I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2982 

To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 

include human trafficking as a part 1 violent crime for purposes of 

the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 

Mr. CARTER (for himself, Mrs. SCHMIDT, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. SMITH of New 

Jersey, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. NORTON, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. 

GUTIERREZ, Mr. ADERHOLT, Ms. RICHARDSON, Mr. LONG, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. MORAN, Mr. POE of Texas, Mr. WOLF, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, and Mr. PITTS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 

Act of 1968 to include human trafficking as a part 

1 violent crime for purposes of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. 

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 ‘‘Human Trafficking 

5 Reporting Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Human trafficking is a form of modern-day 

4 slavery. 

5 (2) According to the Trafficking Victims Pro6 tection Act of 2000 ‘‘severe forms of trafficking in 

7 persons’’ means— 

8 (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial 

9 sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, 

10 or in which the person induced to perform such 

11 act has not attained 18 years of age; or 

12 (B) the recruitment, harboring, transpor13 tation, provision, or obtaining of a person for 

14 labor or services, through the use of force, 

15 fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection 

16 to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, 

17 or slavery. 

18 (3) There is an acute need for better data col19 lection of incidents of human trafficking across the 

20 United States in order to effectively combat severe 

21 forms of trafficking in persons. 

22 (4) The State Department’s 2011 Trafficking 

23 in Persons report found that— 

24 (A) the United States is a ‘‘source, transit 

25 and destination country for men, women, and 

26 children, subjected to forced labor, debt bondVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:26 Sep 22, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2982.IH H2982

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1 age, domestic servitude and sex trafficking,’’; 

2 and 

3 (B) the United States needs to ‘‘improve 

4 data collection on human trafficking cases at 

5 the federal, state and local levels’’. 

6 (5) The International Organization for Migra7 tion has reported that in order to effectively combat 

8 human trafficking there must be reliable and stand9 ardized data, however, the following barriers for 

10 data collection exist: 

11 (A) The illicit and underground nature of 

12 human trafficking. 

13 (B) The reluctance of victims to share in14 formation with authorities. 

15 (C) Insufficient human trafficking data 

16 collection and research efforts by governments 

17 world-wide. 

18 (6) A 2009 report to the Department of Health 

19 and Human Services entitled Human Trafficking 

20 Into and Within the United States: A Review of the 

21 Literature found that ‘‘the data and methodologies 

22 for estimating the prevalence of human trafficking 

23 globally and nationally are not well developed, and 

24 therefore estimates have varied widely and changed 

25 significantly over time’’. 


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1 (7) The Federal Bureau of Investigation com2 piles national crime statistics through the Uniform 

3 Crime Reporting Program. 

4 (8) Under current law, State and local govern5 ments receiving Edward Byrne Memorial Justice As6 sistance grants are required to share data on part 

7 1 violent crimes with the Federal Bureau of Inves8 tigation for inclusion in the Uniform Crime Report9 ing Program. 

10 (9) The addition of severe forms of trafficking 

11 in persons to the definition of part 1 violent crimes 

12 will ensure that statistics on this heinous crime will 

13 be compiled and available through the Federal Bu14 reau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report. 

15 SEC. 3. HUMAN TRAFFICKING TO BE INCLUDED IN PART 1 

16 VIOLENT CRIMES FOR PURPOSES OF BYRNE 

17 GRANTS. 

18 Section 505 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 

19 Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3755) is amended by add20 ing at the end the following new subsection: 

21 ‘‘(i) PART 1 VIOLENT CRIMES TO INCLUDE HUMAN

22 TRAFFICKING.—For purposes of this section, the term 

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1 ficking in persons, as defined in section 103(8) of the 

2 Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.’’. 

Æ 


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