U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was in the Granite State Friday making several stops in Manchester including to meet with law enforcement and statewide agencies to advocate for her new legislation on human trafficking.
If passed the Senator’s bill would funnel more funding into treatment programs as well as cleanse a victim’s record of offenses such as prostitution or drug smuggling that occurred while being trafficked.
“Crimes that don’t involve violence that often follow victims of human trafficking for the rest of their lives and prevent them from getting a good job and living a normal life,” Shaheen told NHPR Friday.
During the roundtable discussion, many said that a lack of statewide data prevented many agencies from qualifying for certain grants that would provide them with more resources for victims.
A human trafficking bill is stuck in the Senate, and Jon Stewart went ballistic -- in a preview of a fake C-SPAN2 show called "Hatewatch" he joked he would be joining after he left "The Daily Show."
"So it appears the Senate is stuck on a bill I'm sure every American who's not actively involved in trafficking humans for sex would support," he said.
Republicans had entered anti-abortion language into the bill months ago, which Democrats only now filibustered after admitting they didn't actual read it when it first passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"Sen. Harry Reid, the guy in charge of Senate Democrats, whose last name is literally "read," how did you not read this bill?" Stewart asked.
Republicans now said they would hold off on the confirmation of President Obama's attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch. As our Mike DeBonis wrote, "a perfect storm of polarizing issues ... has made it impossible for the Senate to get even the most basic work done."
In the end, Stewart decided hosting a CSPAN2 show about Congress would be a "nightmare" and quit.