Two bipartisan bills sponsored on Feb. 11 by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) would help protect America’s children from human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Rep. Buchanan introduced the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act, H.R. 1185, with cosponsor U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and led the Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots (CREEPER) Act 2.0, H.R. 1186, with bill cosponsor U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).
If enacted, H.R. 1185 would amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the implementation of curricula for training students, teachers, and school personnel to understand, recognize, prevent, and respond to signs of human trafficking and exploitation in children and youth, according to the Congressional Record bill summary.
“With Florida’s Suncoast Region receiving more trafficking reports than any other region in our state, we need to prioritize educating students and teachers about the horrors of this monstrous crime,” Rep. Buchanan said. “This is critical to help current victims and prevent future instances of trafficking.”
Specifically, H.R. 1185 would create a grant program within the Office of Trafficking in Persons under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide the training, and would authorize $75 million in funding for the grant program over a five-year period. Grants would be issued to nonprofit organizations that have shown expertise in creating and teaching human trafficking and exploitation prevention curricula, among other provisions.
Meanwhile, H.R. 1186 would amend title 18 of the U.S. Code to prohibit the importation or transportation of child sex dolls. H.R. 1186 is modeled in part after a Florida law and would add language from that law to also make it illegal to sell or possess the dolls, according to the lawmakers.
“It’s absolutely outrageous that we allow the sale and possession on these obscene products that are known to encourage pedophilia and the exploitation of children,” said Rep. Buchanan. “We need to enact a national ban on these sickening dolls to prevent further child abuse.”