ATEST Recommends Policy and Budget Priorities to Trump Transition Team
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) today provided key recommendations for how the incoming administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump can combat forced labor, human trafficking and modern slavery during his second term in office.
Read the recommendations:
- Presidential Priorities for Ending Forced Labor, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery 2025-2029
- FY26 Anti-trafficking Budget Recommendations to the White House Office of Management and Budget
The memos stress that forced labor/human trafficking is a national security, global trade, economic growth, public health and criminal justice issue – as well as a violation of fundamental human rights. Anti-trafficking programs have broad bipartisan support.
The recommendations focus on eight priority agencies: The Executive Office of the President; the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, State, Justice, Homeland Security, Education; and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Along with agency-specific recommendations, the memos include important cross-cutting opportunities for action, including: institutionalizing the inclusion of survivors in federal anti-trafficking programs, articulating the business case for ending trafficking, ensuring that goods tainted by forced labor aren’t imported into the U.S., ensuring that no federal tax dollars are spent on products tainted by trafficking, expanding the use of data-driven decision making, focusing on both labor and sex trafficking, and preventing exploitation before it starts by addressing root causes.
ATEST has prepared transition information for every incoming administration since 2008, including President Trump’s first term. Our memos are the most comprehensive set of anti-trafficking recommendations prepared by civil society organizations in the U.S.
Next year, the first year of the incoming administration, is the 25th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the U.N. Palermo Protocol. These groundbreaking achievements in 2000 form the cornerstones of anti-trafficking programs inside the U.S. and around the world. The Trump Administration can mark this anniversary by reaffirming America’s commitment to ending all forms of forced labor and human trafficking through strategic policy improvements and investments in a whole-of-government approach.
Contact: ATEST Director Terry FitzPatrick | [email protected] | Cell 571-282-9913
