115th CONGRESS 1st Session |
To amend the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to include severe forms of trafficking in persons within the definition of transnational organized crime for purposes of the rewards program of the Department of State, and for other purposes.
March 20, 2017
Mr. Royce of California (for himself and Ms. Frankel of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
To amend the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to include severe forms of trafficking in persons within the definition of transnational organized crime for purposes of the rewards program of the Department of State, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “Targeted Rewards for the Global Eradication of Human Trafficking” or the “TARGET Act”.
SEC. 2. Findings; Sense of Congress.
(a) Findings.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Trafficking in persons is a major transnational crime that threatens United States national security and humanitarian interests.
(2) Trafficking in persons is increasingly perpetrated by organized, sophisticated criminal enterprises.
(3) Combating trafficking in persons requires a global approach to identifying and apprehending the world’s worst human trafficking rings.
(b) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the Department of State’s rewards program is a powerful tool in combating sophisticated international crime and that the Department of State and Federal law enforcement should work in concert to offer rewards that target human traffickers who threaten United States national security and humanitarian interests by preying on the most vulnerable people around the world.
Paragraph (5) of section 36(k) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2708(k)) is amended—
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking “means”;
(2) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, and moving such clauses, as so redesignated, two ems to the right;
(3) by inserting before clause (i), as so redesignated, the following:
(4) in clause (ii), as so redesignated, by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(5) by adding at the end following new subparagraph:
“(B) includes severe forms of trafficking in persons, as such term is defined in section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102).”.