JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner on Wednesday lent a hand to state Rep. Elijah Haahr, as the Republican of Springfield began his effort to pass legislation that he said will give prosecutors “another tool” to fight human sex trafficking.

Haahr’s bill – similar to one authored Wagner at the federal level – would create the crime of advertising of a victim to the state’s anti-sex trafficking laws.

“The problem in Missouri is one that’s real and growing,” Haahr told the committee, noting the fact that the $9.5 billion industry effects as many as 300,000 American children.

St. Louis, at the intersection of two major interstate highway, is one of the top 20 cities in the United States dealing with the problem, Wagner said.

“I was so shocked to learn the extent of human trafficking happening right here in the United States,” said Wagner, who passed her bill in the U.S. House last year. “These are not nameless and faceless victims from some far off land. They’re our sisters and daughters and neighbors.”

Wagner said there is a “desperate need” to update both the state and federal statutes dealing with child sex crimes, which have not been changed since the dawn of the digital age. Wagner said online sales site like Backpage “reap enormous profits from six trafficking.”

Wagner’s legislation has stalled in the Senate, where Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, is leading a similar effort.