Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017

This bill modifies the criteria for evaluating whether countries are meeting the minimum standards for combatting human trafficking.

The President shall ensure that federal agencies limit grants and contracts to entities that do not engage in various activities related to human trafficking. Under the bill, one prohibited activity is charging employees for placement or recruitment fees. Previously, entities could charge such fees as long as they were reasonable.

The bill modifies requirements related to the Department of State's annual report to Congress on its anti-human trafficking efforts, which ranks countries on their compliance with the minimum standards laid out in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. For each country that received a different rank from the previous year, the State Department shall explain the reason for the change, including any concrete actions that country took or failed to take to address human trafficking concerns.

The State Department shall prepare an action plan for each country upgraded to tier 2 on the report's watch list, and how such a country can further improve (tier 2 countries do not meet minimum standards for combatting human trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so).

When the State Department downgrades a country to tier 2, it shall give the country's foreign minister a copy of the report and information including the reasons for the change. The State Department shall also explain the implications of the tier 2 designation and of any further downgrades.

The Department of the Treasury shall instruct its U.S. Executive Directors in each multilateral development bank to initiate discussions to further promote anti-human trafficking policies, including development strategies that reduce the prevalence of trafficking.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov