When I first introduced the Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), the legislation was met with a wall of skepticism and opposition—dismissed by many as a solution in search of a problem. Several Members of Congress turned me down when I asked them to cosponsor the bill. For most people at that time—including lawmakers—the term trafficking applied almost exclusively to drugs and weapons, not human beings.

                Reports of vulnerable persons—especially women and children—being reduced to commodities for sale were often met with surprise, incredulity or indifference.

                My legislation—the Trafficking Victims Protection Act signed into law in the year 2000, created a new whole-of-government domestic and international strategy and established numerous new programs to protect victims, prosecute traffickers and to the extent possible prevent it in the first place—the three Ps.

                (Over the years, I’ve authored four additional laws to combat human trafficking—including in 2003, 2005, 2016, and 2019.)

                The Trafficking Victims Protection Act included a number of “sea change” criminal code reforms including treating as a victim—and not a perpetrator of a crime—anyone exploited by a commercial sex act who had not attained the age of 18 and anyone older where there was an element of force, fraud or coercion.

                More than 4,800 major purveyors of sex and labor trafficking have been convicted and jailed for 20 to life in the United States and countless victims have been rescued and given a second chance.

                That said, believing that federal law needed parallel state and local statues to effectuate an effective prosecution strategy, the TVPA included new DOJ programs to assist states in crafting laws.

                In like manner, the TVPA provides law reform and best practices technical assistance to other countries. We want the whole world on the same page—with laws, policies and priorities that aggressively attack this insidious evil.

                Among its many other provisions, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act  created: the trafficking hot line, the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Office and annual TIP report with its tier grading of every nation’s record in making “serious and sustained efforts” to eliminate human trafficking. Those relegated to what we call Tier 3—egregious violators—are subject to sanctions.                                                                                                                                                                             

                Meanwhile, in 2008, I first introduced International Megan’s Law. It passed the House in 2010, 2014, 2016—and, thankfully, finally cleared the United States Senate and was signed into law in 2016—eights years later!

                Megan Kanka was from my hometown of Hamilton was just 7 years old when she was kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered in 1994. Her assailant lived across the street. Unbeknownst to her family and other residents in the neighborhood, he was a convicted repeat child sex offender.

                Megan’s heartbroken-to-this day-parents—Maureen and Richard Kanka—have been amazingly effective, courageous and heroic in successfully pushing every state in the union including New Jersey to enact Megan’s Law.

                Why International Megan’s Law? We know from law enforcement, academia and media documentation that Americans on the U.S. sex offender registries are frequently caught sexually abusing children in Asia, Central and South America, Europe, and, frankly, everywhere.

                The inherent secrecy of international travel enables child exploitation.

From left to right: Martin Gillespie, Dr. Alveda King, and Rep. Chris Smith.

                A deeply disturbing 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that at least 4,500 U.S. passports were issued to registered sex offenders in fiscal year 2008 alone. Typically, a passport is valid for 10 years, meaning some or many of the tens of thousands of registered sex offenders possessing passports may be on the prowl internationally looking to exploit and abuse.

                Now, under International Megan’s Law, convicted child sex offenders who travel abroad must provide notice to the U.S. Government—via the Angel Watch Center—prior to departure of all planned destinations. Failure to do so carries a significant jail term commensurate with a convicted child sex abuser not reporting to local law enforcement. Upon receipt of the travel itinerary, the U.S. government informs the destination country or countries of those plans.

                The destination country or countries are then empowered with actionable information to render the traveler inadmissible.

                The law is working as intended—the U.S. government has notified foreign governments of the planned travel of 42,000 covered sex offenders to their countries. More than 14,000 individuals who were convicted of sex crimes against children were denied entry by these nations.

                Concerned that some may fail to include their true destination when filing—and out of an abundance of caution and concern for kids—their passports contain the following message that will not likely go unnoticed by border agents: “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212(b).”

                The Act also created a new policy of reciprocity—an attempt to get other countries to warn us when a convicted pedophile plans to travel to the United States, empowering us to deny entry.

                But let me be clear: while we have made some progress in the struggle to end trafficking in all of its cruel manifestations, the crisis has not diminished—it has evolved. It has become more global, more sophisticated, and more dangerous.

                That is why we must act again.

                Last year, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed my bill, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2025. This legislation reauthorizes and strengthens the TVPA for a new era of threats.                                                                                                 
                Named after Frederick Douglass—a man born into slavery who became one of the greatest champions of human freedom (and a Republican)—this bill—H.R. 1144,  was crafted in close collaboration with survivors.

                It strengthens programs across the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. It enhances protections for victims, expands prevention efforts in our schools, and ensures traffickers are aggressively prosecuted.

                It restores and strengthens law enforcement capacity, ensuring traffickers—not victims—face justice. And it provides survivors with the support they need to rebuild their lives, including safe housing and pathways to self-sufficiency.

                This bill has passed the House before—twice—only to stall in the Senate. We cannot allow that to happen again. Not when lives are at stake. Not when children are being exploited. Not when survivors are depending on us.

                If we hesitate, victims suffer. If we retreat, exploitation spreads.