Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of
Floor Speech
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Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I thank Senator Portman, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Whitehouse, and my other colleagues for allowing me to jump in here for a couple of minutes.
This body--this entire body--is really responsible for where we are right now because it was during the investigation package that we realized that section 230 was being used as a shield for the bad guys. All of the attorneys general around the country and various law enforcement agencies and individuals who were trying to sue backpage were met every time with a 230 defense. They were not even able to penetrate to get the documents from backpage in order to learn about what backpage was really up to. It was an investigation by which backpage thought it would be able to win again in court and deny us our opportunity to look at the documents and to look at the underlying evidence that one should always look at in an investigation.
Frankly, our getting the contempt-of-the-Senate resolution through this body almost unanimously--I think it was unanimously, wasn't it, I ask Senator Portman?
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Mrs. McCASKILL. And then our going all the way to the Supreme Court and winning was finally the first time backpage had to turn over the dirty evidence of its knowingly facilitating sex trafficking on its page. That is why this language is ``knowingly facilitate''--just to make sure that in going forward, no bad guys can hide behind section 230.
The other part of this bill that, I think, is very important and that, I think, a lot of people forget--and with all due respect to my friends who are in this Chamber who were U.S. attorneys--is that over 90 percent of the crime that is prosecuted in this country is prosecuted by local prosecutors, State prosecutors, who are called prosecutors or district attorneys, depending on the State's term that is used. They have been handcuffed in terms of being able to bring these kinds of cases. This legislation not only opens up the courthouse doors to victims who have been victimized by this but also so that the full force of American law enforcement can be brought to bear on this problem, not just the limited jurisdiction that was available around the problem of sex trafficking.
This is so important to getting to the bottom of it because many U.S. attorneys don't have the time, and, frankly, many attorneys general don't have the time or the jurisdiction to get after crime, but the local prosecutors don't get to decide which cases to go after. If there is a 9-1-1 call, they have it. The Feds can come in later and say: We have it, and we are going to take it. But they are the ones who day after day are in the trenches of sex crimes, and they are the ones who now have the ability to go after these cases in a way that will be very meaningful.
I am proud of the bipartisan nature of this. I am proud of the partnership we have, Senator Portman, on the Subcommittee on Investigations. I know we will get a big vote on this. I think people see through these amendments as ways to slow this bill down or possibly kill it, and I hope we will all can join together and take this to the finish line tomorrow.
I thank my colleagues for giving me a few minutes.
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