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I rise today to urge the support of H.R. 4058, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act.
This is a bipartisan bill that I strongly believe will help end sex trafficking, especially of children in foster care.
Madam Speaker, I don't know if you know or the other Members who may be listening today or anyone else who may be listening know that, if you are driving down the street and you see 10 young girls standing on the street corner, that six of those 10 young girls who are in human trafficking, six of those are in foster care--six out of 10--and those are young children that the State, that the taxpayers, that we as citizens of this community--of our communities--are responsible for, and they are on the street.
I am pleased to have worked with my colleague and ranking member on the Human Resources Subcommittee, Mr. Doggett. There are many colleagues who have also supported this legislation.
Today, I am here. This is the beginning of my 10th year in Congress. Prior to that, I was in law enforcement, for 33 years, in the King County Sheriff's Office in Seattle, Washington.
For 19 of those years, there was a team created to go after the most notorious serial killer that this country has ever seen. His name was Ridgway. My quest in that case, to find Gary Ridgway, started in 1982. I was a 31-year-old detective.
One body on August 12, two more bodies on August 15; I found a third body on that same day, going down to the riverbank to recover the other two bodies. These were 16-year-old girls.
This is a topic that we should be talking about here in Congress.
When I was 32 in 1982 and I started working on this case--and we finally arrested Ridgway in 2001, so 1982 until 2001--Ridgway said he killed 60 to 70 women. He pled guilty to 49. We closed 51 cases. I collected the bodies. I collected the bodies of 15 and 16-year-old girls.
They were buried in shallow graves or thrown in a river to drift away. Madam Speaker, some of these victims were pregnant, thrown in a grave along with their unborn child, their life cut short and taken. In some weeks, we collected six bodies.
Can you imagine the horror of the children when they were abducted and drawn into this killer's car or taken to his home? They knew they were being killed. They were strangled, and they fought for their lives.
Can you imagine the horror of the parents, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the brothers and sisters, and the children lost forever, their life ripped away?
That is why we are here today. That is why we are discussing these bills. This is about life; it is about death, and we can save lives. Some Members here have mentioned that we can save lives today. I hope the Senate has the courage to follow through on these bills. We are doing our work here in the House of Representatives.
When I was on the banks of the Green River in 1982, I wondered who in the world is there who cares; and after 15 years of working the case, who cares, who cared about these young girls?
I can tell you, after talking to a number of those young women on the street and girls and children, they were wondering, too: Does anybody care? Does anybody even know I exist? Does anybody even know I am here and what I am going through? I need love. I need help.
One of those girls that I found in early 1982, that was found in 1982, was a young woman named Wendy Coffield. Wendy Coffield was a foster child. She had run away from home before; and this time, when she ran away from home, nobody was looking for her. No one cared. She disappeared, and no one cared, and then she was found, she was found dead.
These are the kids we have to help. My bill focuses on foster kids. Six out of 10 involved in human trafficking today are foster kids.
We had some hearings, of course, over the past few months, and there were some courageous young women who came forward to tell their stories in our subcommittee, and I want to mention their names because it took a lot of courage to come forward and tell their stories about their lives and what they went through and the feeling of nobody caring.
Withelma ``T'' Ortiz Walker Pettigrew is a sex trafficking survivor who experienced 14 foster care placements and was exploited into the sex trafficking trade as a child. This year, though, she was recognized by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in 2014. Talk about turning around your life and having an impact and influence on other people. ``T'' Ortiz Pettigrew has done it.
Noel Gomez, Seattle Organization for Prostitution Survivors, Gomez survived 15 years in the sex trafficking trade and is working to help kids stay out and to get out of the sex trafficking trade.
Mandy Urwiler, she entered foster care at the age of 15 and had remained in care throughout her extended foster care program. She testified about her personal experience in foster care and her exposure to the sex trafficking world.
Talitha James, a former foster youth from California, was able to leave the system at age 14 after her aunt gave her a stable home.
After hearing from her and many other experts, Mr. Doggett and myself introduced bipartisan legislation to help every State better protect youth in foster care from sex trafficking. This bill requires States to identify victims and to provide them with the services they need to heal. It would also improve data on instances of child trafficking.
On a preventative front, the bill makes sure that the youth can participate in age appropriate activities so they are less vulnerable to trafficking. It encourages States to move forward, moving children out of foster care and into permanent, loving homes.
The approach we are taking is practical. It is bipartisan. It is based on the State's experience. This bill incorporates a wide range of ideas gleaned from bills introduced by members of the Ways and Means Committee like Mr. Paulsen, as well as ideas from over 150 pages of public comments that we received from our December discussion draft.
I am confident that this legislation will ensure that all States take real steps to better understand the problem and keep kids safe while in foster care. I urge all Members to support this legislation.
I want to thank Mr. Doggett, who joins me on the floor today. I want to thank Chairman Camp for his support, Ranking Member Levin for his support, and all those others who have signed on to the bill.
We are here today, as I said, to protect vulnerable children in foster care and work to find them loving homes. That is why we are here. We are here to save lives. Both parties have worked together.
We have received support for this bill from the American Bar Association, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the American Public Human Services Association, Children's Defense Fund, the Human Rights Project for Girls, National Children's Alliance, and eight others. They proudly indicated their support for this important legislation.
I invite all Members to join us in supporting this important bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Doggett for his support.
Just as we were listening to each other and talking to each other regarding the issue that existed prior to bringing this bill to the floor, I am interested in continuing to work with Mr. Doggett on the other issues that he has mentioned in his opening statement.
Now I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black).
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Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, in closing, I do believe that this bill can help end sex trafficking, especially when partnered with all of the other legislation that we have been talking about today. It is a holistic approach, and it touches on almost every one of the intricate issues surrounding protecting young children from being victims of human trafficking.
After we are done today, there will still be another bill, presented by Mr. Smith, that will add to the power of the movement that we are making today and that will add to the voice that we are expressing today in support of young children, in support of families--in support of protecting lives. We are going to save lives.
With these bills today, somebody does care. As I said in my opening statement, when I was 31 years old and was on the banks of the rivers, collecting the bodies of teenage girls, I wondered if anybody cared, and their families wondered.
Today, that question has been answered. We care. All the way to the United States Capitol, we care. We can make a difference. Our daughters are not for sale, and the time is now.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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