C ombatting trafficking in persons has been a major legislative priority of the 114 th Congress. Trafficking is a human rights concern as well as a significant area of modern day criminal activity. Moreover, it involves violations of labor, public health, and human rights standards, as well as criminal law. The United States has a varied role in human trafficking. It is "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, transgender individuals, and children—both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals—subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor." There are no current, reliable data on the total number of human trafficking victims in the United States. However, some studies provide snapshots of the victim pool by estimating specific victim populations; for instance, one study suggests that perhaps 100,000 U.S. citizen children may be victims of trafficking within the United States. Human trafficking in the United States is broadly conceptualized in two categories: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Notably, it "can occur in both legal and illicit industries, including in commercial sex, hospitality, sales crews, agriculture, manufacturing, janitorial services, construction, shipyards, restaurants, health and elder care, salon services, fairs and carnivals, peddling and begging, and domestic service." The United States initiates more investigations and prosecutes more individuals for sex trafficking than for labor trafficking offenses. Noncitizens are more susceptible than U.S. citizens to labor trafficking, and more foreign victims are found in labor trafficking than in sex trafficking. Although labor trafficking can happen to U.S. citizens, significantly more U.S. citizens are found in sex trafficking. Research also indicates that most of the victims of sex trafficking into and within the United States are women and children. U.S. efforts to counter trafficking in persons include protection for victims, education of the public, and the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenses. Several departments (the primary being the Departments of Justice [DOJ], Health and Human Services [HHS], and Labor [DOL]) have programs, or administer grants to other entities, that provide victim assistance tailored to trafficking victims. Such assistance may include temporary housing, independent living skills, cultural orientation, transportation, job training, mental health counseling, and legal assistance. A number of federal agencies administer public awareness campaigns on identifying human trafficking victims. The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) Blue Campaign is one such example. The majority of cases investigated at the federal level are handled by agents in DOJ's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and DHS's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who coordinate with others as appropriate. These cases are prosecuted by DOJ. Congress began legislating to counter domestic human trafficking more than a decade ago. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA; Division A of P.L. 106-386 ) and its four reauthorizations (TVPRAs) have collectively aimed to reduce human trafficking within the United States. They have established grant programs for victims and law enforcement, strengthened criminal laws, and provided for oversight on the effectiveness and implications of U.S. policies on countering human trafficking. Countering human trafficking has also been a prolific area of legislative activity for the 114 th Congress. Notably, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 (JVTA; P.L. 114-22 ) was signed into law on May 29, 2015. This report discusses domestic human trafficking issues addressed by the JVTA. The issues are grouped under the following themes: (1) restoring victims through services and benefits, (2) criminal justice, (3) domestic sex trafficking of children, and (4) other issues that include inter-agency coordination, training, sex offender registration, and children conceived through rape. The report supplements CRS Report R43917, Domestic Human Trafficking Legislation in the 114th Congress , by [author name scrubbed], [author name scrubbed], and [author name scrubbed]. In general, the trafficking business feeds on continuing demand and conditions of vulnerability such as youth, gender, poverty, and social exclusion. Actors engaged in human trafficking range from family-run organizations to sophisticated transnational organized crime syndicates. Trafficking victims are often subjected to mental and physical abuse in order to control them. Abuse may include debt bondage, social isolation, removal of identification cards and travel documents, violence, and threat of reprisals against the victims or their families. A major aspect of U.S. anti-trafficking efforts is victim assistance—providing immediate services when victims are identified and helping them recover from the victimization. The JVTA seeks to improve services to victims. One issue surrounding U.S. policy to combat human trafficking is whether the United States provides equal treatment of all victims—foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, including victims of labor trafficking and sex trafficking. There is confusion over whether U.S. citizens, as well as noncitizens, are eligible for services under all the anti-trafficking grant programs authorized by the TVPA, and whether Congress has provided funding for programs that target U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident (LPR) victims. Under the TVPA, DOJ, HHS, and DOL have programs or administer grants to other entities to provide services to trafficking victims. Only the DOJ and HHS programs receive specified funding for trafficking victims services. A related issue is the overall amount of funding for victims' services, especially as the focus on sex trafficking is broadening to include minor sex trafficking victims in the United States who are U.S. citizens. Between FY2002 and FY2013, Congress appropriated approximately $20 million each year for victims' services, and the amount was increased to approximately $28 million in FY2014 and approximately $58 million in FY2015. Despite the recent increases in funding, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) report federal funding for victims' services remains insufficient to address the myriad needs of individual victims. The 113 th Congress amended certain grant programs through the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA, P.L. 113-4 ) so that sex trafficking victims would be eligible for victims' services programs. These changes include clarifying that victims' services and legal assistance under VAWA include services and assistance to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking who are also victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons ; amending the purpose for grants to tribal governments to combat violence against women to include sex trafficking and creating a new purpose area to provide services to address the needs of youth who are victims of several crimes, including sex trafficking; creating a new tribal coalition grant program (administered by DOJ) that, among other purposes, seeks to enhance access to essential services for Indian women victimized by domestic and sexual violence, including sex trafficking; and to assist Indian tribes in developing and promoting state, local, and tribal laws and policies that enhance best practices for responding to violent crimes against Indian women, including sex trafficking; and amending the authorization for grants for state and local law enforcement's anti-trafficking programs focusing on U.S. citizen victims so that these grants can be used for noncitizen victims as well. The JVTA clarifies that DOJ grants for trafficking victims' services could be used to provide housing. It also requires, beginning in FY2017, that the Secretary of HHS make grants for a national communications system to help victims of severe forms of trafficking communicate with service providers. In addition, the law provides additional rights for victims of federal crime, including the right to be informed in a timely manner of court agreements and, with some exceptions, to be informed about certain victims' services. Under the TVPA, noncitizen victims of trafficking are certified as victims by HHS, which makes them eligible for certain services. U.S. citizen and LPR trafficking victims are not required to be certified by HHS, and indeed would not meet the criteria to be certified because certification applies only to foreign nationals who need an immigration status (e.g., T status or continued presence) to remain in the United States. Thus, an issue that has arisen is whether U.S. citizen and LPR victims are eligible for certain victims' services (e.g., those funded by HHS and DOL) since they do not undergo certification. The JVTA clarifies that U.S. citizen and LPR victims of trafficking are not required to be certified by HHS in order to be eligible for HHS-provided services for trafficking victims. Job Corps is an employment and job training program for 16- to 24-year-olds that is administered by DOL. The JVTA amends the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (which superseded the Workforce Investment Act as of July 1, 2015) to specify that victims of a severe form of trafficking (as defined in the TVPA) do not need to meet the income requirement to be eligible for the Job Corps program. Victims of human trafficking often suffer injuries that can affect them for the rest of their lives. Medical care, psychological treatment, job training, and more may be necessary to assist victims in recovering. Preexisting law allowed a victim of peonage, slavery, or trafficking in persons to bring a civil action against his/her perpetrator and obtain civil remedies. The JVTA requires the Attorney General to collect and tabulate data on mandatory restitution orders (the TVPA requires the court to order restitution—paid by the defendant to the victim—for any crime of peonage, slavery, or trafficking in persons); these data should include demographic information on the perpetrators. In addition, it requires the Attorney General to use the proceeds generated by trafficking-related forfeitures to satisfy unfulfill ed restitution orders entered for the benefit of trafficking victims.