Title: Justice for Native Survivors of Sexual Violence Act
Policy area: Native Americans

Summary:
Justice for Native Survivors of Sexual Violence Act
This bill expands Native American tribal criminal jurisdiction over crimes of domestic violence to include sex trafficking, sexual violence, stalking, and related conduct. The bill also authorizes a tribe to exercise jurisdiction over a non-Native American defendant regardless of whether the defendant resides on the tribe's lands, is employed on the tribe's lands, or is a spouse, dating partner, or intimate partner of a Native American who resides on the tribe's lands.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3977 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3977

To amend the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 to extend the jurisdiction 
  of tribal courts to cover crimes involving sexual violence, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 25, 2019

Ms. Haaland (for herself, Mr. Cook, Ms. Davids of Kansas, Mr. Cole, and 
 Mr. Gallego) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 to extend the jurisdiction 
  of tribal courts to cover crimes involving sexual violence, and for 
                            other purposes.

    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 ``Justice for Native Survivors of 
Sexual Violence Act''.

SEC. 2. TRIBAL JURISDICTION OVER CRIMES OF DOMESTIC, DATING, OR SEXUAL 
              VIOLENCE, SEX TRAFFICKING, OR STALKING.

    Section 204 of Public Law 90-284 (25 U.S.C. 1304) (commonly known 
as the ``Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968'') is amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``domestic 
        violence'' and inserting ``domestic, dating, or sexual 
        violence, sex trafficking, or stalking'';
            (2) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``means 
                violence'' and inserting ``includes any violation of 
                the criminal law of the Indian tribe that has 
                jurisdiction over the Indian country where the 
                violation occurs that is'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) by striking ``means violence'' and 
                        inserting ``includes any violation of the 
                        criminal law of the Indian tribe that has 
                        jurisdiction over the Indian country where the 
                        violation occurs that is''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``an Indian tribe that has 
                        jurisdiction over the Indian country where the 
                        violence occurs'' and inserting ``that Indian 
                        tribe'';
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ``domestic 
                violence'' and inserting ``tribal'';
                    (D) by redesignating paragraphs (6) and (7) as 
                paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively;
                    (E) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following:
            ``(6) Related conduct.--The term `related conduct' means 
        conduct alleged to have been committed by a defendant that--
                    ``(A) is a violation of the criminal law of the 
                Indian tribe that has jurisdiction over the Indian 
                country where the underlying offense occurred; and
                    ``(B) occurs in connection with the exercise of 
                special tribal criminal jurisdiction by that Indian 
                tribe.
            ``(7) Sex trafficking.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The term `sex trafficking' means 
                conduct--
                            ``(i) consisting of--
                                    ``(I) recruiting, enticing, 
                                harboring, transporting, providing, 
                                obtaining, advertising, maintaining, 
                                patronizing, or soliciting by any means 
                                a person; or
                                    ``(II) benefiting, financially or 
                                by receiving anything of value, from 
                                participation in a venture that has 
                                engaged in an act described in 
                                subclause (I); and
                            ``(ii) carried out with the knowledge, or, 
                        except where the act constituting the violation 
                        of clause (i) is advertising, in reckless 
                        disregard of the fact, that--
                                    ``(I) means of force, threats of 
                                force, fraud, coercion, or any 
                                combination of such means will be used 
                                to cause the person to engage in a 
                                commercial sex act; or
                                    ``(II) the person has not attained 
                                the age of 18 years and will be caused 
                                to engage in a commercial sex act.
                    ``(B) Definitions.--In this paragraph, the terms 
                `coercion' and `commercial sex act' have the meanings 
                given the terms in section 1591(e) of title 18, United 
                States Code.
            ``(8) Sexual violence.--The term `sexual violence' means 
        any nonconsensual sexual act or contact proscribed by Federal, 
        tribal, or State law, including in any case in which the victim 
        lacks the capacity to consent to the act.'';
                    (F) in paragraph (9) (as redesignated by 
                subparagraph (D))--
                            (i) in the paragraph heading, by striking 
                        ``domestic violence'' and inserting ``tribal''; 
                        and
                            (ii) by striking ``domestic violence'' and 
                        inserting ``tribal''; and
                    (G) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(11) Stalking.--The term `stalking' means engaging in a 
        course of conduct directed at a specific person that would 
        cause a reasonable person--
                    ``(A) to fear for his or her safety or the safety 
                of others; or
                    ``(B) to suffer substantial emotional distress.'';
            (3) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) by striking ``domestic violence'' each place 
                the term appears and inserting ``tribal''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (4)--
                            (i) by striking subparagraph (B);
                            (ii) by striking the paragraph designation 
                        and heading and all that follows through ``A 
                        participating'' in clause (i) of subparagraph 
                        (A) and inserting the following:
            ``(4) Exception for non-indian victim and defendant.--
                    ``(A) In general.--A participating''; and
                            (iii) by striking ``(ii) Definition of 
                        victim.--In this subparagraph'' and inserting 
                        the following:
                    ``(B) Definition of victim.--In this paragraph'';
            (4) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 
                striking ``domestic violence'' and inserting 
                ``tribal'';
                    (B) in paragraph (1)--
                            (i) in the paragraph heading, by striking 
                        ``violence and dating'' and inserting ``, 
                        dating, and sexual''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``or dating violence'' and 
                        inserting ``, dating violence, or sexual 
                        violence''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Stalking.--An act of stalking that occurs in the 
        Indian country of the participating tribe.
            ``(4) Sex trafficking.--An act of sex trafficking that 
        occurs in the Indian country of the participating tribe.
            ``(5) Related conduct.--An act of related conduct that 
        occurs in the Indian country of the participating tribe.'';
            (5) in subsection (d), by striking ``domestic violence'' 
        each place the term appears and inserting ``tribal''; and
            (6) in subsection (f)--
                    (A) by striking ``special domestic violence'' each 
                place the term appears and inserting ``special 
                tribal'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``prosecutes'' 
                and all that follows through the semicolon at the end 
                and inserting the following: ``prosecutes--
                    ``(A) a crime of domestic violence;
                    ``(B) a crime of dating violence;
                    ``(C) a crime of sexual violence;
                    ``(D) a criminal violation of a protection order;
                    ``(E) a crime of stalking;
                    ``(F) a crime of sex trafficking; or
                    ``(G) a crime of related conduct;''; and
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``sexual 
                violence, stalking, sex trafficking,'' after ``dating 
                violence,''.
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