CV NEWS FEED // The House of Representatives this week passed legislation to reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) “in a landslide vote of 414-11,” to help strengthen the fight against human trafficking.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a Catholic, authored the legislation, called the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act, or HR 5856, which will “expand successful anti-trafficking programs to bolster the fight against modern-day slavery.”
“This critical legislation reauthorizes funding for FY2024 through 2028—a total of five years—to continue current year enacted appropriation and authorization levels to enhance programs, strengthen laws, and add accountability,” Smith stated on February 14.
Kenneth Morris Jr., President of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, also helped create the legislation.
Morris stated, “In the words of my great-great-great grandfather and the great American abolitionist Frederick Douglass—enslavement is a scourge on humanity that ‘to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. Expose slavery, and it dies.”
Smith’s legislation will also reauthorize funding for a law that requires convicted child sex offenders to notify the United States Government before departing for any locations abroad. This law, called International Megan’s Law, requires that “[upon] receipt of the travel itinerary, the US government informs the destination country or countries of those plans,” according to a press release.
The Frederick Douglass Act also promotes training programs for elementary and secondary-school age students, and faculty, on situational awareness and prevention of trafficking.
Morris stated, “Congressman Smith’s TVPA has shaped the domestic and international anti-trafficking landscape since 2000 creating empowering programs for survivors and strengthening efforts to prosecute traffickers.”
“Since 2018 his law has been named after my ancestor, Frederick Douglass, thereby emphasizing education and resilience as effective means to prevent human trafficking among children, prevent re-trafficking of survivors, and provide support and hope to survivors in their journeys toward self-empowerment,” Morris added.
The Frederick Douglas Act also “[authorizes] a new $175 million over five years program for DOJ Housing Assistance Grants,” as well as other education and employment programs, for victims of human trafficking.
The 11 representatives who voted no were all Republican: Tom McClintock (CA), Ken Buck (CO), Andrew Clyde, (GA), Marjorie Greene (GA), Thomas Massie (KY), Matthew Rosendale, (MT), Josh Brcheen (OK), Ralph Norman (SC), Keith Self (TX), Chip Roy (TX), and Harriet Hagemen (WY).
The Frederick Douglass Act will go to the Senate next. Read the full list of the Act’s functions here.
