Sponsors (24)
Introduced February 7, 2025 by Christopher Henry Smith · Last progress February 7, 2025
The bill boosts domestic survivor services, prevention education, and transparency while sustaining some international efforts, but it also shifts and caps overseas funding, raises administrative and privacy risks, and may leave some survivors or foreign programs underfunded or disadvantaged.
Survivors of human trafficking (domestic and abroad) will get expanded direct services and crisis support: $35M/year in OVC housing grants (2025–2029), $30.755M/year for HHS victim services including $5M/year for the National Human Trafficking Hotline, plus up to 5 years of education, job training, legal help, and case management for reintegration.
Students in high-prevalence areas will receive prioritized, culturally and age-appropriate trafficking-prevention education and schools will get resources and train‑the‑trainer support to scale local educator and guardian training and better protect children online and offline.
The bill strengthens oversight and transparency: required data collection, public reporting, competitive grant rules, and congressional notifications should improve accountability and program design for anti‑trafficking funding.
Funding for U.S. international assistance to fight trafficking is substantially reduced or capped in places (State Dept international assistance cut from prior $65M to $11M/year; Diplomatic and Consular Programs authorized at $3M/year; $37.5M cap on certain programs), risking significant service gaps for victims and prevention overseas.
Limiting survivor services to a cumulative 5‑year period may leave people who need long‑term support without assistance, increasing risk of re‑exploitation and unstable reintegration.
Expanding grant priorities, new programs, and added reporting requirements will increase federal and departmental costs (HHS, State) and may raise taxpayer burden and compliance expenses.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Expands school prevention grants, creates a 5‑year survivors employment and education program, revises Tier 2 watch‑list criteria, and updates FY2025–FY2029 authorizations and reporting rules.
Reauthorizes and updates federal anti‑trafficking programs by expanding school‑based prevention grants, creating a new HHS survivors employment and education program, changing how countries are placed on the Tier 2 watch list, and revising funding authorizations for 2025–2029. It adds new grant selection priorities, data collection and public reporting requirements, requires competitive grant awards, and sets new funding levels and purpose language for State, HHS, and victim service programs. The bill focuses on prevention education in high‑risk school districts, multiagency consultation to identify at‑risk areas and populations, multi‑year services for eligible survivors (education, employment, case management, legal help), and adjusted international reporting criteria and funding caps to support anti‑trafficking efforts domestically and abroad.