E1420 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks August 3, 2012 

their elected leader in early 2008 after an internal coup. 

But just two weeks ago, many of those 

same Democratic senators and their more 

plentiful Republican counterparts gave Ms. 

Fedor a standing ovation after the chamber 

unanimously passed House Bill 262, the socalled ‘‘Safe Harbor’’ bill. 

Gov. John Kasich is to sign it into law 

Wednesday at Second Chance, a Toledo social service program offering help to trafficking victims and prostitutes. 

‘‘There’s no higher calling than fighting 

for those who can’t fight for themselves,’’ 

said Sen. Mark Wagoner (R., Ottawa Hills), 

the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman 

who helped to work through last-minute 

changes to get the bill over the finish line. 

‘‘Teresa is to be commended for taking up 

this issue, for the energy she put behind it, 

and for the commitment to see it through,’’ 

he said. 

The bill seeks to push the reset button for 

government, law enforcement, judges, and 

others to look at those forced or coerced into 

selling themselves, especially minors, as victims rather than as criminals. 

Initially struggling to get bipartisan support, Ms. Fedor reached out to a man who, at 

least through much of 2011, was considered 

by Democrats to be the enemy—Mr. Kasich. 

When the Republican governor signed on, 

Ms. Fedor was in disbelief. 

‘‘This was different for her,’’ Mr. Kasich recalled. ‘‘She asked me, ‘Are you really serious that you’re going to help me?’’’ 

The highly contentious fight over Senate 

Bill 5, which ended last November when voters rejected the Republican-passed restrictions on public employee unions, was still 

fresh in lawmakers’ minds. 

‘‘I know I’m dancing on the edge of a knife 

here, but this issue’s more important than 

the politics of this place,’’ said Ms. Fedor. 

No political backlash came. 

The trafficking issue has brought Mr. Kasich, the father of 12-year-old twin daughters, close to tears multiple times. 

‘‘I knew about human trafficking worldwide, but I was certainly not aware of the 

situation in this state. . . .’’ he said. ‘‘It 

doesn’t just touch me because I have daughters. That’s part of it, but it’s anybody’s 

children.’’ 

In addition to signing the bill into law, Mr. 

Kasich’s own interagency task force on trafficking will release its recommendations on 

how the state can better respond to the problem on Wednesday. 

‘‘Instead of prosecuting these people, we’re 

beginning to recognize these people are victims,’’ Mr. Kasich said. ‘‘Secondly, those 

people who knowingly engage with these 

traffickers and abuse them, the book is going 

to be thrown at them. We had this bust [near 

Bowling Green] that’s had a significant 

amount of attention, so the word is out: 

You’re going to jail and for a long time. 

‘‘And the women who are out there, the 

people who have been trafficked, they can 

come forward, and we will not prosecute 

you,’’ he said. ‘‘We will treat you and help 

you get your life back.’’ 

INCREMENTAL GAINS

The gains have been incremental. In 2008, 

Ms. Fedor persuaded her colleagues to amend 

a separate bill to create a human trafficking 

specification that, when attached to a related crime such as compelling prostitution, 

could increase the severity of the sentence. 

Ms. Fedor said she knew the specification 

would not be used, but saw it as the first step 

to getting human trafficking recognized in 

Ohio law. 

More important, she said, was a provision 

authorizing then Attorney General Richard 

Cordray, a Democrat, to create a commission 

to quantify modern-day slavery in Ohio. 

The statistics that emerged from the commission were a kick in the stomach. 

They suggested that as many as 2,879 

youths born in Ohio are at risk for sex trafficking and that 1,078 have been trafficked 

over the course of a year. 

In terms of raw numbers of arrests, investigations, and rescues of children involved in 

the sex trade, the commission suggested that 

Toledo ranked fourth in the nation behind 

Miami, Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas. When 

adjusted for population, Toledo climbed to 

No. 1. 

‘‘We feel that the models were reasonable 

and conservatively estimated, but I also 

think the estimate woke some people up,’’ 

said Celia Williamson, professor of criminal 

justice and social work at the University of 

Toledo and leader of the commission subcommittee that presented the numbers. 

But even when armed with those numbers, 

she was surprised at the success Ms. Fedor 

had. 

‘‘I was astonished that she was able to pass 

such a comprehensive Safe Harbor law,’’ Ms. 

Williamson said. ‘‘It’s more than we could 

have realistically dreamed.’’ 

The numbers were somewhat skewed by a 

2005 federal child prostitution sting in Harrisburg, Pa., involving 177 females. Seventyseven of them, including a 10-year-old, were 

from the Toledo area. A 2006 series by The 

Blade trained a spotlight on Toledo’s role as 

a major recruiting hub for children in the 

sex trade. 

‘‘It made no sense to me that pimps 

weren’t getting arrested, that johns weren’t 

getting arrested,’’ Ms. Fedor said. ‘‘They 

were all misdemeanors. The whole focus was 

on the prostitutes. In other words, it was always the woman’s fault. . . . And then, when 

I saw that it was reaching down to our children, I thought, ‘Enough is enough.’?’’ 

RUGGED DETERMINATION

Judge Tim Grendell of Geauga County 

Common Pleas Court was a Republican state 

senator in 2010 when he teamed with then 

Sen. Fedor for the next step, creation of 

Ohio’s first stand-alone, second-degree felony of ‘‘trafficking in persons.’’ Mr. 

Grendell’s northeast Ohio district was dealing with its own problem of Asian massage 

parlors investigated for trafficking. 

‘‘She brought a rugged determination and 

dedication to the issue that, I think, was 

critical in passage of that legislation a year 

and a half ago and this legislation,’’ he said. 

‘‘In my personal opinion, [the latest bill] certainly would not have passed in this advanced state without her efforts.’’ 

But he also said that without Mr. Kasich’s 

intervention, a bill as strong as the one that 

ultimately just passed probably still would 

have been several years off. 

‘‘She’s been a huge force,’’ said Attorney 

General Mike DeWine, a Republican who resurrected the trafficking commission begun 

under his predecessor. 

‘‘She has a real passion for this and persistence,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve found in government 

that you have to have those two, and she has 

them on this issue.’’ 

Theresa Flores, of Columbus, a former trafficking victim and now a member of Mr. 

DeWine’s commission, detailed her story in 

the 2007 book The Sacred Bath: An American 

Teen’s Story of Modern Day Slavery: As a 

teenager in an affluent Detroit suburb, she 

was blackmailed and trafficked at night, 

even if she did return to her own bed under 

her unsuspecting parents’ roof before the sun 

rose. 

‘‘[Ms. Fedor] really is empowering victims 

and survivors to find their voices,’’ she said. 

‘‘She’s helping them to realize that what 

happened to them wasn’t necessarily their 

fault. Somebody did this to us, and we need 

to go after them.’’ 

Although happy with the bill that reached 

Mr. Kasich’s desk, Ms. Fedor is already plotting her next move, battling what she perceives to be a misunderstanding among her 

colleagues over whether a trafficking victim 

can consent to prostitution—even if she is 

over 16, the legal age of consent. 

‘‘Age of consent should never apply,’’ she 

said. ‘‘These victims are not consenting. 

They’re enslaved. They can’t get out. 

They’re being forced to have sex with 20 or 30 

men a night—beaten, drugged, raped, kidnapped. They go from city to city. There’s no 

consent involved at all.’’ 

f 

IN RECOGNITION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BREAST CANCER COALITION 

HON. WILLIAM R. KEATING OF MASSACHUSETTS

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, August 2, 2012 

Mr. KEATING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 

recognize Against the Tide, a competitive race 

benefitting the Massachusetts Breast Cancer 

Coalition, MBCC, an organization dedicated to 

ending breast cancer. 

Breast cancer is the most common cancer 

and second leading cause of death for 

women. Studies estimate that in 2012, breast 

cancer will claim the lives of over 39,000 

women in the United States. Statistics also 

show that approximately 1 in 8 women born 

today will be diagnosed with breast cancer at 

some point in their lifetime. 

The citizens of my home state of Massachusetts have been severely impacted by breast 

cancer. Our state has the highest incident rate 

of breast cancer in the United States, affecting 

139.5 per 100,000 women in Massachusetts, 

as compared to a national average of 121.9 

per 100,000 women. Additionally, the highest 

incident rates of breast cancer are within the 

counties of Dukes, Nantucket and Barnstable, 

which are all located in my district. 

The Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, 

the MBCC, was founded in 1991 to combat 

breast cancer. The organization challenges 

the commercialization and exploitation of 

breast cancer by corporations which stand to 

profit from the disease and those companies 

whose products contain carcinogens linked to 

breast cancer. Its mission to combat cancer 

through prevention has led the MBCC to advocate the investigation of environmental links to 

breast cancer, to dispel misconceptions about 

the realities of breast cancer, and to reject the 

concept of breast cancer as a chronic disease. 

Through the funds raised by the Against the 

Tide race, the MBCC has been able to continue its cause to combat breast cancer. 2012 

is the twentieth consecutive year the MBCC 

will hold this popular race, which unites people 

of all ages and backgrounds in a common 

fight against breast cancer. 

Mr. Speaker, please join me in applauding 

the efforts of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition to fight this devastating epidemic 

and wish them the best of luck for a successful race. 


rfrederick on DSK6VPTVN1PROD with REMARKS
August 3, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E1421 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PAIN-CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT 

SPEECH OF

HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO OF GUAM

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, July 31, 2012 

Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, as a society 

we must work to ensure that lives of those 

who are unable to protect themselves are 

safeguarded; however elected leaders also 

have an obligation to ensure that laws which 

are passed, especially at the national level, 

allow for public input by the people they affect. 

I strongly agree with the underlying intent of 

H.R. 3803, the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, to prevent 

the termination of lives of the most vulnerable 

in our society—that of unborn children. H.R. 

3803 would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks 

of pregnancy, except when an acute physical 

condition endangers the life of the mother. 

The bill further requires that any termination of 

pregnancy be done in a manner that provides 

the best conditions for the unborn child to survive. 

I am, however, concerned with the process 

used to develop and publicly debate the bill. 

Further, I am concerned about the impact it 

has on home rule for the District of Columbia. 

Congress has delegated much authority to the 

D.C. government to establish policies that reflect the needs of those who live here. But 

H.R. 3803, which only affects Washington, 

D.C., would implement this abortion ban without the input of D.C. residents and Congresswoman ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON who represents the people of the District of Columbia 

in the United States Congress. 

I believe that the United States should enact 

strong policies that recognize and protect the 

sanctity of human life. However if Congress 

wants to make meaningful progress to achieve 

this, legislation should consider the views of 

those impacted by the legislation and not ignore their points of view or concerns. 

f 

IRAN THREAT REDUCTION AND 

SYRIA HUMAN RIGHTS ACT OF 2012 

SPEECH OF

HON. EARL BLUMENAUER OF OREGON

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 

Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, Today, a 

time of heightened tensions in U.S.-Iran relations, I voted for the Iran Threat Reduction 

and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, H.R. 

1905, a balanced and serious approach towards ensuring Iran will never have nuclear 

weapons. 

Throughout my time in Congress, I have 

firmly opposed the use of indiscriminate sanctions as a blunt tool of foreign policy, one 

often more successful as political fodder than 

as leverage to effect positive change. 

The timing of previous Iran sanctions legislation was damaging, undermining the administration in the midst of complex, delicate discussions with Iran. Today, the circumstances 

have changed. Negotiations are stalled, and 

this legislation has been focused and toneddown, making it an asset, not a liability, for the 

administration as it works to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. 

A coherent and unified U.S. policy towards 

Iran is the best way to strengthen diplomacy, 

which remains the best, some say the only, 

way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear 

weapons. This revised legislation—based on 

input from a broad coalition, including the 

White House—brings coherence and focused 

pressure to the negotiating table. 

I commend Chairwoman ROS LEHTINEN and 

Ranking Member BERMAN of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for producing a bill that 

is based on policy, not politics. There were extreme voices pushing to include some very 

harsh language that, for example, would have 

made the few currently permitted humanitarian 

transactions with Iranian financial institutions 

illegal. To the benefit of the U.S. and innocent 

Iranian civilians, these provisions were left out. 

Another critical change to this legislation is 

language that clarifies in the Act is not an authorization of the use of force against Iran or 

Syria. 

The resolution would provide the administration with additional leverage for their broader 

diplomatic effort. Sanctions are effective when 

it is clear that if concessions are made, the 

other side has the ability to reciprocate by 

easing elements of the sanctions regime. This 

bill provides the administration with such flexibility. 

In the midst of negotiations yet to yield 

progress, focused sanctions that unite both 

Congress and the executive provides leverage 

that increases the likelihood of success, and 

an alternative to military action, which our nation can ill-afford and which I oppose. 

f 

PERSONAL EXPLANATION 

HON. DAN BENISHEK OF MICHIGAN

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, August 2, 2012 

Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker on rollcall No. 

539, on Tuesday, July 31, 2012, my plane 

was delayed in Detroit due to bad weather. As 

a result, I missed votes that evening, including 

a measure of personal importance, H.R. 3803, 

the District of Columbia Pain Capable Unborn 

Child Act. 

Had I been present, I would have voted 

‘‘yea.’’ 

f 

IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION TO 

ESTABLISH A NATIONAL GUARD 

UNIT IN AMERICAN SAMOA 

HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA OF AMERICAN SAMOA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, August 2, 2012 

Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise 

today to introduce legislation that will authorize 

the Secretary of the Department of Defense to 

establish a National Guard unit in American 

Samoa. 

Mr. Speaker, the National Guard has 

a long, proud history in the United 

States. As part of their federal duties, 

National Guard units have been mobilized to supplement regular armed 

forces during times of war or national 

emergencies. As State entities, National Guard units have been utilized 

in their respective States upon declaration of a State of Emergency. 

National Guard troops have been activated in response to emergencies as a 

result of snowstorms, droughts, flooding, earthquakes, and other natural 

hazards that require providing basic 

necessities to people across the country. Indeed, one is reminded that National Guard units played a major role 

in providing security and assisting recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in September 2005. 

Mr. Speaker, today, there are 54 separate National Guard units—one for 

each of the 50 States and the District 

of Columbia, plus Puerto Rico, Guam, 

and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There is no 

National Guard unit in American 

Samoa. 

Mr. Speaker, on September 29, 2009, 

American Samoa was hit by a powerful 

earthquake which struck below the 

ocean about 140 miles southwest of 

Pago Pago, American Samoa, and 125 

miles south of Samoa. The earthquake, 

which registered 8.3 on the Richter 

scale, set off a massive tsunami that 

crashed into American Samoa. Entire 

villages were devastated creating a disaster of epic proportion in the Territory. 

Mr. Speaker, one of the lessons of the 

2009 Tsunami is the fact that American 

Samoa is prone to disasters and we 

must be prepared. Especially, with 

American Samoa being out there on its 

own in the midst of the vast South Pacific Ocean, it is very difficult to coordinate and organize first responders 

from the mainland. Having a National 

Guard unit is extremely helpful when 

there is a State emergency. 

In addition, American Samoa has a 

per capita enlistment rate in the U.S. 

military which is higher than any 

State or U.S. Territory. Our sons and 

daughters have served in record numbers in every U.S. military engagement 

from WWII to present operations in 

Iraq and Afghanistan. We have stood 

by the United States in good times and 

bad, and I believe this relationship 

would only be strengthened by establishing a National Guard unit in American Samoa. 

For these reasons, I am pleased to introduce legislation today to establish a 

National Guard unit in American 

Samoa. I understand that there are 

several other issues to consider in 

order to fulfill the objectives of this 

legislation. My hope is to work together with my colleagues to make improvements and adjustments as needed. 

I urge my colleagues to support this 

important piece of legislation. 

f 

CONGRATULATING JOHN 

ANNALORO ON HIS RETIREMENT 

HON. ADAM SMITH OF WASHINGTON

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, August 2, 2012 

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I 

rise to honor John Annaloro, the CEO of the 

Northwest Credit Union Association, on his retirement after nearly 30 years of working in the 

credit union industry. 

John’s passion for people and economics 

first brought him to the credit union industry in 


rfrederick on DSK6VPTVN1PROD with REMARKS