I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7592 
To require the Comptroller General of the United States to carry out a 
study on trafficking, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 13, 2020 
Mr. MCADAMS (for himself and Mr. GONZALEZ of Ohio) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To require the Comptroller General of the United States 
to carry out a study on trafficking, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stopping Trafficking, 
Illicit Flows, Laundering, and Exploitation Act of 2020’’ 
or the ‘‘STIFLE Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) Trafficking is a national-security threat and 
an economic drain of our resources. 
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(2) As the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s 
recently released ‘‘2020 National Strategy for Com-
bating Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing’’ con-
cludes, ‘‘While money laundering, terrorism financ-
ing, and WMD proliferation financing differ quali-
tatively and quantitatively, the illicit actors engaging 
in these activities can exploit the same vulnerabilities 
and financial channels.’’. 
(3) Among those are bad actors engaged in 
trafficking, whether they trade in drugs, arms, cul-
tural property, wildlife, natural resources, counter-
feit goods, organs, or, even, other humans. 
(4) Their illegal (or ‘‘dark’’) markets use simi-
lar and sometimes related or overlapping methods 
and means to acquire, move, and profit from their 
crimes. 
(5) In a March 2017, report from Global Fi-
nancial Integrity, ‘‘Transnational Crime and the De-
veloping World’’, the global business of transnational 
crime was valued at $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion an-
nually, resulting in crime, violence, terrorism, insta-
bility, corruption, and lost tax revenues worldwide. 
SEC. 3. GAO STUDY. 
(a) STUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 
States shall carry out a study on— 
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(1) the major trafficking routes used by 
transnational criminal organizations, terrorists, and 
others, and to what extent the trafficking routes for 
people (including children), drugs, weapons, cash, 
child sexual exploitation materials, or other illicit 
goods are similar, related, or cooperative; 
(2) commonly used methods to launder and 
move the proceeds of trafficking; 
(3) the types of suspicious financial activity 
that are associated with illicit trafficking networks, 
and how financial institutions identify and report 
such activity; 
(4) the nexus between the identities and fi-
nances of trafficked persons and fraud; 
(5) the tools, guidance, training, partnerships, 
supervision, or other mechanisms that Federal agen-
cies, including the Department of the Treasury’s Fi-
nancial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Federal 
financial regulators, and law enforcement, provide to 
help financial institutions identify techniques and 
patterns of transactions that may involve the pro-
ceeds of trafficking; 
(6) what steps financial institutions are taking 
to detect and prevent bad actors who are laundering 
the proceeds of illicit trafficking, including data 
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analysis, policies, training procedures, rules, and 
guidance; 
(7) what role gatekeepers, such as lawyers, no-
taries, accountants, investment advisors, logistics 
agents, and trust and company service providers, 
play in facilitating trafficking networks and the 
laundering of illicit proceeds; and 
(8) the role that emerging technologies, includ-
ing artificial intelligence, digital identity tech-
nologies, blockchain technologies, virtual assets, and 
related exchanges and online marketplaces, and 
other innovative technologies, can play in both as-
sisting with and potentially enabling the laundering 
of proceeds from trafficking. 
(b) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out the study re-
quired under subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall 
solicit feedback and perspectives to the extent practicable 
from survivor and victim advocacy organizations, law en-
forcement, research organizations, private-sector organiza-
tions (including financial institutions and data and tech-
nology companies), and any other organization or entity 
that the Comptroller General determines appropriate. 
(c) REPORT.—The Comptroller General shall issue 
one or more reports to the Congress containing the results 
of the study required under subsection (a). The first re-
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port shall be issued not later than the end of the 15-month 
period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act. 
The reports shall contain— 
(1) all findings and determinations made in car-
rying out the study required under subsection (a); 
and 
(2) recommendations for any legislative or regu-
latory changes necessary to combat trafficking or 
the laundering of proceeds from trafficking. 
Æ 
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