December 14, 2009

In recent months, we have asked you to contact members of Congress to urge them to support appropriations to fight human trafficking – and they listened!  The House and Senate have just passed an omnibus spending bill combining six separate appropriations bills, including the bills that fund the domestic anti-trafficking efforts of the Department of Justice (the Commerce-Justice-Science bill) and the Department of Health and Human Services (the Labor-HHS-Education bill).  The omnibus bill contains key funding for human trafficking prosecution and victim protection!  Now it simply awaits the President’s signature, which will likely happen in the very near future.

The Commerce-Justice-Science bill contains a 25% increase in funding for DOJ to assist survivors of human trafficking!  This important increase will help hundreds of survivors get the services they need to rebuild their lives.  This funding pool has also been used to create task forces around the country that help identify and respond to hidden cases of human trafficking.   And, for the first time since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed in 2000, the spending bill provides that this funding is available for both foreign national and U.S. citizen survivors in need of assistance!

This bill also provides $5.3 million, as requested by the Obama Administration and supported by Polaris Project and the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) coalition, to prosecute human traffickers through the Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill provides $9,800,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services, as requested by the Obama Administration, for assistance to foreign national human trafficking victims.  This bill is accompanied by report language that urges the Administration to request funds for assistance to all survivors, including U.S. citizens, in next year’s budget request.  

Please join us in thanking the following members who played an important role in increasing the availability of badly needed assistance to survivors of human trafficking:

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Chair, and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Ranking Member, Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Chair, and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-WV), Ranking Member, House Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-chairs, House Human Trafficking Caucus