senate foreign relations committee will come to order. i'm going to rehit the gavel since people are tied up in the back for a variety of reasons. want to call the meeting to order. i want to thank everybody for coming today and to those who are here and have traveled extensively to be here, i want to apologize on the front end for what's happening today. we have two votes at 10:30, which means that people will be streaming in and out of the meeting and, secondly, unfortunately, i understand there is a democratic caucus meeting called without talking to some of the chairmen, so in any event that doesn't take away from the importance of this. i just hope that people will bear with us. we're at a historic turning point in the global fight to end modern slavery today thanks to the incredible efforts of so many committed individuals two of whom with us today, several in the audience, and certainly many up here at the dais. faith, great based groups, aid organizations throughout the u.s. and people around the world have come together around this issue that we're highlighting today. this is the third year we held a hearing to highlight shine a light on slavery day. and the end it movement has been building for about ten years now, people around the world are very, very familiar now with this scourge on mankind. across the country, people have made personal statements about the need to end modern slavery, about wearing a red x like so many of us are doing today. and this year on february 23rd, during a senate recess, this day will take place. in marking end it day, we highlight the horrific nature of modern slavery. we also highlight progress that is being made as a u.s. prepares to embark on an unprecedented global effort to end this scourge on humanity. and we certainly have some pioneers today who have been very instrumental in laying the foundation for that. starting with the trafficking victims protection act, there has been a growing awareness and increasinglytrafficking work in the united states. this is important because as we begin to implement the authorization of the end modern slavery initiative to measurably and sustainably ramp up all of our efforts worldwide we can build on what occurred. i want to take this moment to thank the people on the committee that unanimously passed out several years ago this bill and continued to work to make sure after a two year process we actually passed the authorization. i think people understand appropriations are already in place. and now the real work begins. again, standing on the shoulders of our witnesses here today and so many others. along the way we had -- we have seen efforts to make a difference as i just mentioned. and our first witness today is mr. ashton kutcher, he's the co-founder of thorn, an organization that works with law enforcement to rescue trafficking victims by leveraging the very technology used to abuse and exploit them. we welcome him today. by the way, he flew all night, he's working right now, on a film, and so he caught a red eye in after having dinner with his wife, very smart man, on valentine's day, and he's leaving immediately after this. but i'll tell you, if you knew of what he and his organization has done, it is inspirational and the metrics that they're able to help us with, the way that they're able to interdict in advance now what is happening is phenomenal. and a true testament to entrepreneurialism and people taking a risk in this case towards a social good. i had a few moments with him, i'm even more thankful for him. and his commitment to this. and became interested just by seeing that it was occurring and felt he would do something about it. we also welcome our second witness, mrs. elisa massimino, president and chief executive officer of human rights first, which is engaged in the fight against modern slavery. thank you so much for what you've been doing and your testimony today. we're also happy to have with us today the founders of passion movement and the passion church, louie and shelly gigglio. they are the people that brought awareness to me. they're the people that have instilled the awareness in young people all across our country. they want to be a part of ending this. i thank them for their personal inspiration and the inspiration they are to so many people around the world every day. we also have jenny brown, the campaign director of the end it movement, who obviously for ten years has been making people aware. and in many ways this awareness is what has led us today. we also -- to today. we would like to welcome mr. tim estes, serendipitously, nothing to do with our involvement, he is ceo of digital reasoning, which is based in tennessee, and they're using intelligence to interdict and help with the tools that thorn is putting in place. i want to also thank ernie alan for being here as well. ernie founded the national center for missing and exploited children, one of our greatest leaders on this issue. people in this movement know him well. wasn't to welcome former u.s. representative susan molinari from google who has been involved in this even before being involved with google. with that, thank you, all, for being here. it is a great day for us. a lot of work ahead. i would like to introduce our outstanding ranking member ben cardin and my friend. >> mr. chairman, thank you for making this one of the first hearings for the senate foreign relations committee in this congress. it speaks to the priority that we believe that we must pay to modern day slavery trafficking. we are proud of the progress we have made in regards to dealing with this issue. it has been thanks to u.s. leadership, many of the people in this room, susan molinari, nice to see you again, we served together in the house of representatives. it is always a pleasure to have senator mccain on this committee. he served here for a while. i was a little suspicious when i saw him in the -- in the facilities. i thought he was coming over to take our office space as well as our jurisdiction for the armed services committee. had me a little concerned. always a pleasure. >> came to counsel you. >> your counsel is always welcomed. but senator mccain is one of our great international champions on human rights. and he's always very kind in the comments he makes about many of us, but we all have been mentored by senator mccain on his passion to stand up for what is right and to do that regardless of the political consequences when you stand up for human rights, you're standing up for what makes america the great nation that it is. senator mccain, great to have you here and thank you for your incredible leadership. mr. chairman, we have been talking about trafficking for a long time. and quite frankly it was the u.s. leadership, it was the congressional leadership that made this issue the priority of our nation and has made progress globally on trafficking. whether it is trafficking for sex, labor issues, so many areas in which we have seen people abused around the world, i want to thank you for your leadership. it is tough to get anything done in this body, but through your persistent leadership we have been able to leverage a small amount of federal funds with private sector dollars that will mack a difference globally on our fight against trafficking. and you stuck with it, you got it done, and thank you for doing that. i want to thank senator menendez for his leadership on this issue, one of the great champions on trafficking and standing up for the integrity of the trafficking and persons report, which in the last administration, a democratic administration, there was bipartisan criticism for the manner in which the obama administration, we believed, brought in factors that should not have been brought in to the rankings on the trafficking and persons report. i'm proud the work that has been done by the had helsinki commission. i had the opportunity to chair the helsinki commission. it was the helsinki commission that raised the issues on international forum, chris smith is our special representative, he's made a career priority of dealing with trafficking. mr. chairman, as you can see, there have been members on both sides of the aisle that recognize this indeed is modern day slavery. and we have a responsibility to root this out wherever we find it. and it cannot be compromised for other areas. this is something that in and of itself must be our highest priority. so we can celebrate the success that we had, but we know that too many are at risk. i visited victims centers and have seen the victims of trafficking. i've seen the victims of trafficking in europe, i've seen the victims of trafficking in asia. i've seen the victims of trafficking in the united states. and it is heart breaking. and we know that there are victims and we need to recognize them as victims i want to make one other comment if i might, and that is there are many reasons i was concerned about the president's executive order on immigration and refugees. but one of the reasons is the impact that it has on victims of trafficking. i'm not clear whether those who had tvs -- who are victims of trafficking could have come into this country under that ban. i know that many of the refugees from syria are potential victims or are victims of trafficking that we are -- that our refugee program has a major impact. we know that the ra hingia population of burma were subject to trafficking, many brought to the united states, put on hold as a result of the president's executive order. so i just urge us that as we look at our priorities for protecting those who are victims that we recognize that we in our zell to protect our nation on things like this executive order has an impact on protecting people from the scourge of trafficking and modern day slavery. and i would just urge us to make sure that when we say this is going to be our priority, that we are going to protect these victims that we look for every possible way in order to be able to accomplish these goals. as a chairman said originally, i apologize that the democratic members are going to have some conflicts, and some conflicts on floor votes, but must tell you, this is a very, very important hearing and one we thank our witnesses and we thank the interests that we have from the private sector to work with us to find ways that we can be more effective in stopping modern day slavery. >> thank you so much. and with that, we'll turn to my friend, and as has been mentioned, someone who has been fighting for the rights of people who don't have them all around the world, one of the crankiest members we have here in the united states senate. but we're glad that he has come to our hearing today and i want to thank you personally for your and cyndi's leadership on this issue. i want to thank you also for allowing the modern slavery initiative to be carried on the ndaa last year. thank you for hanging with us. but showing the leadership you have. i know you're going to make a few comments. we appreciate that. and we introduce you now. >> i thank you, mr. chairman. i will now translate the chairman's remarks in english. i want to -- in the interest of time, mr. chairman, i would like my statement to be made part of the record. and just say that the reason why i'm here is to thank you, thank senator cardin, thank senator menendez, especially, and all members of the committee for this bipartisan effort. if it had not been for yours and senator cardin's tenacity and dedication to this issue it would not have passed into law as part of the national defense authorization act. i want to thank you and thank all members of this committee for their effort and their highlighting this terrible, terrible issue that unfortunately thanks to a lot of things including social networking seems to be growing rather than lessening throughout the world. also want to thank elisa and ashton. ashton, you're better looking in the movies. anyway, i want to thank you very much and personal note, i'm proud of my home state of arizona for being a leader on the issue. applaud the work of my wife cindy who dedicated her time and effort on this. i want to thank thorn, especially, for their efforts and just finally, mr. chairman, this issue is so terrible and so heart wrenching and so compelling that a lot of times some of us would rather talk about more pleasant things. and so i thank you for everything that you and members of this committee, but especially you and ben have done in furthering this effort and some day it will -- it will pay off. and we will hear from our witnesses of the compelling stories that are so deeply moving and i can't think of a higher priority. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you for coming. we appreciate it. thank you. >> with that, and setting the stage for the fact that we have 27 million people around the world today that as we sit here in this hearing are living in slavery, 24% of those in sexual servitude, 76% are living, working and living in cages at night, working in fishing, working in brick kennels, working in rug manufacturing. we have two of the best witnesses we could possibly have and people who have committed their lives and resources to this. our first witness, mr. ashton kutcher, co-founder of the thorn digital defenders of children and, ashton, i want to say again, your story, for those people who are involved in venture capital and entrepreneurialism, be uplifting to see what you have done solely to help other people. i look forward to your testimony, our second witness today is elisa massimino, president and chief executive officer of human rights first, we thank you again for being here. if you would give your testimony in the order introduced, any written documents i have without objection will be entered into the record. again, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. it is an honor to be here. as a young man raised and brought up in the public school system, i pledge my allegiance to that flag every single day, and the honor, maybe one of the greatest honors of my life today is to be here and leverage the work that i've done as testimony that may in some way benefit this nation that i love. i would like to start by saying thank you to chairman corker for your leadership in this endeavor and senator cardin. your leadership has been extraordinary and i'd like to also say thank you to the rest of the committee that supported this effort, this is a bipartisan effort. and in a country that is riddled with bipartisan separation on so many things, slavery seems to come up as one of these issues that we can all agree upon and i applaud you for your agreement and i believe in you and your leadership and your ability to take us out of it. i'm here today to defend the right to pursue happiness. it is a simple notion, the right to pursue happiness. it is bestowed upon all of us by our constitution, every citizen of this country has the right to pursue it, and i believe that it is incumbent upon us as citizens of this nation, as americans, to bestow that right upon others, upon each other, and upon the rest of the world. but the right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away. it is raped. it is abused. it is taken by force, fraud or coercion. it is sold for the momentary happiness of another. this is about the time when i start talking about politics that the internet trolls tell me to stick to my day job. so i'd like to talk about my day job. my day job is as the chairman and the co-founder of thorn. we build software to fight human trafficking in the sexual exploitation of children. that's our core mission. my other day job is that of the father of with, 2-month-old and a 2-year-old. and it is part of that job that i take very seriously, i believe it is my effort to defend their right to pursue happiness and to ensure a society and government that defends it as well. as part of my anti-trafficking work, i've met victims in russia. i've met victims in india. i've met victims that have been trafficked from mexico. victims in new york, new jersey, all across our country. i've been on fbi raids where i've seen things that no person should ever see. i've seen video content of a child that is the same age as mine being raped by an american man that was a sex tourist in cambodia. and this child was so conditioned by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play. i've been on the other end of a phone call from my team, asking for my help because we had received a call from the department of homeland security telling us that a 7-year-old girl was being sexually abused and that content was being spread around the dark web. and she had been been abused and they watched her for three years and she could not find the perpetrator. asking us for help. we were the last line of defense. an actor and his foundation were the potential last line of defense. that's my day job. and i'm sticking to it. i'd like to tell you a story about a 15-year-old girl in oakland, we'll call her amy, amy met a man online, started talking to him, short while later, they met in person. within hours amy was abused, raped, and forced into trafficking. she was sold for sex. this is not an isolated incident. the only unusual thing is that amy was found and returned to her family within three days using the software that we created. a tool called spotlight. and in an effort to protect its capacity over time, i won't give much detail about what it does, but it is a tool that can be used by law enforcement to prioritize their case load. it is a neural net. it gets smarter over time. it gets better and gets more efficient as people use it. and it is working. in six months, with 25% of our users reporting, we have identified over 6,000 trafficking victims, 2,000 of which are minors. this tool is in the hands of 4,000 law enforcement officials and 900 agencies. and we're reducing the investigation time by 60%. this tool is effective. it is efficient. it is nimble. it is better. it is smarter. now, there is often a misconception about technology, that in some way it is the generator of some evil that it is creating job displacement and that it enables violence and malice acts, but as an entrepreneur and as a venture capitalist in the technology field, i see technology as simply a tool, a tool without will, the will is the user of that technology. and i think it is an important distinction. an airplane is a tool. it is a piece of technology. and under the right hands it is used for mass global transit and under the wrong hands flown into buildings. technology can be used to enable slavery but it can also be used to disable slavery. and that's what we're doing. i alluded to a phone call we got from the department of homeland security about this girl that was being trafficked on the dark web. and it is interesting to note that the dark web was created in the mid-90s, a tool created by the naval research lab called tour. a tool with absolute purpose and positive intention. for sharing intelligence communications anonymously. it is also used to help people who are being disenfranchised by their government within political dissent in oppressive regimes. on the other side, it is used for trafficking. for drug trafficking. for weapons trafficking and for human trafficking. and it is also the warehouse for some of the most offensive child abuse images in the world. now, when the department of homeland security called us, and asked for our help, and asked if we had a tool, i had to say no. and it devastated me. it haunted me. because for the next three months i had to go to sleep every night and think about that little girl that was still being abused. and the fact that if i built the right thing, we could save her. so that's what we did. and now if i get that phone call, greg, wherever you're at, the answer would be yes. we have taken these investigation times of dark web material from three years down to what we believe can be three weeks. the tools call ee eed solace, i being used by 40 agencies across the world today, in beta, and we believe that it is going to yield extraordinary results. and just like spotlight, it gets smarter and more efficient and more cost effective over time. so where do we go from here? what do we need? obviously we need money. we need financing in order to build these tools. technology is expensive to build, but the beauty of technology is once you build the warehouse, it gets more efficient and more cost effective over time. i might be able to present to you a government initiative where next year i come back and ask for less. and to me that's, like, seems extraordinary. the technology we're building is efficient. it works. it is nimble because traffickers change their modus operandi and we can change ours as well, just as efficiently if not more efficiently as they can. it is enduring. and it only get s smarter with time. we're also collecting data. we have kpis. we understand if we're delivering value, we increase our efforts in that area. if we're not delivering value, we shut it down. and it is a quantifiable solution. one of my mentors told me don't go after this issue if you can't come up with a quantifiable solution. we can quantify it and we can make the work that we're doing and the initiatives you put forth accountable. my second recommendation is to continue to foster these private public partnerships. a spotlight was only enabled by the mccain institution and the full support of cindy mccain and man i found to be not only a war hero, but a hero to this issue, john mccain. it wasn't just created by them. there is extraordinary support from the private sector. company digital reasoning out of tennessee stepped up to the plate, they offered us effort, they offered us engineers, they offered us support and probono work. we had the support of companies that oftentimes war with each other from google to microsoft to aws to facebook. and some of our other technology initiatives include many, many other private companies. it is vital to our success. these public private partnerships are the key. the third thing i would like to highlight is the pipeline. you know, we sit at the intersection of discovery of these victims but the pipeline in and the pipeline out are just as vital and just as important in addressing them are just as important. i would like to highlight one thing in particular, that being the foster care system. there are 500,000 kids in foster care today. i was astonished to find out that 70% of the inmates in the prison across this country touched the foster care system. and 80% of the people on death row were at some point in time exposed to the foster care system. 50% of these kids will not graduate high school and 95% of them will not get a college degree. but the most staggering statistingstatis statistic i found is foster care children are more likely to be exposed to sexual abuse. that's a breeding ground for trafficking. i promise you that's a breeding ground for trafficking. the reason i looked at foster care is that it is a microcosm, it is a sample set that we have pretty extraordinary data around it, even though we can't seem to fix it, it is a microcosm for what happens when displacement happens abroad, as the unintended consequences of our actions or inactions in the rest of the world. when people are left out, when they're neglected, when they're not supported, and when they're not given the love that they need to grow, it becomes an incubator for trafficking. and this refugee crisis, if you -- if we want to be serious about ending slavery, we cannot ignore it and cannot ignore our support for this issue in that space because otherwise we're going to deal with it for years to come. the outbound pipeline, there is just not enough beds. the bottom line is once someone is exposed to this level of abuse, it is a mental health issue. and there aren't enough beds, not enough support, and we have to have the resources on the other side, otherwise the recidivism rates are through the roof. it is astonishing because the hierarchy needs are not being met, people resort to survival. if this is their means of survival and the only source of love they have in their life, that's what they go for. so we have to address the pipeline out, and we have to create support systems on the other end. it is not an entitlement. it is a demand to end slavery. my fourth and final recommendation is the bifurcation of sex trafficking and labor trafficking. they're both awful. they're both slavery. and they're both punitive in fact. but the solution sets are highly differentiated. when you look at sex trafficking, a victim is most often present at the incident of commerce. and this provides an opportunity for drastic intervention. in labor trafficking, the victims are being hidden behind the manufacturers and the merchandisers, and it requires an entirely different set of legislation and proactivity and enforcement in order to shut it down. now, there is a lot of rhetoric that is going on in the world now about job creation in the united states. well if we want to create jobs in the united states, i would ask you to consider eliminating slavery from the pipelines of corporations. because a lot of that slavery is happening abroad. and if we ask those corporations under extreme pressure that if you don't change it, you are going to be penalized, and if you don't clean up that pipeline, it is going to mean trouble. and they're forced with two decisions, they can either clean up the pipeline abroad, or more the jobs that the united states of america or be regulated and supported. bringing jobs to america can be the consequence of doing the right thing, or it can be the consequence of doing the wrong thing. but that choice is up to you. now, it is not lost on me that all of this disruption in our marketplace is going to have economic backlash, like that is not lost on me at all. but i ask you, did you believe that abraham lincoln had to consider the economic backlash of shutting down the cotton fields in the south when he shut down slavery? because i'm sure that weighed on his mind. happiness can be given to no man. it must be earned. it must be earned through generosity, and through purpose. but the right to pursue it, the right to pursue it is every man's right. and i beg of you that if you give people the right to pursue it, what you may find in return is happiness for yourself. thank you. >> thank you so much. thank you. elisa. >> thank you, chairman. wow, i'm just digesting all of that incredible passion and intelligence and purpose from you. and feeling regretful i have to follow it. but thank you, also, ashton, for your -- for turning your talent, your profile, your smarts to this important issue. thanks to this committee and particularly thank you to you, mr. chairman, for your outstanding leadership on this issue. we are so grateful for your efforts to promote a stronger american leadership in this fight. slavery is a devastating assault on human dignity, perpetrators prey on the most vulnerable among us, refugees, children, the poor. it is a pressing global problem that affects and implicates the united states. it involves multinational supply chains, criminal enterprises, and the very terrorists and extremists that our nation has vowed to combat. it tests our country's willingness to uphold fundamental rights at home, and to challenge other governments to do the same. our country both a source and destination country for trafficking victims. traffickers earn an estimated $150 billion annually in elicit profits. while ngos like ours and governments worldwide spend only about $124 million each year to combat it. that is simply not a fair fight. meanwhile, american workers are forced to compete against free labor as companies take advantage of the global failure to enforce anti-slavery laws. increasingly, organized crime rings and international terrorist organizations, traffic in human beings to accumulate wealth and power. and when refugees fleeing violence in syria, iraq and other regions plagued by terrorism and political instability don't have pathways to safety, they become easy marks for extremists to exploit. congress and the administration ought to deepen their commitment to combatting slavery not only because of the moral and economic implications, but also because of the national security risks posed by corruption, terrorism, and organized crime. at human rights first, our mission, we believe that standing up for the rights of all people is not only a moral obligation, but a vital national interest and that our country is strongest when our policies and actions match our ideals. for nearly 40 years we have worked to ensure that the united states acts as a beacon on human rights in a world that sorely needs american leadership. american efforts to end modern slavery are critical not only to prevent human trafficking here at home, but also to ensure our country sets an example for others. that's why we need to work harder to eliminate slave labor from the supply chanz of american companies and to empower federal law enforcement agencies which have deep ex-per tease and prosecuting cross border organized crime to focus greater attention on ending impunity for traffickers and their enablers. right now, slavery is a low risk enterprise for the bad guys. according to the state department's most recent trafficking and persons report, there were just over 6600 trafficking convictions globally in 2015. and only 297 of those were here in the united states. now, that might sound like a lot, but when you consider there are nearly 21 million people enslaved around the world today, that's a small number. we have to do better. united states made important progress in the fight against modern slavery and this committee has really been a key driver of that progress. the bipartisan cooperation and concern that has been demonstrated by this committee is a model for the future of our country. today, human rights first is releasing a new congressional blueprint for action to dismantle the business of modern slavery in which we detail additional measures that we should take. we have to tackle it using a range of strategies. in my written testimony i detail our recommendations and they include using the funds authorized by the end modern slaefry act, combat trafficking globally and attract new resources from other governments and private donors, bolstering the act to ensure that law enforcement and prosecutors have adequate resources to hold traffickers accountable and intensifying enforcement of the tariff act ban on importation of goods made with slave labor, fully lefrnli inleveraging the the u.s. government, contracting to make sure we're not purchasing goods and services made with slave labor. each of those measures is critically important. but we also have to pay attention to prevention. traffickers are ruthless and opportunistic. they are drawn like sharks to those in distress. and it is hard to imagine people in more distress today than refugees. in fact, with the possible exception of vladimir putin, no ebb benefits more from the refugee crisis than those in the business of modern slavery. the truth is we simply cannot combat slavery without intending to those most vulnerable to it. and today more than ever that means helping refugees. it is a state department explained in last year's tip report, refugees are prime targets for traffickers and refugee camps are ideal locations for them to operate. the majority of the world's refugees are women and children. and the u.n. special -- on trafficking reports that since 2011, thousands of them, thousands have disappeared. presumably abducted for purposes of trafficking related exploitation. the u.n. raptory also concluded one of the causes is restrictive and exclusionary immigration policies. according to the u.n. high commissioner for refugees, 10% of the world's refugee population is in urgent need of resettlement. at last, 1% were moved to places of safety. in light of this crisis, the recent executive order blocking the resettlement of syrian refugees and reducing refugee admissions and halting the entire refugee resettlement program for the foreseeable future is particularly cruel. turning our backs on the people most vulnerable to slavery, the very people this committee has worked so hard to help, not only breaks faith with our most cherished ideals, but it is a gift to those who profit from human misery. as a nation that once pledged to stand firm for the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity, i think it is unconscionable. it is not who we are. it is not what we stand for. time and again national security leaders from republican and democratic administrations have testified that protecting refugees does not put americans at risk. on the contrary, accepting syrian and other refugees makes us safer by helping them, the u.s. safeguards this stability of our ail tliz allies, counter warped vision of extremists that we are at somehow at war with islam. 32 of our nation's most prominent national security leaders, retired flag officers, former government officials, including the former secretary of homeland security, michael chertoff, former national security adviser steve hadley, and former director of the national counterterrorism center said in this statement and i quote, despite america's role as the global leader in resettling refugees, many voices call for closed doors rather than open arms. to give into such impulses would represent a mistake of historic proportions. the so-called extreme vetting that is sought by the administration is already happening. it takes place over many months, involves multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies and the blanket ban that has been proposed would not -- our nation's national security officials already knew that, but it would block people forced to flee because of persecution and violence inflicted by repressive regimes and terrorist groups. it will block people that are vulnerable to the parasitic criminals and violent extremists who profit from the global slave trade. mr. chairman, and members of the committee, i know how deeply you care about ending this scourge of modern slavery and i urge you to allow your compassion for its victims to inform your position on refugees. anyone who seeks to deprive traffickers of their ability to prey on vulnerable people cannot in good conscience slam the door on refugees. we're counting on you to fight any executive action that would sacrifice more innocent women and children to the global slave trade. and particular i urge you to support senator feinstein's bill that would rescind the executive order. in the midst of the biggest crisis, refugee crisis since world war ii, the world is really watching what we do. if we want our country to be a global leader in the fight against modern slavery, we can't turn our backs on the very people most likely to become its victims. thank you. >> thank you. ashton, that was -- i was going to ask you a different question, but after hearing your opening comments, i'm going to reframe it. i think you shared how you became involved in this and your compassion and passion for ending it. and we thank you for that. we have embarked on a program now that is a public private partnership of major proportion. it is where the u.s. would lead. we would get other governments to help on a two to one basis. and the private sector to help on a three to one basis to put in place an effort that would have metrics and an effort where we would be able to measure results, measure the problem, measure results, and i just wonder based on the experiences that you had, in the private sector, establishing metrics and models to end this scourge on mankind, what kind of advice would you give us as we set up this international effort that is based here, but led by the united states. >> i think my first piece of advice would be to lead with compassion as you approach these private sector companies. these companies have customers and they care about their customers and they want their customers to know that they're doing the right thing. and i think great companies have a conscience that promote them to do the right thing. the second thing you bankly said it in your question to some degree, you have to be able to measure results. and i oftentimes believe that if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it, and if you can't improve it, you're working blindly. and -- but also what i would encourage is to ensure that whatever buckets of capital are being deployed, to actually do them, to deploy that capital in a way where there isn't a risk aversion in shooting for the fences, if -- what it is you're trying to apply to the issue doesn't have a potential 10 x outcome, but also the same potential to fail, you may not get the results that you want. and as i work with entrepreneurs across the can country, the extraordinary thing about the entrepreneurs i work with in silicon valley is that they're not afraid to fail. it is unbelievable. as a kid from iowa, thought to be responsible about everything and make sure every dollar -- they just go for it, like full blown. and so if you deploy the capital in a way that allows people the opportunity to fail, but also massively succeed, you may find that you have much greater outcomes than what you do by making the safe choices with the deployment of the capital, in large chunks into, you know, some -- obviously that's, you know, the good -- oftentimes the greatest idea comes when those people aren't afraid to fail. giving them permission to shoot for the fences is an important piece of the puzzle. >> i'll turn to senator menendez. these people cropping ba ingaree have a vote under way. we'll try to do both at one time. senator menendez, you want to go and come back? >> i think there is only two minutes left in the vote. so i do intend to come back. even though -- >> okay. so here's what we're going to do and this is strange, but we're going to recess for a moment until the next person comes back. and we'll resume. and i apologize for this. but i'm sure lots of people would like to have the photo -- >> i prefer not to talk to no one. >> we'll be back. >> though i do it quite often. >> we're in recess until someone returns, thank you. the senate foreign relations committee, they're taking a break here and their hearing looking at human trafficking and modern slavery, hearing from actor ashton kutcher who founded his own tech firm aimed at fighting child sexual exploitation, the name of the firm is called thorn. you may have heard senator corker, the chairman of the committee mention votes on the senate floor. that's why back and forth sort of spotty attendance from senators, the votes on the senate floor and a measure that has passed the house already. this one deals with background checks, background checks for the mentally ill passed in the house a week ago or so. that vote is under way. there is also a senate democratic caucus meeting going on capitol hill. we expect this hearing to resume and we'll have live coverage for you here on c-span3 when it does. later on today, here on c-span3, the homeland security and governmental affairs committee holding a hearing on government operations that may be susceptible to waste, fraud and mismanagement. that's live at 2:45. well, i wanted to thank our witnesses very much as you areal well aware, we have votes going on right now, but with the chairman's guidance we shall continue here at a respect for your time. we will begin with my own questions as other members roll many in, we le entertain those, but mr. kutcher and ms. massimino, thank you for your leadership. this is an important issue, and we are shining a spotlight on it. and we are grateful for your efforts. do you both agree as you work on the issue that the state department's annual trafficking and perp's report is a valuable resource in your efforts of fighting human traffic ing king the scourge? >> yes, absolutely. >> you can't solve a problem if you don't know how big it s. >> and presumably, we want it to be as accurate and come pr comprehensible as possible? >> correct. >> right. >> and that is what you call a leading answer, but tomorrow, i will be heading a international agency of accountability act of 2017, and the legislation will be needed to provide this committee greater transparency regarding the more than 180 general accountability office recommendations for the department of state, and usaid that have not been fully implemented and among the recommendations are two or three recommendations pertain ing ing the very area about which you and so many others are pa passionate. the legislation will enable congress and this committee to conduct even more effective oversight, and something that we can improve upon, and it is going to require state and usaid a time line of implementation of these anti-trafficking proposaling as well as other proposal, and it would ensure that any nx go recommendation that is not implemented that we are serp as to why that is given the rational for that. and now, give n the large numbe of open recommendations, it would be my hope that most is implement and that we can get the bipartisan support for this effort. so, i am inviting the members of both sides of the aisle to work with me on this ledgislation. we will bep dropping it tomorrow. i'd like to ask both of the witnesses about, about the growing impact of sexual exploitation, forced labor and what we generally call modern slavery here in our own country. some of my thinking on this issue is informed by good work that has been done in my own state the of indiana. with the leadership of the indiana attorney general, our former u.s. attorney, and now so many other stakeholders in our state, we have put pogt a report in our state, and the 2016 indiana state report on human traffickinging. typically we ask for unanimous consent to enter this into the record, and i consent to having it into the record and i think that this is going to be instructive to further your efforts and those of others working on the issue. this is the product, and this report and the related initiatives in my own state of indiana, and the product of a public/private partnership to address the unique challenges that our state, and others are facing. the are report indicate s ts th the coalition of service providers served 178 trafficked youth in 2016 al alone. 178 people in my home state of indiana. of those youth under age 21 served by indiana providers statewide in 2016, nearly all were girls. 94%. as a father of three young girls, i feel particularly passionate about the need to address this. i note that this is something that afflicts both genders as well. the report found that nearly 30% of those impacted are 15 or younger, and more than 10% are between the ages of 12 and 14. all of my children are younger than that. in indiana some victims with were as young as 7. these statistics are heartbreaking and speak to the challenges nationally and internationally. if you could each speak to whether the are trend lines in the state of indiana are reflective of your findings across the country. >> with respect to -- >> the ages, the gender. >> and so, most studies have found that the average age of entry into the sexual trafficking is 10 years old. most of the numbers in your state are accurate, and relative to the legislation that you were alluding to earlier, i would like to ask then what? so we measure it. we know it is a problem. but then what? and what are the consequences if the reporting isn't there? and what is the consequences if they don't use the tools or the tools are not being used? i am curious about that relative to the legislation? >> i'd be happy to indulge that question. and working with the chairman and the ranking member and both people on both sides of the isle, i think th-- both sides o aisle we should make every effort that the state department has a specific, concrete plan of action, and comprehensive in nature that would arrest this problem internationally, since that is the focus of the state department, and we also need to have a domestic range of solutions to this, and then we need to resource. we need to resource our action plans at the state level, and the federal level, and i nknow t is a point of emphasis in your own testimony. here on this committee, perhaps the first step is to see that members on both sides of the aisle continue to work to push a authorizing bill, and something that the chairman has shown some leadership on recently, and to the extent that we can include human trafficking and moving forward on that is the part answer to your question. and ms. massimino, do you have additional thoughts of the trend lines in indiana and the country? >> they are reflective to what we see. and i also want to say that i think that it is very important the state focus level on trafficking. this is a big global problem and complex, and lots of ways to tackle it. but it is really quite important -- that sounds extraordinary leadership -- leadership to be tackling these issues that close to home, and one of things that you will hear from both of us is the importance of, you know, reporting is for the purpose to measure progress and to get data so that you know what strategies are working. and one of the things that human rights first has been focused on is to make sure that the state and the federal law enforcement have the resources they have to go up higher in the food chain, if you will of the criminal enterprises that are exploiting people. both on the labor andis ex trafficking. labor trafficking cases are a much smaller percentage of the overall prosecutions that happen, but there are greater percentage of the victims in the labor traffickinging area. they are much more complex and expensive cases to bring, but they are really important. i think that congress should pay particular attention to making sure that these human trafficking prosecution units are well funded, and they can work in coalition at the state and local and federal level law enforcement to integrate the solutions to those problems. you also mentioned the public/private partnership piece. >> i did, and that is my next question, so thank you for anticipating it so i don't have to cut into chairman's time now that he has re-entered the room, and maybe you can speak to the importance of that. and i know that mr. kutcher, you had mention ed it. my path is the indiana reer port on human trafficking and the entity it created to fight this scourge in our state. it is a not-for-profit ini initiative and over 75 organizations statewide focused on collectively addressing this issue, and perhaps you could speak to the importance of these public/private partnerships in addressing modern slavery, each of you. thank you. >> sure. just to touch on the point that elise is making, and i think that another thing that should not be lost is the focus on the demand prosecution. these are victims. these victims are 10, 11, 12 years old and that is not a criminal, but that is a victim of the crime. if we are not prosecuting the cri crime, that is statutory rape, and it should be treated as statutory rape and prosecuted as rap rape. >> i would like to hear your thoughts of what we should do to further prosecute? >> and i feel that the safe harbor provisions that are here in congress that would treat victims like victims are very, very important. the public/private partnership aspect of this is absolutely key. there is a lot that the government could do and should be doing that all governments globally should be doing, and collaborating together on this. and as ashton pointed out the supply chain issue, the pipeline into slavery, we have to be looking at that. and so, i would say that the public, and there should be three pieces in the public/private partnership, and it should also be the private s sector companies. and the american companies in particular. when i talk about the american leadership on this issue, i don't mean just the american government, but all of uts. and so in many places in the world, american companies are the american brand, so making sure that we enlist those companies, especially now that you have all passed legislation that the amends the tariff act which for decades allowed for this importation of child made and slave made labor through the consumptive demand loophole in existence and you have closed that loophole down, and that is a potentially transformational thing in the world of human trafficking. now we have to make sure that it is enforced, that the department of homeland security enforces it, and that the companies understand what they need to do. and most companies don't want anything to do with the slavery, but many of them don't understand what they need to do to look at their supply chains and make sure that there is no forced labor in there and no child layer bor. we have to come ogt to talk about that, and one of the things that you all could do, a report was due to you from are the department of homeland security, and back in august on how they are implementing this very important new provision that you passed. and it has not been submitted yet. so i would urge you to ask for that, and we would love to come in to talk with you about it. >> thank you. thanks for the ideas and again for the kounle sell on this, and we will continue to stay vigilant, even when the klieg lights are off and that is what is important for the oversight rule, and thank you for this opportunity. mr. chairman. >> thank you very much for coming back and filling in that way, i very much appreciate it. i have had two, two experiences i guess that had a big impact on me. one was hearing the statement of a someone in the audience louie iglio saying, if not you, who? i think we all know what that mean, and we who together hear that message, we need to be the people who ourselves in this. and the other was an experience of a group of about 20 young ladies in in the philippines going to the police department there, and seeing what a u.s. private entity was doing to teach them about prosecution. seeing how this is a crime of opportunity. some people think it is largely the mafia, and they have definitely been involved, but it is really as you know a lot of small businesspeople who are taking advantage and they have dominion over people,ed and they use it to make money, and part of it, part of the efforts, and we need to measure it, and end it, and that needs to with be the focus, and part of the effort also has to do with what we do with victims after they have been victimized. one of the efforts that to me was so impressive was seeing how these younger ladies who are 13, 15, and in the rural part of the philippines, and maybe a gentleman came by and said, hey, how would you like to go to manila for the day, and they found themselves in malaysia in a brothel for seven or eight years and or in a place they cannot with get out of. they need a place to go. they need a place to be protected fromle people who otherwise would kill them for testifying against them.e peopl otherwise would kill them for testifying against the people w otherwise would kill them for testifying against them. they need a way to come back in intot society. can you speak to personal experiences there, and what we need to do as a nation working with others to address that component, also? >> sure. this is the pipeline out. there are four or five organizations domestically that i think that they are doing extraordinary work. there is an organization called my life, my choice, journey out, the rebecca bender initiative, and jim. -- gems. i have had some time to spend time with the organization gems, and assess the effectiveness of it. they do extraordinary work and recognize them as victims and do the best to rehabilitate them. one of the things that we can definitely do is to look across the sector of ngos and pind the ones that are the most effective, and then try to assess what the best practice is of each one of those individual organizations are, and then replicate that and grow it. you know. as you said, as i said, i think that it has to be accountability in the spending relative to this, but there are simple low-hanging opportunities within the organization that i think that the private sector can come in and be drastically supportive, and the administration roles within the organizations are being done a lot of times within these kinds of books, and i think that there is some enterprise software that they could be quickly given away for free by many companies and create massive inefficiencies in the organization, and at the end of the day, you have to have a place to keep these people. you know, i was in russia, and the girls that were getting let out of the orphanages all get let out at the same age, and the traffickers were circling the orphanages waiting for the girls to hit that prime age where they could use them. so if people don't have a place to go, and if they don't have an environment of love and support, and then the expertise to help them with the mental health support they need from the abuse they have endured -- i think that we need to look at that mental health issue and not only the live ri issue, but the mental health to make sure that the finances and resources are going into that arena as such. >> this is a problem e glglobals well. it sis similar in that we have worked closely with many yazidi women, and we gave our human rights award to a yazidi couple who have been helping those yazidi women who have been held in sexual abduction and held by isis and they are so traumatized and now barred to come here under that order, but they have said, if you can't save us from this, bomb us, because we can't survive this. one of the things that the united states could be doing there, they need mental health services desperately, and even if they can'tt come here to get them, and there is more that we could be doing to fund organizations that can provide those services to women who have suffered unspeakable horror and many of them are children. >> thank you. senator menendez is back. he was the lead other sponsor of this legislation, and been my friend and certainly an advocate for victims and human rights. so i thank you, and i look forwardhearing your question kws. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to submit not only t the questions, but the blueprint for human rights in trafficking. i was speaking to senator youk yesterday abo -- senator young yesterday about the difference of the house and the senate where we both serve, and the fundamental difference is that one senator committed to an ideal and willing to fight for it can create change. you did that in the conthe text of human trafficking, and made it a singular issue. you were focused on it like a laser beam. i am glad to have worked with you on it, but clearly, you deserve the credit, and it is the embodiment of what you can do in the senate when you choose to do so. so i want to salute you on that. i have listened to both of the testimony with great interest, and we are having a major caucus on russia, but this is important. and so i have questions for both of you, and i hope that the chairman will be generous with the time. >> take as much as you wish. >> i won't do that, but i do have a couple of questions. ms. massimino, there have been questions on the justice committee, and civil society for the integrity of the human trafficking report. to me, that report is the gold standard, and i want to show why it is so important, and mr. kutcher said that the reports are important but what do we do with them, and he is right. but the reports begin a template for how we judge the countries in the world. the amendment that i got into law which now denies a country who is in tier 3 of trafficking any preferential access to the united states in terms of any trade agreement is incredibly important, and a powerful tool, but of course, we need the right type of reporting to ensure that those who are in that category are not a arbitrarily and capriciously removed from that category until they have tone the things necessary to be removed from it which is good for the victims of trafficking in their countries, because it means that they will have improved their standards. i introduce d the legislation, bipartisan legislation with senator rubio, and senator cain and senator gardner to make the sweeping reforms to restore the sb integrity of the trafficking and persons ranking process. i believe there is bipartisan consensus that before the ranking process a priority that we should address earlier this the congress. can you speak to number one, your organization's rea actions to the 2015/'16 t.i.p. report, and what damage if any do you believe that created and to the importance of the integrity of the t.i.p. are report as a foundational issue for us globally to be challenging the countries around the world to do what we believe they should be doing to end modern day slavery. >> thank you for your leadership on that legislation, and the t.i.p. are report. human rights first has focused a lot of attention for many years on the reports coming out of the state department that have been mandated by congress, and why it is important for those reports to be basically not colored by political considerations, and for many years the state department country reports annually, and we did a critique of those the because we felt too much political influence going across the administrations from the different parties, and there was too much political influence and other concerns going into the kind of the shading the facts in those reports. so we have been vigilant about, and i think that we stopped doing that critique because we felt that the state department reports had been improved significantly and much more objective. the point of the report is to provide a baseline for policy. they are not policy, but they are to provide a baseline por policy, and that is why it is so important that the reports like the state department's report, and the t.i.p. report have just facts and integrity. so we were concern canned as many were that there appeared to be movements of some countries up on the scale without any demonstration or transparency of what the reasons were for that. the t.i.p. report is an important rule for the diplomats and others to use. we have instances where the countries have been pressured to improve the performance as a result of the ranking process. so, it is really important to have transparency about how those rankings are made, and to make sure that kcountries don't get a free pas just because we have other business to deal with. >> that is the concern. this is either as important as this committee has dictated in a bipartisan way which means that you cannot subvert its importance because it has economic reasons with with the country, and maybe to some degree some security reasons for the county, because when you do that, you are going to undermine the essence of the importance and the sbeg integrity of tryin end human slavery. in that regard, my legislation requires t.i.p. rankings to be concrete transactions of the country and the reporting period, and the state department must specify how the actions or the lack thereof justify the ranking. a major gao report highlighted this. would you support those changes? >> yes, i would. >> and mr. kutcher, extraordinary work, and i heard it before i had to go vote your answer to the chairman about having the freedom to go big and take a risk to develop a technology that might with be the next cutting edge on how we further help law enforcement and other entities both capture the reclaimed those lives that have been lost to human trafficking and capture those who have been the trafficker themselves, and prevent the efforts of trafficking, and how is it that if you are going to -- i sit on another committee here, the finance committee which deals with the tax, trade and incentives, and if there were a way to incentivize that effort by you and others similarly situated, is there a specific way beyond you going big? are there tax incentives? are there, and i think about already the systems that you have, and i think about the other country, and one of the e requirements that we should have is that the can countries should use the best available technology at the time, and something that we don't have a requirement to, and in the estimation of whether they are move ing moving in the right direction in human traffickinging. can you help me out with that and take what you have done to create a greater opportunity for the deployment? >> yeah. i -- i think that -- at the core, the reason that most of the partner, and the private company partners in the space are technology companies, because they are nachle rally incentivized to naturally do something about this. so for the most part, there's a cda 230 that these companies want to perform and have their tool used in the right way and they don't want to have their tool regulated, because then it can potentially stop the tool to with be used for the good. so i support that. it is the user that is the malicious actor, but in order for the companies to maintain the stance, it is my belief they have to support efforts in technology to actually grow tools that fight against these types of atrocities that are happening on their platforms. so therefore we have had extraordinarily willing participants in that effort. and we have launched a best prak is -- best practices template, because it will affect the performance of the company in the long term. so having the companies aware of the best practices guide, and there is a largeer issue relative to what we call modern slavery. i think it is the nomenclature of modern slavery, and it is just slavery. we are doing a disservice to people who were slaves in this country for so long and the oppression they felt in the years following by not calling it what it is. and if we just call it slavery from the nomenclature perspective and acknowledge the fact that just because the person is of a different nationality or sold for sex m e makes it something different so that we can pat ourselves on the back, and say we have abolished this and done all we can, that will have a giant impact, because it motivates people emotionally to actually build things. on the other side, i believe that the tools are best built in the private sector and the reason i think that they are best built in the private s sector, because we are willing to take the risks and create that accountability. now, when we get to the level where it is becoming a fundamental institution to solving the problem, and we have 4,000 law enforcement officials, and 900 agencies using the tool, and now we have shown the effectiveness, and that it can with be measured an improved and at that point in time, it is incumbent upon the public sector to step up. we give our tools away for free. it is 100% free, and i look at it like facebook, grow, grow, grow, and then we turn on the revenue model to allow a sustainability, and so it can be maintained in the private sector, and we need that tool to be leveraged domestically, and internationally to behoove et . everyon everyone. >> and thank you. finally, ms. massimino, i saw the provision in the bill that senator rubio and others have introduced requires the multi lateral banks to conduct a human trafficking test as a condition of u.s. support. it is my thought that these can drive a wide variety of stakeholders from local commu communities and law enforcement and others to make sure that the en banc projects were to combat human trafficking wherever humanly possible. i hope that as part of that, organizations of yours would be called on by the multi lateral ba banks, but it seems to me that we have done a few things here that are important, but we have a lot more tools at our disposition that we can use. and in the mull thety lateral development banks with the t.i.p. report, and incentivizing the technology, and allowing it to be free in terms of suggesting it to go big thinking about the privacim elements and so that we ultimately don't constrain it in a way that is necessary, and looking at the country tris, and looking at the the ways this in which you will test to be move manage the right direction to be employed and the latest technology s ies to be u and is so i appreciate what we have gleamed from both of the testimony, and look forward to working with you. a comment? >> yes, i want to underscore that i think that, you know, this provision that you have talked about with the requiring an assessment of implementation of anti-trafficking with the development banks is just part of this what we have been talking about how you take the data to use it to leverage change. i completely agree with you, senator, we have a lot of tools that are not being fully used, and to tackle this big problem, and you know, a lot of what you all have done here has, you know, it has moved the ball forward between the federal acquisition, taand the statute seeking to implement that, and making sure that the change thos the tariff act get implemented and there is a lot that this body can do to take those tools and make sure they are fully exploited for the good. that take s a lot of attention, and sometimes money. if we can pull it together, that is the way to make a dent in this problem. >> thank you. i see my time has -- he helped me to write the bill, and i appreciate your soup poupport. >> and thank you. the chairman had to go vote, and this is one of the points that i have always made about human right rights, the balance of the geopolitical relations and the information of potential allies that is embarrassing. and i think that you would concur that the trafficking report is just a piece of paper that the government publishes, but it is impactful, because we want to shame those who are less than cooperative, and including the people here at home, and those abroad. so i i want to reiterate how critical it is that this report be free from the political interference, and to be blunt, the notion that somebody could come into the state department to say that, look, i don't want to change the tiering of the country, because we have a good thing going with them on some other foreign policy issue, and we don't want to offend them, and that occurred in the last report, and so we don't want ta that to happen again. i believe that every advocate believes that out there as well, that these issues, especially as we a nation are being honest with our own problems internally with that regard. the first thing they want to talk about, mr. kutcher, and the t.h.o.r.n. program, but people are using the internet and with a seemingly low risk of getting caught. so i am interested in how t.h.o.r.n. collaborates around the united states and around the world with kcountries with weak criminal justice systems to change the behavior with impunity of the criminal e behavior and at the same time using it as a tool to hopefully train the law enforcement agencies of the victim-friendly procedures. there are places around the world, and jurisdictions in the united states have for example if someone is p being trafficked into prosecution, they are arrest podder the crime of prostitution, and then treated as a criminal and not a victim, and we have arguments here with the law enforcement, because some say that is the only way to do it to break them free from the endeavor, and in other cases, i have had disagreements with that. how is t.h.o.r.n. is used to break the impunity of people think ing th thinking that they can do anything they want, and the penalties in some places are not very high. >> thank you for the question. at its core, one of the issues with sex trafficking and specifically domestically, and certain willy internationally, is the lack of attention it gets from the law enforcement. resources i should say. most trafficking divisions in police departments across this country are maybe one or two people, and they are understaffed and under-financed and so they have really when we first went in, we were looking at the tools they were using and going into the chat rooms and going to strike up conversation s with traffickers or trafficking victims in order to get leads on investigation. we saw specifically relative to minors if we could prioritize the caseload of what we called a maturity score of the victim, we could get them as early as possible out of the system. as young as possible out of the system first, and so we have created a prioritization tool, and i will be happy to spotlight it, and i don't want to reveal too much about it, because i don't want to risk the enduring power of the platform. but we help them to prioritize the caseload, and basically what we are doing is to taking this internet which is the largely anonymous in many ways and making it far less anonymous, and we can track the victims as they are trafficked across the statelines. we can have investigation tools to allow us to understand the full picture and the full story of the trafficking victim over time, and the trafficker over time which is admissible in court and really good evidence in order to prosecute the cases. >> and this is a question for both of you and something that you hear a lot about which is one of the most grotesque and outrageous things i have seen, and that is backpage.com. there is a recent column in "the miami herald" of filing a federal lawsuit against backpage.com. it found that 40% of minor victims were being advertised on the backpage.com. and you are probably aware that the senate has conducted the investigation, and that was a regard of that report, and so it is the adult advertiser in which they solicited se visrvices, an some are on the dagt pages, and some say it is nothing more than a pub llicity stunt, and didn't they just change the name of the same activity. >> well, you know, this has been happening long before backpage. i think that six years ago i started to go after the village voice for ad very tizing the -- advertising, and so the way i did is that i went to the advertisers. i talked to the founder, and ceo of backpage, five years ago and i said, we are watching you and you can join us in the fight and you know what is happening, against this or you are going to be the tool for it. they really sort of didn't want to the hear about it. craigslist on the other hand, the founder wanted to know, and craig knew mar interested ee e involved. wetech physically watched it and analytically watched it moments after it was shutdown move from one place to the another. so it is a game of whack-a-mole, and the only question that we have is that not relative to the censoring it, but can we p bu d better tools than they have to fight this. there are sites that are internationally doing this that are other sites, and it is happening all over the place, and it has been happening for decades in print media. we are now recognizing it for what it is, and this is the most important part, and secondarily to that, let's build the tools, and finance the tools, and deploy the tools the to fight back. >> so i think that backpage has to be held accountable for what they are doing, and one thing they are doing right now is that there is evidence the that shows they are doctoring the adds up to 80% of their ads to conceal the underlying transaction, and meaning that they are not when they they do that and they not be protected by the law, and current law and there are some good reasons for that. and it says that internet sites that allow third parties to post are not responsible for the content of that post. you don't have to change the law to go after what back page is doing right now. it appears they are intentionally altering ads to make underaged people look like they are consenting adults, and this is despicable, and wrong, and they should be held accountable for that. >> thanks so much, and before turning to senator coons, we have an operational leader here who years ago in an airport in another country saw a young lady that she thought was being trafficked. she went to talk to officials, and she came back, and she was gone. and it haunt ed her. she has committed her life to dealing with this issue, and we thank you for that and thank you for being in the place today to launch what is happen iing. and with that, senator coons. >> senator corker, thank you. i want to thank you for taking the experiences that others have brought to you, and applying your skills and leadership and passion to mobilizing this committee to engaging in a bi-papartisan way in legislatio and to fighting tirelessly for funding, and to empowering organizations that have got the skills and the tools and the passion to now go out to make a difference, and i'm excited about the opportunity to continue working with you in this critle cal fight to end human slavery in the modern era, and thank you for the leadership, chairman corker. there are other great members who are leaders on this, and representative cardin and senator menendez, and as you know, i spent time in africa, and it is tragic what we know happened to people who are victim ms. this ks many this kc victims around the world. so i want to thank you, ashton kutcher, your leadership and innovation, and i'm excited to see the tool and how it works and to better understand what t.h.o.r.n. is employing here in the united states, and you have terrific people working with you, jouulia and others who hel to make it real everyday, and ms. massimino, and the human rights first, thank you for providing the analysis, and the support. there are organizations in this space, and we need many, many more, and we have the crisis that dwarfs what we have given to it. there are days that it is partisan and frustrating and we don't get as much done as we'd like, but this is a moment to focus on, because it is a moment where we can recognize significant progress. im the co-chair of the law enforcement caucus, and given what i read in the testimony, and what i have heard, i hope that we have a chance to talk few ther about exactly how we get u.s. law enforcement better funded, and better edge gauge and equipped to deploy the tool, and resources and better trained. in my previous life i was responsible for a kocounty poli force, i am confident that they don't have as much in the way of resources as they would need and we were bisected be by i-95 and hit on a regular pay sis of homelessness and trafficking i am certain, and yet, we could have done much more with more resources. we had one officer who did what you are trauk about, and going in -- you are talking about, going into the chat rooms and trying to prosecute child predators. and it is still far below what it should be. so i have three questions if i i might. first, i am interested in how to expand t.h.o.r.n.'s mold glowle bally, because you have made a significant impact so far, but if you are going the look at the level of resources, and the training and the access in the u.s. law enforcement as we all know in the developing world, law enforcelement courts and transparency are less resourced. so i'd be interested in hearing how you think that the further investment by the united states government in the end modern slavery initiative might inspire enga engagement from the private sector. it is exciting the digital partners, and the information technology patter in er iter i such as susan and ore others th you have brought forward. and what are the limits of spotlighting internationally, and what are the challenges of what you are facing to scale it up. and in countries where the mobile technology is widely available, but the transparency ri liability of the law enforcement system is significantly below what we would hope and expect. and them on the personal enthusiasm, a whole group of us worked together last year, and senators slak and menendez and murphy to pass the wildlife trafficking act, and that is not so different from the human trafficking. that they are in killing and selling parts whether u it is the rye noh tusks or whatever, it is also the same networks involve involved in trafficking people. how could we reinforce those two efforts that engage two separate ngos but with the same goal to end grotesque activity that enslaves people and affecting whole communities. and now, the first question of how we might invest more and extend the reach, ashton. >> yes, we have two tools that i talked about today that are built, and several other s ths are built and deployed. as i mentioned the heavy lifting to the certain extent is done. the key to on going success to make the tools better over time. and senator rubio mentioned backstage, they close down one section and another pops up. these things become incumbent upon us to have a malleable tool that can effectively work in all markets. but now that the database is built and the algorithm is built relative to understanding the textual content, our understanding internationally is that el relatively simple. and so we also need to find the environments that are being utilized for trafficking in those spaces, and put them into our engine. and now the trick which you alluded to relative to limits on that is there are some countries where this platform probably won't work, but it is incumbent upon us to build the next tool that will work there. and you know, a lot of this trafficking, and the exchange and the advertisement. of sex slavery happens online. in some sense, there is a benefit to that, right, because in some ways, it can be tracked, but building the tool relative to that specific market isn't trivial. we are currently working with international partners, canada is using our spotlight tool, and we are talking to the uk about using our spotlight tool, because we believe it is effective in those markets, and our solo dark tool is being used in international spaces, i will just say, by is several people. it is prove ing ing to be effec because the darkle to ltool is same as used international ely, and so it is training the da database to have an understanding of the veritable languages like that is fully do-able. the limit, and the real limit is the fact that, you know, we are only sitting at the identification barrier, right? that is the limit. we can identify these people. i can identify all of the people ma in the world, right? but if we don't have the right sources on the inbound side, and the outbound side, it is a cycle. having a whole lholistic approa what is needed to solve the problem. and definitely on the dark web, our tool could be repurposed for specifically that. if somebody was so interested and passionate about that issue in the same way that i am passionate about solving sex trafficking, our tool could be repurposed for something like that if need be. >> that is an intriguing conversation, that the i would love the follow up on. >> and the big picture is here around the risk reward equation for, you know, how do you keep people from going into the business of exploiting others through slavery? right now, the -- this is as i said is a low-risk enterprise for the bad guys and high reward. how to flip that, you have to increase the risk, and that includes through law enforcement, through reputational and other the damaged companies who don't do a good job of getting rid of the slavery in the supply chain. and decrease the reward. so we have tackle both sides off that, and as you are continuing to hear, some of the pieces of t the problem can be solved or significantly advanced through increasing resources. so on the close to home kind of the perspective in the tpp reauthorization it would be good to have human trafficking prosecutors. there were 297 of these prosecutions last year, and if there were a provision for human trafficking pros ecutors in the u.s. attorney's office, i believe that the number would be going up, and they could be responsible and the hub for cultivating the relationships with the different agencies that deal with this. we have seen the jurisdictions with that type of the collaboration increase their cases filed with by 119% and defendants charged up by 86%. so some of this is a resource question. i mention ed the federal acquisitions act, and again like the tariff act, another transformational change in the way that we do business, we, the united states, do business. i think that if we were to fully implement the regulations, we e need to authorize human trafficking compliance advisers in the counsel offices of state. d.o.d., and labor and g.s.a. and all of these place s s to work contracting officers to make sure that this is really being taken seriously. so there is a lot of potential here right now that is not being fully implemented, and with the congressional of sight, and attention on those, you all started a lot of that, and now to follow it through, to make sure that it is fully implemented and those could be tra transformation. >> and ms. massiminob and mr. kutche kutcher, and to you and your organizations, and everybody who supports them and volunteers with them, i close by saying that sexual slavery and human trafficking is some of of the darkest activity that happens in the world. it happens in dark places, and feeds on dark aspects of the human nature. i am grateful for your work, and mr. chairman, for your leadership in shines light on this problem, and on bringing to all of us not just hope, but confidence that we can solve this and appeal to the light within all of us, and by coming together in a way that actually brings light to this dark eest subjects. thank you for your work. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you for your leadership on this issue, and so many other s. i know that we have a meeting after this to build on this and look at some of the tools in private that are being utilized, but i want to thank you both for outstanding testimony for committing your lives to this issue, and for being examples and bringing notoriety, and bringing awareness if you will to this issue that plagues us all. there is going to be some follow-up questions, i know, because you have a couple of day jobs, and you do, too, but there may be some follow-up questions afterwards. we will try to to keep them to a minimum knowing that you have other things that you are doing in life. this has been an outstanding hearing and there is a lot happening up here on the hill as you know and reported and taken people in a lot of different directions right now, but it is very impactful hearing, and we look forward to building upon it. one of the things that i do wish that we could have touched more on is that i know that you have alluded to this, ashton, is that the sexual piece and the day labor piece, and there are a lot of differences that exist, too, and some of the cultures that we deal with in other parts of the world, and the collection of the passports and i know that when we visit the u countries now, it is one of the first things that we bring up, and heading to that part of the world this weekend, but there are cultural aspects that are barriers and people, again, unwittingly are going to a country for a particular job for a period of time, and end up being entrapped there. so maybe some questions in that regard, too. again, the lives that you are leading, and the example that you are e sare setting for us, willingness to come here and go right back to other work is deeply appreciated. i don't know if either one of you, because it is a informal hearing wish to say anything in closing, but you welcome to if you wish. >> i'd just like to say thank you. as i mentioned before, this is one of the greatest honors in my life and i know that the work you do is strife with conflict and headlines that dominate your time and pull you in directions that oftentimes you don't even want to go, but if we really care about ending slavery, if we re really care about doing the right thing here, we will realize that there will be negative repercussions of our actions. i think that the biggest thing they got out of being here today is that i got reminded of a store i of a friend of mine told me about a rabbi named hillel who was asked to explain the torah while stand on one leg, and he said love . >> thank you, well i also want to say thank you so much to you in particular mr. chairman who really put this issue on the map in the united states congress in a way that it's never been before and now using that awarness, that growing awareness that we all have to end modern slavery, you know, i think it was senator mccain who said this is not a pretty topic and many americans don't want to talk about it and would rather pretend it doesn't exist and particularly don't want to see the ways in which we are all comp come plisaplisat comeplisate. i want to thank you to make people uncomfortable about this issue an that's where it starts. >> thank you both. you have been outstanding. we're going to walk across the hall and view some this you developed worked so well. with that, thank you, the meeting is adjourned. if you want to watch this hearing on human trafficking and slavery, you can find it on our website at c-span.org. in a few minutes we will take you the white house. the president and prime minister benjamin netanyahu will be meeting. also the gao is releasing it's by annual hearing. the head of the census bureau will testify and homeland security, live at 2:45 eastern. the israeli prime minister is arriving at the white house and president trump and his wife the first lady welcoming them at this hour so we will have it for you live. this morning president trump met with retail executives at the white house talking about regulatory and tax code changes, he said retailers are the number one employers and that his tax plan will be unveiled soon. joann fabrics, target and best buy attended the meeting. we will watch for the conference to start.

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