Follow-up: How Happy is Ann Kuster about the VAWA Vote Now? - Granite Grok

Follow-up: How Happy is Ann Kuster about the VAWA Vote Now?

child_prostitution

Yesterday I pointed out that according to Heritage the 2013 re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) included provisions that violated the constitution by giving Federal authority to tribal courts.

Today, we discover that the 78 Senators and 286 House members who voted (some happily) for S.47, the (Violence Against Women Re-authorization Act of 2013), also voted to prohibit the charging or prosecution of minors caught engaging in prostitution.  Put another way…when they voted for the VAWA they effectively decriminalized child prostitution.

oops.

The provision was included in amendment 21, inserted by socialist Patrick Lahey from Vermont, the Bill sponsor.  The same amendment also slashes the budget of the agency responsible for tracking and reporting human trafficking by more than 70%.

Lahey’s left wing thinking was most certainly to shield child minors from the taint of a criminal record in an effort to direct them into the arms of the benevolent state and the warm embrace of its rehabilitation services.  But as Janice Shaw Crouse & Brenda Zurita observe over at American Thinker

On the domestic side of the legislation, senators and representatives voted to endorse the decriminalization of prostitution for minors in the United States. Did they do this because there are many, many minors being arrested for prostitution? According to the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports, there were only 763 arrests of minors in the United States for “prostitution and commercialized vice” crimes in 2011.

SA 21 contains a provision to change the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Model State Criminal Provisions on Pimping, Pandering, and Prostitution, which is model legislation the DOJ promotes to the states. The change would, in effect, decriminalize prostitution for minors, meaning the DOJ will encourage states to prohibit the charging or prosecution of a minor for engaging in or attempting to engage in prostitution.

While this sounds like a compassionate thing to do, it may actually lead to an increase in the number of minors in prostitution. As the number of arrests shows, police are not arresting great numbers of minors. However, gangs are using prostitution to make money.

So New Hampshire Congresswoman Ann Kuster tried to fund-raise off a vote she made that violates the constitution  decriminalizes child prostitution–to the likely enrichment of gangs by the way, and almost entirely de-funds the US agency tasked with tracking human slavery for the Federal government.

That might be two firsts.  The all-woman New Hampshire delegation effectively legalizes child prostitution, and at least one female congressional Democrat tries to raise campaign money after the vote.  Anyone know if New Hampshire Democrat Carol Shea-Porter tried to fund-raise off this vote as well?

 

US House and Senate Roll Calls for S 47

 

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