Sponsors (4)
This bill strengthens federal coordination, funding, training, research, and outreach to detect and prevent human trafficking in transportation—improving identification and services for victims—while increasing federal spending, administrative burdens for smaller operators, and privacy/rights risks that could require careful mitigation and local flexibility.
Transportation employees, law enforcement, and travelers will receive standardized, mode-specific, trauma-informed training materials and toolkits within a year, improving frontline identification of and response to trafficking victims.
Researchers, DOT, and state/local transportation agencies will get coordinated, multimodal prevalence studies and research (with a comprehensive report to Congress), creating a stronger evidence base to target prevention and measure impact.
Travelers and potential trafficking victims will receive sustained national outreach and warnings at transport hubs and major events (authorized funding for a multi-year campaign), increasing public awareness and bystander reporting.
Taxpayers will fund new studies, national outreach, and grant programs (authorized amounts include at least $10M/year for outreach and $10M/year for grants FY2027–2031, plus research and administrative costs), increasing federal spending obligations.
Smaller transportation businesses and some agencies will face new administrative, reporting, and compliance burdens (implementing standardized policies, entering centralized databases, and meeting training/evaluation requirements), imposing costs and staff time.
Centralizing sensitive tip and reporting data and collecting evaluation metrics raises privacy and data‑security risks for victims, reporters, and vulnerable communities if safeguards are inadequate; broad media distribution may also raise modest free‑speech/surveillance concerns.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Directs DOT to expand research, create centralized databases and mode‑specific policies, roll out training and public awareness, and run grants to prevent human trafficking in transportation.
Introduced November 5, 2025 by Catherine Marie Cortez Masto · Last progress November 5, 2025
Directs the Department of Transportation to expand research, data tools, training, public awareness, and a grant program to prevent and respond to human trafficking across all transportation modes. It requires centralized information‑sharing databases and standardized, mode‑specific policies and training; mandates survivor‑informed, trauma‑informed materials and evaluation tools; establishes a multimodal public awareness campaign; and creates a multimodal grant program. The bill authorizes funding for fiscal years 2027–2031 to support these activities and sets deadlines for reports and program rollouts.