House Judiciary Committee Chairman Conyers Celebrates Overwhelming Support of Anti-Slavery Legislation

December 04, 2007 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) spoke on the House floor in support of H.R. 3887, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization of 2007. Conyers was an original co-sponsor of the bill, which is expected to pass on the House floor this evening and seeks to provide new tools to combat modern day slavery. Last month, his committee held a hearing on the issue. A link to video of Conyers' floor speech is available here. The full text of his remarks is below:

There is no place in today’s America for slavery. H.R. 3887 is critically important as it gives life to the Thirteenth Amendment’s guarantee of freedom: whether on farms or sweatshops, in domestic service or forced prostitution.

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In hearings on this bill, powerful testimony from a young survivor inspired us to work together to bring this bill to the floor and stand together against modern slavery.

The bravery of that young woman in speaking on behalf of all victims of human trafficking is an example for everyone, a call to action that we meet our ongoing duty to deliver on the constitutional promise of freedom. The Thirteenth Amendment is as important and basic a civil right today as it was at the time of Emancipation. Its promise of freedom is a sacred trust, written in the suffering of all of those who have been held in bondage. As a country, we owe it to them to never stop fighting for freedom.

This bill honors William Wilberforce, the famous English anti-slavery legislator of the Nineteenth Century.

It will provide tough new enforcement tools to combat modern-day slavery, whether the exploitation is by unscrupulous labor recruiters, by diplomats who abuse their servants, or by brutal pimps.

I would like to take a minute to respond to concerns that an aspect of the bill will somehow “federalize” prostitution. This is not the case.

The sex slavery offense – renamed “aggravated sex trafficking” – still captures cases of coercion that implicate the Thirteenth Amendment.

And the new “sex trafficking” offense improves the Mann Act to allow prosecution of pimps who affect commerce but don’t actually cross state lines. This new tool should not diminish other anti-slavery efforts, or the fight against child exploitation. We expect it to be used consistently with the principles of federal prosecution that defer to local authority as appropriate.

This tracks the definitions in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and builds upon the good work of the Civil Rights Division and its anti-trafficking task forces around the country, which vigorously confront modern slavery in forced prostitution and forced labor alike. We expect those efforts to continue.

In the 1800s, escaped slaves such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth spoke out against chattel slavery. Their voices, and the voices and efforts of many others, led to a constitutional commitment that everyone in this country would be forevermore free from bondage. The young lady who testified before our Committee did not allow her suffering to silence her either. She became a voice for survivors of modern slavery around the world.

We owe it to her, and to the millions who continue under the oppression of modern-day slavery and involuntary servitude, to support this bill.

Source: House Judiciary Committee