HB3623 – Before the Committee

There we were outside of the House Human Services Committee hearing room, praying together that God would bless our efforts that day on behalf of thousands of human trafficking victims in our state. We filled about a third of the room as James Barta and Stacy Bellavia testified briefly and then asked all of us with OCCV to stand.

James is the very capable Legislative Aide to Representative Brent Barton, who is sponsoring HB 3623, the "HT Hotline" bill we are advocating. Stacy, who served for two years in India with the International Justice Mission (IJM) and now works for the DHS hotline, is a very active member of our Human Trafficking Committee.

Only one member of the committee had a question, a good one, in fact, asking if the Department of Agriculture could become involved. The bill authorizes that hotline stickers be sent to all businesses authorized to sell alcohol (posting them is optional), but the agricultural department can help with gas stations and truck stops. Already the state's rest stops are being covered.

In all we had 22 in our number, filling a third of the hearing room and looking very impressive, especially when we all stood. All were there in response to our appeal from the Oregon Center for Christian Values, several representing other organizations also fighting HT, including OATH, Door to Grace, Not for Sale, along with some students from the IJM chapter at George Fox University.

After the hearing we connected with Representative Barton as well as Representative Jefferson Smith, the other avid sponsor of this bill, and then fanned out to visit every single office of Oregon's 90 State Senators and Representatives. I went to visit my own Senator Mark Hass and Representative Tobias Read, and also dropped in on the office of Representative Jeff Barker, the other representative sharing Senator Hass' district.

We'll keep close track of this bill as it winds its way through the Assembly and on to the Senate in the next few days. Meanwhile we are gearing up for making this bill effective once it is passed. There is no opposition to the bill. At most, some legislators are not familiar with the issue. The greater concern we have is that while this is a legislative bill, it depends entirely on private funds and the work of volunteers to implement.

In the next few months we trust we can find printers willing to donate their time and effort and individuals willing to fund the printing of 11,000 hotline stickers (Polaris Project, which runs the hotline, provides the initial batch of stickers). We already have lots of interest from friends wanting to volunteer to stuff the envelopes at the OLCC. ("What did you do over spring break?" "Oh, I worked at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission!") The first of four annual mailings gets prepared in April. Meanwhile over this next year, we will talk with businesses who sell alcohol to make sure they are posting the sticker.

The sticker itself is currently being designed, with input from Polaris Project, Representative Barton's office and Stephanie Mathis, OCCV's Executive Director. The sticker is about the size of a dollar bill. Hopefully very soon, people will be noticing it showing up all over Oregon.

Oregon is affected by this problem more than most states. With our location on the I-5 corridor, Oregon has become a hub for the smugglers and pimps who are forcing these victims into prostitution and other forms of modern slavery and moving them north and south to cities all along the West Coast. If you want to read through more of our OCCV talking points, check the post from this past Tuesday for the link.

As I wrote my legislators, "As a Christian, I am keen to head the call of Psalm 82:3, which says, 'Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.' Not all human trafficking victims start out poor, but they all end up that way and all are greatly oppressed with no way out, their minds and bodies raped for the financial and power gain of others. I am compelled as a Believer to do all I can to speak out for biblical justice and to set the oppressed free."

If you live in Oregon and want to help, write your state legislator today, or for more information contact us at info@occv.org. If you live outside of Oregon, find out how you can make a difference in the lives of the world's 27 million human trafficking victims. Let's commit ourselves to releasing the oppressed (Luke 4:18) and making this world HT-Free!