IIB 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 400 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 2, 2016 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

AN ACT 

To require the Secretary of State and the Administrator 

of the United States Agency for International Development to submit reports on definitions of placement and 

recruitment fees for purposes of enabling compliance with 

the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and for 

other purposes. 


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1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This bill may be referred to as the ‘‘Trafficking Pre5 vention in Foreign Affairs Contracting Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The Department of State and the United 

9 States Agency for International Development 

10 (USAID) rely on contractors to provide various serv11 ices in foreign countries such as construction, secu12 rity, and facilities maintenance. 

13 (2) In certain cases, such as where the employ14 ment of local labor is impractical or poses security 

15 risks, Department of State and USAID contractors 

16 sometimes employ foreign workers who are citizens 

17 neither of the United States nor of the host country 

18 and are recruited from developing countries where 

19 low wages and recruitment methods often make 

20 them vulnerable to a variety of trafficking-related 

21 abuses. 

22 (3) A January 2011 report of the Office of the 

23 Inspector General for the Department of State, 

24 while it found no evidence of direct coercion by con25 tractors, found that a significant majority of their 


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1 foreign workers in certain Middle East countries re2 ported paying substantial fees to recruiters that, ac3 cording to the Inspector General, ‘‘effectively re4 sulted in debt bondage at their destinations’’. Ap5 proximately one-half of the workers were charged re6 cruitment fees equaling more than six months’ sal7 ary. More than a quarter of the workers reported 

8 fees greater than one year’s salary and, in some of 

9 those cases, fees that could not be paid off in two 

10 years, the standard length of a contract. 

11 (4) A November 2014 report of the United 

12 States Government Accountability Office (GAO–15– 

13 102) found that the Department of State, USAID, 

14 and the Defense Department need to strengthen 

15 their oversight of contractors’ use of foreign workers 

16 in high-risk environments in order to better protect 

17 against trafficking in persons. 

18 (5) The GAO report recommended that those 

19 agencies should develop more precise definitions of 

20 recruitment fees, and that they should better ensure 

21 that contracting officials include prevention of traf22 ficking in persons in contract monitoring plans and 

23 processes, especially in areas where the risk of traf24 ficking in persons is high. 


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1 (6) Of the 3 agencies addressed in the GAO re2 port, only the Department of Defense expressly con3 curred with GAO’s definitional recommendation and 

4 committed to defining recruitment fees and to incor5 porating that definition in its acquisition regulations 

6 as necessary. 

7 (7) In formal comments to GAO, the Depart8 ment of State stated that it forbids the charging of 

9 any recruitment fees by contractors, and both the 

10 Department of State and USAID noted a proposed 

11 Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rule that pro12 hibits charging any recruitment fees to employees. 

13 (8) However, according to GAO, neither the 

14 Department of State nor USAID specifically defines 

15 what constitutes a prohibited recruitment fee: ‘‘Con16 tracting officers and agency officials with monitoring 

17 responsibilities currently rely on policy and guidance 

18 regarding recruitment fees that are ambiguous. 

19 Without an explicit definition of the components of 

20 recruitment fees, prohibited fees may be renamed 

21 and passed on to foreign workers, increasing the risk 

22 of debt bondage and other conditions that contribute 

23 to trafficking.’’. 

24 (9) GAO found that, although Department of 

25 State and USAID guidance requires their respective 


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1 contracting officials to monitor compliance with traf2 ficking in persons requirements, they did not con3 sistently have specific processes in place to do so in 

4 all of the contracts that GAO sampled. 

5 SEC. 3. REPORTS ON DEFINITION OF PLACEMENT AND RE6 CRUITMENT FEES AND ENHANCEMENT OF 

7 CONTRACT MONITORING TO PREVENT TRAF8 FICKING IN PERSONS. 

9 (a) DEPARTMENT OF STATE REPORT.—Not later 

10 than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 

11 the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate 

12 committees of Congress a report that includes the matters 

13 described in subsection (c) with respect to the Department 

14 of State. 

15 (b) USAID REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after 

16 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator 

17 of the United States Agency for International Develop18 ment (USAID) shall submit to the appropriate committees 

19 of Congress a report that includes the matters described 

20 in subsection (c) with respect to USAID. 

21 (c) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.—The matters de22 scribed in this subsection are the following: 

23 (1) A proposed definition of placement and re24 cruitment fees for purposes of complying with sec25 tion 106(g)(iv)(IV) of the Trafficking Victims ProVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Feb 03, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H400.RFS H400

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1 tection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7104(g)(iv)(IV)), in2 cluding a description of what fee components and 

3 amounts are prohibited or are permissible for con4 tractors or their agents to charge workers under 

5 such section. 

6 (2) An explanation of how the definition de7 scribed in paragraph (1) will be incorporated into 

8 grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and con9 tracting practices, so as to apply to the actions of 

10 grantees, subgrantees, contractors, subcontractors, 

11 labor recruiters, brokers, or other agents, as speci12 fied in section 106(g) of the Trafficking Victims 

13 Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7104(g)). 

14 (3) A description of actions taken during the 

15 180-day period preceding the date of submission of 

16 the report and planned to be taken during the 1- 

17 year period following the date of submission of the 

18 report to better ensure that officials responsible for 

19 grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements and 

20 contracting practices include the prevention of traf21 ficking in persons in plans and processes to monitor 

22 such grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements 

23 and contracting practices. 

24 (d) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS.—In 

25 this section, the term ‘‘appropriate committees of ConVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Feb 03, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H400.RFS H400

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1 gress’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 

2 House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 

3 Relations of the Senate. 

4 SEC. 4. DEFINITION. 

5 In this Act, the term ‘‘trafficking in persons’’ has the 

6 meaning given the term in section 103(9) of the Traf7 ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 

8 7102(9)). 

Passed the House of Representatives February 1, 

2016. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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