Title: CATCH Traffickers Act of 2017
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Coordinated Assistance To Catch Human Traffickers Act of 2017 or the CATCH Traffickers Act of 2017

This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to establish and maintain a national database for human trafficking investigations.
It requires a federal, state, or local law enforcement agency that conducts a human trafficking investigation to enter information into the database. The Department of Justice must reduce by 20% the allocation of funds under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program for a state or local government that fails to comply.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 53 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 H. R. 53

To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a database that 
 shall serve as a central location for information from investigations 
    relating to human trafficking for Federal, State, and local law 
                         enforcement agencies.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 3, 2017

 Ms. Jackson Lee introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                     the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a database that 
 shall serve as a central location for information from investigations 
    relating to human trafficking for Federal, State, and local law 
                         enforcement agencies.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Coordinated Assistance To Catch 
Human Traffickers Act of 2017'' or the ``CATCH Traffickers Act of 
2017''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The scourge of human trafficking persists and manifests 
        itself in the modern era, whether termed modern-day slavery, 
        forced labor, involuntary domestic servitude, sex trafficking, 
        child sex trafficking, bonded labor, forced child labor, or 
        debt bondage among migrant laborers.
            (2) According to the 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 
        Report of the United States Department of State, each year an 
        estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked 
        into the United States, with the largest number of people 
        trafficked into the United States coming from East Asia and the 
        Pacific, and the next highest numbers coming from Latin 
        America, Europe, and Eurasia.
            (3) The majority of victims of modern-day slavery are women 
        and children because traffickers prey on those who suffer most 
        from gender discrimination, family violence, and a lack of 
        access to education and economic opportunity.
            (4) Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing 
        criminal enterprises in the 21st century, generating profits 
        for traffickers in excess of $30,000,000,000, according to the 
        International Labor Organization, ranking with drug smuggling 
        and arms dealing in organized crime activities.
            (5) There remains a stark disparity between the large 
        global problem of trafficking in persons and the low numbers of 
        prosecutions and convictions of forced labor trafficking 
        crimes, which accounted for less than 3 percent of all 
        convictions worldwide as recently as 2009.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL DATABASE FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING INVESTIGATIONS.

    (a) Establishment.--The Secretary of Homeland Security (referred to 
in this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall establish and maintain a 
database that shall serve as a central location for information from 
investigations relating to human trafficking for Federal, State, and 
local law enforcement agencies.
    (b) Contribution of Information.--
            (1) In general.--The head of a Federal, State, or local law 
        enforcement agency conducting an investigation related to human 
        trafficking shall ensure that such information relating to that 
        investigation as the Secretary determines appropriate is 
        entered into the database established pursuant to subsection 
        (a).
            (2) State and local incentive.--In the case of a State or 
        unit of local government that received a grant award under 
        subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 
        Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq.), the law 
        enforcement agency of which does not substantially comply with 
        the requirement under paragraph (1), the Attorney General shall 
        reduce the amount that would otherwise be awarded to that State 
        or unit of local government under such grant program by 20 
        percent.
    (c) Access to Database.--Federal, State, and local law enforcement 
agencies may only access the database established pursuant to 
subsection (a) in connection with an investigation related to human 
trafficking.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2018 to carry out this Act.
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