42 U.S.C. § 1314b (THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE)
§ 1314b. National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States
(a) Official designation
This section relates to the National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States (in this section referred to as the “Committee”).
(b) Authority
Not later than 2 years after September 29, 2014, the Secretary shall establish and appoint all members of the Committee.
(c) Membership
(1) Composition
The Committee shall be composed of not more than 21 members whose diverse experience and background enable them to provide balanced points of view with regard to carrying out the duties of the Committee.
(2) Selection
The Secretary, in consultation with the Attorney General and National Governors Association, shall appoint the members to the Committee. At least 1 Committee member shall be a former sex trafficking victim. 2 Committee members shall be a Governor of a State, 1 of whom shall be a member of the Democratic Party and 1 of whom shall be a member of the Republican Party.
(3) Period of appointment; vacancies
Members shall be appointed for the life of the Committee. A vacancy in the Committee shall be filled in the manner in which the original appointment was made and shall not affect the powers or duties of the Committee.
(4) Compensation
Committee members shall serve without compensation or per diem in lieu of subsistence.
(d) Duties
(1) National response
The Committee shall advise the Secretary and the Attorney General on practical and general policies concerning improvements to the Nation’s response to the sex trafficking of children and youth in the United States.
(2) Policies for cooperation
The Committee shall advise the Secretary and the Attorney General on practical and general policies concerning the cooperation of Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, child welfare agencies, social service providers, physical health and mental health providers, victim service providers, State or local courts with responsibility for conducting or supervising proceedings relating to child welfare or social services for children and their families, Federal, State, and local police, juvenile detention centers, and runaway and homeless youth programs, schools, the gaming and entertainment industry, and businesses and organizations that provide services to youth, on responding to sex trafficking, including the development and implementation of—
(A) successful interventions with children and youth who are exposed to conditions that make them vulnerable to, or victims of, sex trafficking; and
(B) recommendations for administrative or legislative changes necessary to use programs, properties, or other resources owned, operated, or funded by the Federal Government to provide safe housing for children and youth who are sex trafficking victims and provide support to entities that provide housing or other assistance to the victims.
(3) Best practices and recommendations for States
(A) In general
Within 2 years after the establishment of the Committee, the Committee shall develop 2 tiers (referred to in this subparagraph as “Tier I” and “Tier II”) of recommended best practices for States to follow in combating the sex trafficking of children and youth. Tier I shall provide States that have not yet substantively addressed the sex trafficking of children and youth with an idea of where to begin and what steps to take. Tier II shall provide States that are already working to address the sex trafficking of children and youth with examples of policies that are already being used effectively by other States to address sex trafficking.
(B) Development
The best practices shall be based on multidisciplinary research and promising, evidence-based models and programs as reflected in State efforts to meet the requirements of sections 101 and 102 of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act.
(C) Content
The best practices shall be user-friendly, incorporate the most up-to-date technology, and include the following:
(i) Sample training materials, protocols, and screening tools that, to the extent possible, accommodate for regional differences among the States, to prepare individuals who administer social services to identify and serve children and youth who are sex trafficking victims or at-risk of sex trafficking.
(ii) Multidisciplinary strategies to identify victims, manage cases, and improve services for all children and youth who are at risk of sex trafficking, or are sex trafficking victims, in the United States.
(iii) Sample protocols and recommendations based on current States’ efforts, accounting for regional differences between States that provide for effective, cross-system collaboration between Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, child welfare agencies, social service providers, physical health and mental health providers, victim service providers, State or local courts with responsibility for conducting or supervising proceedings relating to child welfare or social services for children and their families, the gaming and entertainment industry, Federal, State, and local police, juvenile detention centers and runaway and homeless youth programs, housing resources that are appropriate for housing child and youth victims of trafficking, schools, and businesses and organizations that provide services to children and youth. These protocols and recommendations should include strategies to identify victims and collect, document, and share data across systems and agencies, and should be designed to help agencies better understand the type of sex trafficking involved, the scope of the problem, the needs of the population to be served, ways to address the demand for trafficked children and youth and increase prosecutions of traffickers and purchasers of children and youth, and the degree of victim interaction with multiple systems.
(iv) Developing the criteria and guidelines necessary for establishing safe residential placements for foster children who have been sex trafficked as well as victims of trafficking identified through interaction with law enforcement.
(v) Developing training guidelines for caregivers that serve children and youth being cared for outside the home.
(D) Informing States of best practices
The Committee, in coordination with the National Governors Association, Secretary and Attorney General, shall ensure that State Governors and child welfare agencies are notified and informed on a quarterly basis of the best practices and recommendations for States, and notified 6 months in advance that the Committee will be evaluating the extent to which States adopt the Committee’s recommendations.
(E) Report on State implementation
Within 3 years after the establishment of the Committee, the Committee shall submit to the Secretary and the Attorney General, as part of its final report as well as for online and publicly available publication, a description of what each State has done to implement the recommendations of the Committee.
(e) Reports
(1) In general
The Committee shall submit an interim and a final report on the work of the Committee to—
(A) the Secretary;
(B) the Attorney General;
(C) the Committee on Finance of the Senate; and
(D) the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives.
(2) Reporting dates
The interim report shall be submitted not later than 3 years after the establishment of the Committee. The final report shall be submitted not later than 4 years after the establishment of the Committee.
(f) Administration
(1) Agency support
The Secretary shall direct the head of the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services to provide all necessary support for the Committee.
(2) Meetings
(A) In general
The Committee will meet at the call of the Secretary at least twice each year to carry out this section, and more often as otherwise required.
(B) Accommodation for Committee members unable to attend in person
The Secretary shall create a process through which Committee members who are unable to travel to a Committee meeting in person may participate remotely through the use of video conference, teleconference, online, or other means.
(3) Subcommittees
The Committee may establish subcommittees or working groups, as necessary and consistent with the mission of the Committee. The subcommittees or working groups shall have no authority to make decisions on behalf of the Committee, nor shall they report directly to any official or entity listed in subsection (d).
(4) Recordkeeping
The records of the Committee and any subcommittees and working groups shall be maintained in accordance with appropriate Department of Health and Human Services policies and procedures and shall be available for public inspection and copying, subject to the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552).
(g) Termination
The Committee shall terminate 5 years after the date of its establishment, but the Secretary shall continue to operate and update, as necessary, an Internet website displaying the State best practices, recommendations, and evaluation of State-by-State implementation of the Secretary’s recommendations.
(h) Definition
For the purpose of this section, the term “sex trafficking” includes the definition set forth in section 7102(10) 1 of title 22 and “severe form of trafficking in persons” described in section 7102(9)(A) 1 of title 22.
(Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title XI, § 1114A, as added Pub. L. 113–183, title I, § 121, Sept. 29, 2014, 128 Stat. 1931.)
heading: Editorial Notes
heading: References in Text
text: Sections 101 and 102 of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, referred to in subsec. (d)(3)(B), are sections 101 and 102 of Pub. L. 113–183. Section 101 amended sections 671 and 675 of this title. Section 102 amended section 671 of this title.
Section 7102(9)(A) and (10) of title 22, referred to in subsec. (h), was redesignated section 7102(11)(A) and (12), respectively, of title 22 by Pub. L. 115–427, § 2(1), Jan. 9, 2019, 132 Stat. 5503.