Before everyone stops paying attention for the long weekend, wanted to draw your attention to a few very overlooked bills that were approved this week... reason.com/blog/2018/12/2… 
One of them, named after Frederick Douglass, says cops, prosecutors, & judges must be trained on “best practices” for arresting people who pay for sex reason.com/blog/2018/12/2…
Another one (S. 1311) would allow state law enforcement to secretly intercept “wire, oral, or electronic communications” of sex workers & their customers congress.gov/bill/115th-con…
Another (S.1312) lets the Secret Service participate in any state or local investigation it wants to... congress.gov/bill/115th-con…
That 1 also gives DOJ power to “bring a civil action to stop or prevent" crimes *related to suspected* forced labor, forced prostitution, or sexual abuse... That's a lot of business-ending power against entities for which DOJ doesn't even have enough evidence for a criminal case
There’s a lot about “sextortion" in here, which is a new scary word Congress is determined to panic about & throw $$ at reason.com/blog/2018/12/2…
Public school kids will now get lessons about the dangers of “sextortion,” prostitution, human trafficking, & sexting... reason.com/blog/2018/12/2…
... And all 4 of these measures (reason.com/blog/2018/12/2…) were approved by the sort of unrecorded, discussion-free, and accountability-proof "voice votes" @RepThomasMassie has been protesting all week in the House
BUT, it's not all bad! There are a lot of accountability measures in here too, and demands for long overdue data (including about FBI stings like Operation Cross Country)
And Senate rejected a House proposal to only let gov employees stay at hotels that go through rigorous "anti-trafficking training"
to me, though, the craziest part is that there's actually LESS sex-trafficking panic & inaccurate stats in these bills than about any similar measure we've seen this century
Look—here's how Congress describes the scope of human trafficking in the US: we don't know
Look—here's how Congress describes the scope of human trafficking in the US: we don't know
plus, Congress just passed 4 big HUMAN TRAFFICKING bills with almost zero fanfare.
that's nuts compared to how much hoopla surrounded the passing of SESTA/FOSTA, or the SAVE Act & JVTA in 2015, or any recent related laws
that's nuts compared to how much hoopla surrounded the passing of SESTA/FOSTA, or the SAVE Act & JVTA in 2015, or any recent related laws
