Rep. Roy issues statement on H.R. 5856: Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act

I voted no on H.R. 5856.

As I said last Congress when I voted against this measure, the scourge of human trafficking is an abomination and must be rooted out – the thousands of Americans and migrants sold into the sex trafficking trade and forced labor deserve nothing less.

While this bill seeks to address this issue, I cannot support a measure that irresponsibly reauthorizes these programs without actually paying for them. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office estimates this bill could cost over $1.1 billion over the next decade. 

I am committed to the fight to end human trafficking and will continue to support responsible solutions to do so. The most urgent of these is finally securing the southern border, which this administration and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle utterly refuse to do.