International Megan's Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 515, the International Megan's Law, focused on preventing demand for child sex trafficking.

I really want to acknowledge the hard work by the Member from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), his perseverance here as the bill's author, as he has tried on several occasions to get this through the Senate and to the President's desk. With this action today, this bill, when it passes the floor, will go to the President's desk.

I think it is very important that we understand the magnitude of this problem, as he has tried to convey to us here, and how this is going to strengthen the hand of law enforcement.

We want law enforcement to consider this a new tool. It will combat the appalling industry of child sex tourism, in which adults travel overseas to exploit children in other countries.

My chief of staff, Amy Porter, has gone on several humanitarian missions to work with very young children in Cambodia and elsewhere in South Asia as well. As she shows you the photographs of these little girls exploited and traumatized by this predatory activity, it is hard to fathom that men from around the world, including America, including our country, engage in this predatory activity.

While the countries they travel to lack the resources needed to deal with this rising number of child predators, this legislation is going to help us offset that.

One of the most discouraging things that my chief of staff, Amy, found was that, in Cambodia, it was the local police chief who himself was involved in the practice.

Now, upon her return to again check on this, she found that they had put an end to that. He was no longer in this trade, in this type of business. It had been cleaned up some with pressure from the United States, but it is still ongoing. So this will help us fight back.

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Mr. ROYCE. At present, multiple U.S. Government agencies are working to combat human trafficking and child sex tourism, but there has been a troubling lack of coordination and information sharing and notifications to foreign countries that a potential sexual criminal is heading their way, and those notifications are very inconsistent.

This bill clarifies the responsibility, puts it on the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. It better coordinates those efforts. And, importantly, by proactively helping other countries to identify those incoming child predators, we will encourage them to alert us when foreigners convicted of sex offenses against children attempt to enter into the United States.

So I commend Chairman Smith for his work on this bipartisan legislation, and I encourage all Members to support its passage. It will be on the President's desk here after our action this evening.

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