Date: 2007-12-04
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. women brought to Northern California from China with false promises of life in a faroff land. only to be trapped in prostitution. Mexican women forced to serve up to 50 men each day in dingy brothels in New York. African teenagers held in servitude as nannies in Washington. D.C.. American women and girls lured on to the streets with promises of love and glamour. only to be held in prostitution through coercive force. the issue of human trafficking is a moral tragedy. perpetrated against the most vulnerable of our fellow human beings. Whether it be the sexual exploitation of children or the forced labor of young men in the drug trade recently chronicled in the London Economist. it is a transnational stain which should evoke the singular emotion of revulsion. Human trafficking is tantamount to slavery. and therefore it is mostfitting that H.R. 3887 be entitled be entitled the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. for. as we know. William Wilberforce. was a leader among English abolitionists and played a crucial role in the passage of both the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slave Abolition Act of 1833. shortly before his death. The promise of freedom and the prohibition against involuntary servitude enshrined in the 13th amendment to our Constitution is a clear statement of the opprobrium which we hold for the notion that some human beings should be used as chattel for exploitation by others. In fact. our commitment to this first principle predates the Constitution. for it was Thomas Jefferson who penned those immortal words in the preamble of our Nations foundational statement of political philosophy that there are certain inalienable rights with which we are endowed as human beings by our Creator. and it is this source of ours rights which render them inviolable. This was affirmed by that other bookend of human freedom. the Gettysburg Address. where President Lincoln visualized the fulfillment of the Declaration with the admonition that "All men are created equal." or. as we would put it today. all human beings are created equal. Thus. Mr. Speaker. the specter of a modern version of slavery cuts against our national aspirations as people. The Wilberforce Act is thus an appropriate expression of our collective outrage over this more recent transgression of basic human rights. And although I might have crafted the response to some of the issues addressed in this legislation differently. we must not allow the perfect to overcome or be the enemy of the good. H.R. 3887 provides resources so that nongovernmental organizations. Federal and local law enforcement. and faithbased entities can work together towards a common aim of justice. The bill holds forth the promise of a new birth of freedom for those coerced into sexual slavery and child exploitation. Finally. I would be remiss were I to fail to add thatthe Wilberforce Act exemplifies what is possible when Members of this body are willing to cross the aisle in order to address reallife problems which compel a response from all of us. Mr. Speaker. I would ask for a unanimous vote in support of the Wilberforc Act.