Human Trafficking Legislation Passes House

On February 13, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to pass the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Re-authorization Act of 2023 (H.R. 5856). This bipartisan measure would do several things to combat the scourge of human trafficking, including: 

• Reauthorize various programs under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 through Fiscal Year 2028 (which lapsed September 30, 2021), with approximately $1 billion in funding for anti-trafficking efforts over the next five years;

• Authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out a Human Trafficking Survivors Employment and Education Program to prevent the re-exploitation of eligible individuals with services that help them to attain life skills, employment, and education necessary to achieve self-sufficiency;

• Authorize grants for programs that prevent and detect trafficking of school-age children in a “linguistically accessible, culturally responsive, age-appropriate, and trauma-informed fashion”; and

• Require the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to encourage integration of activities to counter human trafficking into its broader programming.