Corker Applauds Legislation Targeting Online Sex Trafficking Becoming Law

Statement

U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a leader in efforts to end modern slavery at home and abroad, today applauded President Donald J. Trump for signing the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (H.R.1865) into law. The narrowly-crafted legislation will target online sex trafficking by providing victims the opportunity to seek justice against websites, such as Backpage.com, that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking and allowing law enforcement officials to take action against these websites. Corker was an original cosponsor of the Senate version of the legislation, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA).

"This legislation will play an important role in the fight against online sex trafficking by ensuring victims have an opportunity to seek justice and enabling law enforcement officials to take action against websites like Backpage that facilitate this horrific crime," said Corker. "Today's action builds on the progress we have made in the past few years against modern slavery and human trafficking, and I applaud my colleagues, the Trump administration, and the many organizations that have continued to focus on combating this scourge on humanity."

In addition to cosponsoring bills to strengthen anti-human trafficking measures domestically, Corker previously proposed a bold, bipartisan initiative to end modern slavery worldwide. Now operating as the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS), the initiative is designed to leverage limited foreign aid dollars and galvanize tremendous support and investment from the public sector, philanthropic organizations and the private sector to fund projects and organizations around the world working to end modern day slavery where it is most prevalent. With support from the Trump administration, the United States made a $25 million contribution to the fund in 2017, which was soon after matched by the United Kingdom.

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