I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3977 

To amend the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 to extend the jurisdiction 

of tribal courts to cover crimes involving sexual violence, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 25, 2019 

Ms. HAALAND (for herself, Mr. COOK, Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas, Mr. COLE, and 

Mr. GALLEGO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To amend the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 to extend 

the jurisdiction of tribal courts to cover crimes involving 

sexual violence, and for other purposes. 

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 Act may be cited as the ‘‘Justice for Native Sur5 vivors of Sexual Violence Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. TRIBAL JURISDICTION OVER CRIMES OF DOMES2 TIC, DATING, OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SEX 

3 TRAFFICKING, OR STALKING. 

4 Section 204 of Public Law 90–284 (25 U.S.C. 1304) 

5 (commonly known as the ‘‘Indian Civil Rights Act of 

6 1968’’) is amended— 

7 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘DO8 MESTIC VIOLENCE’’ and inserting ‘‘DOMESTIC, 

9 DATING, OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SEX TRAF10 FICKING, OR STALKING’’; 

11 (2) in subsection (a)— 

12 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘means 

13 violence’’ and inserting ‘‘includes any violation 

14 of the criminal law of the Indian tribe that has 

15 jurisdiction over the Indian country where the 

16 violation occurs that is’’; 

17 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

18 (i) by striking ‘‘means violence’’ and 

19 inserting ‘‘includes any violation of the 

20 criminal law of the Indian tribe that has 

21 jurisdiction over the Indian country where 

22 the violation occurs that is’’; and 

23 (ii) by striking ‘‘an Indian tribe that 

24 has jurisdiction over the Indian country 

25 where the violence occurs’’ and inserting 

26 ‘‘that Indian tribe’’; 


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1 (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘domes2 tic violence’’ and inserting ‘‘tribal’’; 

3 (D) by redesignating paragraphs (6) and 

4 (7) as paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively; 

5 (E) by inserting after paragraph (5) the 

6 following: 

7 ‘‘(6) RELATED CONDUCT.—The term ‘related 

8 conduct’ means conduct alleged to have been com9 mitted by a defendant that— 

10 ‘‘(A) is a violation of the criminal law of 

11 the Indian tribe that has jurisdiction over the 

12 Indian country where the underlying offense oc13 curred; and 

14 ‘‘(B) occurs in connection with the exercise 

15 of special tribal criminal jurisdiction by that In16 dian tribe. 

17 ‘‘(7) SEX TRAFFICKING.— 

18 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘sex traf19 ficking’ means conduct— 

20 ‘‘(i) consisting of— 

21 ‘‘(I) recruiting, enticing, har22 boring, transporting, providing, ob23 taining, advertising, maintaining, pa24 tronizing, or soliciting by any means a 

25 person; or 


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1 ‘‘(II) benefiting, financially or by 

2 receiving anything of value, from par3 ticipation in a venture that has en4 gaged in an act described in subclause 

5 (I); and 

6 ‘‘(ii) carried out with the knowledge, 

7 or, except where the act constituting the 

8 violation of clause (i) is advertising, in 

9 reckless disregard of the fact, that— 

10 ‘‘(I) means of force, threats of 

11 force, fraud, coercion, or any combina12 tion of such means will be used to 

13 cause the person to engage in a com14 mercial sex act; or 

15 ‘‘(II) the person has not attained 

16 the age of 18 years and will be caused 

17 to engage in a commercial sex act. 

18 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph, 

19 the terms ‘coercion’ and ‘commercial sex act’ 

20 have the meanings given the terms in section 

21 1591(e) of title 18, United States Code. 

22 ‘‘(8) SEXUAL VIOLENCE.—The term ‘sexual vio23 lence’ means any nonconsensual sexual act or con24 tact proscribed by Federal, tribal, or State law, inVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:44 Aug 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3977.IH H3977

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1 cluding in any case in which the victim lacks the ca2 pacity to consent to the act.’’; 

3 (F) in paragraph (9) (as redesignated by 

4 subparagraph (D))— 

5 (i) in the paragraph heading, by strik6 ing ‘‘DOMESTIC VIOLENCE’’ and inserting 

7 ‘‘TRIBAL’’; and 

8 (ii) by striking ‘‘domestic violence’’ 

9 and inserting ‘‘tribal’’; and 

10 (G) by adding at the end the following: 

11 ‘‘(11) STALKING.—The term ‘stalking’ means 

12 engaging in a course of conduct directed at a spe13 cific person that would cause a reasonable person— 

14 ‘‘(A) to fear for his or her safety or the 

15 safety of others; or 

16 ‘‘(B) to suffer substantial emotional dis17 tress.’’; 

18 (3) in subsection (b)— 

19 (A) by striking ‘‘domestic violence’’ each 

20 place the term appears and inserting ‘‘tribal’’; 

21 and 

22 (B) in paragraph (4)— 

23 (i) by striking subparagraph (B); 

24 (ii) by striking the paragraph designa25 tion and heading and all that follows 


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1 through ‘‘A participating’’ in clause (i) of 

2 subparagraph (A) and inserting the fol3 lowing: 

4 ‘‘(4) EXCEPTION FOR NON-INDIAN VICTIM AND

5 DEFENDANT.— 

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A participating’’; and 

7 (iii) by striking ‘‘(ii) DEFINITION OF

8 VICTIM.—In this subparagraph’’ and in9 serting the following: 

10 ‘‘(B) DEFINITION OF VICTIM.—In this 

11 paragraph’’; 

12 (4) in subsection (c)— 

13 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 

14 by striking ‘‘domestic violence’’ and inserting 

15 ‘‘tribal’’; 

16 (B) in paragraph (1)— 

17 (i) in the paragraph heading, by strik18 ing ‘‘VIOLENCE AND DATING’’ and insert19 ing ‘‘, DATING, AND SEXUAL’’; and 

20 (ii) by striking ‘‘or dating violence’’ 

21 and inserting ‘‘, dating violence, or sexual 

22 violence’’; and 

23 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

24 ‘‘(3) STALKING.—An act of stalking that occurs 

25 in the Indian country of the participating tribe. 


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1 ‘‘(4) SEX TRAFFICKING.—An act of sex traf2 ficking that occurs in the Indian country of the par3 ticipating tribe. 

4 ‘‘(5) RELATED CONDUCT.—An act of related 

5 conduct that occurs in the Indian country of the 

6 participating tribe.’’; 

7 (5) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘domestic vio8 lence’’ each place the term appears and inserting 

9 ‘‘tribal’’; and 

10 (6) in subsection (f)— 

11 (A) by striking ‘‘special domestic violence’’ 

12 each place the term appears and inserting ‘‘spe13 cial tribal’’; 

14 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘pros15 ecutes’’ and all that follows through the semi16 colon at the end and inserting the following: 

17 ‘‘prosecutes— 

18 ‘‘(A) a crime of domestic violence; 

19 ‘‘(B) a crime of dating violence; 

20 ‘‘(C) a crime of sexual violence; 

21 ‘‘(D) a criminal violation of a protection 

22 order; 

23 ‘‘(E) a crime of stalking; 

24 ‘‘(F) a crime of sex trafficking; or 

25 ‘‘(G) a crime of related conduct;’’; and 


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1 (C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘sexual 

2 violence, stalking, sex trafficking,’’ after ‘‘dat3 ing violence,’’. 

Æ 


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