Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens public safety and anti‑trafficking enforcement by disqualifying convicted traffickers from transportation operating licenses, but it does so at the cost of permanently excluding some workers from careers, limiting rehabilitative pathways, and raising implementation and legal-consistency concerns.
Passengers and the general public: reduces the risk of human-trafficking-related crimes in transit by disqualifying people convicted of serious trafficking offenses from holding operating licenses for ships, planes, trains, and commercial vehicles.
Victims of trafficking and communities at risk: decreases opportunities for reoffense and strengthens deterrence by blocking convicted traffickers from transportation roles commonly exploited in trafficking schemes.
Federal and state regulators: creates more uniform, cross-modal disqualification criteria that simplify enforcement and reduce regulatory gaps across DOT, DHS, and state licensing systems.
Workers with qualifying convictions: permanently bars some individuals from transportation careers, substantially reducing employment and rehabilitation opportunities for people with past trafficking-related convictions.
Transportation workforce and public safety staffing: a permanent, inflexible disqualification eliminates conditional or rehabilitative pathways, risking loss of trained personnel and making it harder to restore qualified, reformed individuals to safety-critical roles.
Federal agencies and affected individuals: the bill's use of 'substantially similar' state/tribal/local offenses creates ambiguity that could prompt litigation, inconsistent application across jurisdictions, and extra administrative burden for enforcement.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Permanently bars people convicted of human-trafficking–related crimes from receiving federal transportation licenses, certificates, documents, or authorizations and directs DOT/DHS to disqualify others similarly situated.
Official title: Amend titles 46 and 49, United States Code, to require that individuals who commit human trafficking violations be permanently disqualified from obtaining certain licenses issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 5, 2025 by Marsha Blackburn · Last progress November 5, 2025
Bars people convicted of human-trafficking–related crimes from receiving federal transportation licenses, certificates, documents, or authorizations across multiple modes. It adds a permanent disqualification in maritime law, amends Federal rail, highway (CDL), and aviation licensing rules to deny issuance to those with qualifying convictions, and directs DOT and DHS to deny or revoke other transportation-related credentials for such individuals.