I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 514 
To prioritize the fight against human trafficking within the Department 
of State according to congressional intent in the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act of 2000 without increasing the size of the Federal Govern-
ment, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 22, 2015 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Ms. BASS, and Mr. POE of Texas) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To prioritize the fight against human trafficking within the 
Department of State according to congressional intent 
in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 with-
out increasing the size of the Federal Government, 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 ‘‘Human Trafficking 
Prioritization Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) The International Labor Organization esti-
mates that nearly 21,000,000 people are subjected 
to modern slavery around the world at any given 
time and that the majority of the enslaved are 
women and girls. 
(2) Congress authorized the creation of a De-
partment of State Office to Monitor and Combat 
Trafficking in Persons in the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act of 2000 (division A of Public Law 
106–386) in order to directly assist the Secretary of 
State in his or her effort to coordinate a United 
States Government interagency response to domestic 
and international trafficking in persons. 
(3) The Office to Monitor and Combat Traf-
ficking in Persons monitors trafficking worldwide 
and produces the online and printed versions of the 
annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which is Con-
gress’ primary resource for human trafficking re-
porting, analysis, and recommendations on the 
United States and 186 countries around the world. 
(4) The annual Trafficking in Persons Report 
contains tier rankings of each country on which it 
reports, and these tier rankings have become an es-
sential diplomatic tool for promoting protection for 
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victims, prevention of trafficking, and prosecution of 
perpetrators. 
(5) Some countries have openly stated, and 
many others have confided, that dramatic improve-
ments in the country’s human trafficking record 
were directly related to avoidance of a low tier rank-
ing in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report. 
(6) Ambassador Mark Lagon, former Ambas-
sador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking 
in Persons (2007–2009), testified before the Sub-
committee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human 
Rights, and International Organizations of the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep-
resentatives on April 18, 2013, that ‘‘[T]he State 
Department does a tremendous job in producing a 
report which tells it like it is, offering objective 
rankings. Yet at times it pulls punches, typically due 
to the urging of regional specialists rather than the 
TIP Office’s dedicated experts on trafficking.’’. 
(7) Ambassador John Miller, former Ambas-
sador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking 
in Persons (2002–2006), recently stated that, ‘‘Up-
grading the status of the Office to a Bureau will not 
create additional bureaucracy—it will simply give 
JTIP and the Ambassador-at-large who heads it 
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