PORTLAND, Ore. -- Sen. Ron Wyden is proposing a new bill to boost protection for girls who become sex trafficking victims and tougher prosecution for the men who exploit them.

The Oregon Democrat was joined at a news conference Thursday afternoon in Portland by law enforcement leaders, including Multnomah County Commissioner Diane McKeel and District Attorney Michael Schrunk.

Wyden said sex trafficking amounts to slavery, and the new bill would fund social and legal services to help girls escape from pimps who prostitute them.

It will also provide housing, clothing, counseling and job training to prevent girls from returning to the streets.

The proposed legislation would target federal funds to states with the greatest need, including Oregon. Each pilot project would receive a grant of $2.5 million for victims and to expand sex trafficking investigations.

"These girls, in my view, are not the real criminals. But you can bet their pimps are. They live off the exploitation of others," Wyden said.

Jeri Williams, a former prostitute, listened to Wyden's plan approvingly. She said she came to Portland 20 years ago and, soon after, began walking the streets.

"(I) got beaten up regularly. Got raped regularly. Got locked in my apartment bedroom except to go out and work on the streets," Williams said.

Williams now has a job and volunteers in programs for women who are trying to escape prostitution.

"Then I went to the Council for Prostitution Alternatives. And I lived in a women's shelter, the West Women's Shelter, for 14 months. And that's where I had my first full-blown first traumatic stress disorder, and then I could start to recover and understand why I accepted that abuse all my life," Williams said.

Wyden Proposes Bill To Reduce Sex Trafficking