PUBLIC LAW 115-425 * JANUARY 8, 2019
Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention
and Protection Reauthorization Act
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Prime Sponsor: Mr. Christopher H. Smith (NJ)
H.R. 2200-Signed by the President on January 8, 2019
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SUMMARY AND MAIN PROVISIONS
The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention, Protection, and Reauthorization Act honors the 200th birthday of slavery survivor and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and reauthorizes $430 million in current funds appropriated to ensure an integrated, whole-of-government response to fight human trafficking for the next four years. Among other additions to the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and the previous four reauthorizations, this legislation will help human trafficking victims at home and abroad by—
- Ensuring vulnerable children and other at-risk populations are educated to avoid traffickers;
- Encouraging the Department of Justice to place an emphasis in grants on special housing needs of disconnected and underserved foster youth;
- Preferring in government travel contracts airlines that have in place anti-trafficking training and victim reporting policies for their employees;
- Creating a special complaint mechanism in embassies whereby the U.S. is warned of traffickers exploiting the U.S. entry system;
- Increasing transparency and oversight of U.S. government grants to fight trafficking;
- Facilitating trafficking-free supply chains in private business by clarifying in Department of Labor reports the products that incorporate slavery-made goods;
- Encouraging enforcement of the Tariff Act of 1930’s prohibition on the importation of goods made with forced labor;
- Designating one prosecutor in each of the Department of Justice’s focus districts to investigate and prosecute labor trafficking cases;
- Preventing abuse of domestic servants in embassies and diplomatic homes in the U.S.;
- Encouraging credible and effective use of the trafficking tier ranking system by the U.S. Department of State in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report;
- Educating procurement officers in U.S. government agencies to apply all U.S. law and regulations preventing purchases of goods made with trafficking or services from contractors who participate in human trafficking;
- Ensuring that U.S. military assistance does not go to foreign governments that use child soldiers;
- Encouraging USAID to integrate human trafficking prevention into disaster relief.
Text of Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention, Protection, and Reauthorization Act.
