumping or you're manipulating your currency, which is something that we've got to get in this agreement, it's real

teeth into the currency manipulation issue, or the environment or labor, then people and companies will reinvest back in the united states. and you can reinvigorate state route 7 going north and south in ohio. to me that's the most important part. what are we going to do, are we going to write -- how are we going to write agreements and structure trade to operate in a way that draws investment into the united states? one last piece. the small and medium sized manufacture -- manufacturers get hammered in this. you want to be pro-business, you want to be pro-middle class, small business, medium sized businesses, the tool and dime maker, the mom and pop manufacturer that operate in communities like ours the people who treat their employees like they're family, the ones that sponsor the little league team or the soccer team, they're getting

wiped out in these agreements. and we're not factoring them in. so if we want a small robust middle class, business community in the smaller midsized cities in america, these are the kind of things we need to factor in when we're, you know operating. yeah we have to invest in roads and bridges. yeah, we have to invest in infrastructure and do research. we have to make sure that we have an educated skilled work force. we should invest in the manufacturing and all the rest. but the trade agreements are key. and if you look at what keystone x.l.'s done to our auto industry -- at what korea's done to our auto industry and our trade deficit with korea, just those two things, we've lost tens of thousands of jobs because of the korean trade agreement and our trade deficit with them has skyrocketed. the proof is in the pudding. and if we want to bring back the state route 7's in ohio of america, then we need to do exactly what you're saying, mr.

tonko, and what rosa delauro's going to say and what others are going to say tonight. we need to reframe the way we talk about this. so i'm very thankful for the invite here and i appreciate your passion and how you believe and understand we have to do real economic development in upstate new york and places like my commurent. so thank you for being a leader -- community. so thank you for being a leader on this issue. mr. tonko: thank you for bringing it right down to the basic, core ingredient and that's work for american families. you're speaking so well for those you represent in ohio. this is about broken promises. it's about promises for jobs, promises for work opportunity promises for environmental standards, promises for labor standards. we need to let the american public know exactly what's happening. and if you're a believer in fair trade, not necessarily free trade, if you believe in that fair trade and you don't think of fast track, where we circumvent the authorities and responsibilities of congress then let your voice in congress

know that. let everyone know what you're thinking. because these are critical moments. mr. speaker, i would ask that we yield to a good friend and colleague who is a very outspoken voice for social and economic justice, who has spoken to the unfairness of these negotiated arrangements for trade and who has led us as a democratic caucus in this house to speak out forcefully about the fast track process and fair trade versus free trade. none other than my good friend and colleague from the state of connecticut, from the third district of connecticut, rosa delauro. ms. delauro: thank you so much my colleague from new york, my colleague who is just leaving the floor from ohio, tim ryan, and we've got wisconsin in the house with mr. pocan. mr. tonko, thank you for taking the lead on thisest. and i can't tell you how proud i am to join with men and women in this body who understand

what is going on in the lives of working families today. they are struggling. we need to walk in their shoes. that's what our job is, to represent their interests in this body. and what do we know? we know that in fact they are in jobs today that don't pay them enough money to survive. and that's why we are organizing and taking on a process which can do nothing but to harm them in the future. and all of us, all of us who are engaged in this effort have been long supporters of the president and the administration. and we believe genuinely that he wants to improve the lives of working americans. but on the issue of trade, myself and all of us will oppose the administration because they are following the exact same trade policy that

has failed in the past. the administration claims that the transpacific partnership will bring jobs back to the united states, raise our wages. but experience tells us that far too many trade agreements have done the exact opposite. the t.p.p. is based on the same model as the korea free trade agreement negotiated just two years ago. since that time the united states trade deficit with south korea has exploded by 50%. that translates into 60,000 lost jobs. this is a familiar picture. korean products flood in, american jobs flood out. when adjusted for inflation, our wages continue to slide. the princeton economist estimates that as many as a quarter of american jobs will be offshored in the foreseeable future and we know from past experience that the people who are laid off will see a significant drop in their wages. that is if they are able to

find another job. the trade agreements we have signed over the last 25 years have done nothing to ensure fair competition. let's take one example. the deals have failed to address the problem that our colleague, congressman ryan mentioned. currency manipulation. it is an unfair, it's an artificial practice that has been devastating our automotive industry for a generation. morgan stanley estimates that currency manipulation gives each imported japanese car an effective subsidy of between $1,500 and $5,700. that's neither free nor fair. a leading economist of the peterson institute writes in foreign affairs just within the last several days, and i quote, the united states has paid a major economic price for never having established an effective

currency manipulation policy. in the last congress, 230 members, both republicans and democrats wrote to the united states trade representative to demand the inclusion of a strong and an enforceable currency manipulation chapter in the transpacific partnership agreement. so far we have been ignored. and dismissed. put simply, if the agreement does not address currency manipulation, it will not be worth the pape that are it's written on -- paper that it's written on. it will be a green light for those who seek to compete unfairly with american manufacturing and take away american jobs. the administration's arguments about jobs have failed. they know experience and the numbers are against them, so instead, as with past trade agreements, we hear the fallback argument based on foreign policy. if you listen to the representative -- riss listened to the representative today -- listened today to the