In the Press...
The Daily Signal article on Smith's press conference on HR 1144'Congress Advances Prevention and Education to End Human Trafficking'By Virginia Grace McKinnon Congress is putting parties aside to extend the bipartisan protection and prevention of human trafficking in the United States. The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act has been stalled in the House since February 2025. But Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Kwesi Mfume, D-Md., are now calling for more education to prevent human trafficking, increased funding to support victims, and stronger guardrails to combat trafficking abroad. “Survivors told us clearly that healing doesn’t end when someone exits a trafficking situation—it’s just the beginning,” Smith said at a press conference on Thursday. “They asked for safe housing, mental health support, education, and job training. We listened.”
Smith announced that House leadership agreed to schedule the debate, and a vote, which is expected in two to three weeks. The wait time is based on other legislation already lined up, mainly FISA reauthorization. One key component Smith highlighted from this bill is the education element. “There will be targeted funding for grants to hire prevalent higher risk populations. … That’ll be done through a careful analysis, where those grants should go,” Smith told The Daily Signal. Smith highlighted the educational organizations he worked closely with on the legislation. 3Strands Global Foundation has digital training materials ready to send to schools for teachers to facilitate; Paving the Way Foundation does in-person training at schools by experts. “We need to get those into every elementary and secondary school,” Smith continued. “It’s all age appropriate, and it empowers the students as well as the teachers, the principals, the school boards, and the people. We need an all-out effort to not just mitigate, but to end this exploitation of our young people,” Smith said. The legislation will direct different programs across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, and Department of State to combat human trafficking and support victims. Kevin Malone, a senior advisor at HHS, claimed that the gap is not knowledge, but rather funding, and the $31 million this bill appropriates to HHS is not enough. “We need more money from Congress to fight for Americans, adults, and children,” Malone said. “We’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got, but Congress, wake up, you’re funding all these other things. Let’s fund the protection and the help for children.” Smith acknowledged that while the progress is undeniable, “the fight is far from over.” “Today’s trafficking networks are more sophisticated, more global, and more brazen than ever, exploiting women, men, and children.” The legislation will also expand Megan’s Law, a federal and state law that requires sex offenders to register and notify the public. Under this new legislation, Megan’s Law would extend to foreign travel by requiring sex offenders’ passports to be stamped, allowing border control to identify them as such. Smith originally introduced and passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000. Since then, 5,200 traffickers have been federally convicted, including Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, under this legal framework. |
