Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I rise to express strong support for the underlying bill and also my appreciation to the managers of the bill for including the en bloc amendments. One I offered is entitled the ``Ensuring a Better Response for Victims of Child Sex Trafficking,'' part of a larger bill we passed last year.

This one ensures all children who are sex-trafficked will be classified as child abuse victims for purposes of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

Currently, sex trafficking of a minor is not considered child abuse unless a parent or caregiver was directly involved in the child's exploitation. This amendment clarifies that a child victim of sex trafficking is a victim of child abuse and, therefore, can be eligible for the services as they recover.

Over the past couple of days, we have made some great progress, including putting aside partisan divides in coming together to combat human trafficking, a heinous criminal industry that all of us want to stop.

I am proud my bringing missing children home legislation with Senator Schumer, as well as my Combat Human Trafficking Act with Senator Feinstein is on the floor and have been included in the underlying bill. We have made a lot of progress, and we are a few steps closer to actually ending trafficking for once and for all.

I particularly congratulate Senator Cornyn and Senator Klobuchar for their hard work in bringing this to the floor and doing something important to fight human trafficking.

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