I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 400 
To require the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United 
States Agency for International Development to submit reports on defini-
tions of placement and recruitment fees for purposes of enabling compli-
ance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 16, 2015 
Mr. ROYCE (for himself and Mr. ENGEL) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of State and the Administrator 
of the United States Agency for International Develop-
ment 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. 
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 bill may be referred to as the ‘‘Trafficking Pre-
vention in Foreign Affairs Contracting Act’’. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
17:33 Jan 24, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H400.IH
H400
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Department of State and the United 
States 
Agency 
for 
International 
Development 
(USAID) rely on contractors to provide various serv-
ices in foreign countries such as construction, secu-
rity, and facilities maintenance. 
(2) In certain cases, such as where the employ-
ment of local labor is impractical or poses security 
risks, Department of State and USAID contractors 
sometimes employ foreign workers who are citizens 
neither of the United States nor of the host country 
and are recruited from developing countries where 
low wages and recruitment methods often make 
them vulnerable to a variety of trafficking-related 
abuses. 
(3) A January 2011 report of the Office of the 
Inspector General for the Department of State, 
while it found no evidence of direct coercion by con-
tractors, found that a significant majority of their 
foreign workers in certain Middle East countries re-
ported paying substantial fees to recruiters that, ac-
cording to the Inspector General, ‘‘effectively re-
sulted in debt bondage at their destinations’’. Ap-
proximately one-half of the workers were charged re-
cruitment fees equaling more than six months’ sal-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
17:33 Jan 24, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H400.IH
H400
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
ary. More than a quarter of the workers reported 
fees greater than one year’s salary and, in some of 
those cases, fees that could not be paid off in two 
years, the standard length of a contract. 
(4) A November 2014 report of the United 
States Government Accountability Office (GAO–15– 
102) found that the Department of State, USAID, 
and the Defense Department need to strengthen 
their oversight of contractors’ use of foreign workers 
in high-risk environments in order to better protect 
against trafficking in persons. 
(5) The GAO report recommended that those 
agencies should develop more precise definitions of 
recruitment fees, and that they should better ensure 
that contracting officials include prevention of traf-
ficking in persons in contract monitoring plans and 
processes, especially in areas where the risk of traf-
ficking in persons is high. 
(6) Of the three agencies addressed in the GAO 
report, only the Department of Defense expressly 
concurred with GAO’s definitional recommendation 
and committed to defining recruitment fees and to 
incorporating that definition in its acquisition regu-
lations as necessary. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
17:33 Jan 24, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H400.IH
H400
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
(7) In formal comments to GAO, the Depart-
ment of State stated that it forbids the charging of 
any recruitment fees by contractors, and both the 
Department of State and USAID noted a proposed 
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rule that pro-
hibits charging any recruitment fees to employees. 
(8) However, according to GAO, neither the 
Department of State nor USAID specifically defines 
what constitutes a prohibited recruitment fee: ‘‘Con-
tracting officers and agency officials with monitoring 
responsibilities currently rely on policy and guidance 
regarding recruitment fees that are ambiguous. 
Without an explicit definition of the components of 
recruitment fees, prohibited fees may be renamed 
and passed on to foreign workers, increasing the risk 
of debt bondage and other conditions that contribute 
to trafficking.’’. 
(9) GAO found that, although Department of 
State and USAID guidance requires their respective 
contracting officials to monitor compliance with traf-
ficking in persons requirements, they did not con-
sistently have specific processes in place to do so in 
all of the contracts that GAO sampled. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
17:33 Jan 24, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H400.IH
H400
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
SEC. 3. REPORTS ON DEFINITION OF PLACEMENT AND RE-
CRUITMENT FEES AND ENHANCEMENT OF 
CONTRACT MONITORING TO PREVENT TRAF-
FICKING IN PERSONS. 
(a) DEPARTMENT
OF STATE REPORT.—Not later 
than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate 
committees of Congress a report that includes the matters 
described in subsection (c) with respect to the Department 
of State. 
(b) USAID REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator 
of the United States Agency for International Develop-
ment (USAID) shall submit to the appropriate committees 
of Congress a report that includes the matters described 
in subsection (c) with respect to USAID. 
(c) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.—The matters de-
scribed in this subsection are the following: 
(1) A proposed definition of placement and re-
cruitment fees for purposes of complying with sec-
tion 106(g)(iv)(IV) of the Trafficking Victims Pro-
tection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7104(g)(iv)(IV)), in-
cluding a description of what fee components and 
amounts are prohibited or are permissible for con-
tractors or their agents to charge workers under 
such section. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
17:33 Jan 24, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H400.IH
H400
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
(2) An explanation of how the definition de-
scribed in paragraph (1) will be incorporated into 
grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and con-
tracting practices, so as to apply to the actions of 
grantees, subgrantees, contractors, subcontractors, 
labor recruiters, brokers, or other agents, as speci-
fied in section 106(g) of the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7104(g)). 
(3) A description of actions taken during the 
180-day period preceding the date of submission of 
the report and planned to be taken during the one- 
year period following the date of submission of the 
report to better ensure that officials responsible for 
grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements and 
contracting practices include the prevention of traf-
ficking in persons in plans and processes to monitor 
such grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements 
and contracting practices, particularly as such agree-
ments and contracting practices relate to areas of 
the world in which the risk of trafficking in persons 
is high. 
(d) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS.—In 
this section, the term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-
gress’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
17:33 Jan 24, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H400.IH
H400
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 
Relations of the Senate. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITION. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘trafficking in persons’’ has the 
meaning given the term in section 103(9) of the Traf-
ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 
7102(9)). 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
17:33 Jan 24, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H400.IH
H400
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS