Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 443) to direct the Secretary of Labor to train certain employees of Department of Labor how to effectively detect and assist law enforcement in preventing human trafficking during the course of their official duties, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 443.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Trafficking is modern-day slavery, period.

Trafficking goes against our country's founding values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so it is all the more heartbreaking and frustrating to know this crime is happening in our own country.

According to the Polaris Institute, experts believe that worldwide labor trafficking--the illegal exploitation of an individual for commercial gain--is more common than sex trafficking.

This grotesque form of servitude knows no geographical limits. From the Mariana Islands to my home State of Michigan, cases of trafficking can happen anywhere to anyone. Victims of labor trafficking can be young children, teenagers, or adult men and women.

While a lot of work has been done over the years to raise awareness about this terrible crime, sadly, events over the past year have demonstrated that more measures are necessary. Statistics from the Justice Department indicate human trafficking in the United States is on the rise. This is unfortunate but not surprising, given the lawlessness at our southern border.

As one columnist put it, ``The absence of border security, in conjunction with nonexistent interior enforcement, has made the U.S. a fertile breeding ground for human trafficking.''

The Biden administration's open-border policies have led to more than 450,000 unaccompanied alien children crossing the southwest border on Secretary Mayorkas' watch. Given this surge, the Department of Health and Human Services, under guidance from the administration, lowered the standards for sponsors to take these unaccompanied children. Simply put, HHS knowingly transferred these children to the possession of others who were not their parents without ensuring that the child was healthy or that the transfer was necessary.

The result? Mr. Speaker, 85,000 children can't be found. There have been reports of sponsors having 20 of these children in one home, being used for forced labor.

Mr. Speaker, this breakdown in Federal agencies' ability to keep children out of harm's way underscores the need to ensure that Federal officials are properly educated on the signs of human trafficking.

While I am sure there is more work to be done at other Federal agencies, the Committee on Education and the Workforce has jurisdiction over the Department of Labor. Specifically, Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety and Health Administration employees, through the course of inspecting workplace safety and labor law compliance within the United States, often have a frontline opportunity to identify patterns of forced labor. Providing these employees with the proper education on how to detect and respond to the signs of human trafficking is an important part of the larger comprehensive effort to eradicate this unthinkable crime.

Specifically, H.R. 443 would direct the Department of Labor to educate appropriate staff on how to effectively detect instances of human trafficking; ensure personnel regularly receive information on current trends and best practices; allow flexible education options, including in-class and virtual learning options; establish a clear course of action for referring suspected instances of human trafficking to law enforcement; and require a report to Congress on the implementation of the education and the processes used by the Department to measure and track its agencies' and law enforcement's responses to human trafficking.

An earlier version of this bill passed the House unanimously in 2017, and this bill passed the Education and the Workforce Committee by a vote of 42-0.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 443 so we can give folks on the front lines of identifying labor trafficking tools and the tools to stop it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the Representative from the Northern Mariana Islands. We have worked on this a long time, and it is worthy of the time spent.

Let me close with some heartbreaking statistics to remind my colleagues of why we have done this.

The International Labor Organization estimated there were roughly 78 million victims of forced labor across the globe on any given day in 2022.

In 2021, more than 10,000 trafficking cases in the U.S. were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of international crime.

Roughly one in six endangered runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is likely a victim of child sex trafficking.

Clearly, more needs to be done to combat this form of modern-day slavery.

One of the biggest obstacles we face in this fight is awareness. H.R. 443 will ensure Department of Labor employees are equipped with knowledge and processes to catch traffickers and keep them from inflicting more harm and abuse on individuals.

Lastly, I thank my colleague, Representative Sablan, and his team for their strong partnership and advocacy over the years on this bill. I thank my colleague, and I certainly thank him for Go Blue.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 443, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 443, a bill to assist the United States Department of Labor in identifying and preventing cases of human trafficking.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Walberg for his leadership and partnership on this issue and for introducing this legislation, of which I am an original cosponsor.

Human trafficking is a scourge that preys on the most vulnerable, subjecting more than 27 million people around the world--and thousands here in the United States--to abhorrent working and living conditions.

Eradicating all cases of human trafficking first requires an awareness of where it exists. As the Federal agency that oversees labor laws, the Department of Labor is uniquely positioned to identify patterns of labor exploitation.

That is why Representative Walberg and I reintroduced H.R. 443, the Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act. This bipartisan, no-cost legislation directs the Department of Labor to train appropriate Department staff on how to detect human trafficking and ensure that personnel of the Department of Labor are provided with screening tools to identify and detect trafficking activities.

The bill requires the Department to report back to Congress within a year on the progress that is being made by such efforts.

Unfortunately, this horrible crime occurs in every part of our country, including in my own district in the Northern Mariana Islands. In the past, several construction companies have lured non-U.S. workers to come to the Marianas with false promises and misrepresentations about pay and conditions. They didn't come through the southern border, I will assure you of that. They came by airplane. The companies then withheld the employees' wages and confiscated their passports.

The workers were subjected to inhumane working conditions and crowded, unsanitary barracks with barely enough food and water. They were forced to work in unsafe conditions, forced to look up to the community for food and food assistance, some suffering serious injuries without access to adequate medical care. There was even a workplace fatality.

To their credit, the Department of Labor's OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Wage and Hour Division have worked to address these crimes, issuing fines and citations and recovering wages.

These grave injustices that rob people of their freedom, and sometimes their lives, are preventable. Congress can and must do more to hold human traffickers accountable. H.R. 443, the Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act, is an important step toward ensuring that the Department has the tools and resources it needs to combat human trafficking.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the leadership of the House, especially Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and Ranking Member Bobby Scott of the Education and the Workforce Committee, for moving this bill to the floor. Again, I thank my friend, Representative Walberg, for his leadership in combating human trafficking.

One reason we should vote for this bill is because it is a good bill. Another good reason we should vote for it is because Mr. Walberg's team got the national championship. He deserves this win here.

Last month, this bill gained overwhelming support in committee with a vote of 42-0. It passed the House unanimously in the 117th Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill today and support this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I was absent from the floor and the roll call votes. Had I been present, I would have voted: ``yea'' on rollcall No. 32, H.R. 2882--Udall Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2023, as amended and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 33, H.R. 443--Enahncing Detection of Human Trafficking Act, as amended.

personal explanation

Mr. Speaker, during roll call votes on H.R. 2882 and H.R. 443, my vote was not recorded. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 32 and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 33.

personal explanation

Mr. Speaker, I missed votes today due to a 12,000 foot altitude flight delay. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 32 and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 33.

personal explanation