Anti-Trafficking Legislation
On October 23, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed, by voice vote, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act (H.R. 3887), a bill to reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (P.L. 106-386) through FY2011. The current authorization (P.L. 109-164) expired on September 30, 2007; the program is expected to be reauthorized in the near future.
The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act (H.R.3887) would authorize approximately $146 million for FY2008 through 2011 to provide a wide-ranging set of new initiatives to prevent trafficking abroad, protect victims in the United States, and prosecute perpetrators around the globe.
The bill would require, within one year of its enactment, the attorney general and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees identifying the existence or extent of any service gap between foreign and United States victims of severe forms of trafficking and victims of sex trafficking. The study is expected to include findings, best practices, and recommendations based on an assessment of the following:
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