Addressing hospitality industry leaders at a safety summit gathering this week, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), an internationally recognized leader in the fight against human trafficking, highlighted the critical need to advance new legislation he authored that would help put an end to the heinous crime and protect victims in industries that are especially vulnerable to trafficking.

            “It is no secret that hotels are common sites for human trafficking,” said Rep. Smith, who has authored five anti-trafficking laws, including the nation’s historic Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

            “We cannot stop the spread of modern-day slavery without collaboration between the U.S. government and courageous leaders in every industry touched by trafficking, especially the hospitality industry,” Smith said to those gathered at the Hotel and Lodging Association’s 2022 Safety Summit.

            “My bipartisan, survivor-informed legislation would establish new anti-trafficking policies in hotels that accommodate thousands of federal employees, including training hotel staff to identify warning signs, act immediately to report suspicious behavior to law enforcement and rescue trafficking victims—many of whom are women and children,” Smith said.

            Introduced earlier this year, Smith’s legislation—the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022—would provide approximately $1 billion over five years to strengthen and expand successful programs and laws to combat modern-day slavery.

            Endorsed by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, Smith’s legislation won unanimous support from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a February vote to send the bill to the House Floor for consideration and passage. Smith’s bill has broad support from major anti-trafficking organizations, including from ECPAT-USA, Anti-Trafficking International, Hope for Justice and others.

            Smith thanked leaders from the American Hotel and Lodging Association for their tremendous partnership over the last few years to help draft the legislation and develop effective trainings to equip employees to spot and stop trafficking in hotels. 

            “Your commitment and remarkable efforts to mitigate the grave harms of modern-day slavery and to train over 600,000 hotel employees nationwide is a big step toward ending the scourge of human trafficking,” said Smith.

              “We cannot let our guard down,” Smith said. “We must continue to do everything we can to stop this heinous crime.”

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