ATEST Applauds Senate Passage of Anti-trafficking Act Reauthorization

The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) applauds members of the U.S. Senate for yesterday’s passage of S. 920, the International Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2024. The bill was approved by voice vote.

The landmark U.S. anti-trafficking act, first approved nearly 25 years ago, created one of the world’s most comprehensive whole-of-government approaches to combating forced labor and sex trafficking. It requires periodic reauthorizations. While parts of the law were reauthorized in 2022, other portions have awaited approval by Congress.

S. 920 includes both domestic and international provisions, including several anti-trafficking policy improvements proposed by ATEST. Policy highlights of the bill include:

  • Grants to educate school children about the risks of trafficking
  • Grants to support survivor employment and education programs
  • Requiring the U.S. to champion anti-trafficking assessments and mitigation programs in loans granted by multilateral development banks
  • Integrating anti-trafficking strategies into all programming at the U.S. Agency for International Development
  • Protecting domestic workers brought to the U.S. by diplomats

Also, the bill reauthorizes funding for anti-trafficking programs at the Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which produces the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, oversees governmental coordination activities of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and supports the inclusion of trafficking survivor expertise into federal programs through management of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking.

ATEST thanks Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID) for their diligent bipartisan efforts to advance S. 920 to full Senate passage. The bill is also co-sponsored by Senators Marco Rubio (F-FL) and Tim Kaine (D-VA).

The Senate bill integrates provisions from the House version of the anti-trafficking act reauthorization, H.R. 5856, sponsored by Chris Smith (R-NJ), Susan Wild (D-PA) and Michael McCaul (R-TX). The House passed its bill earlier this year in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 414 to 11. Thursday’s vote to approve the Senate version of the bill now moves reauthorization back to the House for consideration during the final week of the 118th Congress. ATEST has endorsed both H.R. 5856 and S. 920 and urges Congress to finalize reauthorization of this critical legislation.

ATEST

The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) is a U.S. based coalition that advocates for solutions to prevent and end all forms of human trafficking and modern slavery around the world.

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