Trafficking In Persons Report Integrity Act

Bill: 115-s-377
Sponsor: Sen. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ]
Introduced: 2017-02-14 in the Senate
Policy area: International Affairs
Subjects: Congressional oversight
Crime victims
Criminal investigation, prosecution, interrogation
Diplomacy, foreign officials, Americans abroad
Employment discrimination and employee rights
Evidence and witnesses
Foreign aid and international relief
Foreign loans and debt
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Human rights
Human trafficking
Immigration status and procedures
Labor standards
Multilateral development programs
Public participation and lobbying

Summary:
action_date: 2017-02-14
text: 

Trafficking In Persons Report Integrity Act

 
This bill amends the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to revise provisions regarding the Department of State's determination of whether countries are meeting the minimum standards for elimination of human trafficking, including provisions regarding: (1) the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, (2) additional requirements for meeting minimum standards, (3) actions against governments failing to meet minimum standards, (4) the tier ranking process for meeting such standards, and (5) congressional oversight of such process.
 
The President shall instruct the U.S. executive director of each multilateral development bank to: (1) support the U.S. policy goal of ending slavery and human trafficking and encourage other nations to adopt similar policies, (2) oppose, subject to a presidential waiver, loans or other programs (other than for humanitarian assistance) to Tier 3 and Tier 2 Watch List countries and channel funds from such countries to countries in better compliance with such standards, (3) propose that other institutions develop anti-human trafficking provisions in their project development, safeguards, procurement, and evaluation policies; (4) seek the adoption of policies and procedures providing governmental agencies and interested members of the public of member countries with access to human trafficking risk assessments; and (5) ensure that such an assessment accompanies loan proposals through the agency review process.
 
 The Department of the Treasury shall make available to multilateral development banks, without charge, U.S. government personnel to assist in developing anti-human trafficking provisions in project development. 
 
 A Tier 3 country is a country the government of which does not fully meet the minimum standards and is not making significant efforts to do so. 
 
A Tier 2 Watch List country is a country the government of which does not fully meet the minimum standards but is making significant compliance efforts and in which: (1) the number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing, (2) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, or (3) the compliance determination was based on the country's commitments to take additional steps over the next year.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2017-02-14
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
action_date: 2017-02-14
text: Introduced in Senate