Holly's News From Washington - April 2014
April 2014
There’s something very interesting going on in the House of Representatives right now.
We learned last week that House Republican leadership is planning on voting on a half dozen anti-trafficking bills that have been introduced this year. All of them relate to trafficking issues within the U.S., including commercial sexual exploitation of children, identifying trafficking victims within the child welfare system, foreign labor recruitment, and Back Page’s advertisements for sexual services.
I’m thrilled that Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are planning on moving anti-trafficking legislation next month. But I’m astonished the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act (H.R. 2283) isn’t on the list!
The HTPA—which we at International Justice Mission strongly support—is a bill to upgrade the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to a Bureau. The action is needed in order to give anti-trafficking efforts the stature and prominence they deserve within the State Department bureaucracy.
A significant number of Republican and Democratic leaders support this effort. The HTPA has 64 co-sponsors—much stronger support than some of the other bills on Speaker’s “to do” list. Members from across the political spectrum find the bill appealing because it upgrades our country’s most important diplomatic tool for fighting slavery, but it does so without creating new bureaucracy or costing additional dollars. This simple, cost-free action will give the director of the office the title of “Assistant Secretary of State,” and will put him on equal footing with his counterparts at the various regional bureaus within the State Department.
IJM’s friends and supporters around the U.S. have worked hard to see the HTPA passed. It was the focus of our 2013 Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill last June, where we had over 200 face-to-face meetings between constituents and their Representatives or staff. More than 4,500 people called their Congressmen and Senators in support of the bill last fall, and thousands have signed the online petition to members of Congress.
We think that the Republican leadership is open to including the HTPA on the agenda for full House consideration in May. Our efforts will be enhanced if abolitionists contact the House Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, and ask him to include the HTPA (H.R. 2283) in the group of anti-trafficking bills taken up in May. Global human trafficking is an issue that we care about—let’s let him know!
Call Rep. Cantor today: +1 (202) 225 – 2815
Talking points
· Thank you for making anti-trafficking legislation a priority in the full House.
· Please include an important international anti-trafficking measure, H.R.2283, in the bills you bring up for action in the full House in May.
