The Iowa Standard took part in Tuesday’s Capitol Hill Report with Sen. Charles Grassley. We asked Sen. Grassley about his meeting the previous week with members of the Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking.
Teresa Davidson, an Iowan, was included in the council.
“One of the purposes of the meeting is because I nominated an Iowan from Cedar Rapids to serve on it and was to thank her for her service,” Grassley said. “But another thing was, this commission was set up maybe two years ago but didn’t get started until January, with a sunset of this year. They don’t even have their work done, so I introduced a bill to extend the reauthorization of that partnership that your question implies and, can you believe it, Democrats are blocking my reauthorization of that partnership so that they can complete the work they were assigned to do.
“Now, this isn’t a group of people that’s going to exist forever. It was sunset for a purpose – get your work done, get a report made. But they’ve only been meeting for a few months. In fact, maybe it’d be more accurate to say just a few meetings and their work isn’t done. So, why would the Democrats refuse to allow a few more months beyond the sunset to complete their work? Because human trafficking, sex trafficking is an abomination. And you would think the Democrats would think that is an abomination. And if we’ve got a committee set up to study it and make recommendations, they ought to be able to finish their work. I think it’s an abomination that the Democrats are doing that. Maybe they’ll see the light of day and we’ll get the bill passed.”
