Senate Passes Grassley & Ossoff’s Bill to Combat Child Trafficking

Senate Passes Grassley & Ossoff's Bill to Combat Child Trafficking

WASHINGTON - The Senate passed the Preventing Child Trafficking Act of 2024, a bill Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) introduced to foster coordination between the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS). The bipartisan legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for further consideration.

"The federal government can and must do more to prevent children from falling prey to the evils of human trafficking. The Senate advanced that objective by passing our bipartisan bill to help protect vulnerable children and strengthen prosecutions. I'll continue working to make it law," Grassley said.

"Child trafficking in Georgia and nationwide is a crisis. Senator Grassley and I brought Republicans and Democrats together to strengthen Federal protections for vulnerable children and increase support for victims of trafficking," Ossoff said.

Grassley and Ossoff's bill is endorsed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

Background:

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, in response to a Republican-led inquiry, found agencies within DOJ and HHS lack dedicated infrastructure for combatting child trafficking. Inter-agency collaboration on this issue is a critical first line of defense - it would minimize existing fragmentation and better allow federal agencies to address the distinct needs of child trafficking survivors.

Specifically, the Preventing Child Trafficking Act of 2024 would:

• Set a timeline for the implementation the anti-trafficking recommendations included in GAO's report;
• Ensure agencies within DOJ and HHS establish a mechanism to guide their offices' anti-child-trafficking collaboration efforts; and
• Require DOJ to develop achievable performance goals for anti-child-trafficking programs.

-30-

• Print
• Email
• Like
• Tweet