[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                     DATA CHALLENGES IMPACTING HUMAN
                  TRAFFICKING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
                OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                      COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE,
                             AND TECHNOLOGY

                                 OF THE

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                            FEBRUARY 8, 2022

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-43

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
 
 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov
        
                               __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
46-714PDF                   WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     

              COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY

             HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas, Chairwoman
ZOE LOFGREN, California              FRANK LUCAS, Oklahoma, 
SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon                 Ranking Member
AMI BERA, California                 MO BROOKS, Alabama
HALEY STEVENS, Michigan,             BILL POSEY, Florida
    Vice Chair                       RANDY WEBER, Texas
MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey           BRIAN BABIN, Texas
JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York              ANTHONY GONZALEZ, Ohio
MELANIE A. STANSBURY, New Mexico     MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida
BRAD SHERMAN, California             JAMES R. BAIRD, Indiana
ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado              DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida
JERRY McNERNEY, California           MIKE GARCIA, California
PAUL TONKO, New York                 STEPHANIE I. BICE, Oklahoma
BILL FOSTER, Illinois                YOUNG KIM, California
DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey          RANDY FEENSTRA, Iowa
DON BEYER, Virginia                  JAKE LaTURNER, Kansas
CHARLIE CRIST, Florida               CARLOS A. GIMENEZ, Florida
SEAN CASTEN, Illinois                JAY OBERNOLTE, California
CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania             PETER MEIJER, Michigan
DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina         JAKE ELLZEY, TEXAS
GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin                MIKE CAREY, OHIO
DAN KILDEE, Michigan
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas
                         
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                            February 8, 2022

                                                                   Page

Hearing Charter..................................................     2

                           Opening Statements

Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Chairwoman, 
  Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of 
  Representatives................................................     8
    Written Statement............................................     8

Statement by Representative Frank Lucas, Ranking Member, 
  Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of 
  Representatives................................................     9
    Written Statement............................................    10

                               Witnesses:

Dr. Gretta Goodwin, Director, Homeland Security and Justice, U.S. 
  Government Accountability Office
    Oral Statement...............................................    12
    Written Statement............................................    14

Dr. Louise Shelley, Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Endowed Chair and 
  University Professor, Director, Terrorism, Transnational Crime 
  and Corruption Center, George Mason University
    Oral Statement...............................................    29
    Written Statement............................................    31

Ms. Theresa Harris, Interim Program Director, Scientific 
  Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program, American 
  Association for the Advancement of Science
    Oral Statement...............................................    44
    Written Statement............................................    46

Ms. Hannah Darnton, Associate Director, Ethics, Human Rights, and 
  Technology, Business for Social Responsibility, Secretariate of 
  Tech Against Trafficking
    Oral Statement...............................................    50
    Written Statement............................................    53

Discussion.......................................................    71

             Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions

Dr. Gretta Goodwin, Director, Homeland Security and Justice, U.S. 
  Government Accountability Office...............................   102

Dr. Louise Shelley, Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Endowed Chair and 
  University Professor, Director, Terrorism, Transnational Crime 
  and Corruption Center, George Mason University.................   105

Ms. Theresa Harris, Interim Program Director, Scientific 
  Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program, American 
  Association for the Advancement of Science.....................   107

Ms. Hannah Darnton, Associate Director, Ethics, Human Rights, and 
  Technology, Business for Social Responsibility, Secretariate of 
  Tech Against Trafficking.......................................   109

            Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record

Documents submitted by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, 
  Chairwoman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. 
  House of Representatives
    ``Hearing on `Data Challenges Impacting Human Trafficking 
      Research and Development of Anti-Trafficking Technological 
      Tools,' '' Catherine Chen, Chief Executive Officer, Polaris   114
    ``Statement for the Record,'' Ms. Kayse Lee Maass, Director, 
      Operations Research and Social Justice Lab.................   117

 
                       DATA CHALLENGES IMPACTING
                       HUMAN TRAFFICKING RESEARCH
                           AND DEVELOPMENT OF
                  ANTI-TRAFFICKING TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS

                              ----------                              


                       TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2022

                          House of Representatives,
               Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
                                                   Washington, D.C.

    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., via 
Zoom, Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson [Chairwoman of the Committee] 
presiding.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    Chairwoman Johnson. The hearing will come to order. Without 
objection, the Chair is authorized to declare recess at any 
time.
    Before I deliver opening remarks, I want to note that, 
today, the Committee is meeting virtually. I want to announce a 
couple of reminders to Members about the conduct of the 
hearing. First, Members should keep their video feed on as long 
as they are present in the hearing. Members are responsible for 
their own microphones. Please also keep your microphones muted 
unless you are speaking. And finally, if Members have documents 
they wish to submit to the record, please email them to the 
Committee Clerk, whose email address was circulated prior to 
the meeting.
    Good morning, and thank you to the witnesses joining us 
today. This Committee held its first hearing on the role of 
science and technology in combating human trafficking a year 
and a half ago. It coincided with the World Day Against 
Trafficking in Persons. As we are in the wake of the National 
Human Trafficking Prevention Month, now is a good time to 
discuss the data challenges that stymie advances in anti-
trafficking research and technology development.
    Human trafficking is a major issue in Texas. And just days 
ago, a raid in Dallas resulted in the arrest of two 
traffickers. This crime preys on the most vulnerable and it 
knows no borders, it is not gender-specific, and it crosses 
socioeconomic barriers. In the 20 years of policymaking on this 
issue, what progress has been made? What's working, what isn't, 
and why?
    Unfortunately, some of the data needed to address these 
questions is too often siloed across various data bases, is 
nonexistent, or is inconsistent. The amount of peer-reviewed 
academic literature and robust advanced research on human 
trafficking is disappointingly low. Standardizing data and 
improving data collection can provide a basis for more and 
better research, analysis, and ultimately improved outcomes for 
the survivors.
    Bringing together multidisciplinary teams of researchers 
with survivors; nonprofits; Federal, State, and local and 
tribal governments; private sector and international partners 
will be critically important. We need more Federal coordination 
of research and technology development that will lead to 
evidence-based, victim-centered, survivor-informed, and 
culturally informed anti-trafficking strategies. Increasing 
data-sharing and making use of machine learning and other tools 
will help bring the crimes out of the shadows.
    As we continue to tackle this issue, we must also move 
toward more equitable data collection. To understand the full 
scale and scope of this issue, we must ensure that Black, 
Brown, Indigenous, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender 
and queer or questioning), and noncitizen survivors of human 
trafficking are included in the data. I hope that this 
Committee will support a strong role for federally supported 
science and technology and a whole-of-government effort to 
combat human trafficking for a safer and more secure America.
    [The prepared statement of Chairwoman Johnson follows:]

    Good morning and thank you to the witnesses for joining us 
today.
    This Committee held its first hearing on the role of 
science and technology in combating human trafficking a year 
and a half ago. It coincided with World Day Against Trafficking 
in Persons. As we are in the wake of National Human Trafficking 
Prevention Month, now is a good time to discuss the data 
challenges that stymie advances in anti-trafficking research 
and technology development.
    Human trafficking is a major issue in Texas and just days 
ago, a raid in Dallas resulted in the arrest of two 
traffickers. This crime preys on the most vulnerable and it 
knows no borders, it is not gender-specific, and it crosses 
socio-economic barriers.
    In the 20 years of policymaking on this issue, what 
progress has been made?
    What's working, what isn't, and why? Unfortunately, some of 
the data needed to address these questions is too often siloed 
across various databases, is non-existent, or is inconsistent.
    The amount of peer-reviewed academic literature and robust 
advanced research on human trafficking is disappointingly low. 
Standardizing data and improving data collection can provide a 
basis for more and better research, analysis, and ultimately 
improved outcomes for survivors.
    Bringing together multidisciplinary teams of researchers 
with survivors, nonprofits, Federal, State, local, and tribal 
governments, private sector, and international partners will be 
critically important. We need more Federal coordination of 
research and technology development that will lead to evidence-
based, victim-centered, survivor-informed, and culturally-
informed anti-trafficking strategies. Increasing data sharing 
and making use of machine learning and other tools will help 
bring this crime out of the shadows.
    As we continue to tackle this issue, we must also move 
toward more equitable data collection. To understand the full 
scale and scope of this issue, we must ensure that black, 
brown, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and non-citizen survivors of human 
trafficking are included in the data. I hope that this 
Committee will support a strong role for Federally-supported 
science and technology in a whole-of-government effort to 
combat human trafficking for a safer, more secure America.

    Chairwoman Johnson. The Chair now recognizes Mr. Lucas for 
an opening statement.
    Mr. Lucas. Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson, for holding 
today's hearing to explore the role of science and technology 
in disrupting human trafficking. And thank you to your expert--
to our expert witnesses for your participation. I look forward 
to your testimony to learn more about how we can use research 
to improve anti-trafficking practices.
    And thank you, Ms. Darnton, for testifying before us again 
today on this very important topic. I look forward to building 
off what we learned from you during a hearing we held 2 years 
ago on this same topic. We're glad to have you back and--with 
us here today.
    Human trafficking is a crime that is often described as 
``hidden in plain sight'' as it can be difficult to detect the 
warning signs, and many victims are afraid to come forward. 
Often, human trafficking criminals operate in public places 
such as airports and hotels, as well as public forums online. 
While these victims cannot be shackled--they may not be 
shackled, I should say, human trafficking is a form of modern-
day slavery.
    Human trafficking is a global problem, and it affects every 
State, making it difficult to address. And each State faces its 
own challenges. In my home State of Oklahoma, the increase in 
crime has become particularly problematic, including among 
Oklahoma's Indigenous populations. In recent years, Oklahoma's 
Indigenous populations have been affected by concerningly high 
rates of human trafficking, murder, and abduction. We also face 
challenges from illegal cannabis-growing operations, which have 
been linked to suspected human trafficking networks. I'm hoping 
some of the research we address today can touch on how to 
handle these challenges.
    In 2014, the International Labor Organization estimated 
that human trafficking was a $150 billion industry worldwide. 
Eight years later, this outdated estimation is still being 
widely cited to describe the current State of human trafficking 
impacts around the globe. This is in part due to a lack of new 
data and coordinated data-sharing. But without updated and 
accurate data, it is difficult to understand the full extent of 
the problem.
    One of the reasons I enjoy serving on the Science Committee 
is our ability to come together and focus on solutions to some 
of the world's biggest challenges. And combatting human 
trafficking is just that. It is an issue that cuts across 
multiple jurisdictions and Federal agencies. And research and 
scientific analysis have an important role to play.
    As Members of the Science Committee, we can help target 
investments to address research gaps and advance technologies 
to help law enforcement, industry. And NGO (non-governmental 
organizations) research can ensure that we are most efficiently 
and effectively utilizing data and collaborating with 
stakeholders.
    Strategic investments in new and emerging technology tools 
such as artificial intelligence (AI) transform how we approach 
this problem. AI can perform large-scale data analysis to 
detect suspicious financial trends and utilize facial 
recognition technologies to match victim identities with 
missing-person notices. Continued investments into AI basic 
research innovations is just one example of how technology can 
be deployed to fight this deplorable crime.
    It is vital that we do not turn a blind eye to human 
trafficking in our own communities and around the globe. We 
develop--we must work together to support research and 
technology development to end human trafficking for good.
    Thank you, Madam Chair, and I yield back.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Lucas follows:]

    Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson, for holding today's hearing 
to explore the role of science and technology in disrupting 
human trafficking. And thank you to our expert witnesses for 
your participation. I look forward to your testimony to learn 
more about how we can use research to improve anti-trafficking 
policies.
    And thank you, Ms. Darnton, for testifying before us again 
today on this very important topic. I look forward to building 
off what we learned from you during a hearing we held two years 
ago on this same topic. We are glad to have you back with us 
here again today.
    Human trafficking is a crime that is often described as 
``hidden in plain sight'' as it can be difficult to detect the 
warning signs and many victims are afraid to come forward. 
Often human trafficking criminals operate in public places such 
as airports and hotels as well as public forums online. While 
these victims may not be shackled, human trafficking is a form 
of modern-day slavery.
    Human trafficking is a global problem and it affects every 
state, making it difficult to address. And each state faces its 
own challenges. In my home state of Oklahoma, the increase in 
crime has become particularly problematic-including among 
Oklahoma's Indigenous populations. In recent years, Oklahoma's 
Indigenous populations have been affected by concerningly high 
rates of human trafficking, murder, and abduction. We also face 
challenges from illegal cannabis growing operations, which have 
been linked to suspected human trafficking networks. I'm hoping 
some of the research we address today can touch on how to 
handle these challenges.
    In 2014, the International Labor Organization estimated 
that human trafficking was a $150 billion industry worldwide. 
Eight years later, this outdated estimation is still being 
widely cited to describe the current state of human trafficking 
impacts around the globe. This is in part due to a lack of new 
data and coordinated data sharing. But without updated and 
accurate data, it is difficult to understand the full extent of 
this problem.
    One of the reasons I enjoy serving on the Science Committee 
is our ability to come together and focus on solutions to some 
of the world's biggest challenges. And combatting human 
trafficking is just that. It is an issue that cuts across 
multiple jurisdictions and federal agencies. And research and 
scientific analysis have an important role to play.
    As members of the Science Committee, we can help target 
investments to address research gaps and advance technologies 
to help law enforcement, industry, and NGO efforts to fight 
human trafficking. Further investments in research can ensure 
we are most efficiently and effectively utilizing data and 
collaborating with stakeholders.
    Strategic investments in new and emerging technology tools 
such as artificial intelligence transform how we approach this 
problem. AI can perform large-scale data analysis to detect 
suspicious financial trends and utilize facial recognition 
technologies to match victim identities with missing person 
notices. Continued investments into AI basic research 
innovations is just one example of how technology can be 
deployed to fight this deplorable crime.
    It is vital that we do not turn a blind eye to human 
trafficking in our own communities and around the globe. We 
must work together to support research and technology 
development to end human trafficking for good.
    Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.

    Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you. If there are Members who 
wish to submit additional opening statements, your statements 
will be added to the record at this point.
    At this time, I'd like to introduce our witnesses. Our 
first witness is Dr. Gretta Goodwin. Dr. Goodwin is a Director 
of the Homeland Security and Justice team at the U.S. 
Government Accountability Office (GAO). In this role she leads 
GAO's work on justice and law enforcement issues. She has 
directed reviews on virtual currencies use to facilitate human 
and drug trafficking, law enforcement efforts to combat online 
sex trafficking, the crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous 
women, and human trafficking, among others.
    Our next witness is Dr. Louise Shelley. Dr. Shelley is the 
Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy and the 
Director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption 
Center at the George Mason University. She is a leading expert 
on the relationship among terrorism, organized crime, and 
corruption, as well as human trafficking, transnational crime, 
and terrorism. She also specializes in illicit financial flows 
and money laundering. Dr. Shelley was an inaugural Andrew 
Carnegie Fellow and is the author of several books.
    Our third witness, Ms. Theresa Harris. Ms. Harris is the 
interim Program Director of Scientific Responsibility, Human 
Rights, and Law Program at the American Association for 
Advancement of Science (AAAS). In this role she manages the 
program's projects on science and human rights, including On-
Call Scientists, a volunteer referral service that provides 
technical support for human rights organizations, as well as 
activities that promote greater understanding of the human 
right to science and a new project on artificial intelligence 
and human rights.
    Our final witness, Ms. Hannah Darnton, Ms. Darnton is the 
Assistant Director of Ethics, Human Rights, and Technology at 
the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). Her work focuses 
on the intersection of human rights and new disruptive 
technology and she leads the Tech Against Trafficking 
collaborative initiative. Prior to joining the BSR, she worked 
with the Skoll Foundation and also spent 6 years working in 
anti-human trafficking in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the 
Bay Area.
    As our witnesses should know, you each will have 5 minutes 
for your spoken testimony. Your written testimony will be 
included in the record for the hearing. When you have completed 
your spoken testimony, we will begin with questions. Each 
Member will have 5 minutes to question the panel.
    Now, let's start with Dr. Goodwin.

                TESTIMONY OF DR. GRETTA GOODWIN,

            DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY AND JUSTICE,

             U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

    Dr. Goodwin. Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member Lucas, and 
Members of the Committee, I am pleased to be here today to 
discuss the usefulness of data, as well as the challenges 
policymakers and law enforcement encounter when protecting 
vulnerable populations or in combating illicit activities when 
data are not readily available.
    We have reported on issues affecting a variety of 
vulnerable populations, the need for additional data, and the 
opportunities to help ensure that relevant data are accessible 
and of sufficient quality. For example, we noted that human 
trafficking is occurring in the United States and that 
trafficking may be facilitated by the use of virtual 
currencies. We've also noted that the incidence of violence 
committed against American Indian and Alaska Native women in 
the United States constitutes a crisis and that various Federal 
officials and tribal stakeholders have raised concerns about 
the lack of cross-jurisdictional cooperation and comprehensive 
national data when it comes to the Federal response to this 
crisis.
    My statement today discusses our prior work examining the 
extent to which the number of missing or murdered Indigenous 
women in the United States is known and the use of virtual 
currencies for human and drug trafficking and the extent to 
which agencies collect data on these topics.
    Last October, we reported that data on the total number of 
missing or murdered Indigenous women is unknown because Federal 
data bases do not contain comprehensive national data. Due to 
differences in the characteristics of these data bases, 
including their intended purposes, specific contents, 
organization, and applicable statutory requirements, they 
cannot be combined together for the purpose of providing 
comprehensive information. We reported that the Department of 
Justice (DOJ) has taken some steps to analyze data in the 
Federal data bases, including publishing more detailed single-
year statistics on missing persons by race, age, and gender. 
This type of information could help DOJ and other stakeholders 
better understand the nature of the crisis.
    There is no reliable estimate on the number of trafficking 
victims in the United States or about the money generated by 
this crime. The quality and quantity of the data are often 
hampered by the hidden nature of the crime, challenges to 
identifying individual victims, gaps in data accuracy and 
completeness, and significant barriers regarding the sharing of 
information. Adding the use of virtual currencies into this 
mix, which can be used to purposely conceal illicit 
transactions, makes it tougher to develop reliable estimates.
    A 2020 report by Polaris, a nonprofit organization 
knowledgeable about human trafficking, found that virtual 
currencies were the second-most commonly accepted method of 
payment on 40 platforms in the online commercial sex 
marketplace, which has been used to facilitate sex trafficking. 
Also, the number of times virtual currency and human 
trafficking appeared in Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) 
filed with Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 
(FinCEN) nearly doubled between 2017 and 2020. We have reported 
that data from selected Federal agencies on virtual currencies 
use for human and drug trafficking may not be consistently 
captured. So agencies may not have complete data when assessing 
or reporting on the illicit use of this currency. We've made 
recommendations designed to address data challenges, and 
agencies have taken some steps. And we will continue to monitor 
their efforts.
    An effective framework or structure for capturing and 
reporting data can help ensure that an agency is providing 
useful and transparent information to the public. Such data and 
statistics from the Federal Government and researchers provide 
the foundation for policymakers to make informed decisions.
    Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member Lucas, and Members of 
the Committee, this concludes my remarks. I'm happy to answer 
any questions you have.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Goodwin follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you so very much.
    Our next witness is Dr. Louise Shelley.

                TESTIMONY OF DR. LOUISE SHELLEY,

             OMER L. AND NANCY HIRST ENDOWED CHAIR

              AND UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, DIRECTOR,

                 TERRORISM, TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

         AND CORRUPTION CENTER, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

    Dr. Shelley. Thank you for this invitation, Chairwoman 
Johnson, Co-Chair Lucas, and the Members of the Committee.
    Last month, Attorney General Garland released a strategy to 
address human trafficking. In it, it said, ``Reliable 
prevalence estimates have been difficult to ascertain. Greater 
support and funding for research and data collection are 
needed.'' But the problem is not just one of understanding the 
prevalence of the problem. It is much broader. What is the 
nature, the scope, the diversity, and the finances of human 
trafficking or the role of facilitators from the legitimate 
economy? And even though we have spent and invested large 
amounts of money, money will not get you to a strategy that is 
effective unless we have a better understanding of the complex 
and diverse aspects of the phenomenon.
    So I am asking not only for improved data collection but 
the need for much more basic research to understand this 
phenomenon. There has been much more money invested in 
understanding the problems of the drug trade and drug 
trafficking and the persons who are affected by the sale of 
drugs. And some of those insights into that blatant and 
criminal phenomenon could also be applied to the field of human 
trafficking.
    As has been mentioned previously, there are limited 
available data sources in the United States, and all of them 
have existing limitations, as I present in my written 
testimony. But important opportunities exist for increasing or 
improving Federal data collection, and data-sharing among 
Federal agencies in between the public and private sector is 
key. As I will discuss later in another project I have funded 
by the NSF (National Science Foundation), we are having 
valuable data-sharing with the private sector that is giving us 
enormous insights.
    But part of what we need to do to fund this--to have 
successful fundamental research is to anonymize data that we 
have and information such as on T visas that would help us do 
the AI analytics that were mentioned earlier to address this 
problem of human trafficking. There are many tools that were 
available if we began to focus on the basic research.
    I was asked to discuss a research project I have now that 
has been funded by the National Science Foundation on 
disrupting illicit supply chains. And as was mentioned in the 
introduction, hotels are a key element of human trafficking. 
This has been found in research done in Texas. It has been 
found in the survey of Federal trafficking cases. And to do 
this, we began to do an inventory of these using Federal 
criminal cases, and then we focused on analyzing this data in 
terms of its demographic distribution.
    The insights from this research are not only basic research 
that can inform strategy and inform allocation of law 
enforcement resources and also help us understand how we must 
mobilize the private sector to address this phenomenon. But we 
also need to be using data not only from hotels but tech 
companies, rideshare companies, and others that are deeply 
involved in facilitating human trafficking.
    The insights of this research that we've done for NSF are 
not just scholarly articles. We have been targeting them to 
reach different communities concerned with the hospitality 
sector, concerned with constructing algorithms for the 
financial services sector, and we've been told that this 
research is useful in finding out how to target this 
phenomenon.
    So what we need to think about is how we can better 
structure this research to work with an organization like NSF 
that is responsible for basic research, that is responsible for 
developing cutting-edge AI tools and help coordinate with 
existing mission agencies. Together with a larger effort, we 
could be achieving results that would advance our gaps in data 
and provide the insights that we need to address this 
phenomenon. But we also need to be focusing not just on the 
illicit side of this but the facilitating role of the 
legitimate actors. And we need to, as was mentioned, develop 
data and tools.
    The need to combat human trafficking is an issue that 
unites much of American society, civil society, different 
diverse communities, and we need more basic research, more 
willingness to share data, and the development and application 
of more sophisticated data analytics to address this problem 
that has grown enormously in the virtual world, as was 
previously mentioned in the last decade and unfortunately has 
grown significantly during the pandemic.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Shelley follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Theresa Harris.

                TESTIMONY OF MS. THERESA HARRIS,

      INTERIM PROGRAM DIRECTOR, SCIENTIFIC RESPONSIBILITY,

             HUMAN RIGHTS AND LAW PROGRAM, AMERICAN

           ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

    Ms. Harris. Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member Lucas, and 
Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to 
testify today. I'm Theresa Harris, and I'm the interim Director 
of the Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights, and Law Program 
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or 
AAAS. AAAS is the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific 
society and publisher of the Science family of journals. Our 
mission is to advance science, engineering, and innovation 
throughout the world for the benefit of all people to advance 
science and serve society.
    At AAAS, I direct our science and human rights projects. 
One of those is On-Call Scientists, a volunteer program through 
which AAAS connects volunteer scientists, engineers, and health 
professionals with projects where their research can have a 
positive impact on human rights. I help human rights 
organizations reframe their information and technology needs as 
scientific research questions. Then I identify volunteers from 
the scientific community who have that information or 
experience. In many instances, these are pretty straightforward 
research questions that boil down to sharing scientific 
information and knowledge and applying them to a specific human 
rights situation.
    However, the information gaps related to human trafficking 
are much more complicated than many of the other questions we 
receive. For example, for estimating prevalence, there is no 
one algorithm or sampling method that can solve all of the 
missing data problems. In every labor sector where human 
trafficking happens, there are different recruiting practices, 
different types of laborers who are sought after, different 
payment methods, and different types of supply chains, just to 
name some of the distinctions.
    Then in each location there are cultural differences 
regarding work expectations. All of this means scientific 
researchers studying human trafficking need data from public 
agencies and private companies; from sampled surveys and 
ethnographic research; and from health, social services, 
business licensing, transportation records, education, law 
enforcement, and so much more. And this is just to assess the 
prevalence of human trafficking.
    Understanding vulnerability, criminal network operations, 
and what kinds of support are most effective for survivors 
involves similarly complicated but different data sources and 
technological tools to collect, analyze, and interpret the 
data.
    These are not the kinds of questions volunteer scientists 
in our program can take on by themselves in their spare time. 
These are research questions that require cooperation across 
teams of quantitative and qualitative researchers in the 
mathematical, behavioral, and social sciences; companies that 
are collecting data about their supply chains to prevent human 
trafficking; human rights experts who work with survivors; 
government officials at the local, State, tribal, and national 
levels; and organizations like the International Labor 
Organization.
    The involvement of Federal science agencies to support 
research and development (R&D) to address human trafficking is 
critical. There is much more detail in my written testimony, 
but with my remaining time, I want to emphasize three points. 
First, advocates against human trafficking are in need of the 
scientific research to inform their efforts, but too often that 
information is unavailable. Addressing the research gaps will 
require coordination across sectors, data sources, and 
scientific disciplines.
    Second, technology development for data tools that can be 
used by both scientists and human rights professionals in the 
field is a much-needed area of emphasis. This development must 
involve coordination across scientific disciplines and across 
sectors, government, academia, not-for-profits, and industry.
    Third, data collection and sharing need to be done in ways 
that respect and do not violate human rights. That should 
always be the case in scientific research of course, but 
there's a heightened scientific responsibility because of the 
vulnerabilities inherent in any data that is collected or 
shared regarding human trafficking. Scientists' ethical and 
human rights responsibilities must be central to every decision 
made about what data are collected, how the data are stored, 
and the circumstances under which they are shared.
    Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Harris follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much.
    Our final witness is Ms. Hannah Darnton.

                TESTIMONY OF MS. HANNAH DARNTON,

           ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ETHICS, HUMAN RIGHTS,

      AND TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY,

            SECRETARIATE OF TECH AGAINST TRAFFICKING

    Ms. Darnton. Good morning, Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member 
Lucas, and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the 
invitation to participate in today's discussion. My name is 
Hannah Darnton. I'm here today representing the industry 
collaboration Tech Against Trafficking.
    Tech Against Trafficking is a coalition of technology 
companies, including Amazon, BT, Microsoft, Salesforce, and 
others, that are collaborating with global experts to help 
eradicate human trafficking using technology. A large part of 
our work is focused on bringing the anti-trafficking field 
together, supporting the creation of tools and systems that 
will allow for increased sharing, collaboration, and impact 
across the sector.
    Through the Tech Against Trafficking Accelerator program, 
we work with organizations hoping to utilize and deploy 
technology to advance and scale their work. We then leverage 
the insights and learnings gleaned from these partnerships to 
think strategically about how to capitalize on the use of data 
and technologies and create open-source assets and tools that 
will advance the field as a whole.
    A large part of our focus has been on enabling data 
collection, aggregation, and the generation of useful insights 
and analysis for stakeholders in ways that do not compromise 
the safety and security of the individuals whose information is 
contained within the data. However, through our engagements, 
we've noted that data is often discussed in isolation without 
consideration of the underlying technology infrastructure or 
the broader anti-trafficking ecosystem of service providers and 
victims.
    To ground our discussion today, there are five things I 
recommend keeping front of mind as the field pursues new 
advancements and exploration in human trafficking data. First, 
we need to consider what will data help achieve. The anti-
trafficking field frequently cites the need for more data 
without specifying the questions that need to be answered to 
build strategic programs capable of delivering systemwide 
impact. As a field, we need to ask what key questions will data 
help answer? What will the data be used for? And what will it 
enable practitioners to achieve?
    We have a largely extractive approach to data collection 
and use. Researchers, policymakers, technologists developing 
new tools or solutions often ask nonprofits, direct service 
providers to provide sensitive information and data about their 
beneficiaries without an explanation of how it will be used, 
aggregated, stored, shared, or how it will benefit them. 
There's a need to reframe our approach to data to ensure that 
organizations and individuals providing the data understand and 
consent to how it will be used, that the appropriate privacy 
and protection measures are in place to protect sensitive 
information, and, importantly, that we consider how the data 
collection and use of their data will help advance their work.
    Second, how can we ensure fit-for-purpose tools? Research, 
data, technology all need to be translated or adapted for the 
specific context in which it will be used. Large data sets, 
off-the-shelf tools, and broad research questions are often 
unable to answer specific questions or meet the needs of 
policymakers, law enforcement, or service providers operating 
on the ground. Researchers, data scientists, and technologists 
will need to work closely with these groups to ensure that they 
are appropriately integrating the considerations and needs of 
stakeholders who will be translating their work into real-world 
applications.
    Third, we need to support a well-funded, well-resourced 
collaborative data ecosystem. This means funding. The process, 
systems, and infrastructure for data collection, aggregation, 
analysis, and storage have ongoing operating costs and fees 
that require specific skill sets and expertise to maximize 
their utility. Direct service organizations are best positioned 
often to collect and share data. However, restrictive 
philanthropic and government funding criteria often make it 
difficult for organizations to secure sustained funding that 
will allow them to set up these systems and technical 
infrastructure, cover ongoing operational cost, or hire 
individuals with the expertise to maintain them.
    Furthermore, increased collaboration is needed across the 
ecosystem. Human trafficking data comes from victims' lived 
traumatic experiences. It's not typically captured and 
collected through large institutions but through organizations 
that have established relationships and trust with victims and 
survivors of human trafficking.
    To advance data capture and collection, larger institutions 
need to identify groups on the ground and invest in supporting 
and developing relationships with these organizations. Data 
scientists and technologists can help aggregate and analyze 
data once collected. Much of the data collected on human 
trafficking is messy, it's unstructured, unorganized, biased, 
observational, and private, and expertise is required to help 
develop high standards of evidence from data.
    Fourth, as my fellow panelist Ms. Harris was mentioning, we 
need to conduct due diligence. Despite best intentions, data 
research technology solutions collected or created for socially 
beneficial uses may still be misinterpreted, mismanaged, 
misused, or abused in ways that result in human rights harms. 
Due diligence must be conducted on research, data collection, 
and use and technologies pursued by government, law 
enforcement, companies, and service providers to identify, 
avoid, prevent, and mitigate all potential adverse human rights 
impacts in accordance with the U.N. guiding principles on 
business and human rights.
    And finally, fifth, we need to invest in flexible solutions 
and support systems that can adapt and evolve in tandem with 
the ever-shifting nature of human trafficking, the needs of 
organizations on the ground, and societal trends. Structures 
and systems for collecting data are often not reflective of the 
ways in which direct service providers on the ground collect 
data. We need agile tools that can be used and deployed in a 
range of contexts or by practitioners with varying levels of 
expertise that can incorporate new and emerging ways in which 
human trafficking can take shape in the future.
    Through the Accelerator program, Tech Against Trafficking 
has partnered on new tools such as new privacy-preserving 
mechanisms, the human trafficking case data standard, and 
others that we hope embody these five considerations. And I'd 
be happy to go into greater detail on those tools today.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Darnton follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much.
    At this point, we will begin our first round of questions. 
And the Chair recognizes herself for 5 minutes.
    Let me pose this question for all to comment on, all our 
witnesses. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, or the TVPA, 
guides the Federal response to human trafficking in the United 
States and defines it as a labor or commercial sex act induced 
by force, fraud, or coercion. Many NGO's and others have 
contributed greatly to the protection of survivors and 
prosecution of the traffickers. But more needs to be done, 
especially with the addition of cyber-enabled trafficking. Can 
each of you briefly describe the risk to society at large if we 
all fail to better understand the phenomenon of human 
trafficking and develop better tools to prevent or disrupt it?
    Dr. Goodwin. Chairwoman, I will speak briefly to that, and 
I'll reference the work that GAO has done looking at online sex 
trafficking. And some of the concerns that we note are the 
concerns that are being noted here as well. You know, it's 
difficult to go after these bad actors online. Some of the work 
that GAO has been doing is looking specifically at law 
enforcement's ability and preparedness to go after these bad 
actors online.
    Another issue that we brought up in our online sex 
trafficking work was the fact that you might have a platform in 
one location and then the trafficking happening somewhere else, 
so it can be really challenging to address these issues.
    And I'll yield my time because I know that other panelists 
have things they want to say.
    Chairwoman Johnson. Yes, Ms. Shelley?
    Dr. Shelley. I think that what we've seen in the last 2 
years is a tremendous growth in human trafficking and also many 
survivors without support systems have returned to human 
trafficking. One of the things that we've noted in our research 
is with this online movement, we have much more involvement of, 
for example, hotels near highways because you can have all of 
this going on in a very impersonal world in which it is hard to 
detect where the exploitation is going on, and it is very hard 
to find the victims of trafficking. So we have many different 
problems that we need to--that we see coming as a result of 
this enormous growth of online trade.
    And I will point out that the largest network that was ever 
found in the United States and prosecuted, which had 350,000 
websites associated with it, was run out of China and operated 
in over 50 different cities in the United States.
    Chairwoman Johnson. Ms. Darnton?
    Ms. Darnton. Thank you so much. I'd say that trafficking 
manifests in a variety of different ways, and we need the data 
and information applicable to those various scenarios to help 
us understand how it takes shape and respond appropriately with 
interventions that are actually impactful. Over the course of 
the past few years, we've seen COVID-19 drive many individuals 
online just as one example, and we needed the data to better 
understand where exploitation, abuse, and eventual trafficking 
were connected to those online points, how we could actually 
see the breakdown of trafficking occurring across this new 
ecosystem in these new societal trends. And with that--without 
that information, it would have been very difficult to actually 
be able to address it, to take the actions necessary to raise 
awareness, to create prevention mechanisms that were effective, 
and to have actors across the system respond. So, in short, to 
answer your question, I think that without the data, we risk 
creating mismatches--mismatched approaches or responses that 
don't actually address the issue at hand.
    Chairwoman Johnson. Ms. Harris?
    Ms. Harris. In addition to what my fellow panelists have 
said, your question about the risk, the research that is 
available suggests that there are connections between human 
trafficking and other forms of trafficking, other forms of 
organized crime, and so all of that needs to be understood with 
the data, and the approaches need to be informed by the best 
scientific evidence on those issues.
    Chairwoman Johnson. Ms. Harris, can you elaborate on why 
AAAS and those you work with in the scientific community 
prioritize human rights work such as human trafficking?
    Ms. Harris. Sure. Years ago, decades ago, the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science recognized that 
human rights was central to our mission of advancing science 
and serving society and that there are so many connections 
between science and human rights, both the applications of 
science to solving human rights concerns but also human rights 
as a value that is central to science and a responsibility of 
scientists.
    And so we have had a human rights program for decades now, 
and the On-Call Scientists project in particular is a way that 
we have made it possible for many in the scientific community 
to get involved, not just work that's happening at AAAS.
    Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. I'd like to ask 
unanimous consent to enter a letter into the record from 
Polaris, which operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline. 
Without objection.
    I now ask Mr. Lucas to take his 5 minutes.
    Mr. Lucas. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Darnton, Tech Against Trafficking has done great work 
to advance technology to help combat human trafficking, and as 
we've already learned through witness testimony today, there 
are instances where technology has enabled bad actors but also 
instances of where technology advanced efforts to identify and 
stop criminals. Could you discuss how the Committee can further 
support innovative technologies to combat human trafficking?
    And while you're thinking about that, my second question 
will be are there certain research activities you recommend 
Congress support to encourage the adoption and utilization of 
those technologies and the techniques?
    Ms. Darnton. Thank you so much. Yes, I think there's a 
number of ways in which the Committee can help to support 
innovative technologies. I think many of the ways that that can 
occur are actually supporting, as I mentioned in my initial 
statements, the ecosystem in which the technology will be used. 
We've found that many of the partnerships, the collaborations 
across the sector are historically underfunded, and so even 
when we have wonderful solutions that are promoting new 
advancements in research and science best practice or state-of-
the-art technologies, they aren't supported in a way that makes 
them fully effective and impactful.
    I think TellFinder is a wonderful example of this. Launched 
in 2014, TellFinder really did use new advancements in 
technology, best practices, researchers and technologists 
across the field to create new systems, new operating models, 
and new tools for the field. But unfortunately, it shut down 
toward the end of 2021 because it lacked funding.
    And so being able to not just test these new innovative 
solutions through accelerated programs like Tech Against 
Trafficking but also others, but then to support both the 
funding, the collaboration, and the use of those technologies 
over time. There's often a cliff, and once that cliff of 
support drops off, those technologies are unable to be 
effectively deployed and utilized across the space.
    So I'd say that's one main way in which the Committee could 
support, but it's also being able to socialize what 
technologies are already in existence. We initially did a 
mapping of technology tools used across the tech--the 
trafficking space back in I think it was 2018. And we found 
over 300 technology tools that were already in existence, many 
of which do the exact same thing. There were approximately 70 
tools that identified victims of trafficking or traffickers 
themselves. And individual organizations looking to deploy 
these technologies weren't aware that these tools existed, so 
they were just recreating the same type of tool again and 
again. And this is just inefficient in terms of funding and 
sharing best practices and what could be deployed or lifted and 
shifted to be used in new contexts. So being able to create a 
mechanism that can share best practices and learnings across 
this field to actually advance the use of innovative 
technologies to new actors that can help adapt them to their 
own context would also be helpful.
    In terms of your second question on research activities 
that you should support, I think all of my co-panelists on 
this--in this discussion today are running wonderful activities 
that could be supported. But I think that we also need to 
consider the landscape of research out there today and how it 
actually translates to on-the-ground initiatives and 
interventions. Research has really helped us understand the 
prevalence rates, as well as the work that's currently going on 
in the field, how this crime is manifesting, but we need to 
make sure that research is also going toward dedicating time 
and energy to understanding how the overarching understanding 
of how the field is actually manifesting is being conducted on 
how things are working on the ground, so what's effective, 
what's impactful, and how will it actually be taken up and used 
by actors closest to the problem.
    Mr. Lucas. Thank you. Dr. Goodwin, in October 2021 GAO 
reported data on missing and murdered Indigenous women is 
unknown because Federal data bases do not contain comprehensive 
national data. I'm deeply concerned about this as Indigenous 
populations in Oklahoma are affected by these crimes, including 
human trafficking. What steps can be taken to improve data 
collection and analysis to better understand and identify these 
trends of crimes?
    Dr. Goodwin. Thank you, Congressman. So in the report, we 
also mention the existence of two laws that had recently 
passed, Savanna's Act and the Not Invisible Act. In those laws 
there are requirements for the Attorney General to report to 
Congress on the numbers of missing or murdered Indigenous 
women. And if that information isn't readily available, then 
the Attorney General is required to offer up suggestions or 
recommendations on how to better gain information on those 
numbers.
    So we think that those are two main ways that can help 
inform and enhance the information that we get about this 
crisis. But of course the report noted that because there's not 
a lot of data, it's just really challenging to get a handle on 
how deep the crisis is. But we think that Savanna's Act and the 
Not Invisible Act are important and helpful ways to get there.
    Mr. Lucas. With that, Madam Chair, I think my time is 
expired. I yield back.
    Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. The Clerk will 
take over from here.
    Staff. Ms. Bonamici is recognized.
    Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much. And thank you to 
Chairwoman Johnson and Ranking Member Lucas, and thank you 
especially to our witnesses. I appreciate the work that you're 
doing, along with so many others who are shining a light on 
this, you know, often hidden and often overlooked reality of 
human trafficking and exploitation.
    You know, each witness identified in similar but sometimes 
different ways the challenges around the standardization of 
collected data or the lack of reliable systems in place to 
facilitate data-sharing. And those challenges hinder the anti-
trafficking efforts, including the effort to measure the 
prevalence of human trafficking and also implement prevention 
or demand reduction strategies. Even within the Interagency 
Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, for example, many 
of the agencies that collect human trafficking data and carry 
out some research often have a mission-focused approach, and 
that can result in siloed data and research rather than a 
coordinated approach to understanding how to combat human 
trafficking.
    So I want to start by asking--well, first, I want to thank 
Ranking Member Lucas for bringing up the missing and murdered 
Indigenous issue and was a strong supporter of Savanna's Act 
and look forward to seeing it implemented in a strong way.
    But I want to ask first Dr. Shelley, what are the 
challenges and possible solutions to supporting more 
information-sharing through secure yet interoperable systems, 
and how can the Federal Government work internally but also 
with external partners to better coordinate victim 
identification and data collection standards?
    Dr. Shelley. I think that there are many sources of 
information. For example, as I mentioned in my statement, we 
have T visas in which individuals who agree to cooperate with 
law enforcement issue detailed statements on their 
exploitation. We have never anonymized this data so that we 
could understand how much of this trafficking is affecting 
different communities in our society. That's just one example 
of where to start. It was also mentioned that the SARs 
reporting to FinCEN has increased, but we have not done enough 
analysis of what is behind this data and how we could use that 
in combination with other insights and with the business 
community that is being very aggressive in trying to mine their 
data to find this. So----
    Ms. Bonamici. Well, why did we not--I don't mean to 
interrupt, but why have--why has that not been done? Is it 
simply a funding issue?
    Dr. Shelley. In part, it's a funding issue, and in part 
it's an absence of funding basic research on this subject.
    Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. Ms. Darnton, same question from 
your perspective, what are the possible solutions to supporting 
more information-sharing through secure yet interoperable 
systems? And how can the Federal Government work internally and 
with external partners to better coordinate victim 
identification and data collection standards?
    Ms. Darnton. One of the ways is that we actually need to 
build trust between the entities sharing their data and the 
larger ecosystem. So in 2019 we actually worked on a new 
privacy-preserving mechanism with the Counter-Trafficking Data 
Collaborative out of the International Organization on 
Migration that allowed us to generate synthetic data sets which 
represent statistical properties of sensitive data sets rather 
than actually intentionally identifiable individuals and 
precompute them in a way that doesn't reveal small or precise 
data counts, thereby creating a data interface which allows for 
users to explore the structure of data without actually 
revealing personal or identifiable information. And that's just 
kind of one way in which we can innovatively think about 
privacy-preserving mechanisms that protect individual 
information and allow for wider data-sharing without the same 
concerns of the ramifications of data-sharing. So I think 
building up and exploring those types of new, innovative 
solutions is one way in which we can promote the data-sharing. 
And the other----
    Ms. Bonamici. I don't mean to cut you off, but I really 
want to get a question in for Ms. Harris.
    Ms. Darnton. Of course, sorry.
    Ms. Bonamici. I have a brief period of time left.
    Ms. Harris, your--in your testimony you shared a very 
interesting example of researchers developing a labor safe 
digital certificate to combat forced labor among foreign 
fishing vessels. In considering the unique labor conditions of 
the fishing industry that you highlighted, are there lessons or 
best practices arising from that work that can apply to other 
sectors?
    Ms. Harris. I think that the main lesson from that work is 
how difficult it is to pull the different types of data 
together in order to develop something like that and how many 
collaborators are needed from the private sector, from NGO's, 
people who are on the ground who understand the dynamics of 
what's happening, and the people who are collecting the data, 
and also some of the sources that aren't usually thought of for 
that information such as the internal information that 
companies are collecting simply in the process of business--of 
doing business.
    Ms. Bonamici. Great, thank you so much. And I see my time 
is expired. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
    Staff. Mr. Posey is recognized.
    Mr. Posey. Thank you, Chairman.
    Ms. Darnton, the hearing charter mentions a 2019 report by 
the Department of Transportation (DOT) Advisory Committee on 
Human Trafficking. It states that data collection, analysis, 
and information-sharing are critical to inform the 
transportation industry regarding the nature and the severity 
of human trafficking. There's a lot of good work being done to 
combat human trafficking by the Federal Government, private 
sector, and nonprofit organizations. Yet there seems to be some 
obstacles in making sure these entities are effectively working 
together regarding the nature and severity of human 
trafficking. How is the Federal Government currently working 
with the private sector to address those obstacles?
    Ms. Darnton. I think the government is working with 
individual private actors quite frequently, but those are often 
not necessarily at a global level or at a systematic level. And 
so I believe that we could do this more systematically to 
create collaborative approaches where entire industries are 
coming together with government to think through the way that 
trafficking is manifesting and data is being shared and 
collected across the space. So I--my key recommendation there 
would be that government could come into the rooms and be at 
the table with larger industry collaborations rather than one-
off relationships with different companies. That is a first 
step, but I think we could do it more systematically.
    Mr. Posey. Thank you. Do any of the witnesses have further 
thoughts on that?
    Dr. Shelley. Yes, I do. Research done by the financial 
community in data mining has shown that rideshare services are 
key expediters of human trafficking, and yet there's not been 
enough pressure put on the rideshare services to partner with 
the research community, the data could be anonymized to 
understand the patterns of human trafficking and how these 
rideshare services facilitate it. So it's not just--we've had 
great efforts by the airplane sector but not by this sector. 
And also by the trucking sector we've had progress but not 
rideshare.
    Mr. Posey. Thank you very much. Any other witnesses have 
comments?
    All right. We'll go back to Ms. Darnton again. What 
suggestions do you have to improve collaboration?
    Ms. Darnton. I think that if we promoted a universal human 
trafficking case data standard, that that would be extremely 
helpful in being able to create a similar language structure 
and standard that allowed for data-sharing across the board. As 
many of you know, the way that organizations, companies, and 
other actors within the system collect data is different. The 
terminology they use is different. The larger kind of holistic 
story of a victim or survivor is different. And it makes it 
difficult to actually share across systems. So by utilizing 
universally applicable case data standards that can be used at 
all levels and all types of actors would really help facilitate 
information exchange and large-scale data aggregation.
    Mr. Posey. Do you see any government programs or mandates 
that might be hindering these groups, especially the trucking 
industry, from their efforts to combat human trafficking?
    Ms. Darnton. I think some of the other panelists may have 
responses to that one specific to trucking.
    Mr. Posey. Panelists?
    All right. That's all I've got here, Madam Chairman. I 
yield back.
    Staff. Ms. Stevens is recognized.
    Ms. Stevens. Great. Thank you so much to our Chair and our 
witnesses for today's hearing. I think it's very evident from 
what we've heard from our witnesses and from our Chairwoman and 
our Ranking Member that what is taking place with human 
trafficking is oftentimes not just a couple of isolated 
incidences or one-off individual actors, but this is part of a 
systemic, more holistic engagement that involves a multitude of 
industries and broader stakeholders, which is why we're having 
a conversation today and why we're having today's hearing about 
data and in particular the research and development tools that 
could combat human trafficking.
    And last year in Michigan the Michigan Human Trafficking 
Commission focused on analyzing federally funded data sets 
collected from southeastern Michigan. This is, you know, a 
border destination. We're the only place in the country that 
goes south of Canada right there in southeastern Michigan and 
Wayne County. And their data collection had provided services 
to victims and survivors of human trafficking. And the Michigan 
Commission's review of the data proved frankly just to be 
challenging. The Commission concluded that there is a pressing 
need to create a standardized data reporting framework 
specifically for victim service providers with categories for 
victim typology and services provided.
    So sort of pinpointed at Dr. Goodwin, Dr. Shelley, and Ms. 
Harris, since a lack of standardization of the data has been 
shown to hinder progress in anti-human-trafficking efforts, 
could you share any efforts from Federal research agencies to 
develop data standards to combat the existence of human 
trafficking at a national and global level. And to preface that 
in terms of standards, you know, we are the Committee that 
works really closely and oversees the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology, so we spend a lot of time talking 
about standards.
    Dr. Goodwin. So I'll talk briefly about some of the work 
that we've done looking at human trafficking in Indian Country 
and some of the recommendations we made to ensure that the data 
were collected. So when we did that work, we found that it had 
been really difficult to actually put a number on the number of 
human trafficking victims who were Indigenous women because at 
the time, the Department of Justice wasn't collecting data on 
race. And so it would have been really difficult to tell 
anything about that number when you're not even collecting data 
on race or ethnicity. We made a recommendation in our report, 
and DOJ has since done that.
    And then moving forward, as we talk about the crisis of 
missing or murdered Indigenous women, we know that they are 
also collecting and providing data on race, gender, and age to 
provide a broader picture for what's happening. But it's been 
really challenging to get at one number for a number of reasons 
that I'll talk about briefly. One of them, when you're talking 
about law enforcement, is having law enforcement understand 
what human trafficking is when they're looking at it. Some law 
enforcement officers had not received the type of training that 
they would need to identify human trafficking when they showed 
up to a particular scene. But I think that the Department of 
Justice has been making efforts to address this and to provide 
additional data.
    And then if you go back to Savanna's Act and the Not 
Invisible Act, if the comprehensive data aren't out there, the 
Attorney General and some of the other agencies have to explain 
why and then come up with recommendations to ensure that that 
information is readily available.
    Ms. Stevens. Yes, and I know Ms. Darnton just chimed in on 
the chat and I appreciate that because in her written testimony 
she shared the Tech Against Trafficking--human trafficking's 
case data standards to encourage consistency across the field, 
and so, obviously, I'm kind of--this is a question for 
everybody, but Ms. Darnton, if you want to get in, that would 
be great.
    Ms. Darnton. Yes, happy to share more on that. I think that 
the--we have created this human trafficking case data standard 
in partnership with organizations on the ground to create a 
common language and ability to be able to share data back and 
forth between different organizations. But to your point, 
Representative Stevens, I think that these are often difficult 
to integrate on the ground, and so the purpose of this specific 
toolkit was to meet service providers where they're at with the 
capabilities that they currently have and enable them to 
integrate it into their existing systems without too much 
overhead cost. And so I think that is an area that we can 
continue to explore, to not just create new standards and 
systems that will allow for data collection and sharing but to 
ensure that it actually works based on their current 
capabilities and expertise.
    Ms. Stevens. Yes. And I'll--I'm out of time, but we'll stay 
on. There's a lot of brilliant people on the Science Committee 
who are going to be continuing to ask questions, and so thank 
you to Ms. Harris, Dr. Shelley, and Ms. Harris as well. We'll 
yield back the time.
    Staff. Mr. Babin is recognized. You're on mute, Mr. Babin.
    Mr. Babin. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chairman Johnson 
and Ranking Member Lucas, for holding this important hearing. 
And thank you to our witnesses for being here with us today.
    I believe this issue is one of dire importance and 
something that demands immediate action. I'd be very remiss if 
I didn't mention one surefire way that we can curb the evil 
practice of human trafficking, and that is by securing our 
southern border. In the United States immigrants, especially 
immigrant women, make up the largest portion of human 
trafficking victims. In 2016 the Department of State estimated 
that 57,700 victims were trafficked into the United States 
annually. However, as we've discussed today, we have 
insufficient data collection and so that we know the true 
number is much larger and in fact impossible to determine.
    And it's not just traffic of immigrant women. Sophisticated 
transnational organizations are notorious for using children to 
get single adult males not just across the border but through 
border patrol processing. Studies done by the Latin American 
branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women estimate 
that at least, at least 60 percent of Latin American children 
who set out to cross the border alone or with smugglers have 
been caught by the cartels and are being abused in child 
pornography or drug trafficking. However, we know that that 
percentage is far greater today given our current state of 
crisis along the southern border. The forms of exploitation, 
sex trafficking, forced labor, and domestic servitude that 
constitute human trafficking are antithetical to everything--
all of our principles of human dignity that Americans hold 
dear. And while previous Federal Government ventures have been 
relatively unsuccessful, I'm very hopeful that we can work 
together to provide the right tools, personnel, and 
partnerships to defeat this growing menace.
    With that being said, my question is for any of the 
witnesses is this. Do you believe that securing our southern 
border would disrupt these evil human trafficking networks and 
prevent the abuse, the rape, the smuggling of migrants into the 
United States, any of you witnesses?
    Dr. Goodwin. So, Congressman, the GAO hasn't done work 
looking specifically at that issue, but what I can do, I can 
take it back to my agency to see if we have anything that might 
be useful to you, and I'll circle back to your staffers.
    Mr. Babin. Thank you so much. And question No. 2, in what 
ways can modeling and accurate data collection be utilized by 
the Federal agencies to better restrict human trafficking along 
our borders?
    Ms. Darnton. To answer your first question, Representative 
Babin, I do believe that closing our borders in such a way 
would force the issue further underground and make it more 
difficult to identify. It would also be violative of a range of 
other human rights, so that would need to be considered and it 
would only prevent our ability to help individuals experiencing 
exploitation.
    Mr. Babin. Yes, ma'am, thank you. Anybody else?
    Dr. Shelley. As was mentioned earlier, we have a 
convergence of many different forms of transnational crime. And 
unfortunately, we have very sophisticated transnational crime 
that constructs tunnels and finds other ways to operate 
successfully. What we need to be doing is finding an overall 
strategy of how to address these problems, but the problems of 
human trafficking are not just problems of transnational crime, 
of which I've written much, but there are many more 
facilitators in our society that we need to be working on. And 
some of that of exploitation of labor victims is that we need 
to go after some of the people who are exploiting this labor so 
that we are not providing, you know, opportunities for people 
to be exploited.
    Mr. Babin. Absolutely, thank you. Anyone else?
    OK. Well, I--Madam Chair, I think that's the end of my line 
of questioning. I just want to say thank you, and I just will 
yield back. Thank you, witnesses.
    Staff. Mr. McNerney is recognized.
    Mr. McNerney. Well, I thank the Chair, and I thank the 
witnesses. This is an important topic and a difficult one.
    Ms. Darnton, you discussed how machine learning can protect 
the privacy of human trafficking victims while maintaining data 
structure. How can AI and machine learning enhance the privacy 
of human trafficking data sets?
    Ms. Darnton. I think there's a range of highly technical 
methodologies that we can deploy in order to be able to protect 
the privacy within data sets. So the one that I mentioned 
earlier was creating synthetic data sets that represent 
statistical properties of a sensitive data set rather than the 
actually potential identifiable information on individuals. So 
that's one way that we can do it, but there's a range of other 
new and emerging technologies that we could explore in order to 
make sure that this is being considered within large-scale data 
sets.
    My one kind of additional comment there would be as we work 
to continue developing testing, utilizing these new models, 
that we also have to make sure that we are taking appropriate 
action to also avoid, prevent, and mitigate the other human 
rights harms that can come along with new and emerging 
technologies.
    Mr. McNerney. Well, hopefully AI can be helpful in 
developing that.
    Tech Against Trafficking participated in Code 8.7 of the 
U.N. sustainable development goals, the eradication of human 
trafficking, by bringing together an international group of 
research institutions using computational science and AI to 
understand and find solutions to the trafficking problem. What 
are some of the high-level recommendations from the Code 8.7 
workshop?
    Ms. Darnton. I'd have to go back and look at my notes on 
that. The workshop was quite productive and brought many actors 
throughout the sector together, and I think that was one of its 
real strengths is there is not often times where you can get 
service providers, researchers, practitioners, and companies at 
the same table discussing the issues at length. And that was a 
major win for the field, and I'm happy to share further 
information on the more detailed recommendations to follow.
    Mr. McNerney. Well, that's great. Could you make that 
available to the Committee then?
    Ms. Darnton. Yes, happy too.
    Mr. McNerney. Thank you. And how can the U.S. Government 
and the research entities assist in adopting AI as a solution 
to human trafficking?
    Dr. Shelley. I think that there's a lot we could do with 
the data that we already have. For example, there are now more 
than 2,000 Federal cases of human trafficking that have been 
prosecuted, and yet we have not used AI to go through these 
cases and try to extract patterns, financing patterns, 
geospatial relationships, recruitment. There's a huge amount of 
data that we have not used, and that's because those files were 
extensive, but AI could help us enormously. And we've used some 
of this AI in the reviews that we've done to try and get out 
certain elements of this problem. But the data is sitting 
there, and with AI, much advances could be made in analyzing 
where we are.
    Mr. McNerney. Great. And so you brought up--Dr. Shelley, 
you brought up developing algorithms. Is that kind of what 
you're referring to right now?
    Dr. Shelley. Exactly. The financial community has developed 
algorithms, and you can also develop other patterns that you 
want to see of the locations of where it's occurring, the 
recruitment patterns, the ages of people. There's much data 
that can be obtained.
    Mr. McNerney. Thank you. Dr. Goodwin, to your knowledge, 
has the U.S. Government taken any steps to adopt AI technology 
to address human trafficking? And if so, what was the outcome?
    Dr. Goodwin. Not to my knowledge, Congressman, but I can 
certainly check our notes and circle back to you. I do think 
that this is a promising practice or something that should be 
more closely examined. And then the issue about the data, you 
know, a gentle reminder that there are a lot of data out there, 
but some of the data are sensitive. Some of the data, as I 
mentioned earlier, are for specific purposes in those data 
bases, and so a challenge that all face is trying to find ways 
to enhance that data-sharing or just basically to get at some 
of that data, particularly the data that's more sensitive.
    Mr. McNerney. Right. And that was the point of my first 
question, how do we protect people's privacy, especially the 
victims of this crime? Is there sufficient expertise in the 
U.S. Government work force to deploy and manage AI technology 
aimed at human trafficking? Dr. Goodwin?
    Dr. Goodwin. That's not something that GAO has looked in on 
a broader, deeper scale, so I think the other panelists are 
probably better suited to respond to that one.
    Mr. McNerney. Well, I don't have enough time for another 
question, but I just want to leave you with this. How can AI be 
used to help track digital currency used in human trafficking? 
But I've run out of time, and I'm going to yield back.
    Staff. Mr. Waltz is recognized.
    Mr. Waltz. Thank you so much, and I actually am interested 
in that question to follow up with my colleague. How can AI be 
used to--for--on the digital currency side that's being used 
for human trafficking?
    Dr. Goodwin. So I'll touch on it briefly from the work that 
we've done on virtual currencies used. We didn't specifically 
look at how AI could be helpful, but one of the things that we 
do talk about, like when you're using those virtual currency 
kiosks or those Bitcoin kiosks, one of the challenges that law 
enforcement has had is kind of identifying where they are so 
that when transactions are occurring, maybe they could find a 
way to get to those places where those illicit activities might 
be happening. And so I could see where AI might be useful in 
terms of just identifying the people who might be at the kiosk 
or just doing some kind of geospatial testing or geospatial 
location to actually see where those kiosks might be.
    Dr. Shelley. That's being done also by the financial 
community. That's one of the things they are plugging into 
their algorithms at the present time.
    Mr. Waltz. Right. No, that's great, and I know there's a 
number of software solutions, you know, on the market now that 
can go through the ledgers and really kind of track that 
metadata and pull some meaningful conclusions.
    Dr. Goodwin and Ms. Darnton, you know, we've talked a lot I 
think already today about the lack of appropriate data, and 
that's a problem that I face in trying to legislate. I've 
introduced H.R. 4070, the Stop Human Trafficking Act of 2021. 
And the bill will direct the Attorney General to conduct a 
study in coordination with the President's Interagency Task 
Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to look at 
the prevalence and instances of human trafficking at adult 
entertainment clubs and establishments across the United 
States. And specifically, the study would examine how victims 
are trafficked, the demographics of the victims, if the victim 
was an employee of the adult entertainment establishment, and 
the methods of fraud, force, coercion used by traffickers at 
these venues specifically is what we're looking at to then look 
at potential legislation.
    Locally in Florida, a number of measures have been 
introduced to actually raise the age to 21 that's--that--where 
it's acceptable to have young girls at these establishments. 
So, you know, how can Federal agencies and NGO's coordinate 
on--and I know you've talked to it a bit, but if you could 
emphasize specifically for these adult information venues on 
gathering data from cases specific to a certain trafficking 
hub, location in a way that allows and applies these methods 
and findings to other trafficking hubs.
    Ms. Darnton. I'm happy to respond first. I think one of the 
ways which we could further collaborate would be to actually 
utilize the information and existing research by groups such as 
Polaris. Polaris has mapped the typologies of trafficking. My 
information might be slightly out of date, but last I heard 
they had identified 26 different typologies of trafficking and 
been able to narrow down in exactly how it was happening in 
places like massage parlors or nail salons and being able to 
really paint a picture of the exact activities, the data that 
would need to be captured to better understand how trafficking 
was manifesting in those scenarios and then provide that intel 
to law enforcement and others to be able to take direct 
approaches to address it. And so I think working with groups on 
the ground that have done that research already would be a 
first step.
    And then the second would be ensuring that we're working 
with victims, survivors that have been in these different 
settings and scenarios to help us better understand what to be 
looking for, how to do it in rights-respecting ways, and making 
sure that we are taking appropriate action to address it.
    Mr. Waltz. Yes, thank you. Well, I know we've interacted 
with Polaris quite a bit, but we'll reach out and look at 
specifically that typology and specifically how it applies to 
adult entertainment venues.
    And, Dr. Shelley, in the 40 seconds I have remaining, you 
noted that many victims of trafficking do not have access to 
the telephone number of the hotline. I'm in the final stages, 
we're drafting a bill that will require the Department of Labor 
and the Department of Homeland Security's Blue Campaign to 
create a human trafficking awareness resource poster that 
includes the hotline number, and it would be required in 
employers of all types of businesses that have higher cases of 
human trafficking. Do you think that will be helpful and 
beneficial in victim reporting?
    Dr. Shelley. I think it may be helpful, but I think that so 
many victims of human trafficking are held in closed 
facilities. One of the things where you should be focusing a 
lot on is on hospitals and medical facilities where often 
victims of human trafficking come, and there is not sufficient 
training for personnel and not enough outreach being done. And 
that's a key place that we need to be thinking about.
    Mr. Waltz. Thank you so much. I have run out of time, but I 
think that's very helpful, Dr. Shelley. And we'll take a hard 
look at that as we finalize the legislation. And I yield my 
time.
    Staff. Dr. Foster is recognized.
    Mr. Foster. Thank you. I'm audible here?
    Staff. Yes, you are, sir.
    Mr. Foster. OK. Well, now, a recurring theme in all of your 
testimony here has been the rise of anonymous or pseudonymous 
cryptocurrencies for human trafficking and as it is being used 
for money laundering, ransomware, and a whole raft of criminal 
activities. So in response to this, many countries have simply 
banned cryptocurrencies or cryptoassets generally, which I 
believe is neither necessary, nor advisable. And I believe that 
what we need instead is to move away from this system we have 
of purely anonymous or pseudonymous cryptoassets, that with 
maybe occasional blacklisting of the wallets of bad actors as 
they may be identified to a system of controlled anonymity 
where crypto transactions are only possible and legal between 
white-listed and legally traceable participants who can 
nonetheless typically remain pseudonymous. And so what this 
would mean in practice is that, under most circumstances, 
cryptoassets can be used anonymously like cash, and government 
will not have access to all the transaction information for 
surveillance purposes, as, for example, it has in China.
    But when you have evidence that a crime has been committed, 
you can go before a judge in a court system you trust, convince 
the judge that a crime has in fact been committed, and the 
court can then order the deanonymization of the participants 
and, if necessary, to extradite them. And if the court is 
convinced that a participant is in fact a bad actor, it can 
order all transactions of that participant deanonymized, you 
know, very much like you can do with a gangster's bank 
accounts.
    Now, while this won't provide the kind of blanket 
surveillance of crypto transactions that might be most 
effective in preventing human trafficking, but wouldn't this 
sort of court-controlled anonymity be a significant step 
forward? Let's see. Yes, Ms. Darnton, do you want to grab onto 
that or anyone else that has comments on how we deal with the 
tension between surveillance and, you know, criminal activities 
in crypto?
    Dr. Shelley. I'd like to say that one of the things that 
you're talking about is something that is very heavy and 
demanding in time. And one of the concerns that we have with 
human trafficking is the rapidity with which this phenomenon 
goes on. And so often the kind of procedure that you're talking 
about takes hours and hours of law enforcement time. And often 
when you're dealing with the expansion of cryptocurrency, some 
of it which is going on in the dark web today, you're dealing 
with a problem that is very time-intensive, and therefore, 
we're looking at problems that cannot be easily resolved. And 
so, therefore, I think you need to be thinking about the kind 
of resource allocations it takes to do the kind of analysis of 
the cryptocurrency that you're talking about right now.
    Mr. Foster. And so what I was trying to describe there was, 
you know, a system whereby when you're thinking of buying a 
cryptoasset, you can inspect it or have your software inspect 
it, make sure that all of the--everyone who has ever owned that 
is a white-listed participant and a--someone who's legally 
traceable so that you actually will--you know, will not be able 
to--well, you could purchase a cryptoasset that has been handed 
between questionable individuals, but unless everyone on that 
who has handled it has been--you know, is on the white list, 
you know, then the cryptoasset would essentially be trash and 
would not be legal to bring into the--you know, converted to 
cash or brought into the lit financial system.
    Ms. Darnton. I have less experience and expertise in this 
area, but I would recommend speaking to the FAST initiative, 
Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, as I believe they've 
explored this at some level.
    Mr. Foster. OK. And I think the key element here is 
producing a list of authorized participants to be white-listed. 
And, you know, I think--I believe that is really an essential 
government job. You have to provide a secure digital ID. And 
fortunately, the National Institute of Standards and Technology 
has produced really useful standards for--in what are called 
digital drivers licenses, or mobile IDs that allow anyone to 
use their modern smartphone to prove they are who they say they 
are and associate it with a REAL ID-compliant driver's license. 
And this will really, I believe, provide the necessary legal 
traceability online. And States like Oklahoma, Arizona, 
Louisiana, and others are adopting these NIST standards with 
great success. And I think that requiring that for 
participation in a crypto transaction would be a huge step 
forward.
    Anyway, I believe my time is up here, and any further 
thoughts you have on that would be appreciated for the record. 
Thank you all.
    Ms. Darnton. I'd love to respond to that if there is time, 
but I wasn't sure.
    Mr. Foster. Oh, is 30 seconds OK?
    Staff. Yes.
    Ms. Darnton. Thank you. So I just think that one quick 
comment there would be that that could potentially bring up 
discrimination and bias issues into who was permitted to be on 
that list of individuals. And so something to consider would be 
how do we ensure that there are not inherent discriminatory 
practice built into who could access and how could the use or 
pervasive use of phones, for example, as a key portable ID 
actually disenfranchise other communities and populations. So, 
for example, nowadays many individuals don't have access to 
smartphones. We're also seeing families share a single phone, 
so how would that impact certain communities and vulnerable 
populations would be something you would want to consider.
    Mr. Foster. That's right. And the bipartisan infrastructure 
bill is a huge step forward in ensuring that everyone in this 
country, no matter what their means, will have access to a 
basic internet connection and a mobile device. So--and thank 
you, Ms.--I thank the Chair for the time here and yield back.
    Staff. Mr. Baird is recognized.
    Mr. Baird. Yes, thank you. And I want to thank Chairwoman 
Johnson and Ranking Member Lucas for holding this hearing. And, 
you know, I especially appreciate the expert witnesses for 
their sharing their expertise with this Committee so we can 
make informed decisions.
    My question really to begin with really goes back to what 
Representative Waltz and Representative Foster were referring 
to. And, Dr. Goodwin, you mentioned in your GAO report that 
cryptocurrency is often used as the preferred currency in the 
dark web to finance human trafficking transactions. And like 
many technologies, evolution in cryptocurrencies have taken 
steps forward as a positive innovation. But unfortunately, 
criminals have exploited cryptocurrencies for their own uses as 
well.
    So, Dr. Goodwin, I want to start with you. Are there any 
other areas that the government should be looking at to better 
understand and counter these types of crimes with the 
continuing evolution of currency technologies in the financial 
system?
    Dr. Goodwin. So thank you for that question. Yes. And so, 
as you mentioned, we reference in our report the fact that some 
of these transactions are happening on the dark web. I will 
say, Congressman, that GAO actually issued two reports on this 
topic. One is a law enforcement-sensitive report, and I cannot 
go into that report in this setting. But my staff and I will 
happily circle back to you to have a more in-depth conversation 
there.
    Another issue that we brought up in the report, when we 
talk about the use of cryptocurrency or virtual currencies, 
particularly as--on the online sex marketplace, what we were 
finding with that work was maybe the virtual currency was used 
to pay for ads, and those ads themselves would direct you to 
where you could engage in kind of the sex trafficking. So 
that's another concern that we raised in the report. While you 
might be able to track the currency up until the point where 
you're purchasing the ad, then once that ad is purchased, that 
ad might direct you to more illicit activities. So those are 
concerns that we have raised.
    Mr. Baird. And continuing on with that, do you think 
there's a place for public-private partnerships to play a role 
in this endeavor?
    Dr. Goodwin. We do. And so, as we've talked about earlier, 
just the need for maybe law enforcement working with advocacy 
groups or nonprofits, maybe government, getting information 
from some of these organizations who are, as we talked about, 
on the ground kind of more engaged with efforts to combat these 
types of activities, I think there absolutely is a role here.
    Dr. Shelley. I would----
    Mr. Baird. Thank you. Go ahead.
    Dr. Shelley. Can I add something? In a----
    Mr. Baird. Yes.
    Dr. Shelley. In another NSF grant that I have now, we have 
a partnership with one of the major private organizations that 
is working on following the use of cyber currencies online and 
has worked on the issue of human trafficking or 
cryptocurrencies. So there is a possibility and a willingness 
of private sector actors to work with researchers.
    Mr. Baird. Well, thank you for that answer, Dr. Shelley. 
Any of the other witnesses care to make a comment in that area?
    Ms. Harris. Private and--private-public collaboration is 
going to be absolutely essential for this and not just in the 
way that was mentioned. From the government's perspective, it's 
acquiring information but also the specific research questions. 
There's so much information out there that it's actually 
identifying what information is most useful to answering what 
questions are going to be most immediately helpful to the--to 
preventing trafficking and helping survivors. And so it's also 
about creating equitable collaborations between the service 
providers, that they are getting as much out of the 
collaboration as the researchers and government officials are 
getting out of it. That kind of collaboration is what's needed 
to make breakthroughs in this area.
    Mr. Baird. Thank you. And I see I only have about 20 
seconds left, and so, Dr. Shelley, any quick comments in the 20 
seconds about what we might have to address the data gaps we 
have?
    Dr. Shelley. I think that we need to be working together 
across agencies and working with the cyber--with the online 
community and with the business community that has large 
amounts of data. And there is possibilities of data-sharing. 
And I don't think we've talked enough about the insights that 
are coming from the business community.
    Mr. Baird. Thank you very much. I see my time is up, and I 
yield back, Madam Chair.
    Staff. Ms. Moore is recognized.
    Ms. Moore. Thank you so much. And really, I want to 
appreciate not only our brilliant witnesses that have been here 
today, but I want to thank the Chairwoman and the Ranking 
Member for pulling this together. I have been really interested 
in this particular topic, which the hearing charter identifies 
the data challenges impacting human trafficking. And I do have 
a bill that I'm introducing, along with Representative Beyer, 
which would really, I believe, address many of the issues that 
we've talked about here today.
    I was really inspired to push forward in this work by 
someone that you may know, Dr. Brook Bello out of Florida, who 
was trafficked as a tween and got her Ph.D. and, as a matter of 
fact, owns one of these platforms. She was the advocate of the 
year, victim advocate in 2019, DOJ, Google next-generation 
policymaker. And so this bill would be the Counter Human 
Trafficking Research and Development Act. And this hearing is 
right on point for gathering the information that we need.
    I want to ask a really scary question. We've had really 
great information here today. One really frightening question 
that I have, given your testimony, I guess I'll start with Dr. 
Goodwin and Dr. Shelley. Are the bad guys ahead of us on 
cyber--on using social media platforms, Bitcoin? Are they ahead 
of us? If we're looking at pulling a bill together, what is our 
timeline, and really, what is the financial gap that we're 
facing in terms of getting all of this stuff coordinated? I 
notice, for example, Dr. Shelley, you talked about how big the 
network is. I mean, it's not just that it's a strip club. It's 
every hotel, it's rideshares, and so on. So that would be one 
question.
    And then the second question I would have for Ms. Harris 
and Ms. Darnton, I think we've beaten this horse almost to 
death regarding security, but I--could you give me some 
examples, for example, of what Facebook could do or Uber or one 
of the rideshares could do specifically or we could require 
them to do specifically to close some of these gaps and to help 
us with it? And so I would yield for those answers in that 
order. Dr. Goodwin, Dr. Shelley, Ms. Darnton, and Ms. Harris.
    Dr. Goodwin. I'm sorry, can you hear me?
    Ms. Moore. Yes.
    Dr. Goodwin. So I'll start the latter part because I don't 
quite remember the first part of the question. So the work that 
we're currently doing looking at of online sex trafficking or 
like the online exploitation, we know that some of the media 
companies are engaging in this space trying to find ways to 
ensure that that's not happening in their marketplaces or on 
their sites. But because the technology is so prevalent and 
it's advancing quite rapidly, it has been very difficult for 
law enforcement to keep pace.
    So you asked about whether the bad actors were winning. I 
don't know that I would say that they were winning or losing. I 
would say that because the technology is rapidly expanding and 
rapidly being used, it has been challenging for law enforcement 
to keep pace.
    Ms. Moore. Dr. Shelley?
    Dr. Shelley. I think we've seen an enormous growth of human 
trafficking, including the size of the networks because of 
their ability to work online together. As I mentioned, we have 
research already 5 years ago that $250 million were spent on 60 
million ads online. And the networks for these are just 
enormous.
    Ms. Moore. Wow.
    Dr. Shelley. And yes, we've used AI, but we're dealing with 
problems. And you asked about like Uber. One of the things that 
was found a few years ago by the financial community is that 
they had a warning that if someone spent money on 13 Uber rides 
a day, that was highly correlated with human trafficking. But 
I'm not aware of that kind of data being anonymized to look at 
these patterns. And this is an enormous insight into 
understanding the geospatial operations, the modus operandi of 
human traffickers. How do you allocate resources if you don't 
know where the problem is and how it's operating within your 
community?
    Ms. Moore. All right. I think I've run out of time. I think 
I better slow down my ridesharing because I do it a lot. I 
yield back.
    Dr. Goodwin. Representative Moore, I will--if I could just 
say this. One of the things we also looked at and we've been 
paying attention to is where the opportunities are to better 
train particularly law enforcement personnel to go after these 
bad actors and to engage in different hiring practices to 
ensure that the law enforcement folks you have onsite actually 
understand the technology and can kind of get in there and find 
ways to address it in a different fashion. And the use of AI is 
really promising here.
    Ms. Moore. Thank you so very much, so much to ask, so 
little time.
    Staff. Ms. Bice is recognized.
    Mrs. Bice. Thank you so much. I appreciate the witnesses 
for being here this afternoon.
    Let me ask you, with the pop-up nature of dark web 
marketplaces, what are some of the challenges in tracking data 
from these anonymous sources, and do you know of any software 
or technology that's out there that's helping us navigate that 
environment? And this is for any of the witnesses.
    Dr. Shelley. Yes, I do. For example, there was a major 
study done by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) 
that I alluded to, and there were some tools that came out of 
this. And in our research at the research center, we've used 
some of these research tools in the dark web to monitor and try 
and find behavior. So that has already been funded by the 
government and used successfully. And then a project that we're 
doing now funded by NSF, we're looking at some other forms of 
illicit trade that are going on using tools on the dark web. 
And they are revealing--they're proving quite successful.
    Mrs. Bice. Great, thank you for that.
    Ms. Darnton. Oh, sorry, just to respond to that as well, 
Representative Bice, I'd say that we put out a paper with the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, I 
think it was last year, entitled ``Leveraging Innovation to 
Fight Trafficking in Human Beings: A Comprehensive Analysis of 
Tech Tools.'' And it has a list of technology tools that are 
being utilized across the anti-trafficking space, which 
includes some of the tools that you referenced, so happy to go 
deeper there as needed.
    Mrs. Bice. Perfect, thank you for following up with that.
    And I want to follow it up with this. What are some of the 
existing efforts and opportunities for improved data-sharing 
among NGO's, State, local law enforcement? What are we doing to 
sort of bring all of that data together to analyze that? Is 
there one sort of repository for this--all of that data, or are 
we sort of fragmented?
    Dr. Shelley. Everything is fragmented unfortunately.
    Ms. Darnton. I'd say that the Counter-Trafficking Data 
Collaborative does have one of the largest data sets on human 
trafficking cases, and it's not enough. We're still not pulling 
in data sets from a lot of the service providers, the companies 
that could be sharing data on the ways in which trafficking is 
taking place. But it is a relatively good start. And in August 
2021 the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative and Microsoft 
actually released the largest public data set that can be used 
to fight human trafficking representing data from over 150,000 
victims and survivors of trafficking across 189 countries and 
territories. So I think that's a good starting place, and we 
can use that as a springboard hopefully for further data 
collection in the future.
    Mrs. Bice. Excellent.
    Dr. Goodwin. And one thing that I will add is that what we 
know from the virtual currencies work that we did, certain law 
enforcement agencies are partnering with data analytics groups 
and other groups to gain a little more information about how to 
spot these types of illicit activity and to become more 
knowledgeable on the topic. So there are partnerships that are 
occurring with law enforcement and some of the business or 
analytic groups.
    Mrs. Bice. It sounds like we need to be maybe more 
thoughtful from a holistic perspective that when bringing all 
of these groups together because we would be able to sort of 
glean more insight into being able to prevent human trafficking 
if we had all of this data collected in one repository. So 
thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
    Staff. Ms. Ross is recognized.
    Ms. Ross. Thank you very much, and thank you for holding 
this hearing, Chairwoman Johnson and Ranking Member Lucas. And 
thanks to all the witnesses for being with us today.
    I'm from the State of North Carolina, and in 2020 we had 
260 reported human trafficking cases, but we know that that 
number is much higher. And there even have been human 
trafficking cases in the suburbs in my district. And this is a 
very, very serious problem. And, as you've said, we have kind 
of a hodgepodge approach, and we need to consolidate and get 
much more granular both with the data and with the solution.
    I want to talk a little bit about how we can partner with 
research institutions and nonprofits. So the Research Triangle 
Institute in North Carolina recently got a grant from the 
National Institute for Justice to work on this issue, find 
data. And then we also in my district--or in North Carolina 
have a nonprofit called Project No Rest, which is dedicated to 
increasing the awareness and prevention of human trafficking, 
particularly in young people.
    And so I wanted to ask first Dr. Shelley but then anybody 
else. How can research institutions benefit from nonprofit 
expertise to develop targeted technological solutions and share 
that information in combating human trafficking?
    Dr. Shelley. I think it's important that we need to have a 
whole-of-society approach, so we need nongovernmental 
organizations, we need the business community, we need 
government. And we need all of these collaborating. And one of 
the things that we need to do is to be able to verify the data. 
The question was asked about these data bases, but sometimes 
this data is unverified, and sometimes it's incompatible and 
can't just be combined.
    A few years ago, I was in a remarkable conference in North 
Carolina that was talking about how much of human trafficking 
was going on along Route 95.
    Ms. Ross. Yes.
    Dr. Shelley. And I think we need to be taking much more 
focus on the transport sector and not just looking at what is 
going on--I mean, it is your problem in North Carolina and 
you're representing your constituency, but also, how we are 
part of a hub and a network and there are not Federal cases 
that have been prosecuted in North Carolina even though there 
has certainly been very serious investigations involving hotels 
there, as I learned when I was at this conference.
    Ms. Ross. Yes, and truck stops, as we've talked about.
    Dr. Goodwin, my next question is for you. We understand 
that there are a lot of vulnerable populations, particularly in 
the immigrant community. And sometimes people's worry about 
immigration enforcement keeps them from providing information 
to both law enforcement and researchers. How can we overcome 
some of the hesitancy, which is legitimate because people care 
about their immigration status, to be able to collect the data 
that we need to collect to solve this problem and then protect 
people who may have even been brought here against their will 
in violation of our immigration laws?
    Dr. Goodwin. So I'll answer that and reference some of the 
previous work that we've done on trafficking. I haven't done 
the work looking specifically at the border, but I think that 
this applies, right, in terms of victims coming forward. So one 
of the things we found is having service providers available, 
having NGO's--other--people who aren't law enforcement, right, 
having those individuals available to talk to people who we 
suspect have been trafficked, that goes a long way. You need to 
build the trust. You need to make certain that it's a 
comfortable, safe, and secure environment so that they feel 
comfortable coming forward.
    Coming here to a new country, there are a lot of other 
concerns that they will have. But I think having victim service 
providers available, and I think that Professor Shelley has 
talked earlier about like the T visas. So there are ways to 
kind of insure that people who are coming across the border 
into this country, if they are being trafficked, I think that 
there are ways to ensure that they are protected and that the 
information is gotten and that the folks who are trafficking 
them are caught.
    Ms. Ross. Thank you very much. And, Madam Chair, I yield 
back.
    Staff. Ms. Kim is recognized.
    Ms. Kim. Thank you. Thank you, Chair and Ranking Member, 
for holding this hearing. And I also want to thank all of our 
witnesses for taking the time to join us. I think your efforts 
and research make it very clear there is a need to improve data 
collection and research on human trafficking. And it is my hope 
that we can act during this Congress from what we learn from 
our conversations today.
    My first question is to you, Dr. Shelley. You make note in 
your written testimony that existing research has not yielded 
data for analysis that allows us to examine comprehensively the 
rapid evolution of human trafficking over the past decade as 
traffickers have exploited online technology and social media. 
You know, social media is used by everyone now more than ever. 
And traffickers not only use social media to recruit victims 
but to control them. The question is, is there any reliable 
data on human traffickers use of social media, and what can be 
done to improve the reliability of this data?
    Dr. Shelley. There is some data, some research that's been 
done on, in fact, that I'm assigning in my class on the role of 
technology in this area. But this is one area in which there 
needs to be much more funded research and analysis, and this is 
where AI, in collaboration with social media, but--could help 
find much more in human trafficking. Also, you can mine Twitter 
and many other forms of social media, and there's good research 
methods that have been developed. So this is an area which is 
underfunded and which should be encouraged.
    Ms. Kim. All right. Thank you for that answer. Funding, as 
always, is the biggest area where we need more help on I guess.
    Dr. Shelley, continuing with the questioning to you, you 
make note that more research into illicit supply chains is 
needed to understand the true extent of human trafficking 
operations. And prior to your research that--there has been 
little research to illicit supply chains. So how has your 
research on illicit supply chains inform the efforts to combat 
human trafficking, and what areas and sectors of the illicit 
supply chain need more research and data to help guide the law 
enforcement efforts to crack down on human trafficking?
    Dr. Shelley. I think you can summarize it in the following 
ways. We need to be looking at the locales and the 
facilitators, as the last Congresswoman asked about, of truck 
stops. And we haven't done enough research on how this is a key 
part of supply chains. We need to be working, as I said, with 
Uber and car-share services. We need to be working with data 
and the financial community. When I finish this research that 
I've been doing, I've been doing webinars for the financial 
community trying to get the research out to people who are 
informing the hospitality industry on what they can be doing, 
ideas on how to expand T visas to include protections for 
vulnerable individuals to be reporting.
    All of these are part of it, and we also need to be 
increasing our intersection with--and data collection at the 
point of treatment in medical centers. And as one of my 
students was saying to me last night, that during the pandemic 
this effort has certainly diminished as healthcare workers have 
been so focused on saving lives that they haven't been looking 
at the human trafficking that they often see in front of their 
eyes.
    So we--these are all key points on supply chains that we 
need to be mapping that we're not sufficiently paying attention 
to and of which there is almost no research.
    Ms. Kim. I know in the chat room that you had with--to all 
of this, you had written the need to expand the T visas to 
include people who are reporting on what they have seen on 
human trafficking but otherwise they are afraid to come 
forward. I would love to see some more of your writing there, 
too, so if you can share that with the rest of us, that would 
be great.
    Dr. Shelley. I couldn't be more honored.
    Ms. Kim. Yes. You know, I have one last question to Ms. 
Harris. Can you please elaborate on the role that modeling can 
play in assisting in understanding where, when, and what and 
how human trafficking can be prevented? And then any other 
panelists, if you want to jump in after Ms. Harris speaks.
    Ms. Harris. Thank you for the question. Modeling is one way 
where the whole ecosystem that we've been talking about, 
understanding the mechanics of how trafficking happens, how 
people are vulnerable, what vulnerabilities are being preyed 
on, what--how the system is able to sustain itself through 
time, what are those points of interventions, as have been 
mentioned in different points in the testimony here, and 
network science, modeling, projections, there are a lot of 
tools from different areas of scientific research that could 
help us better understand that and thus be able to figure out 
ways to intervene.
    And so my recommendations are to think beyond the kinds of 
research that are simply documenting what is happening but also 
thinking ahead to problem-solving and thinking about the 
systemic issues that are involved in human trafficking. That's 
the kind of research that is needed to really support the work 
of everybody in the different sectors who are trying to combat 
human trafficking.
    Ms. Kim. Thank you. It looks like my time has run out. If 
anyone wants to provide extra responses and if you maybe would 
contact my office with that, that would be great. Thank you so 
much.
    Staff. Mr. Beyer is recognized.
    Mr. Beyer. Thank you very much. First of all, Professor 
Shelley, I was friends with Nancy and Omer Hirst, so I'm so 
thrilled that you have their chair at George Mason. Thank you--
--
    Dr. Shelley. I am thrilled, too.
    Mr. Beyer [continuing]. For all of your research.
    So to Hannah Darnton, a few years ago, we had a very good 
hearing in SST (Science, Space and Technology) on this subject, 
and one of the things that came up was the whole idea of what 
they were calling digital trafficking signatures and that there 
needed to be a repository within law enforcement for these, 
that so much could be used if we could figure out the digital 
trafficking signatures. Can you comment on that or explain more 
what we should be doing?
    Ms. Darnton. Apologies, Mr. Beyer, I believe that may have 
been one of the other panelists that went deep on that, so 
happy to connect with I believe it was MIT (Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology) or Polaris on their thinking on that 
and send over more.
    Mr. Beyer. OK. OK, that would be great because it was 
fascinating to try to get ahead of the curve on that.
    And then back for Ms. Goodwin or Dr. Goodwin, you know, 
there are a number of bills in--before Congress right now on 
cryptocurrency. Probably the most comprehensive one we 
introduced to establish who was going to regulate, which were 
the securities, which were the commodities in between the SEC 
(Securities and Exchange Commission) and the CFTC (Commodity 
Futures Trading Commission) because it's widely recognized that 
there's an extraordinary amount of fraud and terrorism and 
rogue governments. But you've put your finger very clearly on 
the role that it plays in human trafficking. Is there the sense 
that with SEC and CFTC regulation that it can make enough of a 
difference to help regulate or minimize the human trafficking 
that's going on right now?
    Dr. Goodwin. So, Congressman, there might be some 
opportunities there, and I don't have the information in front 
of me now to fully respond to that question, but I will circle 
back to you and your staff on that.
    Mr. Beyer. Great. And we will get you a copy of the 
legislation also.
    Dr. Goodwin. Oh, thank you. That would be very helpful.
    Mr. Beyer. This is very much in play right now with the 
heads of the respective agencies.
    Dr. Goodwin. OK.
    Mr. Beyer. And, Professor Shelley, you know, we're so 
excited that the COMPETES Act passed and the USICA Act passed 
in the Senate with big bipartisan majorities. You know, you 
mentioned how the National Science Foundation research has made 
a real difference. How do we make sure that with this 
unprecedented increase in basic research that the appropriate 
amount or enough amount is going to human trafficking?
    Dr. Shelley. I think that's part of the role of Congress, 
to make sure that it reaches its intended target. I mean, this 
area that we've been working on, I don't want to say, but we've 
done amazing work over 3 years for about $250,000. It's not 
that much. So much--you know, an order of magnitude greater 
than this could help enormously in doing the kind of data 
analytics and work that's needed. But you need the kind of 
interdisciplinary teams that the NSF brings together. I'm a 
social scientist, data analytics people, supply chain people, 
people with experience in the dark web and AI, which is 
something which a research organization like the NSF can do. 
And it also has lots of experience in working with the business 
community. So it should have, I think, significant resources 
that would allow the kind of sensitive, thoughtful research. 
Ours is having some of the most direct impact, but others--
people are also doing thoughtful research in other areas as 
well.
    Mr. Beyer. Yes. And, Professor Shelley, I know one of the 
things that my friends at the National Science Foundation will 
tell me, too, is that the grants were made on the basis of the 
grant requests that are made. So I encourage you and the people 
working in your sphere in academia to just get as many requests 
in as possible so that they can be funded. And thanks for doing 
that.
    And I just want to--and just a quick shout-out to all four 
of you for being brave enough to take on one of the ugliest 
sides of human nature. I--it's almost hard for me to imagine 
getting up every morning to work on an issue where people are 
being so brutalized and their lives so destroyed, so thank you 
very much for doing that, and thank you for the difference that 
you make. And with that, Madam Chair, I yield back.
    Staff. Mr. Feenstra is recognized.
    Mr. Feenstra. Thank you. Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson and 
Ranking Member Lucas, and thank you to all our witnesses for 
your testimony and sharing your extensive experience and 
knowledge on this important subject.
    Human trafficking, as we know, is a crime that is hidden in 
plain sight in our neighborhoods, our airports, and online. 
Because of the difficulty of detection to fighting trafficking, 
a multipronged effect is needed with collaboration from all 
involved. In Iowa, local law enforcement and State Department 
public safety collaborate to find leads and root out despicable 
human trafficking predators. They utilize recently developed 
software to gather points of data on the internet and find 
trafficking victims and help streamline investigations to focus 
on rescuing victims and stopping traffickers. The State also 
works with private industry to increase recognition and 
prevention on the road and at lodging locations that 
traffickers may utilize.
    Ms. Darnton and Dr. Shelley, the Iowa Office to Combat 
Human Trafficking filed a free online human trafficking online 
prevention training and certification program for hotel and 
lodging owners and staff to complete in order to receive local 
and State public funding. Additionally, Iowa DOT border vehicle 
enforcement officers have partnered with Truckers Against 
Trafficking to provide vulnerable information to professional 
drivers so that they can assist in recognition and reporting. 
These are private citizens that can help be the eyes and ears 
on the road and in lodging locations that traffickers traverse. 
How can widespread awareness like this increase and improve 
data collection on human trafficking?
    Dr. Shelley. I just want to say that maybe 5 years ago or 
more I was in Iowa helping to set up and work with some of your 
Attorney General's office and others working on this issue, and 
they brought in wonderful NGO's. So what you've done in Iowa is 
so thoughtful and should be copied by many other States. So 
you've put a lot of thought into this process before you 
started it, and I think that's absolutely key. And I think your 
involvement of the transport sector because you're such key 
hubs and involvement with the private sector is the kind of 
example that needs to be replicated.
    Ms. Darnton. I'd say one thing that could also help build 
out our current understanding and the data on human trafficking 
would be ensuring that the individuals identifying cases of 
trafficking or potential behavior that would indicate human 
trafficking share it with repositories such as the National 
Human Trafficking Hotline, Polaris, and others. Oftentimes, 
information collected is partial in nature, and we need a more 
comprehensive understanding of the situation or scenario in 
order to really buildup our overarching understanding of how 
this crime is manifesting. And so ensuring that the stories are 
getting to centralized repositories, experts on human 
trafficking that can help unpack this data can really help 
advance our understanding and the overarching system.
    Mr. Feenstra. Yes, I agree. And I really appreciate your 
comments. I fully agree with what you're saying.
    Ms. Darnton, you've recommended consideration of privacy 
and implementing tech-based solutions. The nature of human 
trafficking crimes means that survivors' privacy and 
confidentiality is of the utmost importance even if that means 
case data has to be withheld for their personal safety. Could 
you offer suggestions on how the Committee should be thinking 
about protecting privacy and confidentiality as we consider R&D 
investments in this technology?
    Ms. Darnton. Yes. And my written testimony includes a few 
examples here. I think our exploration of new privacy-
preserving mechanisms through the Accelerator program is one of 
the ways that we really suggest future explorations take shape. 
But I think also one of the things we often talk about in the 
human rights field is considering how we're counterbalancing 
different rights. There is individual safety, and there's 
privacy, and those are both human rights. And we need to make 
sure that by looking to protect individual safety, we are not 
compromising privacy on the other hand. So taking a balanced 
approach that considers preventing, avoiding, mitigating human 
rights abuses of all kinds is really necessary. And I think 
that Europe has been putting out some great recommendations and 
regulations on this, on mandatory human rights due diligence, 
on privacy and security of data, and we can work with our 
partners overseas to look at best practices and trends and 
actually tackling the issue to ensure that we are considering a 
base of exploration of things that's already been done, tested, 
and tried.
    Ms. Harris. I would add to that----
    Mr. Feenstra. Thank you so much, Ms. Darnton, for those 
comments. I greatly appreciate it. And my time has run out, and 
I yield back.
    Staff. Mr. Casten is recognized.
    Mr. Casten. Thank you, and I appreciate all our witnesses 
being here. The--I'm hopping back and forth here with Financial 
Services and, interestingly enough, we're talking about crypto 
over there, which all seems to be tied into this.
    Dr. Goodwin, I'm curious if you have some estimates, you 
know, when all our financial institutions are required to file 
the SARs
    [inaudible] if they have reason to believe that there's 
something that needs to come to the attention of the Financial 
Crimes Enforcement Network. Do you have any sense from your 
data how often are digital virtual currencies used in human 
trafficking?
    Dr. Goodwin. So, Congressman, what we do know from the work 
that we've done is that from the time period from 2017 to 2020 
the number of SARs reports that were filed with FinCEN, those 
doubled over that period. I can get you the actual numbers. I 
don't have them in front of me right now, but I can certainly 
get you the actual numbers. But we did see an increase in 
financial institutions filing SARs reports with FinCEN.
    Mr. Casten. OK. So I think you've sort of intimated at my 
follow up question, which is do you trust the data, right, 
because the--there's an increase in the filings, but if 
somebody is--you know, if--if I'm using dollars, there's all 
sorts of know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules 
that are going to be triggered, so--and I realize that you--
this is an unanswerable question, but I'll defer to your 
wisdom. Do you have reason to believe that there is more or 
less slipping through the system with the rise of digital 
currencies?
    Dr. Goodwin. You know, based on the work that we've done, 
we know that the numbers are probably not complete, and so I 
would suspect that those numbers are much higher. And, as I 
mentioned earlier, we also know that crypto virtual currencies 
are the second highest form of payment from the report that we 
looked at for Polaris for this online trafficking, and so I 
would say that it's probably much higher than the numbers that 
we know right now. And this is another reason why it's so 
important that we get more information and have more data, so 
that we can get at the actual numbers.
    Mr. Casten. OK. So now if you take the--recognize that we 
are getting into ever-smaller pieces of the actual sort of 
piece of the crime, if you flag through FinCEN the--you know, 
the SARs gets filed, you tie--this is a digital currency, and 
so now it's been flagged, we know that's happened, FinCEN has a 
reporting, do you have the authority without violating all 
sorts of civil liberties laws to actually go in and look at the 
blockchain on that digital currency to know what happened? 
Because in theory--you know, and we've heard some of the crypto 
advocates say this, well, it's great because all the 
transactions are recorded, but of course in order to do that, 
you've got to decrypt it and you've got to get into all sorts 
of civil liberties issues. So when you find these, do you find 
that the presence of the blockchain on something like a Bitcoin 
gives you better ability to track, or are you precluded from 
actually looking at the blockchain and seeing that history of 
transactions?
    Dr. Goodwin. You know, Congressman, I remember this 
conversation when we were doing this work, but I'm not 
remembering the response. So what I will do is I will circle 
back to your staff to provide the response because this is 
something that we asked about and looked into, but I'm not 
remembering a thorough response right now.
    Mr. Casten. OK. Well--and, you know, as I'm sure I don't 
need to tell you, this is as much a technical issue as a civil 
liberties----
    Dr. Goodwin. Absolutely.
    Mr. Casten [continuing]. Issue. And, you know, as we sit 
there and say how are we going to regulate this space, I have 
this ongoing conversation with Chairman Gensler with the SEC 
that the two problems with the Wild West is that in the first 
instance there's no sheriff, and in the second instance when 
the sheriff shows up, lots of people want to shoot him. So 
we're trying to make sure----
    Dr. Goodwin. You know--oh, I'm sorry.
    Mr. Casten. Go ahead.
    Dr. Goodwin. Yes, one last thing I will say. When you talk 
about the Suspicious Activity Reports for human trafficking, 
when we looked at just the SARs related to virtual currency in 
general, not just for human trafficking but when financial 
institutions file SARs, we saw that quadruple over that time 
period 2017 to 2020. And I will circle back to you about the 
specifics on that as well.
    Mr. Casten. OK. There's only 30 seconds left but do any of 
the other witnesses have any other--any thoughts on this 
general question of how to--how we make sure that the 
appropriate technical and regulatory tools are in place for 
these emerging digital currencies?
    Dr. Shelley. I think we need to also, as was mentioned 
earlier, work with the platforms that are posting this because 
that's the compounding factor. You put advertisements on the 
website, and it draws customers. And many of these 
advertisements are being paid for with cryptocurrencies and, 
you know--and the platforms are not requiring enough 
identification of the people who are posting these ads. So 
that's a very important entry point into the whole process and 
builds on what Dr. Goodwin was saying earlier.
    Dr. Goodwin. Yes, that's absolutely true, Professor 
Shelley. And, you know, in the virtual currencies report we 
talk about that, the fact that the currency is used to purchase 
ads. The ads themselves are kind of what is facilitating the 
trafficking, and so you might be able to see the ads being 
purchased, but what happens once the ads are out there? And 
that's one of the ways the trafficking is being facilitated, 
through the use of the virtual currency.
    Mr. Casten. Thank you. I appreciate the Chair letting us go 
little bit over. I yield back my absence of time.
    Staff. Mr. Gimenez is recognized.
    Mr. Gimenez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman--Madam Chair. The 
question--I want to go back to basics. The folks that are being 
trafficked, where are they coming from?
    Dr. Shelley. In labor trafficking, we believe that a lot of 
them are foreigners, but we don't know absolutely because 
there's no data. But there's many cases in this country where 
human smuggling turns into human trafficking. On human 
trafficking for sex, the majority of the victims are American 
citizens. We're the only advanced democratic society in which 
our citizens and often disproportionately minorities, Black, 
Hispanic, Native American are victims of human trafficking. The 
exact data we don't have, but if you put the research together, 
that's what it's showing. And we have so little research on 
labor trafficking that we do not know, you know, the countries 
of origin. There is some American citizens who are being labor 
trafficked, but it's a small part of the problem as far as I 
know.
    Mr. Gimenez. The--on the labor-trafficked side, would you 
say--because you have--apparently you have very little data. 
Would you say that the majority of those are--don't have legal 
status here in the United States, or do they have legal status 
here in the United States?
    Dr. Shelley. They sometimes have a legal status in that 
they come under an H-2A visa to work in the United States, so 
they have a legal right to be working, but then there are 
problems in the way the employers treat them under these visas, 
and they may be labor-trafficked.
    Mr. Gimenez. Are they--do you think that there's a sizable 
number that are--that don't have a legal standing here in the 
United States?
    Dr. Shelley. I think that exists, too, but we really don't 
know the extent of it, and I think that's one area in which we 
really need more research. That's why I'm saying that a lot of 
the T visas that are issued are for people who are victims of 
labor trafficking, but we've done no analysis to understand how 
they arrived and the circumstances of whether they came under 
some legal status through recruiters and then were exploited. 
There's so much more that can be found in the data analytics if 
we could--in the data if we could analyze it.
    Mr. Gimenez. OK. The--in that regard, is there something 
that--is there something that we can do with our Customs and 
Border Protection people to try to filter those that they 
believe or could be there for--to be trafficked or, in other 
words--I mean, I'm getting information--and we have information 
that sometimes some of the folks that are being pushed, let's 
say, through the southern border, they have to pay the cartels 
X number of thousands of dollars in order to get through, and 
that in order to pay back the cartels, that they become, in 
essence, slaves. Are you hearing that, too?
    Dr. Shelley. It's not just hearing it. I mean, there is 
research that's been done in Mexico. I have one colleague who's 
a specialist on this. And this is where my colleagues who've 
been testifying have noted the convergence between different 
forms of criminality. And that's why I'm saying that human 
smuggling, often when the cartels come and extract money from 
the people in transit, they wind up into a traffic situation. 
And that's one of the things that we really need to be doing 
research on. And I noted that in my statement.
    Mr. Gimenez. Fair enough. Also, I think that we need to do 
also research on how we can combat--it appears that there is 
some kind of a network where you can actually, as a business 
owner, actually contract with the cartels to push somebody into 
the country, claim that individual as some kind of relative or 
something, and then end up having that individual work in your 
company. Have you heard that also?
    Dr. Shelley. I've heard of every kind of variation. We've 
had some investigations of what's gone on with networks 
facilitating trafficking of Guatemalan youth to egg farms in 
Ohio, for example. There is data in these cases that one can 
see. We don't need to be relying so much on rumor. We could be 
relying much more on what we're finding through investigations 
that have been held and understanding the processes. But that's 
not been done.
    Mr. Gimenez. And how would you go about doing that?
    Dr. Shelley. Just the way we've been going through some of 
the State--Federal investigations, State investigations. 
There's a lot of data that just has not been used and subject 
to data analytics. That's what I've been doing under my NSF 
research is trying to understand----
    Mr. Gimenez. All right. Would it be helpful then to create 
something, some kind of a joint--a national data base where all 
the data is then put together and analyzed so that we can find 
out how we can stop this problem from starting, I mean, from 
getting here and being utilized? Do you think that would be 
helpful, a national kind of data base?
    Dr. Shelley. I don't think there--this data cannot easily 
be combined so that what you have of an NGO reporting to 
Polaris has not been verified by law enforcement as opposed to 
what a Federal investigator finds out. But you can have 
separate data bases that you could begin to look at patterns 
across that. And that's--could be done.
    Mr. Gimenez. Fair enough. I see that my time is up. Thank 
you so much for your answers, and I yield back.
    Staff. Ms. Stansbury is recognized.
    Ms. Stansbury. Thank you. And thank you, Madam Chair, for 
convening today's panel. As the Congresswoman from New Mexico's 
1st Congressional District, the crisis of human trafficking and 
particularly of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives and 
women is one of my top priorities. And I want to say that this 
crisis is felt so deeply in our communities and across our 
State. Each case number represents a life and a story and a 
tear in the fabric of our communities. And I want to take a 
moment this morning as we're discussing these difficult issues 
to honor those lives and to honor those families who are 
survivors.
    As a State with one of the highest incidence of MMIW&R 
(missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives), the 
issue is a crisis that is affecting all of our communities. And 
as we know, this is a crisis not only in New Mexico's 
Indigenous communities but across the United States and across 
the world in fact.
    In my previous role as a State legislator, I was proud to 
work alongside State representatives Andrea Romero, Derrick 
Lente, Wanda Johnson, and our State Indian Affairs Office and 
Secretary Lynn Trujillo to pass legislation to create a task 
force to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous 
women and relatives. And this last year, that task force 
published its findings. And one of the most important 
recommendations that came out of that work was about data and 
cross-jurisdictional sharing of data. In fact, one of the 
biggest challenges for our tribal, State, and Federal law 
enforcement is that cross-jurisdictional coordination and 
tracking because, as Indigenous people go missing, especially 
in nonindigenous communities, it's rare that our law 
enforcement notifies and shares that data with other 
authorities so that there can be appropriate follow up.
    So as many of the witnesses have stated today, accurate 
reporting, coordination between agencies, and of course seeking 
justice is crucial to addressing this crisis and finding and 
bringing to justice individuals involved in this challenge. 
Ensuring that our communities also have the resources to help 
those who are in crisis, to support their survivors and their 
families, and to bring individuals to justice is also crucial.
    So for those of you that don't know, I am fortunate enough 
to serve in this role as Congresswoman after Secretary Deb 
Haaland. And, as many of you know, she helped to shine a 
national light on this issue and champion the Not Invisible Act 
while she was serving in this congressional seat and has 
continued that work as Secretary of the Interior and is helping 
to lead that work in the Federal Government today. So I am 
extremely honored to have the opportunity to continue that work 
here in Congress in partnership with our tribal communities and 
Federal and local authorities. And I'm especially proud that 
our President, President Biden, as well as the Governor of New 
Mexico, have elevated this issue of missing and murdered 
Indigenous women by executive order.
    And here in Congress it is absolutely crucial--and I know 
there's been some discussion today about this--we have to pass 
the Violence Against Women Act. And so I urge my colleagues in 
the Senate to pass that bill urgently. We need the statutory 
language and the tools and the resources that are in that bill 
to address this crisis.
    So I want to just take a moment here to ask Dr. Shelley and 
others here, the National Academies recently in 2020 met to 
discuss human trafficking and the mobility of missing and 
murdered Indigenous women. And one expert stated that in 2016 
there were over 5,000 cases and reports of missing American 
Indian and Alaska Native women and girls to the FBI (Federal 
Bureau of Investigation), but the Department of Justice's 
missing persons data base only logged 116 cases. So clearly, 
there's a mismatch and even across our Federal agencies in how 
data is being reported.
    So I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about the 
data, tools, and research that's needed to track these cases, 
but most importantly, how do we use that information to help 
survivors and people who are living in crisis to get help and 
support before these tragedies occur?
    Dr. Shelley. I mean, if we don't understand who are the 
victims, who is suffering, then we can't target the assistance 
programs. And so, so little of this, this mismatch that you've 
described of 100 to 5,000 is important, and we're not getting 
the information from healthcare workers, and we're not getting 
information from morgues as we need to of suspicions of human 
trafficking. And that's been a huge hole for years.
    Then we need to be able to do a geospatial analysis to 
understand where this is and where resources more need to be 
deployed. Last year, I was speaking to the nursing community of 
deans of nursing schools on how to implement this in 
curriculum. So because young girls and women don't just die, 
usually, there is violence and calls to medical authorities 
before this ultimately happens, we need these communities to be 
much more integrated into the data collection and in the 
service delivery activity.
    Ms. Stansbury. Thank you, Doctor. I know we're out of time 
for my particular questions today, but I just want to thank all 
of you for the work that you do, and I very much look forward 
to working with this Committee and my colleagues to get the 
Violence Against Women Act passed in the Senate and also to 
addressing this crisis and ensuring that we are providing the 
resources and tools to address this in our communities. So 
thank you very much. And with that, I yield.
    Dr. Goodwin. Congresswoman, this is GAO. So given the work 
that we've done on MMIW issues, we will circle back to your 
staff to discuss some of the data bases because we talk about 
four main data bases that DOJ has, although none of them are 
set up, are designed to identify victims of trafficking. So 
I'll circle back to your staff on that.
    Ms. Stansbury. Thank you, Ms. Goodwin. Thank you. Madam 
Chair, I yield back.
    Mr. Beyer [presiding]. Thank you, Congresswoman Stansbury.
    Our Chair has migrated off to another Committee hearing, so 
I'm authorized to bring the hearing to a close. So let me first 
just thank all the witnesses for testifying before the 
Committee today. It's been a long 2 1/2 hours on a difficult 
subject with many good ideas.
    The record will remain open for 2 weeks for additional 
statements from the Members and for any additional questions 
the Committee may ask of the witnesses.
    And with that, the witnesses are excused, and the hearing 
is now adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:22 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]

                               Appendix I

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                   Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
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                              Appendix II

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                   Additional Material for the Record
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