[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6100 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
H.R.6100
One Hundred Sixteenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Friday,
the third day of January, two thousand and twenty
An Act
To amend title 18, United States Code, to clarify the criminalization of
female genital mutilation, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Strengthening the Opposition to
Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2020'' or the ``STOP FGM Act of
2020''.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Female genital mutilation is recognized internationally as
a human rights violation and a form of child abuse, gender
discrimination, and violence against women and girls. Female
genital mutilation is a global problem whose eradication requires
international cooperation and enforcement at the national level.
The United States should demonstrate its commitment to the rights
of women and girls by leading the way in the international
community in banning this abhorrent practice.
(2) Congress has previously prohibited the commission of female
genital mutilation on minors. Female genital mutilation is a
heinous practice that often inflicts excruciating pain on its
victims and causes them to suffer grave physical and psychological
harm.
(3) Congress has the power under article I, section 8 of the
Constitution to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper
for carrying into execution treaties entered into by the United
States.
(4) Congress also has the power under the Commerce Clause to
prohibit female genital mutilation. An international market for the
practice exists, and persons who perform female genital mutilation
in other countries typically earn a living from doing so.
(5) Those who perform this conduct often rely on a connection
to interstate or foreign commerce, such as interstate or foreign
travel, the transmission or receipt of communications in interstate
or foreign commerce, the use of instruments traded in interstate or
foreign commerce, or payments of any kind in furtherance of this
conduct.
(6) Amending the statute to specify a link to interstate or
foreign commerce would confirm that Congress has the affirmative
power to prohibit this conduct.
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO CURRENT LAW ON FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION.
Section 116 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
(1) by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
``(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever, in any
circumstance described in subsection (d), knowingly--
``(1) performs, attempts to perform, or conspires to perform
female genital mutilation on another person who has not attained
the age of 18 years;
``(2) being the parent, guardian, or caretaker of a person who
has not attained the age of 18 years facilitates or consents to the
female genital mutilation of such person; or
``(3) transports a person who has not attained the age of 18
years for the purpose of the performance of female genital
mutilation on such person,
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or
both.'';
(2) by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
``(c) It shall not be a defense to a prosecution under this section
that female genital mutilation is required as a matter of religion,
custom, tradition, ritual, or standard practice.'';
(3) by striking subsection (d); and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
``(d) For the purposes of subsection (a), the circumstances
described in this subsection are that--
``(1) the defendant or victim traveled in interstate or foreign
commerce, or traveled using a means, channel, facility, or
instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce, in furtherance
of or in connection with the conduct described in subsection (a);
``(2) the defendant used a means, channel, facility, or
instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce in furtherance of
or in connection with the conduct described in subsection (a);
``(3) any payment of any kind was made, directly or indirectly,
in furtherance of or in connection with the conduct described in
subsection (a) using any means, channel, facility, or
instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce or in or
affecting interstate or foreign commerce;
``(4) the defendant transmitted in interstate or foreign
commerce any communication relating to or in furtherance of the
conduct described in subsection (a) using any means, channel,
facility, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce or
in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means or in
manner, including by computer, mail, wire, or electromagnetic
transmission;
``(5) any instrument, item, substance, or other object that has
traveled in interstate or foreign commerce was used to perform the
conduct described in subsection (a);
``(6) the conduct described in subsection (a) occurred within
the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United
States, or any territory or possession of the United States; or
``(7) the conduct described in subsection (a) otherwise
occurred in or affected interstate or foreign commerce.
``(e) For purposes of this section, the term `female genital
mutilation' means any procedure performed for non-medical reasons that
involves partial or total removal of, or other injury to, the external
female genitalia, and includes--
``(1) a clitoridectomy or the partial or total removal of the
clitoris or the prepuce or clitoral hood;
``(2) excision or the partial or total removal (with or without
excision of the clitoris) of the labia minora or the labia majora,
or both;
``(3) infibulation or the narrowing of the vaginal opening
(with or without excision of the clitoris); or
``(4) other procedures that are harmful to the external female
genitalia, including pricking, incising, scraping, or cauterizing
the genital area.''.
SEC. 4. REPORT.
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this
Act, and annually thereafter, the Attorney General, in consultation
with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of State, the
Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of Education,
shall submit to Congress a report that includes--
(1) an estimate of the number of women and girls in the United
States at risk of or who have been subjected to female genital
mutilation;
(2) the protections available and actions taken, if any, by
Federal, State, and local agencies to protect such women and girls;
and
(3) the actions taken by Federal agencies to educate and assist
communities and key stakeholders about female genital mutilation.
SEC. 5. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.
It is the sense of the Congress that the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Michigan erred in invalidating the
prior version of such section 116 (See United States v. Nagarwala, 350
F. Supp. 3d 613, 631 (E.D. Mich. 2018)). The commercial nature of
female genital mutilation (hereinafter in this section referred to as
``FGM'') is ``self-evident,'' meaning that the ``absence of
particularized findings'' about the commercial nature of FGM in the
predecessor statute did not ``call into question Congress's authority
to legislate'' (Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1, 21 (2005)).
Nevertheless, the Congress has elected to amend the FGM statute to
clarify the commercial nature of the conduct that this statute
regulates. But, by doing so, Congress does not hereby ratify the
district court's erroneous interpretation in Nagarwala.
SEC. 6. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying
with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by
reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO
Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional
Record by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that
such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.