[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
MARKUP of H. Res. 75, H.R. 739,
H. Res. 156, H.R. 596, and H.R. 295
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MARKUP
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 7, 2019
__________
Serial No. 116-11
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman
BRAD SHERMAN, California MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas,
Ranking
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York Member
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida JOE WILSON, South Carolina
KAREN BASS, California SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TED S. YOHO, Florida
DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
AMI BERA, California LEE ZELDIN, New York
JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas JIM SENSENBRENNER, Wisconsin
DINA TITUS, Nevada ANN WAGNER, Missouri
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York BRIAN MAST, Florida
TED LIEU, California FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
DEAN PHILLPS, Minnesota JOHN CURTIS, Utah
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota KEN BUCK, Colorado
COLIN ALLRED, Texas RON WRIGHT, Texas
ANDY LEVIN, Michigan GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania GREG PENCE, Indiana
TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey STEVE WATKINS, Kansas
DAVID TRONE, Maryland MIKE GUEST, Mississippi
JIM COSTA, California
JUAN VARGAS, California
VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas
Jason Steinbaum, Democrat Staff Director
Brendan Shieds, Republican Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
APPENDIX
Hearing Notice................................................... 106
Hearing Minutes.................................................. 107
Hearing Attendance............................................... 108
Prepared statement submitted from Representative Castro.......... 109
MARKUP SUMMARY
Markup Summary................................................... 111
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
H. Res. 75, Strongly Condemning the January 2019 Terrorist attack
on the 14 Riverside Complex in Nairobi, Kenya.................. 2
H.R. 739, the Cyber Diplomacy Act of 2019 With the McCaul
Amendment...................................................... 6
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 739 Offered by
Mr. Mccaul of Texas............................................ 35
H. Res. 156 Calling for Accountability and Justice for the
Assassination of Boris Nemtsov with the two Malinowski
Amendments..................................................... 64
Amendment to H. Res. 156 Offered by Mr. Malinowski of New Jersey
(1 of 2 Listed)................................................ 72
Amendment to H. Res. 156 Offered by Mr. Malinowski of New Jersey
(2 of 2 Listed)................................................ 73
H.R. 596, Crimea Annexation Nonrecognition Act with the Connolly
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute........................ 74
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 596 Offered by
Mr. Connolly of Virginia....................................... 76
H.R. 295, End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2019 with the
Engel Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute.................. 78
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 295 Offered by
Mr. Engel of New York.......................................... 87
MARKUP OF VARIOUS MEASURES
Thursday, March 7, 2019
House of Representatives
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Washington, DC
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m., in
Room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Eliot Engel
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Chairman Engel. So pursuant to notice, we meet today to
markup five bipartisan measures. Without objection, all members
may have 5 days to submit statements or extraneous materials on
today's business.
As members were notified yesterday, we intend to consider
today's measures en bloc. The measures are H. Res. 75, strongly
condemning the January 2019 terrorist attack on the 14
Riverside Complex in Nairobi, Kenya; H.R. 739, the Cyber
Diplomacy Act of 2019 with the McCaul Amendment; H. Res. 156
calling for accountability and justice for the assassination of
Boris Nemtsov with the two Malinowski Amendments; H.R. 596,
Crimea Annexation Nonrecognition Act with the Connolly
Amendment in the nature of a substitute; and H.R. 295, End
Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2019 with the Engel
Amendment in the nature of a substitute.
[The bills and resolutions offered en bloc follow:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Engel. At this time I recognize myself to speak on
today's business.
We have five good measures before us today and I am pleased
to support them all. The first measure I want to discuss is H.
Res. 156, a resolution I authored with Ranking Member McCaul
that calls for justice for the assassination of Boris Nemtsov.
Nemtsov was a brave advocate for democracy and free
elections in Russia. Sadly, that put him right in Vladimir
Putin's cross hairs.
Now he joins a long list of brave journalists, human rights
activists, and political opponents murdered by Putin's henchmen
in their quest to silence all criticism of the Kremlin and
stamp out any perceived threat to Putin's authoritarian regime.
This resolution condemns the Kremlin's systematic targeting
of its political opponents and it calls on the administration
to implement Magnitsky Act sanctions on those responsible for
Nemtsov's murder and cover up.
It also requires the administration to deliver to Congress
a thorough report on Nemtsov's assassination. That is a
critical part of this legislation because, sadly, the
administration has not done nearly enough to give us much
reason to stand up to Russia and call out Putin's thuggery.
So it is up to Congress to assert American leadership on
this issue and Putin's strong arm tactics extend beyond the
authoritarian rule in his own country. We have seen this all
too clearly in Russia's malign actions with its neighbors,
which brings me to our next measure.
But before I do that, I want to just personally tell you I
have on my desk in my office a picture of me shaking hands with
Boris Nemtsov. It is shocking. When we moved offices I saw that
picture. I had forgotten about it.
He came and visited me and told me he was the opponent of
Putin and that he was for free, independent elections and for a
free Russia.
I was very, very impressed with him and thought, wow, this
man is really special. Unfortunately, Putin thought so too and
had him killed right in Moscow. But I remember him telling me
about how he felt how important his work was, and I told him
that I thought he was really working, not for just the people
in Russia, but for people all over the world.
So I want to just mention that because it was quite an
honor for me to meet Boris Nemtsov and, of course, just a few
months later he was murdered.
And so it is just startling.
The Crimea Annexation Nonrecognition Act puts that
conviction into law by stating that the United States will not
recognize Russia's claims of sovereignty in Ukraine.
Putin's disrespect for independent, sovereign democracies
is something we in the United States know all too well. By
advancing this legislation we send a clear message to our
Ukrainian partners and their neighbors. We stand with you. I
support this bill and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
And just as an aside, I have been a strong supporter of
Ukraine being admitted to NATO and I think we should pursue
that down the road.
It is critical that we support our partners and allies
whenever they are under threat and that brings me to our next
measure, H. Res. 75. I want to thank Mr. McCaul, Ms. Bass, and
Mr. Smith for joining me in this resolution that strongly
condemns the January 2019 attack by the terrorist group Al-
Shabaab in Nairobi, Kenya.
This horrific attack killed dozens of people, including
American citizen Jason Spindler. Just last week, we saw another
Al-Shabaab attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, claim the lives of
nearly 30 people.
So this resolution rightly affirms that the United States
supports our regional partners in their ongoing efforts to
counter terrorism and violent extremism in the Horn of Africa.
I hope all members will join me in supporting this measure.
Next, I would like to discuss the End Banking for Human
Traffickers Act introduced by Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr. Keating.
It is horrible that in 2019, we still live in a world where
human beings are held in slavery. It is a moral outrage.
So we need to be consistently evaluating our government's
efforts on this issue and looking for areas where we can
improve. This bill does just that by having the financial
industry play a bigger role in tracking down human traffickers.
By connecting the industry with experts on human
trafficking, banks and other financial institutions will be
better equipped to spot suspect financial transactions that may
be related to this heinous criminal enterprise.
This bill continues our fight against the scourge of human
trafficking, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting
it.
And finally, we turn to Ranking Member McCall's bill, the
Cyber Diplomacy Act. Last Congress, I worked with Chairman
Royce on this bill and we got it through this committee, the
House, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with broad
bipartisan support.
This Congress, Ranking Member McCaul has taken up that
mantle and I am pleased to join him as we work to get this bill
over the finish line and on the president's desk.
Cyberspace is an increasingly critical part of foreign
policy and we desperately need to update our government
agencies to reflect that reality.
America has significant interest in cybersecurity, the
digital economy, issues of internet freedom, and we need to be
engaging with the international community to articulate and
protect those interests.
If we do not focus on all of these areas, we run the real
risk of seeing authoritarian regimes like Russia and China
playing a bigger role in determining the way the international
community handles these issues.
So this bill would create a high-level Ambassador position
at the State Department dedicated to this endeavor and require
a comprehensive cyberspace strategy.
I am frustrated by the lack of progress on this issue at
the State Department, and I hope they will work with us to
ensure that this bill becomes law.
I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this
measure.
Thank you to all of our members for your hard work on these
good bills before us today. As I said before, I am pleased to
support them all.
And now, I recognize the ranking member, Mike McCaul of
Texas, for his opening remarks.
Mr. McCaul. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Today, our committee will markup three important bills and
two resolutions, the Cyber Diplomacy Act, which I introduced
with you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for working with me
on that. It takes several steps to support an open and secure
cyberspace. As chairman of Homeland Security, I elevated the
mission at the Department of Homeland Security and I intend to
do the same with you, sir, at the Department of State.
It establishes an ambassador at large to lead the State's
cyber diplomacy efforts, outlines an international cyber policy
to advance democratic principles and reject Russian and Chinese
attempts to control and censor the internet.
It requires the State Department to provide assessments
related to internet freedom, freedoms in other countries, and,
as you know, Mr. Chairman, malicious cyber activity by State
and non-State actors threatens our national security and harms
our economic interests.
We understand the State Department has plans for a new
cyber bureau, which varies a little bit from what our bill
calls for. I pledge to work with the State Department and you,
Mr. Chairman, and the Senate to find the best path forward to
advance our shared goals of bolstering and elevating State's
critical cyber mission.
I also want to thank Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr. Keating for
their bipartisan bill, the End Banking for Human Traffickers
Act, which will help address the scourge of human trafficking.
This bill will help choke off traffickers' access to
financial systems. It is time we put an end to this modern-day
form of slavery once and for all.
We are also marking up the Crimea Annexation Nonrecognition
Act. This bill clearly states that America will not recognize
Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
Doing so would condone Russia's belligerent behavior toward
its neighbors. Vladimir Putin needs to understand that we will
not tolerate this kind of aggression in Crimea or anywhere else
in the world.
And that is also why today's resolution condemning the
assassination of Boris Nemtsov is also important. We cannot be
silent when political opponents are targeted for supporting
democratic reforms.
I was proud to introduce this resolution with Chairman
Engel because Putin needs to know that both Democrats and
Republicans will call out and condemn his authoritarian ways.
And finally, we must continue to stand united in our fight
against Islamist terrorism. The terror attack in Nairobi,
Kenya, on January the 15th that killed 21 people including
Jason Spindler, a fellow Texan, was a painful reminder that our
fight against terrorism is a global struggle.
Our resolution condemns this attack and reaffirms our
commitment to eradicating this evil.
I look forward to passing these bills out of committee with
bipartisan support.
And, finally, Mr. Chairman, on the floor and in the halls
of Congress there has been much discussion recently about anti-
Semitism. I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue
and I look forward to continuing to work with you on measures
that support our close ally, Israel, and denounce anti-Semitism
wherever it may be.
And with that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman Engel. Thank you, Mr. McCaul.
Are there any other members seeking recognition?
Mr. Connolly. Mr. Chairman?
Chairman Engel. Yes, Mr. Connolly.
Mr. Connolly. I thank the chair and the ranking member. I
want to thank them both for putting together this bipartisan
package of five bills for our consideration today.
These measures condemn terrorist attacks, strengthen U.S.
diplomacy, condemn Russia's violations of human rights and
territorial sovereignty, and bolster U.S. efforts to reduce
global human trafficking, the scourge of our time.
In particular, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you and
the ranking member for including in this markup H.R. 596, the
Crimea Annexation Nonrecognition Act, which I introduced with
my good friend and Republican colleague, Representative Steve
Chabot.
This bill states that it is the policy of the United States
not to recognize the Russian Federation's claim of sovereignty
over Crimea, its airspace, or its territorial waters.
Furthermore, this bill prohibits the U.S. Government from
taking any action that implies recognition of Russian
sovereignty over Crimea.
It has been the longstanding policy of the United States to
not recognize territorial changes effected by force as dictated
by the long-ago Stimson Doctrine established in 1932 by then-
Secretary of State Henry Stimson.
The matter of rejecting the forcible and illegal attack on
sovereign territory is so important we should be satisfied with
nothing less than absolute clarity about our position, which is
one that supports Ukraine sovereignty over its own territory in
Crimea.
Failure to stand up, as Mr. McCaul just said, to Putin's
illegal annexation of Crimea sets a dangerous and irrevocable
precedent. Crimea was Russia's original violation in Ukraine
and we have limited credibility objecting to Russia's
subsequent invasion of the Luhansk and Donetsk if we do not
take a stand in Crimea.
Russian occupation of Crimea has inflicted great harm
within the Ukraine, throughout former Soviet occupied
territories, and beyond.
What has happened in Ukraine--Russia's forcible and illegal
annexation of Crimea, its invasion of Eastern Ukraine, and
continued occupation in Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, has
precipitated an international crisis and the resulting conflict
has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Russia has subjected Crimeans who refuse Russian
citizenship to discrimination in accessing education, health
care, and employment, and Russian authorities have attacked
travel rights and the free press.
Acquiesence on the part of the United States threatens the
security of all sovereign nations. Russia's forcible and
illegal annexation of Crimea has sent shock waves throughout
the former Soviet occupied territories, many of whom are now
NATO allies, including the Baltic States.
After the Welles Declaration in June 1940, the U.S. refused
to recognize the Soviet Union's de facto or de jure sovereignty
over the Baltics during the Soviet Union's 50 years of illegal
occupation.
The Baltic Republics eventually received their independence
and they are now reliable NATO allies, in part because of our
steadfastness.
We first introduced this bill in the wake of Russia's
forcible and illegal annexation in 2014. This committee
previously passed this legislation in the 113th Congress.
I inserted similar language into the Fiscal Year 2016
National Defense Authorization Act in order to prohibit the use
of defense funds in a manner that recognizes Russian
sovereignty over Crimea. That is to say that we did not.
That language has remained in the NDAA, I am grateful to
say, every year since. I have also successfully authored an
amendment to Stand For Ukraine Act, which would create only one
condition under which the president can relax Crimea-related
sanctions--the restoration of Ukraine sovereignty.
The United States must lead the way in refusing to
recognize or legitimize Russia's illegal and forcible
annexation in Crimea. That is why both Mr. Chabot and I are
glad to offer this bill, which expresses the will of Congress
as a loud and declarative voice for sovereignty and freedom and
I urge my colleagues to support it.
And, again, I thank the chair and ranking member for
including it in today's markup. I yield back.
Chairman Engel. Thank you very much, Mr. Connolly.
Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman, I strongly support your resolution, H. Res. 156,
calling for accountability and justice for the assassination of
Boris Nemtsov, a Russian patriot killed in 2015, a great
defender of democracy in his home country of Russia.
Last July, I had the privilege of leading the United States
delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Berlin and I
actually chaired the public event that you reference in your
resolution, the July 8th public event, and we featured Hanna
Nemtsova, Boris Nemtsov's daughter, who was absolutely
compelling and brave and full of courage.
Boris's friend and colleague, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who
serves as chairman of the board of trustees for the Boris
Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, and Vadim Prokhorov, who is a
lawyer for the Nemtsov family.
I believe that this resolution is a timely followup to that
OSCE effort because we have been calling on the administration
to do more and I think the fact that you articulate the concern
and the need, frankly, to do some better reporting and to hold
those responsible besides the five low-level individuals who
have been tried--who ordered the hit.
It was an assassination, and it seems to me that it is
time, frankly, to really impose Magnitsky sanctions on those
who are directly responsible for this. But we need that
information. We need our government to redouble down. So thank
you for that resolution.
Second, I do want to thank you for marking up H.R. 295, the
End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2019. This is
authored, of course, by my good friend and colleague, Mr.
Fitzpatrick.
This bill will help ensure that human traffickers find
trafficking even more unprofitable because they will be curbed
in their financial work that they do. They often use banks.
This helps to increase that net to catch these people.
We have been making strides, Mr. Chairman, in this
direction. For example, last Congress the Frederick Douglass
Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization
Act, which I authored along with my friend and colleague, Karen
Bass, the prime Democratic co-sponsor, was signed into law on
January 8th, and among its many provisions, it added the
secretary of the Treasury to the President's Inter-Agency Task
Force to monitor and combat trafficking in persons.
H.R. 295 calls on the task force to evaluate the anti-money
laundering efforts of the U.S. Government and U.S. financial
institutions to see if we are doing enough, and I do not think
we are, to recognize and act against financial movements to
signal red flags that human trafficking is occurring.
The task force will consult with trafficking survivors and
the financial industry representatives who have been pioneering
anti-trafficking efforts in their best practices.
So, again, I want to thank you for all of these bills. I
think they are all excellent pieces of legislation and I
especially want to thank Mr. Fitzpatrick for his leadership on
combatting the scourge of human trafficking.
Chairman Engel. Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Is there anyone else who seeks recognition?
Mr. Chabot. Mr. Chairman? Mr. Chairman?
Chairman Engel. Mr. Chabot.
Mr. Chabot. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Move to strike the
last word.
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this markup
today, and I want to thank you for this slate of five excellent
bipartisan bills.
First, Ukraine--I am honored to be the lead Republican co-
sponsor of H.R. 596, Mr. Connolly's Crimean Annexation
Nonrecognition Act, and I want to thank him for his hard work
on this important legislation.
We have been working together on this since the bully Putin
first acted on Crimea. I know a number of members of this
committee have done so and I think it is critical that we
continue to do so. So I want to thank Mr. Connolly for his hard
work on this.
Passage of this bill would cement firmly in place the
policy that the United States will not recognize Putin's bogus
claims over Crimea and will prohibit any part of our government
from taking any action that would imply our recognition of
Russian sovereignty over the peninsula.
It is vitally important that we support a democratic and
unified Ukraine by not giving in to Putin's thuggish behavior
and that behavior continues.
For example, in November, Russian vessels blockaded the
Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov, and illegally
seized Ukrainian naval vessels.
By these and other actions, Putin is seeking to strangle
Ukraine's trade and in all likelihood annex more of it. We
cannot let that happen. The world cannot stand by as it did
previously when Putin annexed Crimea.
Unfortunately, Putin's gangster ways are not confined to
his foreign policy. That is why we are considering H. Res. 156,
which I am also a co-sponsor of. This resolution calls for
justice for Boris Nemtsov, who, as was mentioned, was murdered
in cold blood near the Kremlin on February 25th of 2015.
For those who do not know, Mr. Nemtsov was a leading
opposition figure, outspoken Putin critic, and the former first
deputy prime minister of Russia and was in all likelihood--we
do not know for absolutely sure--but in all likelihood was
executed at the direction of Putin.
The Russian government must do a thorough investigation to
uncover the truth behind Mr. Nemtsov--that we should not let
this rest.
I also want to turn briefly to a couple of other bills we
have. The terrorist attack on Kenya earlier this year is yet
another example of the scourge of radical terrorism and we must
continue to fight against that every time it rears its ugly
head.
That is why I am a co-sponsor of H. Res. 75. And finally, I
want to thank Ranking Member McCaul for his leadership on the
critical issue of Cybersecurity.
As a co-sponsor of the Cyber Diplomacy Act, I think it is
necessary that we work with our like-minded allies to ensure
that the internet remains a place of robust debate and access
to uncensored information.
This legislation provides the State Department tools and
direction to help accomplish this important priority, and I
want to echo the words that our ranking member mentioned
before--Mr. McCaul.
I completely agree with him that there is absolutely no
place for anti-Semitism in this country, on this globe, or in
this committee. I have been on this committee for a long time--
23 years--and we have always been bipartisan on that issue. I
would hope that would continue.
Israel is a strong ally of the United States. The Jewish
people have been for a long time and will continue to be,
whether it is as a nation or whether as a people, and there is
absolutely no room for anti-Semitism.
And I think that we should work on that in a bipartisan
manner, and it always has been that way. I hope it will be in
the future. There is absolutely no place for anti-Semitism.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Engel. Thank you very much, Mr. Chabot.
Mr. Malinowski.
Mr. Malinowski. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chairman
Engel, Ranking Member McCaul.
I wanted to say a few words in particular about the
resolution regarding Boris Nemtsov and to explain the two small
amendments that I will be offering today.
First of all, thank you for introducing this resolution to
help us remember this very good man and to put the Putin regime
on notice that we are not going to forget what happened and who
is responsible.
If you read the resolution, you will see that one of the
central villains in this terrible story is Ramzan Kadyrov, the
strong man who rules and has ruled Chechnya with an iron hand
for many, many years.
Even the flawed Russian investigation of the murder of Mr.
Nemtsov determined that the murder was carried out by members
of an elite battalion loyal to Kadyrov.
Kadyrov publicly praised the gunmen. Previously, he had
publicly called for the death of Nemtsov. One of the chief
suspects is still living at large in Chechnya under Kadyrov's
protection.
Kadyrov has also, over the years, been credibly accused of
murdering human rights activists, journalists. He has ordered
his police forces to round up and torture gay men and women in
Chechnya. He has ordered the assassination of his critics
living in other countries, in Europe, and in the Middle East.
In 2017, the U.S. Government put Mr. Kadyrov on the Global
Magnitsky sanctions list, which means that his business
activities overseas involving any sort of transactions through
international banks should be blocked.
In reality, though, Mr. Kadyrov has repeatedly shown
himself outside of Russia, particularly in Persian Gulf
countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
His hobby is horse racing. He spends millions of dollars
purchasing race horses, winning races around the world, again,
particularly in the Middle East.
He is blocked in Europe. What my first amendment does is
simply to urge the administration to prioritize sanctions-
enforcement with respect to Ramzan Kadyrov, to investigate his
business activities and that of entities he may control outside
of the Russian federation and to determine whether any of them
might implicate the sanctions that we have imposed.
The second amendment ensures that the resolution includes
an additional key suspect in Mr. Nemtsov's murder, Adam
Delimkhanov, who is a notorious associate and relative of
Ramzan Kadyrov.
Delimkhanov is a member of the Russian State Duma where he
has abused his immunity to shield himself from accountability
for a range of human rights abuses.
He has been identified by multiple independent sources as
one of the organizers of Mr. Nemtsov's murder. So this
amendment would add his name to the list of suspects in two
clauses of the resolution's preamble.
I ask my colleagues to support both of these amendments.
Thank you very much.
Chairman Engel. Thank you, Mr. Malinowski.
Mr. Fitzpatrick.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman, Ranking Member, I really do appreciate your
considering of H.R. 295. As an FBI agent, one of the most
horrific crimes that we were called upon to investigate was
human trafficking, and human trafficking continues to devastate
millions of lives around the world.
And this criminal conduct may seem a distant problem but it
is far from it. It exists right in all of our back yards, in
every single congressional district in this country, in all of
our communities, and at times it is right in front of us and we
do not even know it exists.
My legislation, H.R. 295, the End Banking of Human
Traffickers Act, is one step we can take to end the suffering
caused by human trafficking.
Traffickers are not hiding their illegal profits under a
mattress or burying them in their back yard. They use our very
sophisticated global financial system to launder their illicit
funds through banks, credit card companies, and money transfer
companies, which are all used by traffickers to facilitate
their business and to perpetuate their exploitation of victims.
The scale of profits from this illicit trade is really
staggering. The International Labor Organization estimates that
over $150 billion in illegal profits are made from forced labor
each year, and $99 billion are earned through the exploitation
of victims of sexual exploitation, making human trafficking the
third most lucrative criminal enterprise on this planet.
The perpetrators of this exploitation play on the
defenseless in our society, including young children. Cutting
off their access to the banking system is a critical aspect
both from the investigative standpoint, and the legislative
standpoint and I am proud to push this bipartisan bill with my
friend and colleague, Congressman Keating, to continue working
to end this horror once and for all.
And I thank my colleagues both on and off this committee
for their support, many of whom have joined this effort. I also
want to thank Congressman Chris Smith from New Jersey, who has
made it one of his top priorities to advance this mission.
This legislation directs Federal banking regulators to work
with law enforcement and financial institutions to combat the
use of the financial system for human trafficking.
The bill further increases collaboration between law
enforcement and experts in financial crimes by adding financial
intelligence and regulatory officers to the President's Inter-
Agency Task Force to monitor and combat trafficking in persons
and requires the task force to develop recommendations for
Congress and regulators that would strengthen anti-money
laundering programs to better target human trafficking.
Moreover, this bill allows advocates of human trafficking
victims to serve as stakeholders and to provide feedback to the
U.S. Treasury and, additionally, clarifies that banks not
restrict trafficker victims' access to bank accounts.
I urge ever Member of Congress, especially those on this
committee, to support this legislation, which passed both the
committee and the House last Congress with broad bipartisan
support.
We must do everything possible to put an end to human
trafficking and this legislation is a very important step along
that path.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Engel. Thank you, Mr. Fitzpatrick.
Is there anyone else who seeks recognition?
OK. Hearing no further requests for recognition, then
without objection the committee will proceed to consider the
noticed items en bloc. A reporting quorum is present.
Without objection, the question occurs on the measures en
bloc as amended.
All those in favor, say aye.
All those opposed, no.
In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
The measures considered en bloc are agreed to and without
objection each measure in the en bloc is ordered favorably
reported as amended and each amendment to each bill shall be
reported as a single amendment in the nature of a substitute.
Without objection, staff is authorized to make any
technical and conforming changes and the chair is authorized to
seek House consideration under suspension of the rules.
This concludes----
Mr. McCaul. Mr. Chairman?
Chairman Engel. Yes, Mr. McCaul.
Mr. McCaul. Pursuant to House rules, I request that members
have the opportunity to submit views for any committee report
that may be produced on any of today's measures.
Chairman Engel. Obviously, there is no objection to that
and I thank Ranking Member McCaul and all of the committee
members for their contribution and assistance with today's
markup.
The committee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:37 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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