President Bush today signed sweeping legislation that authorizes more than $200 million over the next two years for the fight against the international trafficking of women and children. 

    Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), the author of the legislation, The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (HR 2620), said his new law “provides better tools for law enforcement, tougher penalties for traffickers; and grants new rights and assistance to the victims of trafficking."

    “The law signed by President Bush today will significantly enhance the ability of the United States to prosecute traffickers and better aid the victims, who are primarily women and children,” Smith said. “The law expands counseling and shelter assistance to the victims, grants them the right to sue their captors, and extends visa protections for younger women who are caught in the cycle of trafficking."

    “The new law also toughens penalties for traffickers and gives new tools to law enforcement by including human trafficking in the list of racketeering offenses covered under the federal RICO Statute,” Smith said.

    “For the first time,” Smith said, “US federal agencies will be given new powers to terminate international contracts of companies or employees found to be engaging in sex trafficking or found to be using forced labor to execute their contracts. This new authority, combined with the extended authority to sanction governments that do not work to combat trafficking, offers a one-two punch that will help us get the traffickers at the source,” Smith said.

    The law strengthens and expands measures proscribed in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which Smith also authored. The original trafficking law set landmark benchmarks for international efforts to combat human trafficking, causing numerous nations to pass tough laws, train police forces and border guards, initiate public information campaigns and provide increased protection for trafficking victims. It delineated new standards within the United States for the compassionate treatment of those rescued from the traffickers and the initiation of more aggressive anti-trafficking law enforcement procedures. So far three countries have been slapped with sanctions under Smith’s original law.

    “I look forward to aggressively overseeing the implementation of this new law which will help the US and our global allies eliminate the scourge of human trafficking,” Smith said