Ed Royce

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner), a member of the Committee on Financial Services and author of the SAVE Act, an important antitrafficking measure that was debated earlier this afternoon.

Mr. ROYCE. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. He is also the author of this bill.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. International Megan's Law, to prevent demand for child sex trafficking, will bolster law enforcement efforts to combat a crime that is worldwide. It affects hundreds of thousands of young children every year. In particular, this bill addresses an issue of child sex tourism, by which adults travel overseas. They do this to exploit children in countries that are currently struggling to deal with this influx of child predators, and part of that influx is of Americans who are child predators. Many children victimized by this appalling crime have also been trafficked--trafficked into prostitution--recruited or transferred or sold in order to be used sexually for someone's profit. This bill helps fight back. This bill takes care of a problem that exists at present, as there are multiple U.S. agencies seeking to combat child trafficking, but not with any coordination, and they are not doing it in time to prevent those who try to travel overseas. We could be much more effective. This bill officially recognizes an Angel Watch Center within the Department of Homeland Security's Child Exploitation Investigations Center. Operation Angel Watch originated as a partnership with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and it currently collects and analyzes the foreign travel date of convicted child sex offenders to determine whether the notification to U.S. officials or foreign governments is warranted. Last year alone, Angel Watch sent 1,700 leads to 100 countries as part of this effort to proactively and strategically alert international law enforcement. Angel Watch's work is time-sensitive. Travel data is sometimes not made available within the 24 hours before a flight, while other helpful information collected by the Department of Justice is, in fact, not even shared with Angel Watch or is not shared soon enough. This bill solidifies the Angel Watch Center as an important part of the U.S. response to child sex tourism, and importantly, it improves the timeliness of the information the center receives by requiring the Justice Department to share its travel records promptly. This will allow Angel Watch to better detect and to report the travel of child predators. I want to thank the bill's author, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), for his persistent leadership and dedication to this issue. I would also like to recognize the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary, as well as the ranking member, Mr. Eliot Engel from New York, for his assistance on this important measure. Madam Speaker, I want to say something briefly about other bills that I have been involved with in today's antitrafficking package. One is H.R. 3530, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, introduced by Judge Poe, our colleague from Texas. I want to thank the Committee on the Judiciary for consulting with the Foreign Affairs Committee to ensure that the bill makes progress both at home and also abroad. On the Human Trafficking Congressional Advisory Committee that I established last year in southern California, I hear directly from advocates and from law enforcement and from survivors, themselves, about the insufficient resources that law enforcement has as a tool available to rescue victims and available to prosecute traffickers here in the U.S. By ensuring a victims center allocation of resources, enhancing deterrents, and prioritizing the protection of trafficking and child pornography victims, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act represents important progress in this struggle. I also strongly support H.R. 4225, the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation, or SAVE Act, introduced by the gentlelady from Missouri, Representative Wagner. In 2013, revenue from U.S. online prostitution advertising totaled an estimated $45 million. As underscored by arrests in 22 States, those ads, such as on backpage.com, sometimes involve the marketing of children, of underage girls. This legislation will help stop this exploitation. In March, more than 40 of us here in Congress wrote to urge Attorney General Eric Holder to take immediate action to end backpage.com's facilitation of the buying and selling of people, including of children. To date, we have not received a response. This legislation would produce that effect. All five of the bills being considered today represent important steps towards abolishing the injustice of human trafficking, towards protecting vulnerable individuals, and towards restoring the dignity of those who have survived such exploitation. They deserve our strong support. Madam Speaker, I submit for the Record an exchange of letters between me and Chairman Goodlatte of the Judiciary Committee regarding this bill of which I am proud to be a cosponsor, and I would ask all Members here to support it. I reserve the balance of my time. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC, May 13, 2014. Hon. Ed Royce, Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Royce: I am writing with respect to H.R. 4573, the ``International Megan's Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking'' which the Committee on Foreign Affairs ordered reported favorably on May 9, 2014. As a result of your having consulted with us on provisions in H.R. 4573 that fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary, I agree to discharge our Committee from further consideration of this bill so that it may proceed expeditiously to the House floor for consideration. The Judiciary Committee takes this action with our mutual understanding that by foregoing consideration of H.R. 4573 at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over subject matter contained in this or similar legislation, and that our Committee will be appropriately consulted and involved as this bill or similar legislation moves forward so that we may address any remaining issues in our jurisdiction. Our Committee also reserves the right to seek appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate conference involving this or similar legislation, and asks that you support any such request. I would appreciate a response to this letter confirming this understanding with respect to H.R. 4573, and would ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on this matter be included in the Congressional Record during Floor consideration of H.R. 4573. Sincerely, Bob Goodlatte, Chairman.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material for the Record.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained and not present for rollcall vote 194. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2548) to establish a comprehensive United States Government policy to assist countries in sub-Saharan Africa to develop an appropriate mix of power solutions for more broadly distributed electricity access in order to support poverty alleviation and drive economic growth, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous materials they may want to in the Record.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I do want to thank Ranking Member Eliot Engel of New York, as well as Chairman Chris Smith and Ranking Member Karen Bass of the Africa Subcommittee, for working closely with me to craft the Electrify Africa Act. I will remind the Members that where the United States has left a void for economic investment in the world--and Africa is one of them-- China has stepped in. In this case, we are speaking at a time when the Premier of China is on the ground right now in Sub-Saharan Africa. China has stepped in to direct $2 billion to African energy projects. This bill will counter China's growing commercial and strategic influence. But what else will the bill do? Unlocking the constraint on African economic growth means a continent less reliant on aid. The bill promotes an all-of-the-above approach to electricity that includes natural gas and clean coal and hydro. The CBO estimates that this bill will save the U.S. Treasury $86 million. Electrify Africa imposes permanent reform, as I mentioned, on the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. The bill focuses OPIC on promoting electricity in Africa. It forces oversight. It demands transparency on the institution, lays that out, and makes the OPIC board bipartisan. There is every reason to support efforts that encourage economic independence, that strengthen trading partners and that compete with Chinese influence in a vital region, as someone once said. I also want to recognize the wide range of enthusiasm for this bill. We have received letters of support from 35 African ambassadors, the Chamber of Commerce, the Corporate Council on Africa, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics--and we know from Karen Bass' testimony why they are in support--and from the One Campaign. Many of these supporters have joined us today in the House gallery to watch this landmark vote. The United States has economic and national security interests in the continued development of the African continent. This bill sets out a comprehensive, sustainable, market-based plan to bring close to 600 million Africans out of the dark and into the global economy, benefiting American businesses and workers at the same time. Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support H.R. 2548, the Electrify Africa Act. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I share the gentleman's concern about corporate welfare. I have spent years pressing OPIC for greater transparency. Finally, in this measure we have a whole host of reforms. But I will remind this body that years back we exposed and helped kill OPIC's investment funds that were helping political cronies. I would also remind this body that we are only willing to give OPIC a short-term extension by redirecting it to focus on an area that lacks investment and will have a major impact on the long-term growth of a country, and that is electricity. I can assure the gentleman from California that this committee will continue its OPIC oversight, but I should note that OPIC is not a free service. OPIC charges fees that generate a financial return for the U.S. Treasury. To ensure that OPIC is not crowding out the private sector, they must demonstrate that no commercial bank is willing to provide the financing package requested directly from OPIC, and this is the case in doing business in Africa. The temporary authorization for OPIC, by the way, was included in the introduced version of the Electrify Africa Act and has remained in every following version. I would also point out that this bill includes the significant reforms, additional reforms, that I and others have been trying to get into OPIC. For example, OPIC's operations will finally be transparent to the public, as the agency will be required to post specific information about all of its projects online, including each project's financing, the location, the partners. The bill also creates an OPIC inspector general. It forces OPIC's board to become for the first time in history bipartisan. This ensures that organizations interested in working with OPIC will be able to get a balanced perspective when reaching out to the agency. I will also close in response by noting that OPIC's last multiyear authorization expired in 2007. The agency has been extended 28 times on appropriations bills and continuing resolutions with zero reforms. We come to the floor here in an open process to try to reform OPIC and to give it this mission. I think this legislation accomplishes a great deal on both fronts. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the Electrify Africa Act is a direct response to the problem that nearly 600 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to reliable electricity. The Electrify Africa Act offers a market-based response to that problem, and it does this through U.S. private sector investment to develop affordable, reliable energy in Africa. Most importantly, I think it does so at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Why do we want to help increase energy access to the African continent? To create jobs, to improve lives. It will improve lives in Africa. It will create jobs there and here in the United States. It is no secret that Africa has great potential as a trading partner and could help create jobs here in the U.S. As the Foreign Affairs Committee investigated how to make better use of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, landmark legislation that we passed over a decade ago to expand trade with Africa, we learned that the lack of affordable, reliable energy made the production of goods for trade and export nearly impossible. How impossible? I will just give you an example. We were in Liberia looking at the interrupted power that is always a problem there. Even at our own Embassy, the cost of ruining that diesel generator is $10,000 a day sometimes when they have to get that thing up and running in order to keep power generated. You can imagine the problem when you are talking about a country with as much power generation and as much electricity as the size of the electricity that lights up the Dallas Cowboys stadium. That is the problem that one country has. You can imagine what it would mean if we could bring online electricity in order to electrify the subcontinent. I would also remind the Members that the United States is not alone in its interests in enhancing trade with Africa through investment and energy. The example I would give you is China, because China has stepped in to direct $2 billion towards energy projects on the continent. As I speak, the Chinese Premier is in Africa signing deals that favor Chinese companies over American businesses. If the United States wishes to tap into the potential consumer base there in sub- Saharan Africa, we must act now. This bill will also have a tangible impact on people's lives, as I said. As former chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa, I have seen firsthand how our considerable investments in improving access to health care, improving access to education in Africa are undermined by the lack of reliable energy. In many places, schoolchildren are forced to study by inefficient, dangerous kerosene lamps. Cold storage of lifesaving vaccines is almost impossible without the existence of reliable electricity. Too many families resort to using charcoal and other inefficient and highly toxic sources of fuel whose fumes in Africa today cause more deaths than HIV/AIDS and malaria, combined. Many of us on the committee have worked to transform our foreign assistance programs that offer extensive Band-Aids to policies that support economic growth. The Electrify Africa Act is part, frankly, of a very important transition here. This bill mandates a clear and comprehensive U.S. policy, providing the private sector with the certainty that it needs to invest in African electricity at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer. In fact, the bill is predicted to generate savings by requiring the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to focus on these energy priorities and undertake much-needed permanent reforms. I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 418) urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma, as amended.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous materials in the Record.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 418. This is a bipartisan resolution offered by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) calling on the government of Burma to end its persecution of the Rohingya Muslims and respect the human rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma. The Rohingya Muslims are one of the most persecuted minority groups in the world. According to Burma's 1982 citizenship law, the Rohingya are prohibited from holding Burmese citizenship, even though they have lived in Burma for generations after generations. For over three decades, the government of Burma has systematically denied the Rohingya even the most basic of human rights, while subjecting them to unspeakable abuses. Since 2012, 140,000 Rohingya and other Muslims in Burma have been displaced by violence, with hundreds killed. On January 13, unknown assailants entered a village in Rakhine State and killed 48 people while they slept. This is what happens when a government refuses to recognize its own people. In fact, a nongovernmental organization based in Southeast Asia recently disclosed credible documents detailing the full extent of state involvement in persecuting Rohingyas. Not long ago, the Government of Burma expelled Doctors Without Borders from the country, denying, once again, the most basic of human rights. The Government of Burma cannot claim progress toward meeting its goals for reform if it does not improve the treatment of Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups. The United States must prioritize the protection of human rights in its engagement with Burma. I urge the State Department to take off its rose-colored glasses and recognize that progress on human rights in Burma is, indeed, limited. Now is the time for the State Department to bring additional leverage to bear, and this resolution will help us do that. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot). He is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), for his support of the Rohingya people, but also for his dedication to human rights. I have had an opportunity to work with Mr. McGovern on a number of different human rights bills. I think he eloquently explained tonight the challenge that we face here. I was proud to join him as a cosponsor of this measure and work with him. I also, of course, want to thank the gentleman from New York, Eliot Engel, for his continued focus on human rights around the world. On this issue, it is true that the Burmese government has recently taken steps to open its closed society, but the reality is that the recent events here are deeply, deeply troubling to anyone who is watching. As I indicated, 48 Rohingya were murdered, aid workers trying to care for thousands of displaced have been attacked in the country, and Doctors Without Borders was kicked out of Burma. This resolution calls on the government of Burma to immediately recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic minority and to grant them citizenship, a step that is long overdue, as Mr. McGovern pointed out. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan resolution. Let's all send a message that the current state of human rights in Burma is unacceptable. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of the Credit Union Share Insurance Fund Parity Act. This is a bill which passed out of the Financial Services Committee on a voice vote. This is bipartisan, commonsense legislation. The bill is supported by the Credit Union National Association, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, as well as the American Bar Association. What this bill does is to ensure that there is parity in the treatment of trust accounts covered by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the FDIC. The Financial Services Committee has heard the testimony of credit unions from West Virginia to Texas that: There is no public policy reason for deposit insurance purposes to distinguish credit union interest on lawyer trust accounts (IOLTAs) from those insured by FDIC. It is essential for the NCUA's share insurance fund to be treated identically in order to maintain parity between the two Federal insurance programs. Specifically, the bill amends the Federal Credit Union Act to require that pass-through share insurance coverage be provided when a credit union member holds funds on behalf of a nonmember in an IOLTA or other similar account. Unlike FDIC coverage, currently the National Credit Union Administration treats funds held by credit union members on behalf of those who are not federally insured credit union members as not covered by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. This has created, of course, a disparity in coverage, specifically when looking at IOLTAs and prepaid debit master accounts. Part of the mission of credit unions from their very beginning has been to reach out to the community around them, especially to reach out to the underserved. Maintaining a strong commitment to the IOLTA community and removing a barrier to greater participation sustains that very mission. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, a bill which corrects a technical disparity between the way trust accounts are federally insured at credit unions and at banks. I look forward to the statement of the other Ed, the gentleman from Colorado, my friend, who has been a champion of this important bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on the bill, H.R. 3468.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3468) to amend the Federal Credit Union Act to extend insurance coverage to amounts held in a member account on behalf of another person, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. In closing, Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation. Just as important as arms sales to Taiwan, the U.S. must support efforts to maintain and expand Taiwan's diplomatic presence. I am pleased to report to the House that legislation signed into law last year, another bipartisan product of this committee, helped Taiwan participate in the International Civil Aviation Organization for the first time since 1976. Taiwan's participation in regional trade agreements could greatly benefit American consumers and exporters as well. Mr. Speaker, Congress should be proud of the role that the Taiwan Relations Act has had in helping Taiwan become what it is today. Taiwan is a beacon of hope and democracy in a part of the world that still yearns for the basic freedoms that Americans and Taiwanese enjoy on a daily basis. As we commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, let us speak with one voice and offer our strong support of Taiwan. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Holding), a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.