[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
CONFLICT MINERALS TRADE ACT; INTERNATIONAL MEGAN'S LAW OF 2010;
EXTENDING IMMUNITIES TO THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH REPRESENTATIVE AND THE
INTERNATIONAL CIVILIAN OFFICE IN KOSOVO ACT OF 2010; LORD'S RESISTANCE
ARMY DISARMAMENT AND NORTHERN UGANDA RECOVERY ACT OF 2009; AND GLOBAL
SCIENCE PROGRAM FOR SECURITY, COMPETITIVENESS, AND DIPLOMACY ACT OF
2010
=======================================================================
MARKUP
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
H.R. 4128, H.R. 5138, H.R. 5139, S. 1067
and H.R. 4801
__________
APRIL 28, 2010
__________
Serial No. 111-92
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
56-199 WASHINGTON : 2010
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California, Chairman
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
Samoa DAN BURTON, Indiana
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ELTON GALLEGLY, California
BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois
BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York RON PAUL, Texas
DIANE E. WATSON, California JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri MIKE PENCE, Indiana
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey JOE WILSON, South Carolina
GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
MICHAEL E. McMAHON, New York J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina
JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee CONNIE MACK, Florida
GENE GREEN, Texas JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
LYNN WOOLSEY, California MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas TED POE, Texas
BARBARA LEE, California BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
MIKE ROSS, Arkansas
BRAD MILLER, North Carolina
DAVID SCOTT, Georgia
JIM COSTA, California
KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona
RON KLEIN, Florida
VACANTUntil 5/5/10 deg.
Richard J. Kessler, Staff Director
Yleem Poblete, Republican Staff Director
Jasmeet Ahuja, Professional Staff Member deg.
David Fite, Senior Professional Staff Member deg.
Jessica Lee, Professional Staff Member deg.
Alan Makovsky, Senior Professional Staff Member deg.
Pearl Alice Marsh, Senior Professional Staff Member deg.
Peter Quilter, Senior Professional Staff Member deg.
Edmund Rice, Senior Professional Staff Member deg.
Daniel Silverberg, Senior Deputy Chief Counsel deg.
Amanda Sloat, Professional Staff Member deg.
Kristin Wells, Deputy Chief Counsel deg.
Shanna Winters, General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor
Brent Woolfork, Professional Staff Member deg.
Robert Marcus, Professional Staff Member deg.
Diana Ohlbaum, Senior Professional Staff Member deg.
Laura Rush, Professional Staff Member/Security Officer
Genell Brown, Senior Staff Associate/Hearing Coordinator
Riley Moore, Deputy Clerk deg.
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
MARKUP OF
H.R. 4128, To improve transparency and reduce trade in conflict
minerals, and for other purposes............................... 2
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 4128........... 108
H.R. 5138, To protect children from sexual exploitation by
mandating reporting requirements for convicted sex traffickers
and other registered sex offenders against minors intending to
engage in international travel, providing advance notice of
intended travel by high interest registered sex offenders
outside the United States to the government of the country of
destination, requesting foreign governments to notify the
United States when a known child sex offender is seeking to
enter the United States, and for other purposes................ 31
H.R. 5139, To provide for the International Organizations
Immunities Act to be extended to the Office of the High
Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the International
Civilian Office in Kosovo...................................... 90
S. 1067, To support stabilization and lasting peace in northern
Uganda and areas affected by the Lord's Resistance Army through
development of a regional strategy to support multilateral
efforts to successfully protect civilians and eliminate the
threat posed by the Lord's Resistance Army and to authorize
funds for humanitarian relief and reconstruction,
reconciliation, and transitional justice, and for other
purposes....................................................... 92
H.R. 4801, To establish the Global Science Program for Security,
Competitiveness, and Diplomacy, and for other purposes......... 150
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 4801 offered by
the Honorable Howard L. Berman............................... 170
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 196
Hearing minutes.................................................. 197
The Honorable Howard L. Berman, a Representative in Congress from
the State of California, and Chairman, Committee on Foreign
Affairs: Prepared statement.................................... 200
The Honorable Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, a Representative in Congress
from American Samoa: Prepared statement........................ 202
The Honorable Russ Carnahan, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Missouri: Prepared statements..................... 206
The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Texas: Prepared statement.................... 208
CONFLICT MINERALS TRADE ACT; INTERNATIONAL MEGAN'S LAW OF 2010;
EXTENDING IMMUNITIES TO THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH REPRESENTATIVE AND THE
INTERNATIONAL CIVILIAN OFFICE IN KOSOVO ACT OF 2010; LORD'S RESISTANCE
ARMY DISARMAMENT AND NORTHERN UGANDA RECOVERY ACT OF 2009; AND GLOBAL
SCIENCE PROGRAM FOR SECURITY, COMPETITIVENESS, AND DIPLOMACY ACT OF
2010
----------
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:22 a.m. in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Howard L. Berman
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Chairman Berman. The committee shall come to order. I think
a quorum is present. Today we have five bills listed on the
agenda. I understand that the committee has a consensus on four
of the bills, and the Minority has requested we move en bloc.
The fifth bill, H.R. 4801, has pending amendments. I will
just call up the four bills all at once and then call up H.R.
4801 separately.
Pursuant to notice, I ask unanimous consent to call up en
bloc H.R. 4128, the Conflict Minerals Trade Act; H.R. 5138, the
International Megan's Law of 2010; H.R. 5139, Extending
Immunities to the Office of the High Representative and the
International Civilian Office in Kosovo Act of 2010; and S.
1067, the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern
Uganda Recovery Act of 2009.
[The information referred to follows:]H.R.
4128 deg.
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Chairman Berman. Without objection, H.R. 5138, H.R. 5139
and S. 1067 are considered as read. Without objection, the
amendment in the nature of a substitute for H.R. 4128--that is
the Conflict Minerals Trade Act--before the members will be
considered as base text for purposes of amendment, and that
will be considered as read and will be open for amendment at
any point. A summary of the amendment in the nature of a
substitute is on each member's desk.
[The amendment of H.R. 4128 follows:]ANOS H.R.
4128 deg.
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Chairman Berman. Without objection, I may recess the
committee from time to time. I now recognize myself for as much
time as I may consume to make an opening statement.
For more than a decade, we have been hearing about the
tragic situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Mass
killings of civilians. Rape used as a weapon of war. Child
soldiers forced to the front lines.
H.R. 4128, the Conflict Minerals Act, is one important step
toward ending a conflict in Congo that by some estimates has
killed more than 5 million people.
The bill establishes a mechanism to track minerals mined in
the DRC that end up in products like cell phones and laptops,
and will help us cut off financing to some of the planet's most
brutal armed groups. I am now supposed to hold up Marissa's
cell phone and say in this cell phone is tin and coltan, both
conflict minerals coming from the Congo.
In many respects, this legislation builds on the work
already begun by some American companies. H.R. 4128 will make
those efforts more effective by creating a level playing field
for all companies that do business in the United States.
The American people don't want to put money in the hands of
brutal thugs in the DRC, and neither do American companies. For
less than 1 cent per cell phone, this bill will allow American
consumers to make responsible choices, and help put the
warlords out of business. I thank the author of the bill, Mr.
McDermott, and my colleague Don Payne, chairman of the Africa
Subcommittee, for all their hard work on these issues, and I
encourage my colleagues to support the bill.
I would like to also commend Chris Smith for his hard work
on H.R. 5138, the International Megan's Law of 2010, and I mean
hard work. Many child sex offenders are traveling
internationally or reside abroad because the laws against sex
acts with minors are weaker or rarely enforced in particular
countries.
International Megan's Law would establish a system for
providing advance notice to foreign countries when a convicted
child sex offender travels to that country and imposes a
registration requirement for child sex offenders from the
United States who reside abroad.
Worldwide, over 2 million children are sexually exploited
each year through trafficking, prostitution and child-sex
tourism. We all know the devastating emotional, physical and
psychological effects on these child victims. We need to do all
we can to prevent these predators from circumventing U.S. laws
to prey on children in foreign countries. I encourage my
colleagues to support this bill.
H.R. 5139, Extending Immunities to the Office of the High
Representative and the International Civilian Office in Kosovo
Act of 2010, is a technical fix to ensure legal protection for
employees of both the Office of the High Representative (OHR)
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the International Civilian
Office (ICO) in Kosovo.
The bill, which adds the OHR and the ICO to the
International Organization Immunities Act, will ensure that
Americans serving in these important Balkans-based
organizations will be protected from politically motivated
litigation in the United States arising from their official
duties and only their official duties.
The United States must protect its diplomats who serve in
international organizations, often at great personal risk and
sacrifice, from financially and personally ruinous litigation
while also preserving its ability to use informal institutions
in the conduct of foreign policy. Finally, we have S. 1067, the
Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery
Act of 2009. I would like to thank the gentleman from
Massachusetts, Mr. McGovern, for his work on the House version
of this bill.
This legislation affirms the policy of the United States to
work with regional governments toward a comprehensive and
lasting resolution to the conflict in northern Uganda.
It further requires a strategy to support the disarmament
of the Lord's Resistance Army, and support for humanitarian
efforts and recovery and reconstruction in areas of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan and the Central
African Republic affected by Lord's Resistance Army activity.
And it calls on the President to support efforts by the
people of northern Uganda and the Government of Uganda to
promote transitional justice and reconciliation on both local
and national levels.
It should be noted that this bill does not include any
earmarks.
I now yield back my time, and I turn to the ranking
Republican member, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for her opening
statement.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. It is a
pleasure to work with you and for our staff to work together in
a bipartisan manner in a very open process to bring these bills
to our committee again, so I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I
thank your most excellent staff.
I support the en bloc consideration of the legislative
items before us. Let me begin by applauding the years of work
by our colleague, Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, in
making the International Megan's Law a reality. Chris is a
tenacious fighter for and a defender of the most vulnerable of
our population, and I am so very proud of the work that he has
done. It has taken a long time, and this is a happy day.
I was proud to be an original co-sponsor of its
predecessor, H.R. 1623, and also of this new text, which was
the result of months of bipartisan negotiation that Mr. Smith
had with the Judiciary Committee, with input from relevant
Executive Branch agencies.
The International Megan's Law is an important and long
overdue instrument to help protect children from dangerous
sexual offenders who use the anonymity afforded by
international travel to hide their dangerous and dehumanizing
exploitation. By requiring convicted sexual offenders to report
upcoming international travel and creating a nexus for
communication between local, national and international
authorities, the International Megan's Law will help curb
international sex tourism by convicted predators. So thank you,
Mr. Smith, for your work on this bill.
I am also proud, Mr. Chairman, to be adding my name as a
co-sponsor of the revised text of H.R. 4128, the Conflict
Minerals Trade Act, which is being considered today. This
important human rights legislation will help disrupt the
illegal mineral trade that funds and fuels the bloody conflict
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There are other measures being considered en bloc that,
while not perfect, advance issues of great importance to our
members and our Nation. I remain committed to seeing Senate
bill S. 1067 enacted into law as quickly as possible to help
end the Lord's Resistance Army's 23-year legacy of death and
despondency in northern Uganda and the surrounding region.
While I regret that the Senate failed to consider the
earmark moratorium adopted by House Republicans despite
repeated attempts to highlight this issue, I appreciate the
cooperative efforts to make clear that the bill before us today
does not contain an earmark in order to help facilitate the
progress of this important human rights measure as well.
Another bill, H.R. 5139, considered en bloc will allow the
President to extend International Organizations Immunity Act
protection to the Office of High Representative, the High
Representative in Bosnia and the International Civilian Office
in Kosovo. American personnel who work for those offices
deserve the same protection against politically motivated
nuisance lawsuits that are enjoyed by more than 80 other
international organizations covered by the Act.
While we support the agreed upon text, Mr. Chairman, I
would like to underscore our concerns about the State
Department's rush to secure the authorities in this bill while
failing to respond in a timely manner to inquiries made on
specific provisions, background and the need for this
legislation. The Department needs to be placed on notice that
the Congress, and specifically this committee, will not
continue to come to the Department's rescue at the last minute,
when approached by the Department with a request for a fix on a
particular issue or authority.
This committee expects the Department to come into
compliance with its statutory obligations under a number of
U.S. laws, including the Iran, North Korea and Syria
Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA) before any further requests such
as H.R. 5139 are made of this committee. So please come forward
with the repeated request that we have made for information
about INKSNA before coming up for further requests.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the time and look
forward to the continued markup.
Chairman Berman. The gentlelady yields back the balance of
her time, and before I recognize the gentleman from New Jersey,
I just will yield to myself to express the same concern
expressed by the ranking member regarding the difficulty of
getting the State Department to respond.
The need for this legislation is coming not from the State
Department, but from the people who work in those
organizations. They have a clear and compelling case, and the
State Department was very slow to respond on a variety of the
legal issues. In fact, it wasn't until very recently that we
got the responses we had been trying to get for a long time.
At this point I am pleased to recognize the chairman of the
Africa Subcommittee, the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Payne,
who has spent a great deal of time on at least two of these
measures that are before us in this en bloc motion.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and ranking
member. Let me begin by offering an amendment in the nature of
a substitute to H.R. 4128.
Chairman Berman. Would the gentleman yield?
Mr. Payne. Yes.
Chairman Berman. We have already put that in as the base
text for this.
Mr. Payne. Oh, great.
Chairman Berman. So it is the bill with that amendment in
the nature of a substitute that is now before us.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much. Thanks for that
clarification.
I certainly would like, as I mentioned, to thank the
chairman and the ranking member and the full committee staff on
both sides of the aisle for working with me and my staff on
this measure, the conflict minerals bill. I would also
especially like to thank Mr. McDermott from the Ways and Means
Committee for a strong interest and in the work of his staff as
we work together on this bill.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC, has been in
political turmoil for decades. In the early 1900s, the region
was King Leopold's playground. In the 1960s, a nationalist
movement led by Patrice Lumumba won Parliamentary elections in
the Congo. Lumumba was considered a threat as a new leader in
Africa and was later assassinated by Belgium troops, at that
time supported by the United States Government.
In May 1997, the Alliance of the Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Congo Zaire, the AFDL, with the support of Rwanda
and Uganda, marched into Kinshasa and ousted long-time dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko. By August 1998, conflict erupted between
Kabila and the Congolese forces supported by Rwanda. Angola,
Namibia and Zimbabwe joined the fighting in support of Kabila.
The Second Congolese War, often referred to as the African
World War, contributed to displacement of many civilians, the
destruction of towns and the death of millions.
Much progress has been made over the past several years in
moving the DRC from political instability and civil war to
relative stability and democratic rule. However, Eastern Congo
remains marred by civil strife, and conflict minerals have been
the source of much of the devastating violence in the region.
Although the government in Kinshasa has attempted to
control the region, there is, for example, no direct road from
the capital of Kinshasa to the eastern region of the country,
therefore creating very, very difficult transportation problems
and therefore making governance much more difficult.
The Conflict Minerals Trade Act promotes peace and security
in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo by
requiring the following: One, that the State Department create
a map of the DRC showing mines and areas that are under the
control of militant groups involved in human rights violations;
That the Department of Commerce publishes a potential
conflict goods list, products that may contain conflict
minerals, and a list of international auditors who are approved
to do audits of processing facilities to determine if conflict
materials have been processed there in that area;
Three, that products containing conflict material from
facilities that have not been audited may not be imported into
the United States of America; and, four, the U.S. and other
partner nations help build capacity of the Congolese
Government.
The bill, while it will not change the situation in the DRC
overnight, is a strong effort to build transparency in the
mining sector. Our aim is to help bring about an end to the
suffering of the people of Eastern Congo. As has been
mentioned, I am offering this amendment in the nature of a
substitute today to deal with some of the finer details of the
bill.
Let me just say that I have been to the Eastern Congo on at
least five occasions, have during the conflict time met with
some of the warlords when they were head of militias, Bimba and
Robetta. We have seen much progress made from those days to the
present. However, there are still problems.
We have this bill, which follows a similar bill that I
urged and pushed and we introduced years ago on conflict
diamonds where the Kimberley Process now processes diamonds,
and if they are not certified then those diamonds may not be
sold on the marketplace and so we are expecting this particular
bill to have the same result as it relates to tin and coltan
and other valuable minerals that go into the processing.
And so I would like to once again appreciate the support of
Chairman Berman and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen. They
contributed to the provisions in the bill. We worked closely
with them, and the bill will ensure that we provide a framework
to assist the Government of the DRC.
On a number of occasions I have discussed this with
President Kabila, my five or six meetings with him during the
past 7 or 8 years, and we hope that this will help him in
trying to bring under control that eastern region of this
country. So I urge the members to support this amendment, H.R.
4128, and look forward to moving this bill to the Floor.
Secondly, I would just like to briefly urge members to
support S. 1067, the Lord's Resistance Army's Disarmament in
Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. This bill seeks to bring
an end to the more than 20 years of terror propagated by the
Lord's Resistance Army, known as the LRA, in northern Uganda.
The bill calls for an interagency strategy to stop the
LRA's reign of terror which has spread to neighboring DRC,
South Sudan and the Central African Republic and to provide
critical support to the innocent people, particularly the
children whose lives have been devastated by Joseph Kony and
those who support him.
Mr. Chairman, as you know, I had reservations about one
section of the bill which says we should restrict assistance to
the Government of Uganda if certain steps are not taken. I
would like to say for the record the Government of Uganda has
made significant efforts to address the havoc wrecked by the
LRA, and they have done a tremendous amount in trying to bring
this under control.
But in the interest of moving the bill forward I agree to
go ahead with the Senate version, but I would like to thank the
chairman and Representative McGovern for working with me on
alternative language to the House bill. I do support the Senate
bill.
However, as I have mentioned, to hold punitive measures
against a government who is trying to also deal with this
situation. They have even, as you may recall, had the U.N.
agree to have amnesty for Kony, which many of us thought was a
horrible thing to do for such a terrible criminal.
However, if it would end the problem we went along with it,
but Kony refused to go along with that and the ICC still has
the indictment out for him. So I would be reluctant to penalize
the Government of Uganda because of Kony, and that is what it
says in the bill, but hopefully we can work on that to have
that provision altered.
Finally, I just want to commend my colleague from New
Jersey, Mr. Smith, and strongly urge the support of H.R. 5138,
the International Megan's Law of 2010, which protects children
from sexual exploitation by establishing an advance reporting
requirement for registered sex offenders traveling
internationally and provides a mechanism for notification and
destination countries for traveling sex offenders who pose a
risk to children. I certainly commend Congressman Smith for his
leadership on the bill and Mr. Berman and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for
moving this forward.
As you know, Megan's Law, which was first passed in our
home state of New Jersey in 1994 and later adopted by Congress
in 1996, protects children from sex exploitation through
community notification by identifying the whereabouts of sex
offenders. International Megan's Law will protect children by
preventing in some circumstances and monitoring in other cases,
sex offenders who pose a risk of committing a sex offense
against a minor while traveling abroad.
The United States has a moral obligation to strengthen
international cooperation against sexual exploitation of a
minor and must lead the global community in an effort to save
potential children, child victims, by notifying other countries
of U.S. sex offenders who pose a high risk of exploiting
children. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this
legislation. It will protect all children, both nationally and
internationally, from sex offenders and sexual exploitation.
With that, Mr. Chairman, thank you for the time. I yield
back.
Chairman Berman. The gentleman yields back, and now to the
other gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Smith, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word,
and I want to thank you----
Chairman Berman. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Smith [continuing]. For bringing before this committee
all of these bills, but in particular the International Megan's
Law, H.R. 5138, which as you and others have pointed out,
establishes a model framework for intergovernmental
notifications when a dangerous child sex offender travels
internationally.
International Megan's Law works synergistically with our
efforts to combat human trafficking, in this case by providing
information about high risk sex offenders, child sex offenders.
These are people who have been convicted, who unfortunately,
today, we have every reason to believe as the evidence is
overwhelming, travel abroad in order to exploit children. This
legislation will work in a hand and glove manner with our
already enacted Trafficking Victims Protection Act and other
similar pieces of legislation.
I do want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen for your leadership on this bill. I want to thank Don
Payne, the prime co-sponsor, for his work on this. I deeply
appreciate it. As he correctly pointed out, the International
Megan's Law follows the Megan's Law, which passed in New Jersey
back in the early 1990s.
Megan Kanka was a little girl, a 7-year-old girl, who
actually lived in my home town. She was severely sexually
assaulted and then brutally murdered by a convicted pedophile
who had already spent time, more than a dozen years, in prison.
He lived across the street. Nobody knew his background.
He invited her into his home. He said, ``Come in and see my
puppy.'' He had a little dog. And then he brutally raped and
murdered her and nobody knew. Nobody knew who this person was.
That led to enactment in New Jersey and then throughout all 50
states of the Megan's Law, which has had the ability to deter.
Knowledge is power to deter, and now we are trying to extend
that internationally when people go on these sex tourism
efforts to exploit children.
I especially want to thank Maureen and Richard Kanka, who
founded the Kanka Foundation, Megan's legacy. They have taken a
horrific tragedy and have become national and now international
proponents of Megan's Law as a way of trying to mitigate these
horrific crimes.
Mr. Chairman, despite the fact that 137 countries are party
to the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography abound, including in the United States. Little is
being done internationally to comply with the obligation to
prevent these acts in the context of the horrific phenomena of
child sex tourism.
As evidenced by the troubling information in the State
Department's Annual Trafficking in Persons Report, child sex
tourism is a serious and widespread problem. Congress has
passed legislation to bring to justice those Americans who are
caught sexually exploiting children abroad, but we have yet to
institute measures that will protect children from suffering
this exploitation in the first place and its lifelong
consequences.
H.R. 5138 would implement one measure that is readily
apparent: To identify and notify foreign governments of
international travel by known dangerous sex child offenders.
The move to such a formalized agreement is exemplified in a
case in April 2008. A lifetime registered sex offender from the
U.K. traveled to the U.S. with the intention of living with a
woman he had communicated with on the internet and her young
daughter. It was only after an alert of Interpol London that
U.S. officials learned about the criminal history of this man
and refused to allow him to enter the country.
There have been instances where ICE officials most recently
in California learned of a group of men who were going to
travel to South Korea, all of them sex offenders, all of them
with grave MOs as to what they probably intended to do in South
Korea. We notified South Korea. They didn't grant a visa and
they were not allowed to commit what we believe would have been
crimes in South Korea against children.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, together with
other U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies, are making a
sincere, but occasional, effort to share information. It is all
being done on an ad hoc basis through Interpol and other
available means regarding traveling child sex offenders. A
legal structure is needed to systematize and coordinate these
detection and notification efforts.
The International Megan's Law would provide this legal
structure. It establishes a mechanism for U.S. law enforcement
agencies to identify child sex offenders who pose a danger to
children in a destination country and to notify that country
about this child sex offender's travel intentions. It also
includes a sense of the Congress that the President can
negotiate agreements----
Chairman Berman. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Without objection, the gentleman has 2 additional minutes.
Mr. Smith. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It also includes a sense of Congress that the President, as
you know, can negotiate agreements with other governments to
establish bilateral systems to receive and transmit notices
about dangerous child sex offenders so that children in our own
country will be better protected from known predators.
The bill also establishes a registration requirement for
U.S. child sex offenders when they are residing abroad.
Currently there is no legal mechanism to identify and track
Americans convicted of child sex offenses overseas or to
continue tracking the location and activities of a child sex
offender if they leave the United States for more than 30 days.
H.R. 5138 will enable the U.S. diplomatic missions to notify
U.S. law enforcement when a child sex offender who is required
to register enters or re-enters the United States.
I would ask that my full statement be made a part of the
record.
Chairman Berman. Without objection.
Mr. Smith. I would like to thank the many very dedicated
staff on both sides of the aisle who worked so hard on this,
beginning with Sheri Rickert. I would also like to thank
Kristin Wells, who used to be with the committee who did
yeoman's work on this, Janice Kaguyutan, Doug Anderson, Shanna
Winters, Rick Kessler, who has been working with us very
closely, Stephanie Gidigbi and a large group of people on the
Judiciary Committee as well because we have been engaging in
negotiations there as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Berman. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. Smith. I will be happy to yield.
Chairman Berman. I just want my colleagues on the committee
to understand what you have done. You have gotten a bill like
this through and with the approval and sign off and the waiving
of jurisdiction of the staff of the House Judiciary Committee.
Not a minor achievement.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, and I do appreciate it very
much.
Chairman Berman. The time of the gentleman has expired. Any
member wish to be recognized to strike the last word or offer
an amendment? The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Poe?
Mr. Poe. Mr Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
Chairman Berman. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Poe. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. The
International Megan's Law, H.R. 5138, is very important to our
country. As founder and co-chair of the Victim's Rights Caucus,
along with my friend, Mr. Costa, from California, I strongly
urge support of H.R. 5138.
Unfortunately, unlawful sex tourism is big international
business. One million children enter the multi-billion-dollar
commercial sex every year. One million kids. Overall there are
2 million children that are enslaved in the global commercial
sex trade.
These children are not statistics. They are real people.
They are boys and girls who most often grow up in very poor
families and broken homes from countries all over the world.
They are lured away by recruiters who promise them jobs in
another city. They are falsely imprisoned under the belief that
they are going to go to some other country, have a job and send
money back home to their families.
I recently was in the Ukraine and Bulgaria discussing this
issue, and in some ways it is almost epidemic in the former
eastern European bloc how young women primarily are lured away
and then many of them never seen again because they are put
into the sex trade.
When they leave home they are forced into prostitution, and
studies show that child prostitutes serve between 2 and 30
clients a week, which means they serve anywhere between 100 and
1,500 clients per year. I don't like calling them clients. I
like calling them criminals, but that is what they are under
the terminology.
Those who resist or fail to earn enough money, the people
who have procured them beat these children until they go back
to work, bringing in this filthy lucre. If they don't die from
an STD many of them fall into drug use, and without any hope or
any other way many of them commit suicide.
The most startling statistic, Mr. Chairman, is the fact
that Americans make up 25 percent of the world's sex trade
tourists. In other words, all of these going on in foreign
countries, 25 percent of the clients are Americans. Many of
them have gone abroad so that they can exploit children. That
is to our shame. We need to deal with that issue.
The International Megan's Law of 2010 is another tool to
help free children and stop the child sex tourism. It makes it
harder for Americans with a known history of the sex offender
to sexually abuse children in another country because our laws
have gotten stringent enough, these sex offenders who go to
prison, and most of them statistically repeat once they leave
the penitentiary. They decide to go to a foreign country where
laws are different and they are less likely to be apprehended.
It says that if you abuse children here in the United
States, you have to tell the U.S. Government when and where you
are going so we can warn other countries this criminal is
coming to your country and he is a known child molester. It
also says that if a country knows of a sex offender in their
country we want to know what their plans are if they come to
the United States.
The point of this law is to shine light on an industry that
thrives in the darkness, in the depths of depravity. If you
have a known history of sexually abusing children in our
Nation, no longer can you just get on an airplane, go abuse
other children in another country and come back home. I hope
that means that a sex offender will think twice before
exploiting other kids in foreign nations.
I hope this law puts the slimy pimps that prey on helpless
children out of business, and this will help do that. They make
profits by exploiting kids in the international sex tourism
business. Hopefully children around the world, less of them
will be caught in the sex trade and slavery. Children are
victims of crime. Their freedom is stolen, their dignity, and
their voices must be heard here in the United States and we
must do what we can to help other kids throughout the world.
Lastly, I want to point out that once a person, a child,
usually young women, are put into this atmosphere they never
recover. They never get out of it, and those that do have
tremendous physical, emotional and mental problems because of
the sex trade tourism that they have been kidnapped and put
into.
So I congratulate my friend from New Jersey for sponsoring
this, and I totally support it. I yield back the remainder of
my time.
Chairman Berman. The time of the gentleman has expired. Who
else seeks recognition? The gentlelady from Texas. For what
purpose do you seek recognition?
Ms. Jackson Lee. To ask unanimous consent to speak for 5
minutes.
Chairman Berman. Without objection. The gentlelady moves to
strike the last word and is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for your
leadership and that of the ranking member for collecting these
very important initiatives going forward. I will speak briefly
about each of the initiatives that I am supporting.
The Conflict Minerals Trade Act has just really been
galvanized by recent media stories about a high profile model
that may have been either the victim or engaged or associated
with allegations of conflict diamonds as it relates to the
trial of Charles Taylor. It goes on and on and on. And so I
think this legislation is long overdue, and I am very glad that
businesses such as LG Electronics and Motorola and advocacy
groups such as Oxam and Genocide Intervention Network, Global
Witness are in support of this.
I received a letter from Corinna Gilfillan, who is with
Global Witness, who indicated that the trade in conflict
minerals by armed groups in the Eastern DRC has fueled horrific
human rights abuses, including widespread killings of unarmed
civilians, rape, torture, looting and Federal displacement of
hundreds of thousands of people.
Might I just say that I wish that we were as forceful,
though I know that there was much opposition, during the
Liberian War where these conflict minerals are clearly in play.
So I support this legislation and look forward to its passage.
In addition, as the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus I
am enthusiastically supporting H.R. 5138 and thank the co-
sponsors and authors for the wisdom. I was a strong supporter
and advocate of Megan's Law, and I believe that this is key in
saving the lives of children.
I am reminded of visits early on in my congressional career
to Bangladesh and to several other countries. I don't want to
in essence call the roll, but countries who hopefully have made
great strides in meeting with some of the Bangladesh leaders. I
know that they have. Thailand, for example, with the horrific
story of a year or 2 ago of individuals, men, who have left
their country to abuse children.
This is intolerable and unacceptable, and if the Congress
cannot stand before the major components of this bill, which is
the establishment of a system for providing advance notice to
foreign countries when a sex offender who poses a high risk is
traveling and the imposition of a registration requirement for
child offenders from the United States who reside abroad, what
can we do?
So I am very grateful that we have put that legislation
forward, and I do support it to avoid the result of HIV AIDS
and other abuses, psychological trauma, disease, unwanted
pregnancy that comes about through this horrific, horrible
crime.
H.R. 5139, extending immunities to the Office of the High
Representative Act, is a technical fix of which I support, and
then in listening to my colleague from New Jersey, Chairman
Payne, I want to associate myself on S. 1067 with his comments,
his broad comments, the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament in
Northern Uganda Recovery Act.
We have spent time in Uganda, and certainly its President
has had a long tenure. The rebel guerrilla army operating in
Uganda and parts of Sudan, the LRA, has come to be known for
its mass atrocities, and this seeking of disarmament to finally
bring peace to this area is important.
I do think we should take into consideration who is to
blame, but it should be noted that in this battle injuries
targeted government troops, more than 200,000 lives have been
taken, and millions of civilians have been displaced from their
homes. Twenty thousand children have been abducted, raped,
maimed and killed. This is long overdue. This legislation
authorizes the President to provide additional assistance to
respond to the humanitarian needs.
Let me also say that I support the Global Science Program
for Security, Competitiveness and Diplomacy Act, H.R. 4801.
Having been a 12-year member of the Science Committee, this is
an excellent idea.
And I thank you for accepting my amendment, which expands
it to Subsaharan countries that may have been a little bit more
economically able because, for example, South Africa is a
country that has an enormous range in science. Many of those
individuals would be left out if they were not able to engage
in this process of a scientific exchange. Science I believe is
the work of the twenty-first century. We are in the twenty-
first century, and we should leave no one out.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask for approval and passage
of the bills that I have just commented on, and I thank the
committee for yielding. I yield back.
Chairman Berman. The time of the gentlelady has expired.
Hearing no further amendments, I ask unanimous consent that
the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 4128, the
Conflict Minerals Trade Act, is considered adopted, and without
objection I further ask unanimous consent to report en bloc the
four bills favorably to the House, but as separate bills.
H.R. 5138, International Megan's Law of 2010; H.R. 5139,
Extending Immunities to the Office of the High Representative
Act of 2010; S. 1067, the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament
and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 will each be ordered
reported without amendment. H.R. 4128, the Conflict Minerals
Trade Act, will be ordered reported with an amendment in the
nature of a substitute just adopted.
I move that these four bills as described be reported
favorably to the House. All those in favor say aye.
[Chorus of ayes.]
Chairman Berman. All opposed say no.
[Chorus of noes.]
Chairman Berman. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have
it and the motion is agreed to without objection. The staff is
authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. That
takes care of four of the five bills. I thank the members for
being here, and I ask you to stay for one more bill, which I
really like because it is my bill.
Pursuant to notice I call up the final bill, H.R. 4801, the
Global Science Program for Security, Competitiveness and
Diplomacy Act of 2010.
[H.R. 4801 follows:]H.R. 4801 deg.
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Chairman Berman. Without objection, the amendment in the
nature of a substitute before the members will be considered as
base text for purposes of amendment, will be considered as read
and will be open for amendment at any point. A summary of the
amendment in the nature of a substitute is on each member's
desk.
[The amendment of H.R. 4801 follows:]ANOS H.R.
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Chairman Berman. I yield myself 5 minutes to explain the
amendment in the nature of a substitute.
H.R. 4801 bolsters U.S. science diplomacy programs by
establishing a Global Science Program to provide grants to U.S.
and foreign scientists. The bill also authorizes the Science
Envoys Program introduced by President Obama in his Cairo
speech last June.
Science diplomacy--the use of scientists, engineers and
researchers to engage with their foreign counterparts--is a
proven means of engaging foreign populations, improving the
image of the United States and fostering cooperation with
international partners. The amendment in the nature of a
substitute addresses concerns of the National Science
Foundation and clarifies the management structure of the Global
Science Program.
I now turn to the ranking Republican member, Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen, for her statement.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Although
I question the wisdom of establishing new programs during a
time of trillion-dollar deficits and economic challenges for
average Americans, I note that this bill does not authorize
funding beyond ``such sums.'' It is also my hope that hard-
pressed universities in the United States will be among the
principal beneficiaries of this bill.
However, I do have concerns regarding the possibility that
this bill might undermine existing prohibitions against
providing assistance to certain countries. For that reason, I
would like to note for the record, as your staff has confirmed,
that the text under consideration does not grant the Secretary
of State authority to provide any assistance that is prohibited
by any provision of current law.
I support efforts to ensure that this legislation does not
undermine U.S. security interests by inadvertently enabling
foreign espionage efforts such as those previously outlined in
the 2009 report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission and many other such studies.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to confirm that the
committee intends to file a written report on this bill which
will afford opportunities for further clarification and the
filing of additional views should members deem it necessary.
Chairman Berman. Would the gentlelady yield?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Yes, sir.
Chairman Berman. The gentlelady is right. Nothing in this
bill would allow assistance or grants or these kinds of
programs in the science diplomacy field to go on with countries
that are prohibited from getting assistance under other
provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act, and if we need to we
can even reaffirm that specifically within this provision with
an amendment between now and the time this bill comes to the
Floor.
There will be a written report. We will definitely have a
report on the legislation with an opportunity for additional
views and confirming the concerns that you have raised.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Reclaiming my
time, given your assurance I am now prepared to move this bill
forward. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Berman. The gentleman from Virginia, for what
purpose do you seek recognition?
Mr. Connolly. To strike the last word.
Chairman Berman. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Connolly. I thank the chair, and I just wanted to add I
want to thank the chair for its leadership on this important
legislation. While I certainly take the caveat of the ranking
member seriously, I also believe that even in tough times,
maybe especially in tough times, we need to always be looking
at that scientific cutting edge.
Technology is the competitive advantage of the United
States, and I believe that trying to harness the scientific
community through in part this mechanism in our State
Department I think is a very important adjunct to uniform
policy and to making sure we protect the U.S. competitive
advantage in the global arena. So I was very pleased to offer
an amendment to this bill and that the chairman has
incorporated it into the substitute amendment establishing the
Advisory Panel on International Scientific Cooperation.
The district I represent, Mr. Chairman, is a very high tech
district. This is the kind of thing that a lot of businesses, a
lot of individuals from my district certainly and across the
Nation want to see and want to see as a key part of our foreign
policy moving forward, our diplomacy moving forward.
So I want to thank the chairman for his leadership, and I
look forward to supporting this legislation and I thank you for
incorporating my amendment. I yield back.
Chairman Berman. The gentleman yields back. The co-sponsor
of this legislation has been a very wonderful person to work
with on this issue. The gentleman from Nebraska, Mr.
Fortenberry, seeks recognition, moves to strike the last word,
and the gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Fortenberry. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your
kind words, and thank you, Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen, as well
for your efforts today on this markup.
But also I want to welcome the opportunity, as you have
said, Mr. Chairman, to comment on the significance of the
United States leadership and technology in the role of science
and diplomacy and how this bill potentially furthers those
efforts.
For decades, the U.S. Government has supported the exchange
program based on the premise that individuals of goodwill can
make a difference to help build just societies that serve
people with integrity. To the extent that the United States can
better leverage its technical expertise through prudent public
diplomacy and engage others to join our commitment in the
service of very worthy goals, we may actually help deprive
twisted ideologies and corrupt institutions elsewhere of the
resources they might otherwise obtain by default to perpetrate
misery and suffering around the world.
And that is exactly what this bill seeks to do. Ours is an
era of unprecedented scientific achievement that can either be
directed for great good or devastating harm to all of humanity.
The choices is ours, and I believe we must lead or others may
lead us where we may not wish to go.
Mr. Chairman, Albert Einstein once said that ``concern for
man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of
all technical endeavor.'' He called on his fellow scientists to
``never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and
equations.''
This is the kind of science that will lead to numerous
benefits across every sector of human endeavor. This is the
kind of science our public policy should support. Simply put,
effective scientific collaboration that may, for instance,
mitigate security risks posed by weapons of mass destruction or
promote ethical research to benefit humanity, advancing goals
that all Americans can proudly share, is a good thing.
If one can collaborate effectively to divert energy and
resources from let us say a potentially devastating
catastrophic attack on civilians into a project that brings
sanitation to dozens of rural villages or provides sustainable
agriculture to help local communities take full ownership of
their nutritional needs or lead to a cure or treatment of a
disease that has thus far received far too little attention
relative to its lethal effects, our exercise today may result
in chaos averted, lives saved and prove to be one small step
for common sense.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership on this,
and I yield back.
Chairman Berman. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Does any member seek recognition?
[No response.]
Chairman Berman. Hearing no further amendments, I ask
unanimous consent the amendment in the nature of a substitute
is amended to H.R. 4801, the Global Science Program and
Security, Competitiveness and Diplomacy Act of 2010, is
considered adopted, and I move that the bill as amended be
reported favorably to the House. All those in favor say aye.
[Chorus of ayes.]
Chairman Berman. All those opposed, say no.
[Chorus of noes.]
Chairman Berman. In the opinion of the chair the ayes have
it, and the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the staff
is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes.
I thank all the members on both sides for participation,
and the committee hearing markup is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:15 a.m. the committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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