Rep. Maloney Sponsors Human Trafficking Briefing: Eliminate the Demand for Purchased Sex

Washington, DC – U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY), along with Reps. Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-WA) & Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues, sponsored a bipartisan briefing last week on sex trafficking and eliminating the demand for purchased sex.

The June 21st briefing, entitled “Eliminate the Demand for Purchased Sex”, provided an opportunity to learn about the prevalence and impact of sex trafficking in the United States, and the development and execution of strategies, including demand-reduction, that are being employed to curb the illegal market for human trafficking.

“The statistics are shocking: more than 12 million adults and children are ensnared in forced labor around the world, and of those, 9.8 million are being exploited for labor or commercial sex. While many of us are familiar with sex trafficking through the news, we rarely hear about ways to address this horrifying crime. That’s why I thought it so important to have sponsored this critical briefing to focus on how to crack down on the demand for purchased sex,” said Congresswoman Maloney.

Speakers at the briefing included Ambassador Swanee Hunt, former US Ambassador to Austria and the Chair of the Hunt Alternatives Fund, which oversees Demand Abolition; Paul Almanza of the U.S. Department of Justice; Eliza Reock of Shared Hope International; Sergeant Dan Steele of the Denver, Colorado Police Department; and Traci Flowers-Ned, of Standing Against Global Exploitation, herself a survivor of sex trafficking.