Week 3 signaled committee meetings were in full swing. Once the deadline to introduce general bills and constitutional amendments passed last Monday, Speaker Philip Gunn’s office began referring to them to committees. The committees only have a couple of weeks to consider bills before the next deadline. Typically, a couple of thousand bills will be introduced, and only a few hundred will remain after the committee deadline.
Last week also brought welcome news on a bill I wrote about last week. House Bill 366, known as the Rural Broadband Enabling Act, passed its Senate committee and then unanimously passed the full Senate. The bill now heads to Gov. Phil Bryant’s desk.
However, the House wasted no time in pushing forward on a pre-session pledge made by Speaker Gunn. House Bill 571 represents another effort to combat human trafficking in our state. It passed both committee and the full House unanimously. Before I go into the specifics of HB 571, I’ll offer some background information.
When this issue came forward in one of my first years in the Legislature, I had to ask the question: What exactly is human trafficking? According to the Department of Homeland Security, human trafficking is “modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” It is the second most profitable form of transnational crime, trailing only drug trafficking.
In its 2018 report, Shared Hope International, a non-profit that strives to prevent conditions that foster human trafficking, gave Mississippi a “B” grade for its human trafficking laws. One gap in Mississippi law that anti-human trafficking advocates pointed to was the need to better classify victims. For example, a minor picked up for prostitution could very well be trapped in a sex trafficking situation.
HB 571 does the following:
• It provides for immunity by decriminalizing prostitution for minors under the age of 18, stipulating that they cannot be charged with a crime of prostitution. This helps solve the problem of victims not coming forward because they believe they will be charged with a crime.
• It works to create pathways to specialized services for child survivors of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
• It empowers more law enforcement to get proper training in recognizing, responding and supporting victims of human trafficking and child prostitution.
There are other gaps that the areas of the state will need to address going forward. One is building the state’s capacity to identify, support and assist victims after they are freed. Sadly, this is one crime that will constantly demand that we evolve in our ability to respond and fight. However, I’m grateful to have been part of several rounds of new laws over the past few years to work toward ending human trafficking.
Another noncontroversial bill brought to the House floor included HB 793, which would prohibit any food product that contains cultured animal tissue and plant or insect-based products from being labeled as “meat.”
Feel free to contact me with any questions and concerns at kmorgan@house.ms.gov. Thank you for the honor of serving District 100 in the House of Representatives.
Ken Morgan is state representative for House District 100, representing parts of Marion and Lamar counties. A member since 2007, he serves as chairman of the House Forestry Committee.
