CNA Staff, Feb 9, 2024 / 17:00 pm
The bishops of the United States have urged Congress to pass a bill aiming to combat human trafficking that would, among other things, provide grants to aid organizations in areas with high rates of trafficking.
The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2023 (H.R. 5856), sponsored by Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, would reauthorize a number of previous anti-trafficking measures first passed in 2000 — which originally expired in 2021 — through 2028. It would appropriate $241 million each year to the programs, which would include aid for survivors of human trafficking in the areas of education, job-related skills training, and scholarship assistance.
The bill in an earlier form enjoyed support from the U.S. Catholic bishops, though it failed to pass the Senate in 2022. The current bill has not yet been voted on in this session of Congress.
In a Feb. 1 statement, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said Congress should pass the measure “without further delay.”