[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
                             PROTECTION ACT

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

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

   GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

                                   of

                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________


                              May 12, 2023

                               __________


                           Serial No. 118-16

                               __________

        Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs






                 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]






Available:  http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov, 
                       or http://www.govinfo.gov

                               ______
                                 

                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

53-071PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2024









                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

                   MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas, Chairman

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey     GREGORY MEEKS, New York, Ranking 
JOE WILSON, South Carolina               Member
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania	     BRAD SHERMAN, California
DARRELL ISSA, California	     GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
ANN WAGNER, Missouri		     WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
BRIAN MAST, Florida		     AMI BERA, California
KEN BUCK, Colorado		     JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee		     DINA TITUS, Nevada
MARK E. GREEN, Tennessee	     TED LIEU, California
ANDY BARR, Kentucky		     SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
RONNY JACKSON, Texas		     DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
YOUNG KIM, California		     COLIN ALLRED, Texas
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida	     ANDY KIM, New Jersey
BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan		     SARA JACOBS, California
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, 	     KATHY MANNING, North Carolina
    American Samoa		     SHEILA CHERFILUS-McCORMICK, 
FRENCH HILL, Arkansas		         Florida
WARREN DAVIDSON, Ohio		     GREG STANTON, Arizona
JIM BAIRD, Indiana		     MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida		     JARED MOSKOWITZ, Florida
THOMAS KEAN, JR., New Jersey	     JONATHAN JACKSON, Illinois
MICHAEL LAWLER, New York	     SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE, California
CORY MILLS, Florida		     JIM COSTA, California
RICH McCORMICK, Georgia		     JASON CROW, Colorado
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas		     BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
JOHN JAMES, Michigan
KEITH SELF, Texas

                    Brendan Shields, Staff Director

                    Sophia Lafargue, Staff Director

                                 ------                                

 Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International 
                             Organizations

                  CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey, Chair

MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida        SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania, Ranking 
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN,           Member
    American Samoa                   AMI BERA, California
FRENCH HILL, Arkansas                SARA JACOBS, California
RICH McCORMICK, Georgia              KATHY MANNING, North Carolina
JOHN JAMES, Michigan

                       Mary Vigil, Staff Director
                      Allie Davis, Staff Director








                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                     BIOS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

Bio submitted for the record from Mr. Morris.....................    10
Bio submitted for the record from Mr. Bedrossian.................    13
Bio submitted for the record from Ms. Basham.....................    16

                               WITNESSES

Hounakey, Bella, Trafficking Survivor............................    23
Cavallo, Gina, Trafficking Survivor..............................    28
Lung, Robert, Trafficking Survivor...............................    34
Murray, Becky, Founder and CEO, One By One.......................    40
Vandenberg, Martina, President, Human Trafficking Legal Center...    52
Dyer, Hon. Cindy, Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat 
  Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State...............    86
Walsh, Johnny, Deputy Assistant Administrator, U.S. Agency for 
  International Development......................................    91

                                APPENDIX

Hearing Notice...................................................   114
Hearing Minutes..................................................   116
Hearing Attendance...............................................   117

            RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

Responses to questions submitted for the record..................   118








 
                IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
                             PROTECTION ACT

                          Friday, May 12, 2023

                          House of Representatives,
              Subcommittee on Global Health, Global
                    Human Rights, and International
                                     Organizations,
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs,
                                                    Washington, DC.

    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:32 a.m., in 
room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. 
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
    Mr. Smith. The hearing will come to order. This is a 
hearing of the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human 
Rights, and International Organizations. Today we will examine 
the ever-worsening exploitation of vulnerable persons by human 
traffickers and discuss U.S. efforts to combat this heinous 
crime.
    This is the 41st congressional hearing that I have chaired 
on human trafficking and I am looking forward to hearing from 
all of our truly remarkable witnesses, leaders who have made 
the difference, especially our survivors who have not only come 
forward to tell the world, but to tell other victims that there 
is hope, that there is life after this unbelievable cruelty.
    And you are just amazing and I thank you for being here.
    I also thank that we have the Administration here today, 
especially our Ambassador-at-Large for Trafficking in Persons, 
Cindy Dyer. Thank you for being here as well.
    More than 20 years ago Congress approved and the President 
signed historic legislation that I authored known as the 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. This bipartisan 
landmark law created a comprehensive whole-of-government 
initiative to combat sex and labor trafficking in the United 
States and around the world. It also established dozens and 
dozens of new programs to protect victims, prosecute 
traffickers, and prevent human trafficking in the first place: 
the three Ps.
    Looking at the progress made over the years it is hard to 
believe that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was met 
with a--with serious opposition, a wall of opposition, if you 
will, dismissed by many as a solution in search of a problem. 
And that goes for the media, many of who just dismissed this 
and thought we were exaggerating when we were talking about the 
prevalence of this crime, not only around the world but right 
here in the United States.
    Most people at the time associated trafficking with drugs 
and weapons, not human beings. Reports of vulnerable persons, 
especially women and children, being reduced to commodities for 
sale or often met with surprise, incredulity, or indifference.
    Top Administration officials even testified against major 
provisions including--right here in this room including 
sanctions and even the move to create the Trafficking in 
Persons, TIP, Office, arguing that exposing and sanctioning 
countries with egregiously poor records on human trafficking 
would be, quote, ``counterproductive.''
    The plan was to put some more enhanced reporting into the 
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and call it a day. 
They did support however increasing the penalties for 
traffickers, and that was a good thing. So we had solidarity on 
that. They also liked the interagency coordination. They 
already had one. Our law expanded it and made it statutory.
    But again the TIP Office would not have existed and I think 
it is--there was talk--and we found this when we did the 
International Religious Freedom Act, that somehow we would be 
creating a hierarchy of human rights rather than value-added. 
All human rights abuses need to be confronted and fought, but 
this one is so egregious and so pervasive. We were not doing 
enough at the time and we would not be a Tier 1 country back 
then. We would have been a Tier 3 country. And thankfully that 
all of that has changed.
    As a matter of fact, when our bill was stalled and 
languishing and presumed dead; and I cannot tell you how many 
times I was told it was not going anywhere, especially in the 
Senate, I invited victims of sex trafficking to inform and to 
motivate. And they sat at hearings just like this and made 
their case, often through tears. They made clear that delay was 
denial and that we cannot do this fast enough. We have to do it 
right, but it has to be done as quickly as possible. It took 
over 2 years to muster the votes for passage and my bill was 
finally signed into law on October 28, the year 2000.
    Within a year after enactment no one was arguing anymore 
that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act's integrated three-
piece strategy: prevention, protection for victims, and 
prosecution of the traffickers, was flawed or unworkable, 
unnecessary, or counterproductive. And remember the pushback 
was with the Administration. It was bipartisan, too. I will 
never forget after the bill passed we went now to the Bush 
Administration and said please implement. One month went by. 
Another month went by. Another month went by. And they were not 
doing it.
    So finally I asked Henry Hyde. I was vice chairman of the 
Foreign Affairs Committee, and I asked him if we could do it a 
hearing demanding that they get this up and running. He said 
OK. We set a date and the Administration got back to us in that 
case and said give us a month.
    So we gave them a month and they still did not do much. 
They even said you can come over and cut the ribbon. I said I 
do not want to cut the ribbon. It is all about getting this up 
and running. And probably the biggest laggard in all of it was 
a T visa which took so long to get enforced. So there has been 
bipartisan foot dragging with the Administrations and it needs 
to be underscored that it is just not acceptable.
    The bill included, as I think all of you know, a number of 
sea change criminal code reforms including treating as a victim 
of trafficking and not a perpetrator of a crime anyone who has 
recruited, harbored, transported, or obtained for the purpose 
of a commercial sex act, or for labor services. We were just 
talking to Ms. Vandenberg. Right from the beginning there was 
that twin--no diminution of how important forced labor is, and 
slave labor, if you will. Both trafficking offenses need to be 
confronted and aggressively so. And she always has made that 
point so eloquently.
    The Trafficking Victims Protection Act radically reformed 
the way the U.S. responded to human trafficking and it has 
pushed States--because we had an admonishment to States with 
Justice to say pass your own laws. We need more prosecutors, 
more eyes and ears to take this. Everything cannot be done at 
the Federal level with the U.S. Attorneys. Thankfully every 
State including my own has a tremendous statute in hand. And as 
long as we have got good prosecutorial discretion, say this is 
a priority, it will make a difference, and it is making a 
difference.
    Thanks to the act thousands of human traffickers have been 
prosecuted and jailed. Jeffrey Epstein was being prosecuted 
pursuant to the TVPA. He never got obviously to the point where 
the trial took place, but the indicting charges were all TVPA.
    Most countries in the world have responded to this gross 
violation of human rights and have enacted anti-trafficking 
legislation, yet there is more that must be done to strengthen 
the U.S. and international response to these crimes as more 
than 27 million people are still--and the estimates vary, but 
are still being trafficked today.
    I have also authored four additional laws to combat human 
trafficking including the TVPA re-authorizations in 2003 and 
2005. When we first did the bill we could not get buy-in for an 
ambassador-at-large. We got that in the 2003 reauthorization. 
And that not only raises the status and stature and gravitas of 
Ms. Dyer, now Ambassador Dyer, but all the other previous 
leaders, not just in the building at the State Department, but 
of course everywhere they go. I mean ambassador-at-large is a 
very, very high position and we couldn't get that until 2003.
    We also put in the 2003 language that said when supply 
chains--and this went to the labor trafficking issue, that the 
CEOs or CFOs have to sign saying clearly that they understand 
that if they are complicit in trafficking they lose the 
contract. Hopefully they will be criminally prosecuted as well, 
but they lose the contract. And that has made a difference. 
Nothing is perfect, but it has made a difference.
    In 2016, after 8 years, three times passed in the House, 
International Megan's Law became law. Now why is that 
important? We know that child sex tourism is rampant. Men 
mostly go on these child sex tourism trips all of the world, to 
Bangkok, to South America, to Brazil, Mexico, and they rent a 
child, which is disgusting beyond words, and abuse that child. 
And we know it is happening.
    Well, the International Megan's Law, as you all know--and 
Megan Kanka, the little girl lived in my district in Hamilton 
Township, in our hometown. And I got to know the parents very 
well, Megan's parents. She was killed in 1994 by a cruel 
pedophile who lived across the street. Nobody knew of his 
background. And he lured her in and killed her horribly and 
then even had the audacity to go out and hand out pamphlets. Do 
you know where Megan is? Help us find Megan. He is the one who 
killed her. He is still in prison today.
    But it led to Megan's Law in all of our States, District of 
Columbia, and everywhere else, Puerto Rico. But we found that 
what happens, these pedophiles, when they are out, go get 
passports. They travel. And they did it with impunity and with 
secrecy.
    The bill passed three times in the House. Could not get any 
movement in the Senate. We finally did. Became law. And the 
Angel Watch Program is doing a tremendous job of noticing 
countries of destination of that pedophile who is traveling, or 
pedophiles; they often do it in groups. And they have been over 
2,000 notifications. About half have led to the country saying 
you are not coming in.
    And you know where the idea came from? I was meeting, like 
Ambassador Dyer does, with all the delegations when they come 
in to talk about what they are doing to try to combat human 
trafficking. And so I met with the Thai delegation. And I said; 
it popped in my head, if you knew a convicted pedophile was 
coming to Bangkok or to Phuket or to some of these other 
places, what would you do? They said we would not let them in. 
That night we started drafting the bill. Eight years later it 
became law and it has I think made a difference.
    I am happy to say that all of this has been bipartisan. 
Karen Bass and I wrote the Frederick Douglass Trafficking 
Victims Prevention and Protection Act. We worked with the 
great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and put a big 
emphasis on some of the prevention pieces like making sure that 
our children are situationally aware K through 12 as to what it 
looks like, what to be on the guard for. And if you see a 
friend who may be being enticed with drugs or something, that 
you immediately get to that principal, to your teacher, and to 
train them as well.
    And HHS and the TIP Office and others all have very good 
curricula on how to--and I would hope anyone hearing this 
hearing in a school would look to say let's have an anti-human 
trafficking couple of days and really bring in someone who is a 
survivor who can really sensitize these young people, these 
students. And that will make a difference as well.
    So I do believe this a pivotal time to be focused on human 
trafficking as the U.S. faces a crisis at our southern border 
that has resulted in countless victims, especially women and 
children, being exploited while traffickers take advantage of 
the chaos. With the expiration of Title 42 last night I think 
it is now more important than ever that we examine what can and 
must be done to stop this crime and rescue and tangibly assist 
these victims.
    I talked to one president; this was of Guatemala, and he 
suggested to me that about 80 percent of these young women 
making their way up to the border and into the United States 
are sexually assaulted somewhere along the line. And we do not 
know how many then, particularly the unaccompanied minors--the 
New York Times put that number at about like 85,000 that we do 
not know where they are--that they are just easy prey for these 
predators. So we got to do so much more.
    Let me just say briefly and then I will conclude on this: 
In 2015 I chaired a congressional hearing on--to demand 
accuracy and accountability when designating tier rankings 
pursuant to the TIP report. Egregious violators. Fourteen 
countries in all. And it was Reuters that broke this story. We 
thought there was a problem, but then Reuters interviewed 
anonymously a number of people at TIP who had made strong 
recommendations that China, Cuba, Malaysia, Oman, 14 countries 
in all, be Tier 3. And we went up the chain at the State 
Department for other reasons unconnected--disconnected from 
trafficking. All of a sudden they got passing grades.
    And I said at the time--and then I did three hearings 
within a space of 2 years. One of them was called Get It Right 
This Time: A Victim-Centered Trafficking in Persons Report. The 
point is that the credibility of the report itself is--that is 
one of the mainstays of the TVPA and all of our efforts. Of 
course all the other programs are important as well. It rests 
on accuracy.
    So the TIP reports gets it accurate, but then--and 
countries look at this. I remember even Thailand being upset 
that Malaysia was getting a passing grade, even though on 
forced labor. They had horrible things that were happening. And 
even the European Union, I believe it was, gave them a red 
card, as they called it, because it was so, so bad.
    We must get the report right. No fudging, no favors to 
national--nations based on other agendas. Friends do not let 
friends commit human rights abuses. If our best friends in the 
world are doing it, we hold them to account. If we are doing 
it, we hold us to account. It is all about the victims.
    Grade inflation for certain favored countries undermines 
the credibility and I believe it really demoralizes the victims 
and anti-human trafficking advocates as well as countries 
trying to improve their record.
    In the coming days I plan on reintroducing the Frederick 
Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act 
which has been significantly informed by survivor input and 
includes a survivor empowerment approach to victim services. 
The bill will strengthen and expand U.S. anti-trafficking 
programs including up ramping up prevention and protection 
efforts against the trafficking of children and I look forward 
to working with my colleagues on this.
    And again I thank you for being here and I would like to 
now yield to my good friend and colleague Ms. Wild, our ranking 
member, for any opening comments.
    Ms. Wild. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Thank you all for being here.
    I appreciate your willingness, Mr. Chair, to call this 
really important hearing today.
    Let me begin by addressing the extraordinary witnesses who 
are here today. Thank you all for your steadfast dedication to 
taking on the horrific scourge of human trafficking. Several of 
the witnesses here are themselves survivors of trafficking. By 
dedicating your lives to ensuring that others do not experience 
the inhumanity that you did you exemplify the forces of 
solidarity that reflect the human spirit at its very best and 
most courageous.
    As members of this committee and this subcommittee, 
Democrats and Republicans alike, we are very united on this 
issue. And while we have made substantial progress, much of it 
outlined by the chairman in his opening remarks, all of us here 
know that an enormous amount of work remains to be done.
    Every aspect of this crisis demands ever more 
interconnected efforts by our government in lockstep with 
governments across the international community and through 
international organizations which is also part of this 
subcommittee's work. We are the Subcommittee on Global Health, 
Human Rights, and International Organizations. So this is a 
topic that is squarely in front of our subcommittee.
    But the trafficking of children, sex trafficking, men, 
women and children denied their most basic human rights and 
forced into systems of modern slavery, which almost seems like 
an oxymoron to me--but that is what we are here to address and 
what we must continue to address. And it is all too easy for so 
many of us to forget that this exists throughout the world. And 
for many it is something that if we are--we do think about it, 
it is too easy to compartmentalize and not think about it 
because it is such a terribly difficult subject to think about.
    But that is what we are here to do. We are called upon to 
do it. I am honored to be part this subcommittee and to work on 
this issue with the chairman and with the other members of this 
subcommittee.
    Our objective is clear: We have to build a future of 
dignity for all, a future where no human being is ever 
confronted with these practices which are an affront to our 
common humanity. And this transcends not only party lines, but 
religious boundaries, philosophical boundaries, cultural 
differences, whatever. This is an issue that is unacceptable to 
no person who considers themselves to be a moral and humane 
being. And so we have got to work on this.
    I really look forward to hearing the powerful testimony of 
all of you and I look forward to working with each of you, with 
Chairman Smith, and with our colleagues to bring about the 
progress that so many people around the world so urgently need. 
I truly hope that in a matter of years there will not be a need 
for this kind of hearing and I am going to try to be me more 
eternally optimistic self and believe that we will actually get 
something done on this. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much, Ranking Member Wild, for 
your excellent opening statement.
    I would like to now ask Ms. Radewagen if she has any 
opening comments.
    Ms. Radewagen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and ranking member. 
I do not.
    Mr. Smith. OK. Thank you.
    I would like to now yield to Dr. McCormick if he has any 
opening comments.
    Mr. McCormick. There is different kinds of courage. I have 
been around a lot of Marines, a lot of Navy guy, a lot of 
sailors and a lot of Army soldiers, and they have a certain 
kind of courage, but I think in many ways it pales to the kind 
of courage of those people who are victims, who actually come 
out of something so horrible and actually appear before a very 
public committee and become vulnerable to save others.
    I applaud you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. As 
a youth minister for 20 years you see some great things and you 
see some horrible things. And I really cannot say how bought in 
I am to solving this to our best of our ability. It is a 
bipartisan issue. It is something that all Americans should be 
bought into. Hopefully we try to stay away from the politics of 
it and just the human nature--embrace the human nature aspect 
of this because it is something purely evil that we could all 
agree that there is no--nothing other than to defeat this is 
our only point. So thank you.
    Thank you very much for being here. Thank you for 
participating. Thank you for being brave, courageous, for 
standing up for not just yourself, but everybody else who goes 
through these things now and into the future.
    This fight will never be done. We will never be done making 
it better, and we have a long road ahead of us. We have seen in 
Georgia--one of the worst places for child trafficking. We have 
made some good strides I think. The Governor has addressed this 
in big ways and I think it has huge support from all aspects of 
the political spectrum as well as the private industry because 
quite frankly the government cannot solve this by itself.
    Anybody who thinks that the government is going to solve 
this by itself does not understand what a massive problem this 
is. This is a heart problem. This is a spiritual problem. It is 
a humanity problem. People have turned away from what is good 
and embraced what is evil to a large extent. And so we have to 
be equally courageous on what is good and courageous and 
spiritual to defeat this. So I continue to pray on this. I 
continue to work on this.
    And after this hearing do not think that there is ever a 
day that will go by where you cannot reach out to any of us and 
continue this fight aside from a hearing because this is just 
the beginning. Thank you.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much. It is now my honor to 
introduce our first panel, and I will begin with Ms. Bella 
Hounakey. She is a subject matter expert on human trafficking 
with lived experience. She is an appointed member of the U.S. 
Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. Bella currently works in 
program management for the Administration for Children and 
Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement, with specific 
expertise in child welfare, migration, and mental health. She 
has worked with unaccompanied children from Central and South 
America as well as unaccompanied refugees, minors, and foster 
care operations for over 7 years.
    Prior to ORR Ms. Hounakey was an asylum officer for the 
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services under the 
Department of Homeland Security and a monitoring and evaluation 
specialist at the U.S. Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops.
    Bella holds a master's degree in social work and a 
bachelor's degree in Spanish and Criminal Justice from Western 
Michigan University.
    And again I thank you for your help as we were writing the 
TVPRA Frederick Douglass Act last time and helping us again in 
crafting that bill for this year.
    Ms. Gina Cavallo is a subject matter expert at well on 
human trafficking and she too is an amazing survivor. She is 
the founder and the executive director of the survivor-led non-
profit organization We Rise New Jersey which provides resources 
and emergency assistance to survivors and currently serves as 
both survivor consultant and board member on the New Jersey 
Coalition Against Human Trafficking.
    She also serves as co-chair for Anti-Trafficking Task Force 
of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of 
Pediatrics. Working with the New Jersey Department of Education 
Gina helped develop guidelines for schools on human trafficking 
and frequently speaks to students on the prevention of human 
trafficking. Gina engages with legislators at our State house 
as well as in Washington. Testifies and has really helped move 
our State to be in the lead on this important issue.
    She received the National Liberators Award for survivor 
leaders in 2020, and parenthetically we were together as 
recently as Monday in Monmouth County, New Jersey when Sheriff 
Shaun Golden had an excellent symposium on combatting human 
trafficking. And while we all spoke, everybody listened with 
great attentiveness to what Gina had to say.
    It was an amazing presentation you made, and so I thank you 
for that.
    Then we will hear from Mr. Robert Lung who is again another 
subject matter expert on human trafficking with lived 
experience, a survivor. He is the former chair of the U.S. 
Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. He serves as a district 
court judge in the 18th Judicial District of Colorado. He also 
provides presentations nationally and internationally on issues 
such as human trafficking, childhood trauma, and resiliency to 
an exceptionally diverse audience including the military, the 
medical field, educational field, including U.S. Department of 
Education, various judiciaries, faith-based organizations, 
first responders, mental health professionals, and law 
enforcement.
    Mr. Lung has also served as a consultant with the Office 
for Victims of Crime under the U.S. Department of Justice, the 
Office of Trafficking Persons, the U.S. Administration for 
Children and Families, OTIP, the Human Trafficking Expert 
Consult Network under the U.S. State Department Network, Shared 
Hope International, SHI, and the National Center for Missing 
and Exploited Children, or NCMEC.
    And thank you, Mr. Lung, for your experience and expert 
review and consultation on the Frederick Douglass Act. I mean 
what we do here is ask you what you think should be in our 
legislation. And without that we would not be I think making a 
difference, so it is all attributable to you and to others for 
doing that.
    We will then hear from Ms. Becky Murray who is an 
entrepreneur and philanthropist who has dedicated her life to 
making a positive impact on the world. She is the founder and 
CEO of One By One, an international non-profit organization 
fighting exploitation in some of the world's most impoverished 
areas. Since being founded in 2011 One By One has provided 
necessary restorative care, educational support, and 
empowerment toward sustainable living to prevent exploitation 
of vulnerable communities around the Third World.
    Becky started her career as a pediatric nurse in the United 
Kingdom. After graduating from Sheffield University with a 
bachelor's degree in nursing studies.
    So thank you, Becky, for making the trip here.
    Then we will hear from Ms. Martina Vandenberg who is the 
founder and president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center. 
For more than two decades Ms. Vandenberg has worked to fight 
human trafficking, forced labor, rape as a war crime and 
violence against women. Ms. Vandenberg has represented victims 
of human trafficking pro bono in immigration, criminal, and 
civil cases. She has obtained T visas for trafficking survivors 
and won significant judgments in Federal cases.
    Ms. Vandenberg has trained more than 5,000 pro bono 
attorneys nationwide in handling human trafficking matters. And 
that is truly remarkable. She provides technical assistance and 
mentoring to legal teams handling trafficking cases nationwide.
    And without objection even further bios will be included in 
the record about this wonderful panel.
    [The information referred to follows:]

                                 morris

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                               bedrossian

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                 basham

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    Mr. Smith. I would like to now go to Bella.
    And you are yielded such time as you may consume.

       STATEMENT OF BELLA HOUNAKEY, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR

    Ms. Hounakey. Good morning. My name is Bella Hounakey and I 
am a member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. 
So thank you for having me here today to speak on behalf of the 
council.
    The members of the council are sincerely grateful to 
Congress, the White House, and each of the President's 
Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking n 
Persons for its effort to combat human trafficking.
    As many of you know, since 2015 the council has published 
six reports to Congress with recommendations to Federal 
agencies. This year the council has begun its planning for its 
2023 report with focus on how to best address gaps in services 
and support for human trafficking survivor.
    In my time on the council I have born witness to the 
strength of collaboration. I join in 2019. For example, in the 
council's intersections with Department of State and Health and 
Human Services we have made recommendations on the importance 
of collaboration between agencies. In my individual capacity I 
have interacted with groups like the Warnath Group as a subject 
matter expert. These engagements both on council and off 
council give me hope that at last our voices, our suggestions, 
our recommendations to the Federal Government as survivors are 
not only about sharing our trauma with you all or about our 
past experiences, but it was--it is about collaboration and 
partnership.
    So unfortunately I will not be sharing my story with you 
today, but I can say with 100 percent certainty that those who 
have survived trafficking, how they are living today, how they 
are able to tell their stories is embodiment of the strength of 
the human will and human spirit.
    Their/our collective experiences is also a tale of 
morality. It is a story for more than surviving in my opinion. 
It is a story of power, of evil, and the human spirit's refusal 
to be dominated by evil.
    The council, since its inception, has prioritized 
collaboration with Federal agencies toward a common goal of 
combatting trafficking by making efforts to address and 
identify the root causes of trafficking at their root. You 
mentioned earlier that it is a heart issue, and we agree with 
that.
    We have previously call on Federal agencies to address the 
demand for forced labor and sexual exploitation by holding 
buyers and traffickers accountable and hope to continue to call 
for increase accountability of companies who exploit young 
people for cheap labor.
    All of us here know that human trafficking is a complex and 
changing issue which requires consistent effort from all of us, 
from government, to law enforcement, to non-government 
individuals, and individuals. I also heard somebody earlier 
somebody that exploitation is a humanitarian crisis which 
demands a multifaceted response involving a range of strategies 
from stakeholders. So to that end survivor leaders like 
ourselves must continue to be among these voices and continue 
to represent a diversity of experiences and background with 
sincere effort for you all to reach communities that you do not 
often engage with or hear from.
    As a direct recipient I receive a lot of support through 
the TVPA. Because of that I was able to achieve the things that 
you mentioned in my bio today, so I can attest from my own 
personal experience that the progress that we have made 
together to improve the outcomes of trafficking survivors.
    Many of you also acknowledge the many unaddressed needs of 
survivors that are--still remain. Like for example, many do not 
have access to equal essential mental health services and lack 
short and long-term housing support. And also vulnerable 
populations remain at risk of experiencing labor trafficking in 
our country.
    So I looked up some of your bios before speaking to you 
today and I recognize that many of you have dedicated your 
entire career to combatting trafficking, like Representative 
Smith, to ensure that we receive the support we need. So thank 
you very much for your continuous effort. Thank you for 
remaining strong in face of adversity and opposition. You all 
should be proud of the strides you have made through the TVPA, 
but also continue to remain vigilant.
    I am hopeful that together we can continue to create 
pathways of opportunity through new legislation to reauthorize 
the TVPA so that survivors like myself and Judge Lung to 
continue to be on a path toward self-sufficiency so that other 
people, other survivors can fully reintegrate and reclaim their 
lives where holistic quality of care could become their 
reality.
    As a country, as legislators, as people we say no to 
exploitation and our actions must continue to demonstrate where 
our values lies. It is a moral obligation from all of us. And 
so on behalf of the council we thank you very much for 
collaboration and we look forward to seeing you at our release 
report event. Sincere thank from my heart. Thank you for having 
me here today.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Hounakey follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Smith. Thank you so very, very much.
    And I would like to now recognize Ms. Cavallo, Gina 
Cavallo.

        STATEMENT OF GINA CAVALLO, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR

    Ms. Cavallo. Good morning. First I want to thank God for 
bringing me here today. For me I am one of the miracles for 
many I am choosing to share and give you a little bit more of a 
snapshot of my background because it did not start with just 
trafficking. There is always layers upon layers. And hopefully 
if this can help continue to support all your efforts, and then 
it is worth it for me, and also to be a voice for those who are 
still silent and living in fear and shame. But thank you for 
inviting me here today from New Jersey to speak about my own 
lived experience and as a subject matter expert on human 
trafficking. It is so critical that survivors are heard, and I 
would like to commend you all for inviting me to the table and 
listening to what I have to say.
    I am a New Jersey native who is a survivor of domestic 
violence and childhood abuse. That experience as a child led me 
to a place where I felt ashamed, unloved, and rejected. It also 
led me to being trafficked. School was like an extension of my 
home. I struggled in school with other learning with 
disabilities--learning disabilities as well as other 
disabilities. The only thing I succeeded at was being the 
funniest because I used laughter to hide behind my pain.
    It was very important for me to be accepted and loved 
especially by my family. I wanted my family to be proud of me. 
And that need was incredibly strong, but unfortunately I was 
never able to obtain their love or approval. That was my 
vulnerability and weakness.
    That vulnerability led me into the hands of the wrong 
people. Force, fraud, and coercion were all used by someone who 
pretended to be my friend, but ultimately abduct me into being 
trafficked. For nearly 2 years from the age of 18 I was 
prostituted and sold to the highest bidder and raped over and 
over again. My identity was taken as I was given a new name. 
Sleep deprivation, threats of violence, pornography, drugs, and 
food were all used as punishment and reward, leading my 
traffickers taking psychological control over me.
    Does this sound like anything a young person dreams of for 
their future? Of having this kind of life? Being stripped and 
robbed of your mind, your body, your dignity, your respect, 
your humanity? I became a commodity to be used for others' 
gain. But I often blamed myself for my situation because I 
believed it was my fault.
    Because of the complex nature of this crime traffickers 
frequently operate under the radar and those being trafficked 
do not always identify as victims. Traffickers maintain power 
and control over their victims with physical and psychological 
control and substance abuse.
    As a victim I was taught by my traffickers to distrust 
family, friends, and especially law enforcement. The more they 
isolated, the more fear I felt and the more control they 
gained, which is very intentional. They instilled in me a 
strong distrust of the police. I was afraid of being arrested 
which in my case happened several times. In one case I was 
raped by an officer and released back to my traffickers.
    Had there been a national hotline number at the time I 
would have had a safe place to call that was not law 
enforcement, who I feared. Thankfully today we have a national 
hotline number which allows victims to feel safe and access 
service and most importantly it is done through a trauma-
informed manner.
    My traffickers moved around a lot, not necessarily to 
follow conventions or big events, but so they would not get 
caught. Because of my forced addictions many times I would not 
know where I was in the country or even when I was moved into 
Canada for a short time.
    Traffickers are also women. In my case while I thought I 
knew the people; in total over 2 years it was three men and one 
woman, who trafficked me, little did I know that they were also 
using false identities to protect themselves. I have learned 
that this is quite common. Many traffickers are not who they 
usually say they are making it difficult to prosecute them.
    It took decades for me to identify that I was a victim of 
domestic violence, that I was a victim of child abuse, and that 
I was a victim of sex trafficking. I learned through counseling 
and my continuous healing journey that what happened to me was 
not my fault and realized that I had been protecting those who 
were violating me.
    As a victim I was left with a lifetime sentence: ruined 
relationships, addictions, hospital visits, suicide attempts, 
lack of jobs and education, and also left with shame and fear. 
And I learned that if you do not heal what hurt you, you will 
bleed on others who did not cut you. In the years after 
escaping trafficking the effects of being stripped of my 
humanity left me with trauma and mental health issues. I was 
also left with criminal records and further mental anxiety.
    We need to expose all buyers and sellers. They must be 
accountable. For that we need to strengthen--continue to 
strengthen our laws, improve education on all levels, and name 
and shame the buyers and sellers and not the victims.
    I am also hoping that all those who seek to end 
exploitation and abuse of trafficking learn that they need to 
be a safe person and understand what that means. It is 
something we can all become, someone who holds back judgment 
and instead offers food, offers a blanket and emotional 
support, treating all individuals with dignity and respect.
    But what you especially can do as lawmakers is to ensure 
that in every aspect of your work to end trafficking you put 
forward measures mandating widespread survivor-informed and 
trauma-informed training. This has to become the norm and it is 
the only way to bring light to this inhumane crime, awareness 
to our communities, and to expose the criminals. We need to 
create a safer country where people can come forward without 
stigma to reveal their experiences. No one should feel double 
victimized. No one should feel the double victimization of 
being trafficked as well as feeling that they have to stay 
silent because of shame, fear, and not feeling safe.
    It was not until 2015 that I found my voice, my truth, and 
my freedom. I am working to get the criminal records I was left 
with expunged and vacated. One down and one to go. Today when I 
go into countless schools throughout New Jersey and the United 
States students are always engaged and eager to talk, as are 
their parents. Students and families always want us to come 
back.
    There are many young people in particular that needs safe 
people to talk to about trafficking and other forms of abuse. 
It is essential that children are made aware of what 
trafficking looks like and the valuable information to empower 
them and keep them safe while ensuring that all information 
they received is trauma and survivor-informed.
    This is a bridge of all voices, the survivors and the non-
survivors. We need to collaborate to continue to make this 
work. I couldn't do what I am doing without the amazing leaders 
and advocates I walk alongside with each day. I am deeply 
grateful to my colleagues at the New Jersey Coalition Against 
Human Trafficking, the New Jersey Chapter of the American 
Academy of Pediatrics Task Force, and all those on the New 
Jersey Commission on Human Trafficking, which I am honored to 
serve.
    I am also incredibly grateful to Congressman Chris Smith 
who had led this fight against trafficking for so long ensuring 
that there is funding and other provisions to protect, 
prosecute, and continue educating our communities in a 
survivor-informed way. That is why I am so pleased to be here 
today. You are all making such a difference to help and support 
survivors.
    Human trafficking comes in so many forms and it 
discriminates against no one. Countless women and men, boys and 
girls are trafficked every day and subjected to humiliation, 
shame, exploitation, and continued being abused.
    Although I am no longer a victim if what happened to me 
could make a difference to one person, it would have been worth 
it. I am encouraged today and I am filled with gratitude and 
hope because you are willing to hear me and hear other 
survivors. It is essential that survivors are included in all 
aspects of the work to prevent trafficking including education, 
law enforcement response, health care, and so on. Survivors 
need to be at the table engaged from the beginning to the end 
and compensated in doing so.
    Thank you all for listening and thank you for all you 
continue to do to end this horrendous crime.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Cavallo follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Smith. Ms. Cavallo, thank you so very much for that 
very eloquent statement and for your leadership. It is 
extraordinary.
    I would like to now yield to Mr. Lung for such time as he 
may consume.

         STATEMENT OF ROBERT LUNG, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR

    Mr. Lung. Good morning. Thank you, chairman, thank you 
honorable Members of Congress, and thank you, my colleagues.
    I begin with a quote credited to both John Bunyan and later 
to Mahatma Gandhi. ``It is better in prayer to have a heart 
without words than words without heart.'' I pray you all hear 
my heart in these words as I speak my truth.
    In the 1970's a man took a boy to whom he was related to a 
cabin in a rural part of the country. The man told the boy to 
undress and to wait. The boy obeyed him. Moments later another 
boy entered the room accompanied by two men. The first boy upon 
seeing how scared the second boy looked asked, ``What's the 
matter?'' Why are you so scared? The second boy replied in 
shock and in disbelief, ``You do not know. You do not know.'' 
The man took the second boy into an enjoining room and the two 
men proceeded to violently rape the boy.
    I am the first boy, and that was the first time I was 
trafficked. I was trafficked for 4 years. I survived physical 
abuse, sexual abuse, mental and emotional abuse, sex 
trafficking, and torture over more than 13 years of my 
childhood. And I managed to graduate high school, and I managed 
to graduate college, and I managed to graduate law school. And 
in my courtroom they all rise when I come in and they call me 
judge.
    And now know this: There are no survivors who stand alone 
in their recovery. Survivors need help, they need food and 
shelter, they need an education, they need counseling and 
recovery services, they need good and fair employment, they 
need peer support. They need the very provisions of the TVPA. 
The survivors of today need this bill and they need you. And 
they need you too. And they need you too. And they need you to 
support this bill and to carry this bill forward.
    I will undoubtedly receive criticism from my fellow 
survivors for saying that they need you because survivors are a 
proud people and they fiercely fight for themselves in whatever 
way they can to survive.
    But no survivor stands alone.
    I did not get here alone. I had my mother, a strong woman 
of faith who taught me to believe in hope. I had my grandmother 
who taught me about courage. I had my brother who taught me to 
trust again. I had a flock of therapists including Dee Marcotte 
and Jennifer Sandberg of Colorado who taught me that 
vulnerability is not weakness. Vulnerability is unimaginable 
strength. I have had amazing friends: Pat, Mark, Ed, Dave, 
Bill, Dan, Paul, Lon, Ellesondra, Tina, Nathan, Russell, Anna, 
Bukola, Suleman, Bella, and so many others who stood by me in 
my lowest of lows, the greatest of which my wife of 19 years 
and my best friend, Charine Chase. And all along I have had my 
God who loves me, who forgives me, and who guides me to this 
very day, to this very moment.
    The bill before you contains provisions that can provide 
the resources and pathways for children, for youth, for young 
persons, for adults to find their own pathways, to their own 
goals, whether those goals are to graduate high school, or to 
own their own company, or to be an advocate, or to be a parent, 
or to be a mentor, or a lawyer, or a judge, or a 
congressperson, or United States Ambassador. With the aid you 
have the power to provide their futures are limitless. The 
victims of trafficking need these protections and these 
provisions so they too may transition from victim to survivor 
to thriver. They need you. We need you. And I need you.
    I need you to look at our faces, the faces of these 
survivors not as if we are strangers with no connection to you. 
I need you to imagine instead that seated here are your sons 
and your daughters, your children needing this help. I need you 
to imagine saying yes, saying yes that you will help a victim 
become so much more than what happened to them.
    I shared with you that I was the first boy and what 
happened to me that day and the years thereafter.
    Support this bill, adopt this bill, follow Congressman 
Smith's path to provide for survivors so that 1 day there can 
be the last girl, the last boy, the last child to come before 
Congress begging, begging for your help.
    Every single one of you took this job for the exact same 
reason: to help others, to make a difference, the most noble of 
employs. And in the mix and mess of your daily duties you start 
to lose sight of your first purpose, your true calling.
    Now I know no one will remember me. No one is going to 
remember this 5-minute speech, but I beg you to remember the 
story of the first boy because history will remember you. 
History will remember if you made a difference, if you joined 
in support of the TVPA. Here is your chance to re-embrace your 
true purpose, to make a difference. Make this difference. 
Support this bill. This is the way back to your true purpose, 
to help others and to make a difference. This is your way.
    I leave you with one more quote from someone else history 
will never forget, St. Ignatius Loyola. ``Work as if everything 
depends on you. Pray as if everything depends on God.'' May you 
be blessed in all of your work in these sacred halls for the 
greater good of all. I thank you. May you be blessed.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Lung follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Smith. Judge Lung, thank you for that excellent 
testimony. Your experience absolutely encourages all of us to 
do far more than we have done and again for helping us write 
this bill, which is almost ready for reintroduction. And you 
helped us last year when we did the Frederick Douglass, which 
did pass the House; did not get out of the Senate, but I want 
to thank you for the input that you provided. It is 
extraordinary.
    Mr. Lung. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Smith. Without our survivors and survivor-informed, 
trauma-informed we would not know where to go, so thank you.
    Ms. Becky Murray, the floor is yours.

     STATEMENT OF BECKY MURRAY, FOUNDER AND CEO, ONE BY ONE

    Ms. Murray. Good morning, Chairman Smith, honorable 
committee members. Thank you for the honor and privilege of 
sitting before you today. I am representing the global 
community of NGO's working to fight against modern day slavery 
and human trafficking abroad.
    My name is Becky Murray and the CEO and founder of One By 
One, and international NGO that has its U.S. headquarters in 
Nashville, Tennessee, as you can obviously tell by very 
Nashville-sounding accent.
    [Laughter.]
    Ms. Murray. One By One was founded over a decade ago. I 
went on a trip to Sierra Leone. I was a student at the time in 
my early 20's and on the trip I met a little girl, a 9-year-old 
girl who was living on the streets. And I noticed she had no 
shoes. So with less than a dollar I bought her a little pair of 
flip-flops and she approached me and she said should I wait in 
your bedroom? That little girl had been so abused by both men 
and women that she presumed less than a dollar meant I know 
deserved her body. And that one moment changed my life and I 
decided in that moment I will give my whole life to this. Even 
if it is only ever for one child I will give my whole life to 
this because no child should go through that.
    This singular event launched a global movement to address 
human trafficking and modern day slavery in some of the most 
impoverished areas of the world. And since founding in 2011 One 
By One has provided necessary restorative care, educational 
support, and empowerment toward sustainable living to prevent 
exploitation of the vulnerable cross-communities in the 
developing world.
    One of the signature projects that I am most proud of is 
the Dignity Project which has now reached over 30,000 girls 
across Africa and Asia and different parts. Period poverty is a 
worldwide problem that affects millions of women and girls 
every day and it refers to the lack of access to menstrual 
products, proper sanitation facilities, and education around 
menstrual health.
    It is a complex issue that is deeply rooted in social, 
economic, and cultural factors and leads so girls to being 
exploited and trafficked. Girls missing school and missing 
critical educational time during their absence and girls who 
miss school or the work due to their periods become far more 
vulnerable to the tactics of traffickers as a result.
    Since the implementation of the Dignity Project we have 
seen attendance rates, test grades, and completion rates rise 
significantly and the efforts are cost-effective measures that 
in my opinion really deal with one of the most neglected of the 
three Ps, prevention, and its impact is clear.
    However, many efforts cannot scale to the level of having a 
true global impact without the investment and support from the 
U.S. Government. As you are undoubtedly aware, both USAID and 
the State Department's Office to combat trafficking plays a 
critical role in addressing issues of modern day slavery, and 
the United States has been a global leader in this, which as a 
British girl to say is a big deal.
    You guys are global leaders in this since the passing of 
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000 thanks to the 
unwavering leadership and commitment of Representative
    Smith, amongst many others. I want to say a personal thank 
you on behalf of every child that I have had the honor of 
helping and working with. On their behalf I want to say thank 
you to yourself and everybody who is committed in this.
    Just recently I had the opportunity to meet with USAID 
representatives across Kenya and Uganda and I was disheartened 
to learn that little to no investment was made a focus of the 
work on specifically human trafficking. While I was thankful 
for the time and the insights for the work that is being done, 
I was confused at the lack of focus given the scope and impact 
of human trafficking in those regions.
    Additionally it was concerning that Congress authorized 
more than $60 billion in the 2023 budget alone for foreign aid, 
yet since 2001, so in the last 22 years, USAID has only 
invested a grant total of $370 million into fighting human 
trafficking.
    Trafficking in persons is a threat to economies, global 
health, health security, gender equality, gender equity, and 
empowerment, all of which are key highlights in the President's 
2024 budget request, however trafficking was not represented in 
the budget justification. The State Department's Office to 
Monitor and Combat Trafficking Persons has made significant 
investments and efforts to enhance capacity for foreign 
governments to combat human trafficking.
    Much of this investment is being focused on the pillars of 
protection and prosecution. And I recognize that these are 
obviously critical to effectively addressing modern day 
slavery, however I respectfully submit that prevention, the 
third P, has been somewhat neglected.
    As a practitioner in the field it is my observation that 
governments often fail to address root causes of exploitation 
and trafficking. I understand that prevention is harder to 
measure and activities aren't quite as flashy as conduct in the 
so-called rescue operation, however, if we are going to truly 
have an impact we must focus and invest on prevention. The most 
important question before the government should be how do we 
prevent human trafficking from happening in the first place? 
There should never be a first boy.
    In 2019 the Trafficking in Persons Report published by JTIP 
rightly recommended, and I quote, ``Increase prevention efforts 
through outreach and intervention services for marginalized 
communities,''
    It is of paramount importance that the United States 
continues to invest in the global fight against human 
trafficking, a crime that affects millions of people worldwide 
and poses a significant threat to human rights, public health, 
and national security. The U.S.' commitment to eradicating this 
modern day form of slavery not only reflects its unwavering 
dedication to the principles of freedom, justice, and human 
dignity, but it also serves as a strategic investment that 
fosters stability, prosperity, and the rule of law in countries 
around the world.
    By funding and supporting anti-trafficking efforts the 
United States continues to dismantle criminal networks that 
profit from the exploitation of vulnerable individuals, many of 
whom fall prey to traffickers due to poverty, lack of 
education, social marginalization, period poverty. These 
criminal enterprises undermine the global economy, corrode the 
integrity of U.S. institutions, and jeopardize the collective 
security.
    I respectfully submit in closing the following 
recommendations to this committee: To increase and direct the 
use of appropriated funds to USAID to invest addressing the 
issues of modern day slavery.
    To pass the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims 
Protection and Prevention Act without delay. This legislation 
will expand U.S. efforts relating to combatting human 
trafficking including forced labor as well as new 
recommendations for USAID to integrate prevention efforts for 
their global programming.
    And to amend International Megan's Law to address any 
loopholes to keep children safe from traveling convicted 
pedophiles.
    And last, I call upon this committee to introduce the 
legislation that would enhance child trafficking prevention, 
education to address children that have been sexually abused 
and exploited as well as child trafficking online.
    These steps will bolster the work already being done and 
foster new efforts in preventing exploitation of the vulnerable 
people. As we work toward establishing a world where all 
children are free to achieve their full potential without 
threat of being exploited or trafficked.
    Thank you for your time.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Murray follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Smith. Ms. Murray, thank you so very much for your 
testimony, your leadership, and for sharing that story of that 
young girl in Sierra Leone. I mean it just--what a pivotal 
moment for you and just underscores how cruel the exploitation 
truly is. So thank you.
    Ms. Vandenberg?

     STATEMENT OF MARTINA E. VANDENBERG, PRESIDENT, HUMAN 
                    TRAFFICKING LEGAL CENTER

    Ms. Vandenberg. Good morning, Chairman Smith, Ranking 
Member Wild, and members of the subcommittee. It is an honor to 
testify before you today. My name is Martina Vandenberg, and I 
am president of The Human Trafficking Legal Center.
    I also just want to say that it is an honor today to 
testify alongside Bella, Gina, and Robert. Thank you all for 
your leadership. We couldn't do this--any of this without you.
    Before I begin, I just want to thank you, Congressman 
Smith. I have appeared before you over your last 25 years of 
leadership on human trafficking, testifying before you on 
multiple occasions to discuss peacekeeping and human 
trafficking, human trafficking by government contractors, 
trafficking of domestic workers by diplomats and forced labor 
and global supply chains. I am particularly grateful to you for 
your attention to forced labor which is an egregious violation 
of human rights.
    We have gathered together today to discuss the 
implementation of the TVPA. And so I want to begin this morning 
with the successes. The first success is accountability.
    The TVPA has proven to be a powerful tool to hold 
traffickers and perpetrators of forced labor accountable. The 
statute covers extraterritorial jurisdiction, an essential 
provision to combat forced labor in global supply chains. No. 
2, access to justice for survivors.
    In 2003, Congress created a private right of action under 
the TVPA. That law permits victims to hold their traffickers 
accountable in the Federal courts. The extraterritorial 
jurisdiction provisions of the statute have allowed trafficking 
survivors to bring successful civil cases even where the forced 
labor occurred abroad.
    In two important cases litigated in the Eastern District of 
Virginia, litigated by pro bono lawyers I should add, Roe v. 
Howard and Doe v. Howard, Federal courts awarded damages to 
domestic workers trafficked into sexual servitude and forced 
labor by a U.S. diplomat. The trafficking occurred in Japan and 
Yemen. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury 
verdict in Roe v. Howard, a decision that reflected Congress' 
intent to provide trafficking victims with extraterritorial 
jurisdiction to hold their traffickers accountable.
    No. 3, the success of the TIP report. The Trafficking in 
Persons report has evolved into a powerful foreign policy tool, 
although I do agree with you, Congressman Smith, absolutely 
about the grading issues. The country rankings matter a great 
deal.
    And being rigorous and honest with those country rankings 
is absolutely essential. No. 4, a big success of the TVPA is 
evident here today on this panel and its survivor leadership. 
One need only look at the remarkable and powerful witnesses on 
this panel to recognize the fundamental role that experts with 
lived experience play in the formulation of U.S. policy.
    Trafficking survivors have an immense amount to teach us. 
They know what is working. They know what is failing. They know 
how it can be fixed, and they should be in roles of authority 
to fix it.
    Finally, a big success that is already been mentioned, the 
three Ps, the TVPA's famous three Ps, prevention, protection, 
and prosecution. Over the last two decades, we have focused 
myopically, I fear, on prosecution. We are beginning to see 
more focus on the most neglected P as Becky also called it, 
prevention.
    To prevent human trafficking, we must focus on root causes. 
Again, I agree completely here with Becky. We must focus on 
root causes.
    Violations of workers' rights, violations of the freedom of 
association, discrimination, lack of enforcement of labor law, 
and poverty. And as we have seen today, also broken immigration 
systems. But still despite this progress over 20 years which is 
remarkable and enviable, there is still enormous challenges.
    One problem that we see here in the United States is with 
diplomats. Diplomats and information organization personnel are 
permitted to bring domestic workers into the United States on 
special visas known as A-3 and G-5 visas. And some of these 
domestic workers are held in forced labor.
    The Department of State now administers an in-person 
program to interview each A-3 and G-5 domestic worker annually. 
These official check-in interviews play an essential role in 
preventing human trafficking, catching it before it can become 
so egregious. These interviews also have placed diplomats on 
notice that the State Department is watching and will take 
action.
    Moreover, the in-person registration interviews can provide 
the only opportunity for a domestic worker held in forced labor 
to escape her traffickers. And we have seen this happen. We 
have advocated to make these in-person registration program 
requirements statutory.
    And we urge Congress to pass this mandate in the new TVPA. 
But what about the domestic workers for whom trafficking was 
not prevented, those who were held in forced labor, those who 
suffered human trafficking in the United States? Those workers, 
those trafficking survivors still confront total impunity.
    Take the case of Malawi. In 2016, a Federal court in 
Maryland ordered a diplomat from Malawi, Jane Kambalame, to pay 
1.1 million dollars in damages for trafficking a domestic 
worker into forced labor in the United States. That domestic 
worker is here today. Her name is Fainess Lipenga.
    Fainess Lipenga is my colleague at The Human Trafficking 
Legal Center. She is also a member of the U.S. Advisory 
Council. That diplomat, Jane Kambalame, was allowed to return 
to Malawi where she was promoted.
    She became an ambassador to two other African countries on 
behalf of the government of Malawi. Seven years later, that 1.1 
million dollar judgment is still outstanding. Other countries 
have made what are called ex gratia payments, payments directly 
to survivors to cover the crimes of their diplomats because 
this is a prime example of corruption.
    When State officials engage in human trafficking, that is 
corruption. It is clear that additional consequences are 
necessary for diplomats and their sending States who choose to 
thwart Federal court orders. This makes a mockery of the rule 
of law.
    And diplomats who engage in human trafficking should face 
sanctions. I would like to turn now to migrant workers held in 
forced labor in other sectors. What we have learned in our 25 
years of working on trafficking and working on the TVPA is that 
forced labor is a feature and not a bug in global supply 
chains.
    We now know that we will not prosecute our way out of 
forced labor or human trafficking. In 2021 according to the 
State Department's Trafficking in Person's report, there were 
just 1,379 prosecutions for forced labor in the world, in the 
entire world. We still need criminal prosecutions.
    I am not saying avoid that P entirely. But we absolutely 
now must pivot to prevention and focus on worker's rights. 
Speaking of worker's rights, I want to raise the alarm bell 
because we are seeing a very troubling trend here in the United 
States.
    Professional workers brought to the U.S. with contracts 
that includes steep financial penalties that are 
euphemistically called liquidated damages. We call these 
provisions abscondment clauses. The provisions are ubiquitous 
and contracts for nurses, particularly nurses coming from the 
Philippines.
    The contracts preclude the nurses or any worker from 
leaving their position for 3 years. And if that individual does 
try to quit their job, the employer or recruiter enforces the 
liquidated damages clause in State courts. There are many of 
these cases in State courts that are pending even as we speak 
this morning.
    The penalties range from 30,000 dollars to 150,000 dollars, 
trapping these workers in debt bondage. And in New York, ten 
nurses who left their jobs and their lawyer faced criminal 
prosecution for so-called abandonment of their patients. It 
took years to clear up those charges to get those indictments 
off the book.
    But you cannot turn around those arrests. You cannot turn 
around that harm. Finally, a State appellant court in New York 
determined that those prosecutions violated the Thirteenth 
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
    Nursing shortages in the United States should not give rise 
to human trafficking. Nursing shortages in the United States 
should not give rise to abusive conditions for foreign nurses. 
Nursing shortages should not give rise to what we consider an 
American Kafala System.
    Contracts with abscondment fees, no matter the euphemism 
used to mask the abuse must end. These contracts are 
unconscionable and they should also be unenforceable. I would 
like to end today with some concrete recommendations.
    First, I echo Becky. Increase appropriations to focus on 
the forgotten P, prevention. That means increasing funding for 
the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Affairs.
    That also means that the State Department TIP funding and 
USAID funding should shift to focus on worker's rights, freedom 
of association, prevention of forced labor, and prevention of 
all forms of human trafficking. Second, focus on corporate 
accountability. All of us have seen the series in the New York 
Times about children exploited on the night shift in 
slaughterhouses in the United States. It is 2023. This is 
appalling.
    Corporations should face prosecution, administrative fines, 
and debarment from U.S. Government contracting if they are 
found to have held workers, if they are found to have held 
children in forced labor, or if they have benefited from that 
forced labor. Hold diplomats and their sending States 
accountable for trafficking of A-3 and G-5 domestic workers. We 
have requested sanctions in the Kambalame case.
    Mandate in-person registration interviews with domestic 
workers on A-3, G-5 visas to prevent trafficking by diplomats 
and to allow them an opportunity to escape. Finally, prohibit 
the use of contracts with penalty abscondment fees for nurses 
and for all migrant workers in the United States. These tools 
are used to traffic in our country.
    I would like to end with a quote from my colleague, Fainess 
Lipenga, who has said for many years, nothing about us without 
us. And that is why it is so important that you are working 
directly with survivors to write this legislation. Thank you 
for this opportunity to testify, and I look forward to your 
questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Vandenberg follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Smith. Ms. Vandenberg, thank you so very much. You have 
for years, I think you have testified seven times at least. I 
deeply appreciate that.
    Every time, we learn something new. And obviously, all of 
our consultations vary. Vigil is our staff director for the 
subcommittee, and we are working on this legislation and your 
input again and the input of all of our very distinguished 
witnesses.
    It is making a difference, so thank you for highlighting 
but also giving depth as to what these issues are all about. 
And you are right about the forced labor issues. And they have 
been neglected to some extent.
    I mean, I just had a hearing on the Uyghur Forced Labor 
Act. I chair the China Commission, and it is something, again, 
a good joint effort to get that legislation passed. And there 
is every reason to believe that Xi Jinping is gaming the system 
despite good efforts on part of our customs people.
    And I mean, there is all kinds of loopholes that they are 
already exploiting. Equally, we are talking about forced labor. 
I had a hearing on what is going on in D.R. Congo with regards 
to EVs.
    Whether you like an EV or not, an electric vehicle, that is 
fine. That is your preference. But the cobalt that is needed 
for them is all--all, but most--coming from D.R. Congo.
    And they are using children, thirty-five, forty thousand 
kids who are being exploited horribly. Our hearing brought this 
out. Our witnesses who were from the some of the D.R. Congo 
talked about the death and the sicknesses that these kids are 
acquiring by the inhalation of dust and the like from the 
cobalt and about 200,000 adults.
    And so we have a bill that we are dropping next week. Not 
similar but pretty much the same timeframe as this bill on 
Frederick Douglas reauthorization to go after that supply 
chain. Ford and Tesla and all the others are going to be using 
cobalt.
    Well, get it from a source that is completely and totally 
clean. And this is not clean. And as you all know or probably 
know, most of the work on those mines after they extract cobalt 
goes to China, goes to Xinjiang and places like that to right 
where the Uyghurs are experiencing a genocide.
    So you cannot make this stuff up, how horrible it is. And 
we need to do a lot more. So thank you. Forced labor is a huge 
issue.
    And I think we got to be careful about not taking promises 
or fake reforms that come out of places like Beijing when China 
was upgraded from Tier 3 country which is where it absolutely 
belongs for both forced labor and for sex trafficking. It was 
pointed out that, yes, they were getting rid of their reform 
through labor. And I have actually been in Laogai.
    I was in Laogai along with Frank Wolf right after Tiananmen 
Square where 40 Tiananmen Square activities were making Jelly 
shoes and socks for export. We brought the evidence, gave it to 
customs. They put an import ban on it, and that place actually 
closed.
    They opened it up somewhere else. But they went through 
this great subterfuge about how they were getting rid of reform 
through labor in the Laogai system, and it was not true. They 
just transferred what they were doing, and of course they went 
back to Tier 3 the next years.
    But we have got to have those eyes wide open and not being 
willing to buy into Xi Jinping or--what is his name--Hu Jintao 
and others false representation about what China is doing. So 
thank you all for your testimoneys. Just a couple of brief 
questions and they are very brief.
    Obviously, COVID-19 has exacerbated efforts to combat human 
trafficking. I know ECPAT has made it very clear that grooming 
online has become much more aggressive to get young people. And 
one of the things that I learned because I chaired a couple of 
forums with as head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly special 
representative of trafficking.
    And we had a number of women who had employment and then 
lost it because those jobs went away. So the employment piece I 
think is extremely important. You might want to speak to that 
on housing which was mentioned earlier.
    Our bill will have a 35 million dollar per year times 5 
years effort to have money set aside for housing. There needs 
to be a decent place to live that is safer than where many of 
these victims find themselves. So that is something we want to 
put in there and really make an all-out effort.
    It is not major. Thirty-five million is a lot of money. But 
as least it is a step in the right direction time five like I 
said, 5-year authorization.
    On situational awareness and you might want to speak to 
this, particularly those who have the lived experience, there 
have been surveys that have found that 80 percent of 
trafficking victims, some even say higher, access healthcare at 
some point, often several times, particularly if there is a 
pimp involved and his property, which I find so outrageous and 
we all do, needs to get into the hospital because of beatings 
and because of the rape that so frequently occurs. We need to 
do more to make our hospitals and personnel. We have 
legislation, of course, law, situationally aware.
    And I know, Gina, you were at our conference and we heard 
from what some of the New Jersey hospitals are doing to train 
the emergency room people and everyone else at that hospital 
health care facility, whatever it might be to have eyes wide 
open about what is going on, situationally aware. And do not be 
a vigilante. Take that information to law enforcement 
immediately so that they can hopefully step in and rescue that 
victim if that is a trafficking situation.
    So you might want to speak to the health care part of it. 
Schools, we are working on that like you know to try to--and 
thank you, Gina, for doing so much in the schools. And all of 
you do talk about the importance of faith in terms of the 
healing process.
    And I do not know how someone who does not have faith, 
maybe they can get through it through good psychological 
counseling. But again, to know again you have been victimized. 
And so often the victims blame themselves which is absurd but 
it happens almost all the time.
    And faith gives that sense of renewal, reconciliation, and 
hope. And it says in the Bible, without hope, people perish. We 
all need hope, but a trafficking victim seems to me needs it 
more than anyone. And faith helps to provide that.
    So if you would want to speak to that briefly as well. I 
have so many other questions, but I do want to get to my 
colleagues Yes, Gina.
    Ms. Cavallo. I know for me when I was in the life, I did 
welcome drugs because I just did not want to feel or see 
anything. So I mean, that added to the addition. But then that 
also enabled and added to their control over me where there was 
that reward and punishment concept.
    As far as emergency rooms and beatings or any other health 
issues, I mean, I had no insurance. And one of the big red 
flags because it is so difficult at times to identify what a 
trafficker looks like. What these criminals look like because 
it is very deceptive and they are masterminded.
    I am uncomfortable even giving them that credit, but it is 
so true. But one of the victims across the board that for my 
own experience is that when victims whether they know their 
victims or not, they do not speak for themselves and their head 
is down. And someone else is speaking for them.
    Or they start to speak because they may be feeling a little 
safe to speak. But the perpetrator, the criminal takes over. 
That is a huge sign, whether it would be regardless of what is 
said, whether it is health care, any other setting as well.
    But in hospitals, I felt safe but I was still scared 
because the perpetrator is there. Very rarely was I left along. 
And one of my women traffickers was always tagging along with 
me.
    And if I did not keep in the aligned steps that I was 
psychologically groomed to set in, and then she would go back 
to him. And then there was retaliation. And their threats are 
real.
    There is a lot of violence. So those are areas that are 
really important. I know another instance, I mean, even as a 
child I remember someone intentionally hurt me. And this was a 
family member.
    And I went to the hospital and I share this with you 
because it is the way I thought everyone lived like this. I 
thought that this was the normal. And I remember going to the 
hospital because a family member intentionally hurt me where I 
required stitches.
    So I was at the hospital and my mother came. And the staff 
was asking what happened. And my mother was protecting someone 
who was harming me and said, oh, she closed the door too hard. 
But that is not what happened.
    The person who was trying to hurt me pushed the door with 
his arm and the glass shattered over me, causing me to go to 
the hospital and needing stitches. So my point behind this is 
that I heard her say it and I said that is not what happened. 
And I whispered to her, and she just disavowed what I said.
    But I did not close the door too hard. But my takeaway from 
that was what I learned through the years is protecting those 
who are hurting me. So that foundation was already laid at a 
very young age.
    And the other part was is when I said to her why did he 
hurt me. And she said, he did not hurt you. He loves you. So 
there is that trauma bonding. There is the Stockholm syndrome.
    There is so many layers to this because it is not until for 
me--I mean, my healing journey will always continue. I am in 
counseling. I do not go as frequent as I used to.
    But for me, I have tool belt on. I know what works. And 
especially being called to the work that I do, it is important 
that I take care of myself and I know what needs to be done. 
But it is not like you go to counseling and say, OK, I am a 
little better. I arrived.
    That is not how this works. The trauma, the triggers, they 
are always there. So in order to do this effectively, I know 
what my needs are. I know when I have to say no. I know what 
the boundaries are.
    As far as the school setting, I mean, it is incredible. I 
am just taken back every time I walk into a school, whether it 
is middle school through universities. These kids from sixth 
grade are so engaged and they are so hungry not only to listen 
but to talk.
    And unfortunately, we always have to adhere by the bell. 
You get so many minutes. I think it is 32 minutes per class, 
and we will go for the whole day and do sixth grade through the 
high school.
    And the kids are left with so many questions because we do 
not have enough time for Q&A. And teachers and the principals, 
the feedback is always consistent that even the kids that they 
have difficulty whether it is kids that--the bullies. It is the 
kids that are distracting.
    It is the kids with the poor grades. It is the kids that 
think they know at all. Even those kids that are difficult, 
they are there so attentive and so hungry to want more because 
there is so much they can relate to.
    It is not a simple crime where whether you know the person 
or not. And plus there is so many different types of 
trafficking when we talk about familial trafficking, the gang 
trafficking, when we talk about the grooming with the 
boyfriending. And many times, it is not who we think they are.
    And they are being deceitful. They are luring you into a 
relationship. And another big sign is when they want to 
continue to divide you from the parents or the family that you 
think you are safe from in some cases because the more they 
isolate you, the more control they have over you.
    One of the things that I would like to see more of is more 
caretakers and more parents involved because I feel it is so 
important that as far as prevention as well, I feel that we 
need to start from the beginning. And how girls and boys are 
raised can look very differently regardless of your background. 
And I know that from my own experience speaking from where I 
came from, the boys--and there is many cultures where boys do 
not have accountability.
    And it is OK for boys to get away to do that or it is cute. 
And it is not cute because we are creating monsters. We are 
enabling behaviors that have no accountability at all. And the 
same thing for girls because I have seen it too where girls are 
so abusive and girls are always, as I said earlier, 
traffickers. So that is really important.
    Ms. Hounakey. Thank you, Ms. Gina. Representative Smith, 
you mentioned about psychological healing. And you talk about 
faith perspective. One thing that I submit to you all is to 
somehow introduce a bill that allows for continuous mental 
health services informed of funding for survivors.
    We know that trauma isn't a linear path. People do not 
heal. It is a continuous journey. And so if a survivor is not a 
believer, perhaps they can have access to funding that allows 
them to receive mental health services.
    And from a faith perspective, when I am at these things, I 
am aware that there are survivors that are watching from all 
over the world. And so if you are a survivor that is watching 
all of us today, I would say that from my personal experience 
that you cannot heal by yourself. Everything you see was formed 
by something you cannot see.
    And so if you are watching, I need you to believe that 
those things that your traffickers told you, they are not true. 
You are not broken. You are not made of glass. You can heal.
    You are not defective. You are not damaged. You are not 
disposable. You are loved. And if you have experienced 
religious trauma, you can identify to that.
    I invited you to have a sense of belief. At least try it 
out. You cannot possibly heal on your own. God did not hurt 
you. People did. And it is people that is going to give you 
hope again. So thank you.
    Ms. Murray. In terms of the medical training, I think that 
is a really crucial point. And certainly from an international 
perspective to go in and do training with medical professionals 
because it is a key place where they are coming into contact 
directly with victims of modern day slavery and trafficking. 
And they do not even recognize it.
    And I have kind of got two brains when I go in the room 
because obviously I was a pediatric nurse before launching the 
foundation. And so I know the chaos of being an A&E and how 
hectic the workplace is. And your mindset is definitely let is 
fix the physical problem and then discharge.
    You are conscious of how many beds and time scales. And so 
the crucialness of going in and training medical professionals 
and to be aware of all the red flags and then what to do so 
that they do not endanger the victim further. And so I think 
doing medical training is crucial.
    So we have just started launching ones in hospitals that 
are right on the borders between Kenya and Uganda because we 
are seeing a lot of children crossing over the border there 
being trafficked. And so we are starting to do training in the 
hospitals on both sides of the border because this is a key 
place. The other avenue obviously mentioned was schools.
    And I think from a prevention point of view to go in and 
reach the children at an early age of what to be aware of, what 
to look out for. But for me specifically and from where I come 
from in the international community, identifying period poverty 
is a huge vulnerability factor. It is massive.
    We are encountering children across different communities 
who they are having to miss a lot of school every month because 
of the shame and the stigma that is still attached. And so they 
wait a home for that week of the month. So many girls are 
dropping out of education, and it is still in primary care--
primary education.
    Elementary here? Let me get my terminology right, 
elementary education, never making it onto high school. And so 
I think if that can be addressed as a key component in 
prevention in tackling poverty, then we can actually made a big 
impact.
    Ms. Vandenberg. If I can just address three of your 
questions briefly. One is we have learned over the last 30 
years of working on human trafficking that survivors actually 
need lawyers. That goes also for children who are----
    Ms. Wild. I am sorry. Could you repeat that last statement?
    Ms. Vandenberg. Trafficking survivors need lawyers. And 
that goes also for children who are sexually abused by 
Americans or U.S. persons abroad. We have worked very hard to 
get pro bono lawyers to represent those children even while 
they are still in the country of origin and the country where 
that abuse has occurred. So having legal representation along 
with mental health support and addition support and housing, 
all of those basic needs, but legal needs are also, I think, 
quite fundamental.
    Second, and I think you heard this today, survivors need 
agency. And so when you talk about medical care, I think it is 
very important to remember that survivors need to be making the 
decisions. Survivors need to decide whether there is reporting 
to law enforcement unless it is a child and there is mandatory 
reporting.
    This also goes for the hotline. And as Gina said, 
survivors, trafficking victims, when they are in the situation, 
they are terribly frightened of police and are sometimes abused 
by police and are certainly arrested by police. And so with the 
U.S. hotline now with the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 
victims themselves when they call need to be able to decide 
whether or not to report to law enforcement.
    Survivors should not be arrested. They should be given 
opportunity to do what my colleague, Evelyn Chumbow, who is a 
survivor of child forced labor in the United States said to me 
one. Evelyn Chumbow said, I rescued myself. Trafficking 
survivors rescue themselves.
    Finally, I want to turn to this question about employment 
because I think some of the biggest wins that we have had in 
the last 4 years, 5 years on forced labor have been because of 
the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and because of robust 
enforcement by customs and border protection of Section 307 of 
the Tariff Act. And those laws as I have said in my written 
testimony, those laws which prevent goods made with forced 
labor from entering the U.S. market. Those laws protect not 
just workers abroad from being held in forced labor.
    They protect workers here in the United States who can in 
no way compete with workers abroad who are held in forced 
labor. The last thing I will say is that we have much to thank 
Department of Labor for these days. It was the Department of 
Labor who found those children working, cleaning meat house, 
packing floors in the middle of the night. It is the Department 
of Labor inspectors who found that. One thing that we need to 
do to protect workers here and again to prevent human 
trafficking is from the Department of Labor so that those 
inspections can take place and so that they are fully, fully 
resourced.
    Mr. Lung. Thank you. I begin by considering what is 
probably a very common experience for survivors of human 
trafficking, whether in labor or in sex trafficking, is the 
overwhelming sense of isolation that you can turn to no one. 
There is no one coming to rescue you.
    There is no one that is going to help you. And that keeps 
you silent for years, sometimes decades. And when I began to 
realize that I was not the only one and that there were others 
out there like me, of course it was sad but also very 
encouraging and empowering to know that there is others out 
there that have had these experiences and are trying to make a 
difference.
    And my first encounter was with a nonprofit in Colorado 
that was doing some great work. And then I learned that there 
was a Colorado Human Trafficking Council. It was often called a 
Governor's council which is a collection of professionals 
trying to improve laws in Colorado on anti-trafficking.
    And then I learned when I attended in 2014 a Share Hope 
International Conference in D.C. that the Federal Government 
was working on it. And I had no idea as a victim of human 
trafficking that the Federal Government had any idea what human 
trafficking was or what they were doing. And nor did I know 20-
plus years ago that you, sir, were making an enormous 
difference.
    So I thank you for all your work. And I think of how proud 
I am of the United States and of you, sir, and of my Congress 
and that we are the greatest country in the world and that we 
lead by example. We are not infallible. We are a flawed 
country. We are a flawed government.
    But we are doing a hell of a lot of good and will continue 
to do that. And I am forever a man of hope. And when I 
encounter that the Department of Justice had OVC and the 
Administration for Children and Families has NHTTAC, the 
National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance, 
that the State Department has their network of experts, that 
the Department of Labor is engaged.
    It was humbling, encouraging to realize just how many 
different divisions of the Federal Government have actively 
been combating human trafficking. It is so very encouraging. 
And we still have a lot of work to do. But I am so proud of my 
country and my government for making a difference. Thank you.
    Mr. Smith. Judge Lung, we are so proud of you and frankly 
your hope is contagious. I will defer my other questions in 
written form. Yes, Gina.
    Ms. Cavallo. Can I make one more comment? One of my 
concerns in the work that I do that I observe and it is pretty 
consistent, I think that organizations and individuals who do 
this work, not many of them, they are still a lot that are not 
survivor informed where they are not survivors at the table. 
But they say they are survivor informed.
    But if they are doing a project or they are having a panel 
or they are having speakers, they are missing the survivors. Or 
they may invite a survivor, but the survivor is just there and 
others are speaking over their voices. And to me, that is 
tokenism.
    And I think we need to take a look at and I would love for 
your support to help me take a look at this that when funds are 
distributed that I believe that they should be distributed to 
those who are actually doing the work and not using survivors 
as tokens but really--because we need each other. Survivors 
cannot do this alone. And you all cannot do it without us.
    So I appreciate that camaraderie, that respect, that 
collaboration. And we need to continue to build bridges, not 
separate them because we are more than our stories. We are more 
than survivors.
    I have my professional life, my personal life, and my lived 
experience. But it really concerns me when I see organizations 
who are trying to do the work but they are just missing the 
most important part. Because I see it when I do presentations.
    I see it when I take a backseat and I see other people do 
presentations but their survivor is missing. Because the impact 
that you have when you walk alongside a survivor is between 
your professionalism, your experience, and our experience, the 
impact we make and the outcome we will have can move mountains. 
But if we do this without you or you do this without us, it is 
not going to work.
    It is not going to have that same impact. So I request and 
I plead to you to take a look at this moving forward. Well, if 
they say, well, yes, we have a survivor included. Well, you 
have 10 or 20 people there and you have one survivor there and 
I barely hear him speak or her speak.
    I could clearly within a few minutes see that as tokenism. 
And if that survivor is not in a good place, we are re-
exploiting. And that is not what we want to do.
    I also want to just mention that for me which I am so 
grateful to and I always will be has been a big part of my 
healing has been Celebrate Recovery which I did not 
intentionally go to 1 day and say, oh, I have issues. I did not 
even think I had issues.
    However, I went and I was invited. And it was four books 
and a year commitment and it was free. It is all over the 
country.
    And I was invited and I said, oh, I will just do it to do 
it. And when I started, it was incredible. I mean, I did get to 
the point after a couple of months where the horses were at the 
gate and the trauma and the triggers were coming out.
    And I was saying, I cannot continue going there because it 
is causing me to remember things that I buried decades ago. But 
that is where my healing and what I am so grateful for. The 
only difference between NA and AA and Celebrate Recovery is 
that this was a faith-based program.
    And I share this with you because part of it is I had one 
prayer. And as Robert had shared too, the isolation and feeling 
or being alone can be really, really difficult. And I prayed to 
meet one survivor.
    I wanted to meet one survivor because I think it is like 
someone who is going through cancer or they are recovering and 
they have those groups, different types of groups, divorce 
groups, cancer groups, recovery. I wanted to meet one survivor, 
not necessarily to get into a group but just to be able to 
relate, that I was not alone. And it was amazing.
    My prayer was answered, just incredible. I met this SOAP 
Project, Theresa Flores, and through Theresa Flores who does 
SOAP projects throughout the United States, provides healing 
retreats for women and men. I have a community of brothers and 
sisters throughout the United States. And it is just so 
important that we have that as well. Thank you.
    Mr. Smith. Ranking Member Wild.
    Ms. Wild. Thank you so much. I honestly do not even know 
where to begin. Again, thank you all for shedding light on this 
subject. And I regret that more members of our subcommittee are 
not present.
    I will be sharing with my colleagues on the Democrat the 
import of what happened today. Unfortunately, Friday hearings 
on what we call a fly out day are very challenging. I believe 
Mr. Chairman Smith and I both drive which makes life a little 
easier for Friday hearings.
    But I do apologize that there are not more of us here and 
they canceled votes for today which means that people got out 
of town early. So I just wanted to say that because the lack of 
bodies up here does not in any way reflect on the importance of 
this subject which I will be sharing with all of them. The 
testimony of Ms. Cavallo and Judge Lung makes it clear that 
although the jurisdiction of our committee, this subcommittee, 
falls within the Foreign Affairs Committee.
    This is not just an international problem. This is not just 
something that has roots abroad that we need to address. It is 
clearly worldwide. And I do have to tell you even sitting here 
and listening to all of the testimony, I couldn't help but 
almost feel not helpless, never helpless in this job, but 
worried about how do we really stop this.
    How do we really address this? And I think there are a lot 
of good efforts that are happening, many of which have been 
discussed here today. But I think that this is going to be 
something that is going to require far more than governmental 
officials, far more than civil societies, far more than 
philanthropic organizations, but is literally going to need to 
be addressed by employers, educators, and people at all levels 
of every society in order to really, really get to the root of 
this and stop it from happening.
    So as I said, I do not know where to start. But I do want 
to start with the issue of the diplomats and their domestic 
workers because I guess I am drawn to that because it feels 
like an area where we might actually be able to be effective 
quickly. And to you, ma'am, in the audience, I am so glad you 
are here today with us. Thank you for being willing to appear.
    It is very meaningful to hear the stories. But Ms. 
Vandenberg, you mentioned that the State Department personally 
interviews domestic workers of diplomats. And I want to talk to 
you about that for a couple minutes or ask you a few things 
about it. From what your remarks were, I took it that this is 
sort of a policy of the State Department but it is not embodied 
in any kind of statute. Is that correct?
    Ms. Vandenberg. That is exactly right.
    Ms. Wild. So that if the State Department--and I am not 
talking about any particular State Department under any 
particular Administration. But if the State Department were 
understaffed, overworked, had different priorities, these kinds 
of interview could easily not happen. Is that correct?
    Ms. Vandenberg. That is exactly right.
    Ms. Wild. And how long, to the best of your knowledge, have 
these interviews been going on?
    Ms. Vandenberg. So they have been going probably for about 
six or 7 years. You can ask the State Department officials who 
testify next. I think it is about six or 7 years.
    This idea was not our idea. We are way behind on this 
because the Europeans have been doing this for more than a 
decade. And so the U.S. actually learned about these in-person 
interviews at an OSCE meeting where other countries including 
Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria indicated that they were 
doing these interviews to prevent harm against these domestic 
workers.
    Ms. Wild. Well, it seems incredibly obvious that we need to 
make it a statutory requirement. And I will reserve some of my 
questions for the State Department individuals. But one of the 
concerns I have, Ms. Cavallo pointed out the importance of 
having survivor informed people present.
    I do not know how these interviews are conducted or whether 
survivor informed individuals are present and participating in 
these interviews. I am also very concerned about what then 
happens to the domestic worker. I imagine there is a lot of 
fear in being honest at these interviews and probably fears of 
deportation I assume if they leave the employ of their 
diplomat.
    And that is an issue I will ask the State Department about 
as well unless you know. But providing a safe haven for these 
domestic workers I think is really, really important and also 
sends a message to the diplomatic corps that this will not be 
tolerated by the United States. So I think that is a really 
important first step, and I am glad you brought that to our 
attention.
    You also mentioned migrant workers and focus on workers' 
rights. And this is one of the areas that I am most deeply 
concerned with. As you know, we had a vote yesterday on a 
border bill. There has been a lot of discussion about the 
problems of not allowing migrant workers to come into the 
United States to work in construction, to work in agriculture, 
that kind of thing.
    Many of us on both sides of the aisle recognize that these 
industries need migrant workers. At the same time, I worry 
deeply that they have absolutely no level of workers' rights 
and are at the complete mercy of their employers once they are 
here. And that obviously addresses pay and that kind of thing. 
But in addition, it seems like a situation that could really 
just lead to trafficking and forced labor and I think does.
    Ms. Vandenberg. You are right. It does.
    Ms. Wild. If they complain of not being paid, the answer is 
too bad because you have no legal status here. Is that a fair 
statement?
    Ms. Vandenberg. That is exactly right except when those 
workers are connected with service organizations. That goes for 
the domestic workers who were interviewed by the protocol 
office. Workers who are being harmed should be connected 
immediately with service providers.
    And the migrant workers that we see who are most protected 
are those who are in worker driven social responsibility 
programs like the Coalition for Immokalee Workers, for example. 
So when there can be peer support among workers, then workers 
understand that they do have rights and they cannot be 
deported. And they can get T visas if they are being 
trafficked.
    Ms. Wild. So if we were to--and this may be idealistic of 
me. But if we were able to come up with a bipartisan 
comprehensive approach to having migrant workers come here to 
work legally, it would seem to me that the information about 
these organizations that you just mentioned needs to be given 
to them at the onset, not wait for--once they are in a forced 
labor situation, they are not going to be able to reach out to 
these organizations. Is that fair to say?
    Ms. Vandenberg. That is fair to say. Unfortunately in one 
of the TVPA reauthorizations that we did years ago, I think it 
was 2008, there is a brochure that workers who come in with 
legal visas receive upon their interview with----
    Ms. Wild. Hopefully in more than one language, more than 
English?
    Ms. Vandenberg. Hundreds of languages last I checked. So 
they have translated into other languages. That pamphlet is 
enormously important, but it is not enough because those 
workers have to be able to reach the organizations that are 
able to help them.
    Ms. Wild. Thank you. And it just makes me wonder whether we 
need some sort of program as you have described with the 
diplomatic corps that also--and I am talking about a 
governmental agency that interfaces with any kind of industry 
or employer that is using migrant workers.
    Ms. Vandenberg. I think that is the role for the Wage and 
Hour Division of the Department of Labor, right? That is what 
the Department of Labor should be doing and should be resourced 
to do.
    Ms. Wild. OK. The other problem--and Judge, you mentioned 
the different States and all of these organizations. And I am 
glad that we are seeing a multiState approach to it. On the 
other hand, it seems that in many ways it needs to be 
centralized.
    Because I am from Pennsylvania, I have some knowledge of 
what is happening in Pennsylvania to combat this problem. But 
if I heard from somebody in another State about a human 
trafficking problem, I am not sure that I would know where to 
direct them. I would make it my business to find out where. And 
I would be interested to hear from you, Judge, about how you 
feel about the decentralization of these kinds of services.
    Mr. Lung. I will start with acknowledging in the Obama 
Administration, there was the National Committee on the Sex 
Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States. And I 
was honored to be a member of that committee. And they tasked 
us with this impossible challenge that we accomplished over the 
course of 5 years to create a two tier system to analyze the 
anti-trafficking efforts of every single State in the United 
States.
    We created the two tiers to determine at what level the 
States are. Some States might be only Tier 1 and some States 
are more advanced, New Jersey and Texas and a couple others 
that Shared Hope regarding as their A States were definitely 
Tier 2 right from the start. But we created--I think it was 35 
or 36 different ways of analyzing the anti-trafficking efforts 
in each individual State and then required each individual 
State to grade themselves and to have other folks involved in 
the system to participate in the grading of their individual 
States.
    Our point of contact was generally the Governor's office in 
each of the individuals' States where we would at least reach 
out to the Governor's office and ask them to make the point of 
contact. And then we would receive feedback from each State on 
where they were in the tier system. What I have been told is 
that the chairperson of that committee has reached out.
    I believe that our host was the State Department and that 
they were going to reach back out and see if they were going to 
sort of re-up that committee to follow through and see if, OK, 
well, we have developed this tier system to analyze each 
State's performances. How are you doing? And it is the thing I 
think of with all of your efforts especially under the TVPA is 
that it is incredibly important to have this multi-disciplinary 
approach by the Federal Government.
    We need the Department of Labor and Agriculture and 
Education and State Department. We need every single agency, 
every single division of the Federal Government to have a role 
in this. But then what else we need are two things--well, three 
things.
    We need collaboration. Last year, OTIP collaborated with 
OVC to have a project together. And it is fantastic to see the 
Department of Justice and OTIP saying, OK, well, let's do 
something together. Let's see how we can advance this together.
    Having different Federal agencies reach out to each other, 
if Department of Education says, I am not sure how we do this. 
Let's go call Department of Justice, OVC, and see what they 
would recommend. You do not have to reinvent the wheel.
    For each individual division of the Federal Government, we 
do not have to reinvent the wheel. Start with who already is 
ahead of the game and get their information. So I think cross-
agency or cross-divisions of the government is important.
    I think certainly as Congressman Smith has indicated, I 
think what is critically important is to make sure that there 
is implementation. We can write every great law in the world. 
But if we do not implement them, then we have just been sitting 
her wasting our time and words, right?
    So I think implementation is critically important. Then I 
think the third thing that is most important is followup, is to 
have accountability. OK. Hey, such-and-such division, we gave 
you 350 million dollars. Show us what you did with it.
    We wrote these laws. We passed this. We expanded your 
mandates on what you can do from your agencies. Show us what 
you did. So we need to have accountability.
    The interesting thing is for nonprofits, they get a grant 
of 15 million dollars to do this project or that project. And 
they are mandated to have a followup of, OK, now we gave you 
that grant. Show us what you did with it.
    And they have to. Now we need the Federal Government to do 
the same thing. If you are going to have your grantees prove 
what they do with the money, I would like to see the divisions 
prove to an accountable position or to this very committee, OK, 
we gave you this money. We authorized this law. What did you do 
with it?
    It does not have to be some kind of consequence. It is 
just, how about we celebrate what you did with it? Let's 
recognize what you accomplished and then let's figure out how 
we can advance it further. If we accomplish this----
    Ms. Wild. That may very well be the subject of another 
hearing I would suggest to the chairman and same thing with the 
diplomatic corps. I can envision we could spend an entire 
congressional session just on subhearings of today's hearing, I 
am sure. I want to give my colleagues a chance. I have got 
plenty more questions. But I would like to yield to them for 
now. Thank you.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you. Dr. McCormick?
    Mr. McCormick. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Almost hate to call 
you victims because of the phenomenal success you have had in 
your lives, what you have carved out and in what I think is a 
very bright future for people like you who have made a 
difference and continue to make a difference in the future. You 
are truly empowered warriors more than anything as what defines 
you. So I appreciate that.
    This is a very real and painful topic to talk about a lot 
of times. As an ER doctor, we see some horrible things in the 
home, things that are unspeakable. You see death of babies. You 
children who grow up with demeaned senses of who they are and 
how that leads to these horrible abuse situations, both in the 
home and out of the home.
    You also see this in spiritual realms. And as a matter of 
fact, several of you talked about the spiritual side of this. 
And quite frankly, I would like to reinforce the point that 
this goes far beyond government and how we are going to face 
this, through our churches, through our communities, through 
all the individual relationships we have.
    One of the things I thought was really interesting is when 
I first joined the military, it was a very commonplace for us 
to--when I say, we, I mean the military in general, I do not 
mean myself--visit brothels when you go into a foreign port. 
And that is now illegal. We do not allow that anymore because I 
think that was a big part of child trafficking. That has been 
addressed probably by yourself and others. So I applaud those 
efforts.
    We have seen progression over time. But I wanted to just 
take a moment to recognize what I think is a bigger part of 
this when you talk about faith, Ms. Bella and Judge. And we 
talk about what we are doing outside the government.
    I wanted to give you an opportunity to kind of talk about 
not just what we can do but what we collectively can do as a 
nation outside of government which is always well intended but 
sometimes does not get to the heart of the matter. How can we 
as communities band together? How can we empower you as a 
government to even get out of the way or to encourage 
participation not just by people who have massive budgets but 
people who have massive hearts when it comes to dealing with 
this thing?
    People who are in churches that aren't aware of the problem 
or who can address this when it comes to counseling or pro bono 
work or all the things that we do for communities. If you would 
just speak on that, the empowerment of people inside this great 
nation which I believe has the most philanthropic hearts, who 
would give millions of dollars outside of taxes in the most 
accountable way in making a difference into the future. So if 
Ms. Bella and Judge--and by the way, I want to acknowledge too.
    I thought it was a very powerful statement when you say now 
you walk into a room and people stand. I want to stand right 
there because that really empowers not just as somebody who 
went through something but somebody who has overcome something. 
That was just an incredible moment that I wrote down. I am 
going to write that down in my journal tonight. Fantastic, 
thank you for sharing that.
    Ms. Hounakey. I nominate you as tribute to go first.
    Mr. Lung. I think it is a great question because sometimes 
government is not the right solution. I think it is a part of 
the solution, right? I think the great efforts, the grassroots 
organizations can make that are not dependent on or restricted 
by certain government regulations.
    Bella and I actually worked with St. Thomas University 
College of Law in Miami. A professor there, Roza Pati, she 
actually runs an anti-trafficking organizations and it is a 
faith-based organization. They are an ethic law school and 
making efforts in Miami that way.
    I think of a church that I attend to in Colorado, Southeast 
Christian, that hosted an anti-trafficking organization and put 
on this presentation. It was a phenomenal presentation of 
survivors and anti-trafficking organizations in the community. 
And I was astounded at what a basic level of absence of 
knowledge community members had.
    And so these provisions that a church provides to just have 
this educational outreach. I think about Shared Hope 
International. For a period of time, they had not just their 
national conference but they also had a faith-based conference 
that they hosted in Florida 1 year.
    And they had a different conference that was just for first 
responders. So I am very encouraged by people who I think, 
well, here is an absence of knowledge or here is a place that 
we can make improvements and then go do it, right? Don't just 
find that there is a problem. Be the solution.
    And I think of all these amazing examples of very, very 
small organizations making phenomenal differences. I think your 
point is well made. I love our government. Our government is 
the greatest.
    But sometimes we are too big or we cannot accomplish things 
and we need to rely on small organizations or a different 
approach to the solutions. So faith-based organizations, 
community organizations are phenomenal. I appreciate you paying 
homage to having a faith-based approach. Sometimes the 
government cannot be a part of that, and that is OK too.
    Mr. McCormick. It is interesting you said homage. I think 
it is interesting that people now rise when you enter the room. 
But eventually, I think we are all going to have to take a knee 
to something bigger than us. And that is why I point out faith 
because there is an ultimate power far greater than this 
government for sure. So thank you.
    Ms. Hounakey. All rise. Thank you for that question. I grew 
up in Michigan. I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan in a little 
street where the youth pastor who was also a lawyer will drive 
me to school when my foster mother cannot or the teacher or the 
nurse or my piano teacher.
    It was a part of community. It was not about if they were 
Republican or Democrat. It was not about if they were from 
Michigan or Togo. It was not about anything but prioritize me 
and the 22 other girls who survived--and boys who survived 
trafficking with me.
    It was seeing us as people, as children. And I think the 
more we prioritized that, at the heart of it, everything we do 
is to love people, to care for people. Yes, sometimes it is 
about budgets. I understand that working for a controversial 
agency.
    I understand that. But I think continuing to see that if we 
do not take action, who is at risk here? And we see that you 
mentioned being a doctor and being in the ER and seeing people 
lose their lives.
    We might not tug at every community but just doing what we 
can for the next person. It is because of all of those people, 
my little street on Madison Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
that is allowing me to be in front of you today. If those 
people see me, I was a little girl from Togo who survived 
trafficking, now as a girl in foster care, now as a girl in 
juvenile home, but as a person that needed help, as a person 
with potential and doing everything.
    Seeing their actions, support, their belief. They say they 
love God and they do not go on the street and shove the Bible 
in everybody's faces. They say they love God.
    And so they do what they can for me. And I was the next 
person that presented the love of God for them. So I think 
again the part of collaboration, regardless of where we fall in 
the aisle and see people as people needing to serve them is 
where we need to continue prioritizing. Thank you.
    Mr. McCormick. Thank you. And as a guy who has witnessed 
far greater youth ministers myself, I will say that pretty much 
the universal truth is we all want to be loved. And oftentimes 
when we do not feel loved is when we are most vulnerable to 
those predators.
    So thank you for pointing that out. Getting back to 
government and unintended consequences, though, one of the 
things I do have, I am very, very encouraged by the programs we 
do have that are helping that we are making progress toward 
better legislation. But I am also worried about legislation 
with unintended consequences that can actually encourage a 
problem.
    I am very concerned with half a million people per month 
crossing the southern border not just because it is a 
humanitarian crisis but because the vast number of children who 
are being assaulted as the progress up here. I believe the 
chair mentioned 80 percent of the women who are migrating up 
this way are being raped, 80 percent. And if you consider how 
many people out of that half million, let's make it a fraction.
    Let's say it is a couple hundred thousand per month. Take 
80 percent of that. Let's just round it off even lower. A 
hundred thousand women being raped per month who are migrating 
up here because of what I consider a bad policy.
    I am sure that it is horrible where they live too. But that 
is not due to us necessarily. It is not that we cannot help 
with that.
    But I am worried that what we have legislated or failed to 
legislate has led to over 100,000 rapes per month. And then 
further the chair also mentioned 85,000 children that are in 
our charge. I take this very seriously.
    I am a man of not just faith but of military consequence. 
In the Marine Corps, we are accountable for what we take charge 
of. The general orders are very clear of that.
    And we as Americans, we as a government, when we take 
charge of a child, our most precious commodity. As a father of 
seven, I will tell you nobody is going to come near my children 
or take charge of my children more than I am going to. There is 
nobody more accountable to my children than myself.
    If I as a government going to say, I am going to take 
charge of your child whether I know who the parent is or not, 
85,000 children that we take charge of have disappeared. We 
have a significant problem in our policy. I am worried that 
what we are doing is causing harm.
    Our first application of the Hippocratic Oath is to cause 
no harm. And I am worried that policy, of course, can do great 
good. But it also can create great harm.
    And I want to make sure that our government is not just 
held accountable what we do right but what we do that causes 
harm. And so I want you to address--and Ms. Murray, you talked 
about prevention. Maybe the biggest thing--in healthcare by the 
way, prevention is one of the biggest things we talk about.
    If you are not obese, if you are exercising, if you are 
taking care of yourself, if you are taking your medications, 
prevention will lead to an incredible life compared to without 
prevention. In government what I am worried about is we are not 
doing the right things to prevent these horrible things. Nobody 
can doubt that if 85,000 children disappear and 100,000 kids 
are being raped on the way up here by the way, if 100,000 
people are already used to being raped and then 85,000 
disappear, what have we caused because of our lack of 
prevention or because of harmful legislation? I would like you 
to address that please.
    Ms. Murray. Of course. And again, from a medical 
background, it is drummed into you right from school. 
Prevention is better than cure. It is better for the person.
    But also, as an NHS nurse, it was cheaper for the NHS to 
prevent it than to cure it. And so with that approach with 
human trafficking, I think prevention is absolutely key. It is 
a key pillar for me.
    And so as much as I do not feel like I have the authority 
to speak into what is going on here, what I can speak into is 
certainly identifying key vulnerabilities that have a global 
impact. And so being aware of what key vulnerabilities are and 
then addressing that at that point. So rather than waiting till 
it has happened, rather than waiting till someone has been 
trafficked, rather than waiting till have somebody has been 
raped.
    But instead being aware of the key vulnerabilities and then 
addressing that at that point. So again, for me, I always keep 
coming back to period poverty because that for me has been 
something that I have seen firsthand across both Kenya, Uganda, 
and Pakistan have a huge issue where girls particularly are 
marginalized because of this. And so it leads them into 
different situations of abuse.
    I have met girls that have been willing to sell their 
bodies just in order to get sanitary products. Now that, for 
me, is an area where every single one of us can make an impact 
that is so cheap, so easy, and yet makes a life difference to 
girls around the world. And so I think for me as much as I 
cannot and will not speak into your border issues, but what I 
will speak into is being aware of the vulnerabilities that are 
out there and then trying to equip different NGO's around the 
world that are tackling those key vulnerabilities before it 
becomes an issue.
    Mr. McCormick. By the way, thank you for mentioning Africa. 
Thank you for mentioning sanitary products. I have seen--I am 
going to combine my two statements now with the faith-based 
which I have been part of a faith-based organization that has 
distributed sanitary stuff to Africa and other countries.
    I think that is incredibly important because you nailed it. 
That is right. People are selling their bodies for necessities.
    I think I have been to orphanages or places of faith-based 
in about five different nations around the world. And it does 
me great joy to see America involved in that in some very real 
ways that are consequential around the world. But to talk 
about--I do have the authority to talk about what we do here in 
the government.
    And I just want to make the statement that although we 
often mean well, that there are real consequences to bad 
policy. I am very concerned about this migration for people who 
want to have hope, that want to experience the American dream 
which I do not disparage anybody who wants to take part of this 
American dream. I have benefited as much if not more than 
anybody in the world by this American dream. And I am so 
blessed as anybody who comes to America.
    But at the same time the amount of evil by evil people who 
are preying upon people who try to hope in something greater 
that they are experiencing because we have had bad 
consequential legislation or lack thereof that has led to a 
massive border crossing of humanity that is being pillaged and 
raped and put into slave labor and being tormented and 
sometimes killed even because we have horrible border policy, 
worries me greatly. And I think I would be remiss if I did not 
mention that if we do not change it, we are going to see more 
death, destruction, slavery, and rape. Those words should never 
come out of the words of a U.S. Representative's mouth when it 
comes to our consequences for our actions or lack thereof in 
America. And with that, I yield.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you so very, very much, Dr. McCormick, for 
those comments. And I agree with you 100 percent. Eighty-five 
thousand kids who have been lost, unaccompanied minors and we 
do not know where they are.
    It is engraved invitation to the traffickers to exploit. So 
thank you. I would like to now yield to Ms. Radewagen.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Talofa lava. Thank 
you for sharing your profoundly touching stories with us.
    As an indigenous woman, I am truly cognizant how human 
trafficking particularly affects indigenous women. I am very 
deeply concerned about it. I have a couple of questions here, 
and one of them, I think, has been kind of partially addressed 
along the way.
    But let me just put these two questions out there for all 
of you. If you want to address any or all parts of it, that 
would be very helpful. And what more can the U.S. Government, 
international community do to more effectively deter 
traffickers and implement prevention strategies? That is one.
    And the other is how has the crime of human trafficking 
including geographic trends changed over recent years? How did 
the invasion of Ukraine, COVID-19, and other world events 
affect human trafficking trends? And how did they impact anti-
trafficking trends or efforts? So I would love to hear from any 
and all of you.
    Ms. Vandenberg. I can start. Thank you for those very 
important questions. Let me start with the Ukraine invasion 
because an organization called La Strada which coordinates 
many, many services for trafficking survivors and does policy 
advocacy all over Europe, in Ukraine, and in the former Soviet 
Union.
    La Strada wrote a report at the very beginning of the 
crisis right after the Russian invasion. And that report, a 
very important report, put out a list of all the things that 
could be done to prevent trafficking of Ukrainian women and 
children mostly who were fleeing a war zone. What they 
suggested and what the Europeans by and large have done is 
creating paths for people enter those countries and work and 
survive.
    It is not reasonable. It is not humane. It is not logical 
to expect people to come to the country and then have no 
opportunity to work and also have no money to support 
themselves.
    And so I think there needs to be incredibly thoughtful 
consideration of what people need while they are waiting for a 
war to end, what people need while they are waiting for their 
asylum decisions to be made because people cannot live on 
fumes. And what we have seen is people who are highly 
vulnerable are the ones who then are trafficked. And although 
there has been trafficking of Ukrainians in Europe which is 
where most the refugees ended up.
    There has been trafficking of Ukrainians in Europe. It has 
been far less than anticipated because of those protections put 
in place for those migrants. The United States has also allowed 
Ukrainians to come to the United States as a sponsorship of 
people from Ukraine, Haiti, and several other countries. I 
would argue that those programs that give people status, that 
give people an ability to earn a living, that make them less 
vulnerable, those are the policies we need to look at to 
prevent trafficking rather than trying to solve it and resolve 
it after the harm has already been done.
    Mr. Lung. So I will start with something that is not quite 
on top of your questions. But you began with identifying as 
indigenous people. And it makes me proud of the work that the 
United States Advisory Council does.
    As you may know, the United States Advisory Council, the 
members are only survivors of human trafficking. And Bella is 
serving on the council. I served for 2 years under the Trump 
Administration.
    And when I was on the council, one of the projects we were 
doing was trying to identify the underserved populations. And 
we included the indigenous people, not just Native Americans 
human trafficking is a crisis in that community but also the 
outlying provinces and Samoan Islands and these other locations 
that are unseen. They are underserved.
    They are almost ignored, I think. And so we made an effort 
to define that population and to call attention to all of the 
Federal agencies that we engaged in and said here is the 
underserved populations. Of course, boys were a part of that, 
LGBTQI+ community, et cetera.
    But indigenous was one of the populations that we 
identified that were underserved victims of human trafficking. 
So I was proud of the council's work in that regard. One of 
your questions was regarding when it was the impact of COVID.
    I think that is a massive issue. One of the significant and 
most immediate consequences was that when you take away access 
to schools and you take away access to church and you take away 
access from everything else that makes up a person and their 
community, those connections are how we learn about abuse. That 
is how we learn about human trafficking.
    As Representative Smith indicated, there is this statistic 
that is either 80 or 85 percent of victims of human trafficking 
have contact with the medical field, in urgent care and in ER 
and in other locations. It is significant. And that is one of 
the ways we learn about human trafficking is those providers 
finding out that human trafficking victims are coming up 
through that system through the medical field.
    But the same thing is happening in schools, that school 
counselors, nurses are encountering, hey, this child looks like 
they have been abused or this child is having emotional or 
psychological issues and start to investigate what is going on. 
But when COVID occurs and suddenly you cannot go to school and 
you cannot go to your church and you cannot go to your 
community and you cannot engage in all these things. COVID does 
not stop human trafficking.
    Human trafficking is amplified by things like COVID when 
you start isolating a person from all the different parts of 
the community that might have been able to engage and prevent 
that further. So massive impact. I am fearful that over the 
next pandemic we have that legalizes our being isolated from 
our communities of support, that was a tragic shame, one that 
we will probably encounter for a while.
    Just the impact of our children and their educational 
experiences. They were essentially kicked out of their own 
schools for a year. And families were kicked out of their own 
communities or kicked out of their own churches or whatever was 
the definition of their community about it just being removed 
from those rights that we had but for the pandemic. That was a 
massive impact we are going to discover for quite a while.
    Ms. Hounakey. Thank you, Judge Lung. Your question on what 
the international community can do, I think of that. I cannot 
help that I was born in Togo.
    If I would, I could. I would not have been--I do not think 
I would have. In some countries, it is sort of a barrier to be 
born a woman.
    And so for me, I think about the work that the Nomi Network 
is doing in India and also Cambodia and Touch of Life in Ghana. 
Both of these programs are striving to empower young women and 
girls. And so the economic empowerment aspect of it is that in 
parts of India, in Togo, in Ghana, it is not a privilege to be 
a woman.
    And so you have to sell your body to have access to food 
that may cost 50 cents. And so in India, for instance, what 
they do is that for women who are trafficked there, instead of 
aspiring to go abroad in order to have a job to feed your 
family, they teach life skills, sewing, making shoes or purses 
or scarves so that they can sell these items or ship them 
internationally so that they can have the financial return from 
that to take care of their families. And in Ghana, they have 
boys and girls there who are with Touch of Life who have been 
trafficked.
    They put them in schools so that they can be educated and 
earn a living. And these countries, the stories is that if you 
were born a girl which any of us can control. I cannot help 
that I was born in West Africa, Togo, that I am a woman.
    But then some parts of Togo, being born a woman, it is a 
disadvantage because then I am not supposed to go to school. I 
am not supposed to be educated. I am not supposed to aspire to 
become anything because that is a disadvantage.
    So to your question, many of you said about empowering, 
giving support--financial support to USA Department of Labor, 
Department of State, OTIP so that we can continue on that 
financial empowerment so that we do not wait until is 
trafficked, exploited or in the State of total desperation. I 
do not know many of you. I do not know your personal lives.
    But I am sure you have been in situations where you are 
extremely desperate. And I do not know if you have been in 
situations where you are desperate for water, food, or you 
sleep on bare concrete, or that you wish an animal would walk 
by so you can kill it and eat it raw. I do not know if you have 
been in that situation.
    But in a total State of desperation, people, children would 
do almost anything to survive life, to survive the next hour, 
not even the next day, to survive the next hour. And so when we 
talk about what the international community can do, when we 
talk about geographic location, et cetera, what I think about 
is these young girls in India or Cambodia or Togo or Ghana who 
are in this very moment that we are here, they are in utter 
State of desperation. Maybe some of them have died since we sit 
here.
    And these are the things that we can do something about. We 
can do something about that. We can buy them an extra day maybe 
or extra week maybe. So I think it goes back to what are we 
doing to support what we believe in.
    We believe in human right. We have a moral obligation. And 
so are we taking actions to support what we believe is our 
moral right--people's moral right? I will yield the floor.
    Ms. Murray. I will amen that 100 percent because we are 
seeing again and again how there is a huge still gender and 
equality where girls are treated as less than. Girls are almost 
classed as disposable in some of the communities that we have 
been working in. And so, again, just to echo what you just 
said, that is a huge problem that we really need to address 
from the prevention angle.
    And then in terms of COVID, we have witnessed a lot of 
children who dropped out of school during COVID because schools 
were closed. And obviously in international communities, there 
was not an online learning platform available when you live in 
a community where you have not got electricity. There is no 
online learning.
    And so many children were then put to work. Go and be 
useful for the family. Go and sell peanuts on the roadside, 
whatever it be to help the family.
    But sadly since the schools have reopened, many children 
never came back because the families then became used to the 
children working. And it was considered then as normal. They 
are putting toward the family.
    And so COVID had a huge detrimental impact and NGO's around 
the world including one by one have been fighting that ever 
since and still very much are fighting the consequences of 
COVID. And then just to go back to Dr. McCormick. I think 
churches have a huge part to play in fighting human 
trafficking.
    And so one by one in the UK has launched a churches against 
trafficking campaign where we are working with churches of all 
different denominations, all different kind of backgrounds, 
uniting the church together to really tackle Goliath. And it is 
great to see the kind of key message there is that actually we 
need all hands on deck to fight this. And as we come together 
as a community, we can bring down the traffickers.
    Ms. Hounakey. I also just want to add something quickly. 
You mentioned earlier about accountability for cooperation. I 
think it is disrespectful of us here when there are companies 
in this country who instead of improving conditions for labor, 
they are turning into vulnerable populations for cheap labor.
    I think that is utter disrespect that COVID happened. 
Instead of saying, we are going to improve conditions so that 
people can work in the way that dignify us as a country. They 
turn instead to say, you know, hmm, where can I find the most 
vulnerable people? Oh, children, there you go, people who have 
vulnerabilities.
    And so for me, when we sit here, we talk about this. The 
first thing I think of and the council is going to speak on 
this in our next report is what does accountability lies? Is it 
DOL? Is it DHS?
    Where does our accountability lies so that the next health 
global crisis, traffickers are not just like in the 
communities. They are turning into organized crimes. And what 
can I say about cooperation?
    I am not accountable because I am just a staffing agency 
and I subcontract out. So how do we hold third party 
contractors? That is my question to you all is that, does the 
bill also address companies that are hiring or subsourcing out 
to find workers and exploit them? What does our accountability 
look like for, for instance, staffing agencies who are turning 
into third party contractors to continue their work?
    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Mr. Smith. Can I just very briefly before I go to Ms. Wild 
for one final question? I will submit some questions to our 
distinguished panel. But we do want to get to our second panel.
    A moment ago, Dr. McCormick talked about the military. And 
I say this as an invitation to anyone who has any information 
about anything relative to trafficking to let the TIP office 
know, to let us know, to let their local human trafficking 
coalition like in New Jersey know because it does make its way 
to policy. Right after the TVPA was signed into law, a 
reporter/prosecutor who lived in Ohio came in and said he had 
evidence and he showed me a video of our troops in South Korea 
going to juicy bars as they called them where women who were 
either indigenous, South Korean, Philippine, women--some 
Russians.
    All were being held could not leave. And we even at CP 
patrol outside for troop protection outside of these brothels 
and it was horrible. So I went to Joseph Schmitz who was the IG 
for the Pentagon.
    Asked him if he would investigate the Balkans where there 
were problems with the war and trafficking with U.N. as well as 
others, military. And they look at South Korea. He did an 
unbelievably good job and then teed it up to the President of 
the United States, George W. Bush, and asked him to do an 
executive order that would make it very clear that complicity 
of any kind of trafficking is an actionable offense under the 
Uniform Code of Military Justice.
    Bush went even beyond that and said that even prostitution 
as it should be in my opinion as well is an actionable offense 
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. General Tai
    [phonetic] who was our Supreme Allied Commander in South 
Korea got so into ensuring that there was no complicity and no 
enabling of this. And we worked with the South Korean 
government to get rid of their so-called entertainment visa 
which is bringing women in from the Philippines, so-called 
entertainment.
    And the military just jumped in lock, stock, and barrel. 
And you know one of the greatest ways of preventing was? 
Putting places off limits was one. But also having a time limit 
as to when people--yes, when you are drunk at 2 o'clock in the 
morning and you go into one of those bars, bad things happen.
    So it was amazing how the curfew even worked. General Tai 
testified twice before our committee and the Armed Services 
Committee. And then we put it into the TVPA as an actual 
offense in terms of minimum standards in terms of militaries 
and peacekeepers. And all because of this reporter/prosecutor 
who gave us a tip that we acted upon. So I say to anyone, even 
the CSPAN audience, if you have something that we need to be 
working on, please tell us.
    Ms. Wild. I too want to move on to the next panel. And I am 
going to ask you a question, Ms. Vandenberg, which if it is 
more appropriate for the next plane, please feel free to say 
so. But the TVPA, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 
provided authority to impose targeted sanctions against foreign 
individuals related to human trafficking.
    My understanding is that the executive--and I think it has 
been around since 2000, I think. And to date, the executive 
branch under multiple Administrations has not yet used this 
authority, although it has imposed some relevant sanctions 
against other authorities under the Magnitsky Act and so forth. 
Do you believe that targeted sanctions specifically on this 
issue would help deter human trafficking?
    Ms. Vandenberg. On the issue of diplomats, I do. And we 
have asked for sanctions under Global Magnitsky. But according 
to a CFR report and according to the information that I know 
that Trafficking Victims Protection Act sanctions have not been 
used.
    Ms. Wild. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Smith. Again, I want to thank this amazing panel for 
your insight, your guidance, your passion. You are just 
inspiring beyond words. So thank you so much, and we will 
submit a few questions for the record if you would not mind 
getting back. Thank you.
    We'll adjourn for a minute or two, just to say goodbye.
    [Whereupon, at 12:06 p.m., the subcommittee recessed, to 
reconvene at 12:13 p.m., the same day.]
    Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, and again, that was a very 
inspiring panel of leaders, including survivors. And so the 
hearing obviously is reconvened.
    And I do want to thank our panel from the Administration 
for not only the work that you are doing, but for your 
patience. We did want to hear first from those amazing 
survivors. And normally the Administration goes first. And you 
were very kind and courteous to extend that to them as well. So 
thank you.
    We have two distinguished witnesses, beginning with the 
Honorable Cindy Dyer, who is the Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor 
and Combat Trafficking in Persons, leading the United States' 
global engagement to combat human trafficking and support the 
coordination of anti-trafficking efforts across the U.S. 
Government.
    Ambassador Dyer, congratulations on your confirmation. 
Ambassador Dyer is a human rights advocate and lawyer with 
three decades of experience working at the local, national, 
international levels to prevent and respond to human 
trafficking, sexual assault, and domestic violence. She was the 
Vice President for Human Rights at Vital Voices Global 
Partnership.
    And I would note parenthetically Theresa Loar, with whom I 
went to high school with, served on that as well back in the 
Clinton Administration--after the Clinton Administration I 
guess, timewise. But you served on that for 12 years, where she 
worked with local governmental, and civil society leaders in 
more than 25 countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, 
the Middle East, and Europe on issues related to human 
trafficking.
    Prior to that, she served as the Director of the Office of 
Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice under 
President George W. Bush. Ambassador Dyer began her career at 
the local level serving as a specialized domestic and sexual 
violence prosecutor in Dallas, Texas, for more than 13 years. 
And she earned her bachelor's degree from Texas A&M and her JD 
from Baylor Law School.
    We'll then hear from Mr. Johnny Walsh, who is Deputy 
Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International 
Development. Mr. Walsh oversees the Bureau for Development, 
Democracy, and Innovations Center for Democracy, Human Rights, 
and Governance.
    He was most recently a senior expert at the U.S. Institute 
for Peace from 2017 to 2021. And previously served in 
government in a range of foreign policy roles, including as the 
U.S. mission to the U.N. Senior Policy Advisor for the Middle 
East and South Asia, and two stints as the State Department's 
lead advisor on Afghanistan's peace process and tours of duty 
in Iraq and Afghanistan, no easy places to be working.
    I yield the floor to our distinguished Ambassador-at-Large, 
and I thank you for being here.

    STATEMENT OF THE HON. CINDY DYER, AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO 
 MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF 
                             STATE

    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you so much.
    Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Wild, distinguished members 
of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear 
before you today to discuss the United States Department of 
State's efforts to combat human trafficking.
    Thank you also for the opportunity to hear the amazing 
testimony of the panel before me. I hung on every word. The 
time flew by. And it was an honor to get to really listen to 
them. Thank you for that opportunity.
    Human trafficking is a crime that exists in every country 
and affects people of every age, ethnicity, and gender, with 
historically and systemically marginalized groups often at 
greatest risk. The last few years have been particularly 
challenging as we--as you discussed earlier, and seen new 
trends in trafficking.
    The covid-19 pandemic, inflation, Russia's war on Ukraine, 
and disruption caused by climate change have exacerbated 
entrenched challenges, such as poverty and economic inequality, 
heightened job insecurity in many sectors, diminished access to 
justice and services, disrupted global supply chains, and 
contributed to new waves of risky migration.
    All of these factors and others have heightened the risk of 
trafficking around the world. In recent years, we have seen 
increased online recruiting and exploitation of trafficking 
victims, especially online sexual exploitation of children; 
more forced criminality and forced begging cases; and rapidly 
growing forced labor in scam centers based in Southeast Asia 
that exploit victims worldwide.
    The scale of trafficking is vast, the challenge we face 
immense, but we are not helpless, and we are using all the 
tools at our disposal to face these challenges head on. Today 
more than ever, the United States' sustained leadership and 
commitment to combating human trafficking in all its forms is 
critical.
    As Secretary Blinken Stated during last year's Trafficking 
in Persons Report launch ceremony, it will continue to take 
relentless diplomacy, coordination, advocacy, and commitment if 
we are going to stop it.
    And as he noted, the United States is committed to fighting 
it because trafficking destabilizes societies, it undermines 
economies, it harms workers, it enriches those who exploit 
them, it undercuts legitimate business, and most fundamentally, 
because it is so profoundly wrong.
    The State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat 
Trafficking in Persons, the TIP office, which I have the honor 
to lead, is advancing the United States' global efforts to 
combat human trafficking through a Three P Framework: the 
prosecution of traffickers, the protection of victims, and the 
prevention of human trafficking.
    We address the three Ps collectively by objectively 
analyzing government efforts, engaging in strategic bilateral 
and multilateral diplomacy, targeted foreign assistance to 
build capacity of foreign governments and civil society, and 
advancing Federal anti-trafficking policies through interagency 
coordination.
    We also partner with international and civil society 
organizations, human trafficking survivors, and the private 
sector to advance the fight against human trafficking. It is 
this fourth P, for partnership, that strengthens the 
effectiveness of the other three Ps in the fight against human 
trafficking.
    We recognize that all countries can and should do more to 
prosecute traffickers, provide justice and protection for 
victims, and actively work to prevent human trafficking.
    We are focused on implementing key actions to advance an 
effective anti-trafficking response, including addressing human 
trafficking in the context of the impact of Russia's war in 
Ukraine; documenting and decrying human trafficking in the 
People's Republic of China, especially Xinjiang and the PRC's 
Belt and Road Initiative; highlight Cuba's coercive labor 
export program; and supporting diplomatic engagement with 
countries hosting these workers to mitigate their exploitation; 
engaging with survivors and underserved communities; and 
preventing human trafficking in global supply chains and in the 
U.S. Government's procurement of goods and services.
    We, too, recognize that combating human trafficking cannot 
be done alone. We must continue to work collectively across the 
U.S. Government with bilateral and multilateral partners and 
with local governments and civil society to further advance 
anti-trafficking efforts.
    Thanks to sustained support from Congress, in particular 
through the groundbreaking Trafficking Victims Protection Act 
of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations, the Department has 
a well-established set of tools to draw upon in the fight 
against human trafficking.
    For more than 20 years, the Trafficking in Persons Report 
continues to be the world's most comprehensive resource on 
governmental anti-trafficking efforts and is our principal 
diplomatic tool to guide relations with foreign governments.
    Our most recent TIP report included narratives for 188 
countries and territories, and its introduction focused on the 
importance of engagement with survivors of human trafficking. 
The TIP report is one of our most powerful tools to encourage 
governments around the world to improve their anti-trafficking 
efforts. Ensuring it remains accurate, objective, and effective 
is among my highest priorities for the TIP Office.
    Similarly, the targeted U.S. foreign assistance resources 
we bring to bear to strengthen the capacity of governments and 
civil society is an important element of our three P approach. 
Since 2001, the TIP Office has leveraged more than $700 million 
in foreign assistance funding to support nearly 1000 anti-
trafficking projects across more than 90 countries to address 
both sex trafficking and labor trafficking worldwide.
    Through bilateral projects and innovative programming such 
as child protection compact, CPC, partnerships and the Program 
to End Modern Slavery, our investments have produced tangible 
results. Our assistance has helped thousands of human 
trafficking survivors receive vital assistance, including 
repatriation, psycho-social support, and counseling to rebuild 
their lives.
    We have also helped dozens of governments to build crucial 
legal, policy, and regulatory infrastructure to care for 
victims and bring traffickers to justice. In places where 
individuals are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, such as 
in Southeast and South Asia and many parts of Africa, our 
assistance is helping identify victims of trafficking and 
ensuring they receive the protection and services they need.
    Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Wild, thank you again for 
holding today's hearing and this subcommittee's steadfast 
commitment to combating human trafficking.
    As this subcommittee considers legislation for the 118th 
Congress, I look forward to working closely with you and your 
staff on legislative efforts to reauthorize the international 
provisions of the TVPA, which remain the cornerstone of the 
United States' global efforts to combat trafficking.
    Ensuring Congress continues to provide the appropriate 
tools and authorities we need to effectively tackle 
international trafficking challenges today and tomorrow is 
essential.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ambassador Dyer follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Ambassador, for your 
testimony and leadership. I'd like to now turn to Johnny Walsh.

STATEMENT OF JOHNNY WALSH, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. 
              AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

    Mr. Walsh. Thank you so much, Chairman Smith. Thank you, 
Ranking Member Wild. Thank you, distinguished members of the 
Subcommittee. Thank you for your leadership on combating human 
trafficking all these years, the opportunity to be here today.
    I just have to acknowledge the first panel, which was just 
so unbelievably powerful. I think all of us in the gallery were 
feeling emotion rising within us. But also feeling inspired by 
how much courage these folks show. They are much more than just 
horrible stories that many of them have gone through. They are 
smart, they are strategic, they're a total inspiration.
    And if you'll allow me, I just also want to thank the 
staffs at USAID and at the State Department who work on 
counter-trafficking, who are just so smart and so accomplished, 
but who lead with their hearts and have done just immense 
amounts to help against this terrible scourge.
    So, since 2001, with the passing of the TVPA, USAID has 
provided counter-trafficking assistance in 88 countries. We 
currently support counter-trafficking efforts in 35, and in 
many more our larger body of development work contributes in 
one way or another that we can unpack to the counter-
trafficking fight.
    In Fiscal Year 1922, we obligated $32.5 million into 
counter-trafficking activities globally. That is more than 3 
million above our earmark, which is an indicator of how 
important our missions around the world very organically 
consider this work to be.
    And beyond our direct counter-trafficking programming, a 
very large fraction of USAID's international development work 
helps in one way or another, either by addressing root causes 
of counter-trafficking, like conflict or corruption or poverty, 
or violence, natural disasters, lack of opportunity. Or by 
building local capacity in ways that are directly relevant to 
the fight against trafficking. For example, by supporting 
stronger judicial systems and rule of law.
    So USAID's effectiveness, we think, rests on a very strong 
in-country presence in the countries where we work through our 
missions. And these allow us to design and effectively monitor 
interventions that are informed by local context and adaptive 
to local context.
    So our counter-trafficking work tends to follow, we also 
think in terms of four Ps: prevention, protection, prosecution, 
and partnership.
    So just briefly first on prevention, we work to raise 
awareness of trafficking, particularly with the most vulnerable 
groups, the most high risk communities, by promoting public 
information and education campaigns across source and transit 
and destination countries for trafficking.
    By way of example, in Colombia USAID is working in very 
high risk communities to protect the rights of Venezuelan 
migrants who are vulnerable to trafficking. And this program's 
raising awareness among this community about different methods 
of exploitation. And we complement it with tools like training 
almost 4000 service providers on how to address trafficking 
issues, gender-based violence. That is just in the past year.
    Second, on protection, when we think about protecting 
trafficking survivors, USAID's approach, State Department's 
approach also is survivor-centered, it is trauma-informed. 
Everything that was said in the first panel about that 
resonates very deeply with us.
    We support around-the-world reintegration assistance for 
survivors. That means psycho-social and medical services. It 
means legal assistance. It means providing safe and secure 
accommodations where people need it. It means providing access 
to employment and business opportunities. Whatever survivors 
need to rebuild their lives and avoid being re-victimized.
    Third, on prosecution, this is especially in State 
Department's lane. But we help with the development of anti-
trafficking laws in many countries, with real penalties for 
traffickers and protections for victims. We provide victim-
centered training and technical assistance for law enforcement, 
for prosecutors, judges, so they are maximally effective in 
what they do.
    By way of example, we have a regional program across the 
Caribbean region to improve the prosecution of TIP cases, 
trafficking cases. We are helping countries develop or 
strengthen, for example, national referral mechanisms so they 
can better screen, identify, and investigate trafficking.
    And fourth, on partnerships, there is no way to do this 
alone. We, like, work across governments and civil society and 
faith-based organizations, advocacy organizations. We are all 
in it together. It takes an all-hands-on-deck approach, as one 
of the panelists said.
    In Senegal, for instance, we bring together all of these 
constituencies to work on the problem of forced child begging, 
which, I cannot imagine a more vulnerable population to this 
problem. But a multi-stakeholder approach is often the way we 
can cover the most of it in the country.
    Just briefly, to close, in December 2021, USAID revised our 
counter-trafficking policy to align with the U.S. Government's 
new national action plan to combat human trafficking.
    And among other things, the USAID policy emphasizes 
survivor-centered approaches, partnering across all these 
groups that I have referred to, government and otherwise; 
better coordination within our own government, and for that 
matter within our own agency; extensive use of evidence in 
learning, rigorous data; and clear roles and responsibilities 
for staff across USAID.
    And I would say that that CTIP Guide and its associated 
field guide for missions, they help missions design, implement, 
monitor, and evaluate programming more effectively. But they 
also serve in effect as USAID's implementing guidance for the 
TVPA.
    So Chairman, Ranking Member, thank you for calling this 
hearing. We share the belief that we are all in it together. We 
do not have a monopoly on good ideas. And through this 
exchange, I think we can advance the fight against these 
issues.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Walsh follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Smith. Mr. Walsh, thank you, pardon me, so much for 
your testimony and leadership. I do have a number of questions, 
and hopefully we can do a second round so I could yield to my 
colleagues.
    In my opening I did mention, Ambassador Dyer, the 
importance of getting it right. I mean, I actually had three 
hearings about how we got it so wrong in 2015. And I would say 
that Kari Johnstone, who testified at one of those hearings, 
that the information that was provided in the TIP Report itself 
was right on, it was very accurate.
    And but when it--the recommendations went up the chain of 
command, for other reasons totally disassociated with human 
trafficking, Tier 3 countries were upgraded to either watch 
list or to--nobody went to Tier 2. But they were upgraded.
    And China, Oman, as I mentioned before, Malaysia was, and 
that was because they thought they were going to get into TPP 
at the time, which was making its way through Congress and the 
Administration. But it was just like these are not chips to be 
given away. This is all about speaking truth to power in an 
absolutely honest way to the best of all of our abilities.
    And so I want to thank Kari, because she did a great job. 
But when it went up the chain of command, we did lose. And as I 
said before, Reuters were the ones who broke the story after 
doing anonymous interviews with the TIP Office, that things got 
changed.
    Yes, they do make the final call, the undersecretaries, the 
Secretary of State especially. But they should just be, you 
know, what you do, and we did this when we wrong the original 
law, especially with the lag between the findings in TIP and 
you know, what action might be taken pursuant to sanctions.
    This is all a Administration call, and they may want to 
take other things into consideration. I hope they would not, 
but the TIP report has to be sacrosanct.
    And I remember talking to a number of countries, and I will 
not name them, who were so angry because they were Tier 3, and 
they said others were elevated to watch list and therefore not 
sanctionable, and their records were worse.
    So the argument isn't really against the TIP Office or you. 
It is really against what happens when it goes up the chain of 
command. And if they do it again, I will have them, or try to, 
come and give an accounting for that.
    I remember I asked Secretary Kerry, I said who made the 
decision. He said, ``Well, the buck stops with me.'' It was a 
full committee hearing. And it shouldn't be that way. Oman got 
it. Why? Because they had been very involved with the nuclear 
negotiations, providing--they were conduits with Iran and 
United States and our partners in Europe.
    But that shouldn't be a reason to give them a benefit where 
it is not earned. Same way with Cuba, because we had a 
rapprochement with opening up an embassy.
    And parenthetically, I have tried to get into Cuba my 
entire career. And I thought when we looked like we were moving 
toward a, or we had diplomatic relations, I went there with the 
Ambassador.
    And he said but you got to know this: we tell you the 
people you cannot see. I said what? You know, that is not what 
human rights work is all about. So I never got the visa. But 
they were elevated as well.
    So I just would hope that, you know, the people up that 
chain of command will realize that, you know, Congress gets fed 
up with that kind of manipulation. Speak truth to power and let 
it go where it goes. So that is just a encouragement for you, 
because I know you will get it right in the report. It is the 
next steps that I worry about.
    Let me also ask, if I could, and obviously with Title 42 
ending last night, you know, the--we have differences of 
opinion of what we should do vis-a-vis the border.
    I voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which established 
everything that we thought would have mitigated illegal 
crossings. Chuck Schumer voted for it, Hillary Clinton voted 
for it, as did a lot of other people, you know, on both sides 
of the aisle. There were 80 votes in the Senate for it back in 
1906.
    And I think we would have a different dynamic today had 
that wall been built. And I am all for legal immigration, I all 
for refugees, you know, well-founded fear of persecution, 
getting the help that they need.
    But one of the concerns, and I know the New York Times 
underscored this, that the HH--Office of Refugee Resettlement 
similarly has lost some 85,000 migrant children, unaccompanied 
minors.
    And I am wondering, you know, last year in the TIP Report, 
and obviously the U.S. is included in the TIP Report, it was 
pointed out to the government, our government, continued not to 
mandate human trafficking screening for all foreign national 
adults in immigration detention or custody. And did not screen 
for trafficking indicators among the people it removed.
    It also that on the prioritized recommendations, screen 
all--this is you, TIP Report, saying this--screen all 
individuals in immigration detention or custody for human 
trafficking indicators. And I am wondering if Homeland Security 
has followed through on that, on that recommendation made by 
you.
    And if you could, do we know what has happened to those 
children? Is there any further insight? I mean, we all, you 
know, we have heard from victims today. To think that there 
could be tens of thousands of victims who--and children--that 
we just do not know where they are.
    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you, sir. First of all, certainly I 
personally and the JTIP Office share your deep concern about 
not only not only unaccompanied migrant children, but about all 
migrants and making sure that those individuals who are making 
a perilous journey are protected, and they are protected 
specifically from trafficking.
    I know that the also really the addressing the challenges 
of irregular migration, specifically providing protection to 
refugees and asylum seekers and offering lawful migration 
pathways are key priorities for the Administration.
    And I actually noted that they esteemed Martina Vandenberg, 
during her previous testimony specifically, who is of course 
such a recognized authority, specifically called out offering 
lawful migration pathways as a key way of reducing 
vulnerabilities. That is absolutely a part of this plan.
    We recognize that forced displacement in the western 
hemisphere has reached historic highs. And I am also mindful of 
Bella's comment earlier about individuals who, in her words, 
they are fleeing an utter State of desperation. And so we look 
at this crisis through that lens of sympathy that many of these 
individuals are fleeing an utter State of desperation.
    The Administration is working closely with the interagency 
group, both the Department of Homeland Security, which I think 
has the answers to many of the questions that you guys were--
very good questions you were bringing up here today, Health and 
Human Services, and Department of State.
    For our role, at the Department of the State and at the 
Trafficking in Persons Office, we see our highest and best 
purpose as making sure that we are protecting vulnerable, and 
that they are being screened, to your excellent point, Mr. 
Chairman.
    So one of the things that----
    Mr. Smith. But are they? I mean, that was made a year ago 
in your recommendations.
    Ambassador Dyer. We are--we agree with you that all 
migrants should be screened. I will have to defer to my 
colleagues at DHS with regard to, especially now that Title 42 
is expiring and Title 8 will come back up. I will defer to them 
on----
    Mr. Smith. Can you get back to us?
    Ambassador Dyer. Yes.
    Mr. Smith. So we know what, you know, in terms of your 
interpretation of what they are doing?
    Ambassador Dyer. Absolutely. And certainly it is the 
perfect time to be asking the question because we are having a 
change in the authorities under which we will be working.
    I do know as it pertains to screening, some of the work 
that the Trafficking in Persons Office is doing specifically in 
the region, in the western hemisphere, specifically encourages 
screening of migrants so that they do receive protection and 
services. And to the great point of the panel earlier, 
preventing individuals who are at great risk of trafficking 
from becoming actual victims of trafficking.
    We have programs in the region specifically focused on 
screening and prevention. We have regional programs that are 
not just one country focused, but a whole-of-region approach, 
because we recognize this is a crisis that not one country can 
solve.
    I think it is important to know that we have $80 million in 
trafficking programming in the western hemisphere, which is the 
region that has the highest amount of programming, which I 
think speaks to the Administration's focus and sincere concern 
about this issue.
    In addition to the international programming money that we 
have there, we are also engaging in bilateral diplomacy, making 
sure that our allies and colleagues in the region are doing 
what they need to do to stop trafficking in their countries 
before it goes further.
    We are also making sure to call these efforts out in the 
Trafficking in Persons Report. Please know that I share your 
emphasis and your focus on getting it right and on integrity, 
not only because this year's report will have my name on it, 
but also because for 12 years, I worked with NGO's in the field 
who relied on that report to speak what they saw.
    And it serves as a microphone to those advocates and 
activists. So please know that we share your deep concern about 
that.
    We are really working aggressively to address this crisis, 
using all the tools that you have given and paying a specific 
attention to make sure and also through the interagency working 
group. So thank you for the opportunity to address that.
    Mr. Smith. If you could, do we have any idea, I mean, the 
news media and others sometimes conflate the coyotes are 
bringing people up, getting paid to do it. And I am just 
wondering, because I haven't seen the specifics or the 
breakout, maybe you have it, how many of these individuals 
either it evolves into a bona fide trafficking situation, 
particularly for you young people?
    You know, we do not want terms being imprecise, because 
obviously it is dangerous when you pay somebody to bring you up 
and they turn out to be part of a cartel. But how many of them 
are--do we have any idea how many cases of human trafficking we 
have?
    And I'll say why that is so important. When we did the 
original TVPA, we got a State Department number of about 50,000 
people coming in every year. That was their best estimate, and 
nobody knew. But I put it into the findings of the bill.
    The Washington Post took me to task a couple years later 
and said how, well, it is more like 17,000. Well, that is 
because there was a reappraisal that we done, and CIA I think 
was involved with it as well. And it was a big page-one story 
that we were exaggerating.
    So I am one of those who absolutely loathes exaggeration, 
pro or con, do not undercount, do not overcount. But really, if 
you could, how many of these cases are human trafficking? And 
what is becoming of these kids? You know, and adults, not just 
kids, the adults as well? Do we have anything on that?
    Yes, Mr. Walsh.
    Mr. Walsh. No, I was just going to say I would not want to 
misspeak on the number. And perhaps you have one. I think that 
we should come back to you for the record with our best 
estimate of that.
    Mr. Smith. If you could. Because again, we need accuracy on 
this as well. Maybe you embed it into the TIP report this year, 
just so you know, it gets enshrined in, you know, the findings 
of the TIP report.
    And again, we have done TIP work bipartisan all along. When 
the Republicans do not do it right, you know, we got to speak 
out. When the Democrats do not do it right, we need to speak 
out. It is all about the victims.
    So I cannot tell you how concerned I am about how many of 
those people, particularly the women and children, are enslaved 
today. So that number would be extremely important, and as soon 
as you could provide it, it would be great.
    And what is being done to help them. You know, because 
again, there needs to be a all-hands-on-deck in every country, 
every State I mean. But especially in places like Texas and 
Arizona.
    Let me just ask you very briefly about the DR Congo. You 
know, I did a hearing a year and a half ago as Chairman of the 
Tom Lantos Commission on cobalt, I mentioned it earlier today, 
and the fact that they are using slave labor, especially child 
labor, to extract it and then send it to China for processing.
    The DR Congo, I know there is an MOU with them, and I do 
not think, you know, that is--there is all kinds of corruption. 
They do not have a foreign corrupt practices act, so we know 
that, you know, people are being paid off, or we have every 
reason to believe.
    And those mines are being run by the Chinese Communist 
Party. There is almost no salary to speak of. When Americans 
had one of those mines--since then, it has been dropped by like 
60 percent in terms of the salary.
    And the kids, you know, that is just wrong on every level. 
So I am just wondering if that is something you are looking at. 
And if is reminiscent in a way with what happened in DR Congo 
with peacekeepers. And I actually went to Goma, met with the 
peacekeepers and of course met with government people and above 
all with victims.
    When the deployment there, they are there to protect and 
there you have these U.N. peacekeepers. We had four hearings on 
that before and after the trip. And frankly, the U.N. said they 
wanted zero tolerance. Kofi Annan put out a strong statement, 
and Jane Hall Lute came and testified, who was running point 
for that for the U.N.
    And you know, one of the areas we called zero compliance, 
with the zero intolerance effort. So on peacekeeping in 
general, your thoughts on who well we are doing or not doing 
with regards to these, you know, what hundred thousand, 
whatever the number is today of U.N.-deployed and other AU 
peacekeepers as well.
    Because we got to stay at that one, you know, because 
unfortunately when in country, the sense of entitlement and 
abuse is very strong. And you have a vulnerable population. And 
remember in DR Congo, these were 12-and 13-year-old kids, for a 
meal, who were being sold.
    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you so much for your concern. We 
appreciate you raising this issue. And definitely we are paying 
close attention to the situation in the DRC. And also, to your 
good point, the broader influence that PRC has in African 
countries, recognizing that it is not just a uniquely DRC-
focused problem. That this is PRC influence.
    I also appreciate that not only is it the child victims, 
but there are other adult victims of trafficking that are in 
equally deplorable situations. We are absolutely using the 
interagency working group through the President's interagency 
task force and the SPOG. But also through the forced labor 
enforcement task force.
    The JTIP Office represents the State Department on that 
task force to make sure that we are really taking a close look 
at any goods made with forced labor. That has actually been one 
of the biggest things that I have had an opportunity to do 
since joining the office in January.
    We are also, I wanted to mention you had also touched on 
the peacekeeping and the important to really focus on this. I 
will tell you that as someone who has been reading the draft 
narratives for 2023 TIP report, this is included.
    We are absolutely monitoring peacekeeping and whether or 
not peacekeepers are engaging in or contributing to trafficking 
in persons. That is definitely something that we call--we are 
monitoring and calling out in the Trafficking Persons Report.
    Mr. Smith. Didn't you say it's gotten--the IML, the 
International Megan's Law, if you could. Again, that took 8 
years to get passed, a whole lot of pushback like you cannot 
believe, on that one.
    And we know that these child sex tourism trips are 
occurring. We did put a redundancy, not just on the reporting, 
that they have to tell us where they are going or face a very 
significant jail sentence, identical to Megan's Law.
    Well, long story short, we also put in the language in that 
there will be, what do you call it, indicia in the passport. 
You open it up, the people at border security, name of the 
country, opens it up. It says, ``The Bearer has been convicted 
of a crime against a child.''
    And we worked very closely with the Kankas, that is Megan's 
parents, in getting that into law. As well as with members of 
our--of the Senate who were very helpful on that. But long 
story short, we understand that there is--there is a lot of 
people who are not being included in this.
    You know, passports are good for 10 years, and you know, 
whenever there is a new passport, it ought to have that stamp 
on it so that that out of an abundance of caution for children, 
you know.
    Because we know why many of these--the proclivities to 
recommit these crimes is so high. In a way, you are doing them 
a favor, you are making it less possible that maybe they will 
do it, you know, that week of renting a child in Brazil or 
wherever.
    So I just wondering if--what do you think we should be 
doing to advance this? Because I am very concerned, you know, 
there is up to 900,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. 
That is a lot of, you know, potential people. Not all of them 
are child sex offenders, but many of them are.
    Ambassador Dyer. Well, first of all, we absolutely----
    Mr. Smith. Yes, I just missed one part of the main point. 
Critics argue that the State Department should be capturing 
more through passport applications by adding a question on it 
about this, you know. Right now that does not happen.
    Ambassador Dyer. First of all, we are absolutely supporting 
the goal of this legislation. As a former sexual violence 
prosecutor, I am very well aware of the recidivism rates, and I 
appreciate your leadership. And certainly, exterritorial child 
sexual exploitation and abuse is awful, and we need to do 
everything that we can to prevent it from happening.
    I know that Department of--DHS has the Angel Watch Program, 
which really oversees it. And I believe that my colleagues at 
the Department of State in diplomatic security are the 
Department of State colleagues that oversee that. For the 
specific mechanics of how it works, I would need to refer to 
those experts.
    But I will say that in addition to us supporting the goal 
of this and recognizing it is important, the Department does 
also call this out in our Trafficking in Persons Report. And so 
it is definitely an issue that we recognize the critical 
importance of and are following.
    Mr. Smith. But we are looking in our legislation of 
changing from may register to shall. And so hopefully you could 
be helpful on that.
    You know, I have met with the Angel Watch people, I have 
gone and sat with them. They are great, they are wonderful. But 
when they do not have, you know, the full help from the 
Department of State, it becomes more difficult, you know, if it 
is more permissive standard.
    I ask Mr. Walsh, if you could just, then I will yield to my 
distinguished colleague. We hear that there have been reports 
submitted to the IG on USAID's mission staff potential 
involvement and with--and participation in human trafficking. I 
do not know to what extent that is--where that is.
    But as you know, and I appreciated you saying how, you 
know, you brief and you train service providers and of course 
staff members as well to be very cognizant of being part of the 
solution, not part of the problem. And I am wondering if you 
could shed any light on the IG's investigation.
    Mr. Walsh. So the nature of an IG investigation, I would 
not have a whole lot of insight into where it stands right now. 
I would say that generally USAID over the last few years has 
really tried to batten down our hatches internally.
    We have implemented a code of conduct across the Agency 
that starts with fairly obvious things like an emphatic 
prohibition in any involvement in any way in trafficking or 
forced labor by staff, by implementing partners, by 
contractors.
    But goes beyond that to in effect render all members of 
USAID eyes and ears to be watching for this, to be conducting 
due diligence as we work with an immense range of stakeholders 
who might well see something or finds themselves adjacent to 
such an act.
    And that every single member of USAID now in the first few 
months that they are on board takes training on this so that 
they know what to watch for, the different forms that 
trafficking can take. Because it is not always common knowledge 
for people coming in.
    So it is a very intensive internal process. And that is 
even in advance of any findings the IG comes out with.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you. Ms. Wild.
    Ms. Wild. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
    I want to ask a quick question about funding for the 
trafficking hotline, that my understanding is only minimally 
funded by the U.S. Government and done more by Polaris Project 
on a private basis. Is that correct? Do you know? If not, I 
will find the answer somewhere else.
    Ambassador Dyer. That is overseen by--Health and Human 
Services oversees that.
    Ms. Wild. OK, that was my next question----
    Ambassador Dyer. I do know that they receive some 
Government----
    Ms. Wild. So it is an HHS program, OK.
    Ambassador Dyer. But it is--but you are correct that it 
is----
    Ms. Wild. Underfunded.
    Ambassador Dyer. Polaris that operates it.
    Ms. Wild. OK, thank you. So Ambassador, I haven't been--I 
have been trying not to be too obvious with my scrolling, but 
what I have been scrolling about on my phone is the topic of 
today's hearing. And I was looking up the TIP reports that 
State has done.
    And I think you made reference to the fact that your name 
will go on this year's report, and I look forward to that. When 
does that generally come out, or when----
    Ambassador Dyer. The TVPA requires that that report be 
issued to you by June 30. So that looming deadline----
    Ms. Wild. Soon, you are working on it.
    Ambassador Dyer. Is super--it is in my sights.
    Ms. Wild. OK, that is great. And I am just going to ask my 
staff right here to make sure that we get a copy of it when it 
comes out.
    So but my question, as I was looking through the 2022 
report, I was--most of the countries that I saw in Tier 1 did 
not surprise me. I was a little surprised to see the 
Philippines in Tier 1. And I am the author of the Philippine 
Human Rights Act and have a particular interest in what goes on 
there.
    But, and I will learn more as I evolve on this subject 
about the criteria and so forth. But my question to you is how 
often do the regional bureaus within the State Department or 
other parts of the executive branch argue for modifying, and by 
that I mean improving, a country's ranking based on 
considerations having nothing to do with the TVPA prescribed 
criteria?
    I mean, I assume that happens. And I will just ask you the 
second part of the--well, let's go with that first.
    Ambassador Dyer. I will say the TVPA sets out very clearly 
what can be considered in a country's tier ranking and what 
cannot. And I can assure you that the conversations that we 
have are firmly rooted in the----
    Ms. Wild. Language of the TVPA.
    Ambassador Dyer. Parameters set by the TVPA.
    Ms. Wild. OK.
    Ambassador Dyer. And one of the good things is that we 
actually, we do not just communicate or consult with those 
regional bureaus at TIP report time. We actually have ongoing 
relationships with them. And so that actually does make it much 
easier.
    These are not discussions--it is kind of like an employment 
review. You do not bring it up for the first time at the 
review. It is something we should have talked about before.
    And so we have really pretty good ongoing conversations 
regarding not only the TIP report, but also programming in that 
country. And then we are very mindful to remain within the 
parameters that are very clearly set by the TVPA.
    Ms. Wild. So then I take it form that response that no 
matter how much internal lobbying there might be by a region or 
a bureau, the criteria is strictly applied?
    Ambassador Dyer. That is correct. In all of my 
conversations and in all of our conversations, we are focused 
on the minimum standards that are very clearly laid out for us. 
I actually, I love being able to have it, because I can often 
tell--and I actually use this when I am explaining to other 
governments why they may or may not have a tier ranking that 
they like.
    Actually, the clarity that is in the TVPA is like a 
security blanket for me. And I can say this is what I am here 
to look at. And it is very grounding, so thank you.
    Ms. Wild. I am glad to hear that. So I guess that leads me 
to my next question. And how often do you have to interact with 
other countries' governments on the issue of their TVPA 
ranking?
    Ambassador Dyer. We actually, we will insert ourselves into 
any conversation that they will let us slip in the door. We 
actually engage really very, in robust bilateral engagement 
with countries, as well as multilateral.
    I think that of note, just yesterday, the Secretary was 
having a meeting with a foreign minister from a country, and we 
were able to attend the meeting too, to make sure that this 
issue is front and center, even if that was not the topic of 
conversation.
    I think that a lot of that is due to the hard work that you 
guys have done with the TVPA. It is relevant in so many 
conversations, and we definitely will squeeze in the door 
whenever we can.
    Ms. Wild. OK, I am glad to hear that. And I will, as I 
said, watch closely for this year's report.
    Mr. Walsh, I wanted to switch gears a little bit. I have 
the honor of representing the district that counts one of the 
largest Ukrainian-American populations in the United States. 
And on their behalf, my constituents' behalf, and I hear from 
them often, I do want to ask about Russia's horrific ongoing 
invasion and Russian forces' use of various forms of 
trafficking.
    It has been pretty extensively documented. I am not sure 
that it has been documented to the true extent that it has 
happened. But we had another hearing, and I think we had a full 
committee hearing on the issue of children being kidnaped and 
taken to Russia. And I just think the numbers are probably--
that we are seeing are lower than what has actually happened. 
But that is based on anecdotal evidence.
    So can you just tell us generally how USAID is working to 
address this situation?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes, absolutely. So long before Russia's further 
war into Ukraine began, this was a major area of anti-
trafficking work for USAID and for others. And we had a partner 
government and many partners across civil society to work, I 
would say across the four Ps.
    That included helping Ukraine set up its own huge national 
hotline that created a lot of reporting mechanisms to detect 
trafficking.
    Ms. Wild. And do they have that in place now?
    Mr. Walsh. They do. And so there were many other things we 
were doing before, but the hotline, for example, is one of many 
preexisting things that we have contributed to in Ukraine that 
were essential when the true crisis hit early last year.
    And so we had, you know, 6000 people I think it was working 
on like reporting through this hotline, able to receive, you 
know, reports of emergencies in a moment when everyone felt 
they were in an emergency.
    So some of those parts of the problem are very hard to get 
at. A kid who is being held in essentially captivity in Russia. 
But it does mean that there is a large network to help 
Ukrainians contact and reabsorb kids who can make their way 
back into Ukraine, to provide survivor services.
    It is not just people who are trafficked by way of Russia. 
I mean, when everyone is displaced, that creates vulnerable 
populations across the board. And so I think this was actually 
true in a lot of our programming on Ukraine, but the 
preexisting was such a valuable foundation to really turn into 
high gear.
    Ms. Wild. So let me just, you have led me to another 
thought, which is would it make sense for the United States to 
work with other countries who perhaps do not have this kind of 
infrastructure in place that you mentioned that Ukraine has, or 
had before the war? Because it seems to me that that is a vital 
component of this worldwide.
    I do not know how many countries have that kind of 
trafficking infrastructure. Can you give me any idea of like 
the percentage-wise, or?
    Mr. Walsh. I would struggle to numericize it, but you are 
describing the core ethos of our work on trafficking, you know. 
And in countries either where the host government is very 
serious about this problem, or where the USAID mission/embassy 
is every exercised about it, or both, what we try to do is 
essentially a whole-of-society approach that is in the first 
instance preventive by nature.
    But it is also very much about protection of survivors. It 
is about upholding and strengthening the rule of law to go 
after violators.
    And you know, the 35 countries I mentioned where we are 
currently operating, the almost 90 where we have done this, it 
very often is setting up these systems of resilience that can 
catch kind of every kind of trafficking in principle. And like 
it works better in some than in others.
    We try to be very agile when there is an opening in a 
country. So the Chairman mentioned the DR Congo before. Not 
everything is easy in DR Congo. But one thing where there might 
be a moment of opportunity is they have reconstituted their 
anti-trafficking commission nationally. It seems keen to work 
with each of us.
    And so at a moment when the world is focused on especially 
labor abuses in the Congo for much larger geostrategic reasons, 
we have this tool that like we can build out into a resilient, 
multi-stakeholder approach to really chip away at the problem.
    Ms. Wild. OK, that is good to know. And I would love to 
continue the engagement with our committee on what we might do 
here in Congress to continue to assist in that endeavor, both 
in Ukraine and the rest of the world, other countries that need 
it.
    My impression at least from our full hearing that we had on 
the situation with the children in Ukraine was that the 
Ukrainian Prosecutor General is incredibly cooperative and 
proactive. Am I right in that assessment?
    That was very encouraging to see. I do not know whether 
that is--you have that in other countries that you work with or 
not. But I am glad that that is the case.
    So I hope that if there is anything that we can do, and 
believe me, I fully understand that Ukraine is not the only 
place that we need to focus on this problem, it just happens to 
be right now the most visible one I think. And of course I have 
a special interest because of my constituents.
    But if there's other things that we should be looking at to 
improve from our vantage point, please bring it to our 
attention.
    Thank you. I yield.
    Mr. Smith. Mrs. Radewagen.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you very much, Ambassador Dyer and 
Deputy Administrator Walsh, for appearing today.
    USAID has many comprehensive documents, including the CTIP 
policy, CTIP field guides, CTIP code of conduct and standard 
operating procedures to guide your work on combating human 
trafficking among staff and abroad. Assuming that USAID has 
human trafficking experts that have read and understand the 
TVPA and related laws, why is the term sex work used throughout 
these documents?
    Mr. Walsh. I think that the term sex work has come into 
increasingly common use across a wide range of fields, 
including lots of parts of the trafficking apparatus of the 
U.S. Government.
    I would say that we are not assigning value judgment to it 
when it has been used, and that the official position of the 
U.S. Government, including this Administration, is that sex 
work is--that is not meant to connote legitimate, legal work in 
a place. The legality of it in different places obviously 
varies.
    But we are not trying to soften or wash the term, because 
the U.S. Government has a fairly clear position on it.
    Mrs. Radewagen. But is USAID promoting sex work as a legal 
form of employment rather than treating it as exploitation, and 
in cases where there is recruiting, harboring, transportation, 
provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a 
commercial sex act, as sex trafficking in accordance with TVPA?
    I mean, is the Administrator aware of how this approach 
compromises the safety of U.S. taxpayer beneficiaries?
    Mr. Walsh. We are absolutely not promoting this work in any 
of our programming. That is not policy, that is not the intent. 
And if ever we were to find an inadvertent, you know, ancillary 
effect of one of our programs that had that effect, we would 
address it immediately.
    Our focus is on the immense amount of trafficking that 
infiltrates this industry in many different ways and trying to 
provide every kind of support, especially to survivors, and 
accountability to perpetrators that we can, and that we can 
help our local partners to do.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you. Just a couple of final questions, and 
again, thank you for your patience. It has been a long hearing, 
but I think very, very enlightening and a good one.
    Let me just ask you with regards to, you know, JTIP has 
obviously create the Human Trafficking Expert Consultant 
Network. And I am very glad that you include victims the way 
you do.
    And I am just wondering if there is any attempt or any 
plans to try to hire, bring in and make full-time employees in 
very strategic positions, those who, again, have that lived 
experience and have overcome what they have overcome.
    Ambassador Dyer. First of all, I completely share your 
focus on survivor leaders and those with lived experience. They 
absolutely are critical in every phase of our program. Not just 
in drafting the law, yes, but also in how we implement it. And 
it has been an honor to get to work with members of the 
advisory council, even in the highest levels, during the most 
recent President's interagency task force.
    And Brenda Myers-Powell from the advisory council spoke and 
sat at the table right there up next to all the cabinet-level 
people. It was just amazing, and such a change from when I 
began work in 1993. So just, it is wonderful.
    We actually are considering ways to better inform all of 
our work in all ways, whether it is through hiring, whether it 
is through using the consultant network.
    We currently do I think the best training that I have ever 
personally attended was when I came onto this job, and it was 
offered for the Trafficking in Persons Office. And it was 
provided by a member of the network, the consultants' network.
    And it--she did it in connection with another expert. It is 
tremendous, and we are actually, that is one of the priorities 
that I want to make to make sure that we are fulsomely 
including survivor voices in all that we do. And I promise it 
will remain a priority for me.
    Mr. Smith. Can I ask you how many people are working the 
TIP Office today? And obviously you have people in every 
embassy that, you know, are doing data calls and the like. But 
in the actual TIP Office?
    Ambassador Dyer. I believe, I can correct this is I am 
wrong, I believe it is about 86 full-time folks and about 27 
additional consultants. We also have some Foreign Services 
officers. And I can certainly let you know specifically.
    Mr. Smith. That would be great.
    Ambassador Dyer. And you are right that we do work really 
closely with our colleagues, the Foreign Service officers that 
are out in the embassies that are kind of the boots on the 
ground. And it is a great honor to get to collaborate with 
them.
    Mr. Smith. I know OMB may not like this question, but is 
your budget sufficient? Could you do more with more resources?
    Ambassador Dyer. Well, you know, I am not going to turn 
down piles of money. But you know, we--I feel like----
    Mr. Smith. Kind of like what is not being done because of 
lack of resources.
    Ambassador Dyer. You know, we are able--we are a lean, 
mean, machine, and we are doing really--we are fully meeting 
our mandates. We do have a terrific staff with amazing 
expertise. I have specifically enjoyed getting to work with 
some of our Foreign Service officers too.
    So we appreciate your focus on us. Thank you.
    Mr. Smith. Mr. Walsh?
    Mr. Walsh. On the question about the role of survivors, in 
our agency, the first thing I would say is such is the 
prevalence of this crime, and that any agency as large as USAID 
will absolutely have a great many survivors working for it. 
There is no way around that.
    Second, we very formally and in a concerted way incorporate 
survivors in designing basically anything that has to do with 
counter-trafficking. I think it was Mrs. Hounakey who said 
nothing about us without us.
    So for instance, our global anti-trafficking policy that we 
put out was based on consultations with survivors who we 
brought in for a very rigorous back-and-forth exchange. 
Versions of that are true in program design around the world.
    And I would just say as a--we often see these very virtuous 
follow-on effects from that. And as one example, in Bangladesh, 
we did a major anti-trafficking program that included like 
training in a vast range of services to help survivors of the 
sort we have talked about.
    The essentially graduates of that program self-organized 
into their own national advocacy network of survivors, and they 
are pushing the Bangladeshi Government, which is receptive in 
many cases, in a way that we ourselves could not possibly have 
achieved. So it is this virtuous cycle.
    And then in terms of--I am not going to wade too much into 
funding questions, but I would just refer back to my very first 
point, which is that we do not have centralized, dedicated 
anti-trafficking money at USAID. And so missions are looking at 
their discretionary budgets and making choices among uniformly 
virtuous causes.
    And it is very clear year after year that the demand for 
anti-trafficking resources is quite high. Like it easily 
outstrips every year the minimum of the earmark. And you know, 
we in the center are trying to inform those programs and make 
them as effective as possible.
    But it reflects not just the scale of the problem, but the 
ardor to do something about it that we see, without having to 
tell people, just organically around the world.
    Ms. Wild. I'm so sorry to step out, Mr. Chairman. I have to 
get to a 1:30. But I am going to be following up. Thank you so 
very much for holding this.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you so much.
    Just one or two final questions and we will submit a few 
for the record as well.
    When the interagency meetings occur, does Homeland security 
get into--and Justice Department as well--into what the 
prosecutors are doing or not doing, U.S. Attorneys are doing or 
not doing to make this a priority?
    I mean, every time, every Administration, we have tried 
very hard to say please make this a priority. I met with my own 
U.S. Attorney a number of times. I said please make it a 
priority. You know, and if it comes from the Attorney General, 
it is a priority.
    And I am wondering especially with these huge numbers of 
migrant children, unaccompanied minors, and others who 
potentially, and I really hope you will get to us ASAP on those 
numbers. I mean, we, I believe, have a catastrophic situation 
underway now where they have gone missing and they are being 
exploited.
    Well, some very heavy focused, and you are prosecuting--
focused on law enforcement, you know, with the idea of it is 
all about rescuing. But let's go after the perpetrators of 
these crimes, we'll make a difference. Does that get a 
discussed when you have the interagency meetings?
    And again, you know, with all due respect, when certain 
people say, oh, the border is secure, well it is not. And 
evidence every day of huge lines of people coming in. And I 
couldn't be more worried about those individuals.
    Like I said in the opening, I have heard from several 
people, including the President of Guatemala, on how many of 
these women and young girls are sexually assaulted. It is just, 
it is outrageous.
    And so you know, what is discussed at those interagency 
meetings about we need to go after this with everything we have 
got. One thing that Bush did when he first got elected--first 
began, because it took him a while to implement the TVPA, and I 
am sorry to say that.
    But then when he did, he did rescue-and-restore conferences 
all over the country. And I went to a few of them. I went to 
one in Newark, he did one in Tampa, he did.
    And it was to get the U.S. Attorneys, the local 
prosecutors, everybody on the same--the NGO's and the whole 
faith-based community. It was to say make it a priority, make 
it a priority. Because quickly priorities become less so if we 
do not ever promote it.
    And I am just wondering if, you know, just asking again, is 
it a priority enough among all the different agencies?
    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you so much for asking. And as you 
were asking the question, I was wondering if you were 
eavesdropping on a meeting that I had yesterday. Because not 
only do we talk about it at the President's interagency task 
force, and certainly at the senior policy operating group.
    But we have one-off meetings where we go into deeper 
detail. I had a meeting with Hilary Axam yesterday, who I am 
such a fan of. She is the head of the Human Trafficking 
Prosecution Unit at DOJ. She is also the new national 
coordinator there at DOJ on human trafficking.
    And she and I were talking about this literally yesterday. 
So we are absolutely focused on it. We are absolutely trying to 
make sure also, another that we talked about, I think that 
interestingly I know that people who previously have been in 
this role have been prosecutors.
    But they were all Federal prosecutors. I was the prosecutor 
that had a can of corn propping up one corner of my desk 
because it was in Dallas County and we did not have all the 
resources. But many of our State and locals certainly are 
getting these cases.
    And we were even strategizing about that. So please know 
that--and I do not want to over-emphasize prosecution, because 
I know deeply all that I could not do as a prosecutor, which is 
why I worked at a shelter for 9 years and at a non-profit. But 
certainly we have a role to play, and certainly it is top of 
mind as recently as yesterday.
    So thank you so much.
    Mr. Smith. Not to belabor the point, but is there any 
ballpark number as to how many of the illegal migrants are 
trafficked?
    Ambassador Dyer. You know, you bring up such a good point. 
The migrants are deeply at risk of trafficking, for the very 
reasons that you spoke about earlier.
    Many times they have debt that they have paid someone to 
help them get across the border, and then once they arrive they 
are not able to pay off that debt. They are ending up in a 
place in a debt bondage. That is one of the most common ways.
    I do not have specific numbers for you, but I will 
definitely commit to looking to see if they exist. Because we 
certainly recognize that migrants are deeply vulnerable and for 
the reasons we talked about. And I am happy to look in to see 
if there is actual data for that.
    Mr. Smith. And again, I do not want the conflating, I am 
asking it and not be conflated with smuggling----
    Ambassador Dyer. Correct.
    Mr. Smith. And that kind of thing. Because we need a clear 
line of demarcation, even though sometimes smuggling 
matriculates into a trafficking situation. But more--we need to 
be specific. And I appreciate you getting back to us ASAP.
    But we do have a final question from my--or questions from 
my friend and colleague, Mrs. Radewagen.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
    Actually, I have two questions. Here is the first one. Mr. 
Walsh, the revision of the CTIP policy in January 2021 was for 
the first time survivor-informed by paying survivor consultants 
for their expertise and review of the document. What steps did 
USAID take to ensure the revision in December 2021 was also 
survivor-informed?
    The policy highlights a survivor-informed approach. What 
steps are being taken by USAID missions to co-create local CTIP 
programming? And are survivors being paid for their consulting 
services to USAID?
    Mr. Walsh. So that policy is essentially the guidance that 
Washington puts out to any field mission that wants to do 
trafficking programming or to renew it. And is conveying best 
practices, overall priorities. And that is true across a range 
of fields.
    If there was one foremost principle that we tried to imbue 
in this version of the CTIP policy it was the survivor-centered 
framework through which we want every program to be designed. I 
would not describe that as new per se, but it is our foremost 
priority.
    And so now when missions do design these programs, we will 
send top-notch expertise to help them, to help convene 
survivors, to inform the local context of any given program----
    Mrs. Radewagen. Excuse me, Mr. Walsh. My time is short.
    Mr. Walsh. Oh, forgive me.
    Mrs. Radewagen. You are not answering my question. What 
steps did USAID take to ensure the revision in December 2021 
CTIP policy was also survivor-informed?
    Mr. Walsh. I fear I am missing which part I am not 
answering. We consulted with a group of survivors. I could come 
back to you on who was paid versus not paid. I would have to 
look into that, and I would not want to misspeak.
    But they were central drivers of the core ideas in that 
policy, and by extension, our programs are designed thusly.
    Mrs. Radewagen. And with your permission, Mr. Chairman, 
Ambassador Dyer and Mr. Walsh, smaller, survivor-led anti-
trafficking organizations often encounter difficulty in 
applying for and competing with large development organizations 
for U.S.-funded programs because Federal contracting procedures 
are complex, to say the least.
    How can JTIP and USAID develop systems for anti-trafficking 
implementation that help these smaller organizations, such as 
set-asides for survivor-led organizations or increasing the 
number of smaller grants that only grassroots organizations are 
likely to bid for?
    Likewise, is there a CTIP senior accountable officer at 
USAID to help with these efforts? If so, why--if not, why not?
    Ambassador Dyer. I actually really appreciate that 
question. I worked at a non-profit where we focused on 
supporting locally led women leaders and women's organizations. 
You are so right that they were unable to apply for not just 
JTIP funding, but just any Federal Government funding. It is 
very complicated.
    One of the things that I think that JTIP has done a good 
job of is many of our programs require like a local 
organization. And so some of our big programs, we have the main 
organization is a big non-profit that is able to do the 
financial disclosure and they have a DUNS number, and they have 
all these things.
    But they are required to work with a local in the field. 
And so that is one of the ways. And you know, the benefit of 
that is a lot of times those local NGO's actually get on-the-
job capacity building, with the hopes that they can at some 
point learn to do it themselves.
    And so that is something I know that we have done that with 
our program to end modern slavery, which we are very grateful 
to Congress for helping us. I know that we have done it with 
that program.
    And I know that one of the things that I am really focused 
on is, you know, as a former grantee of the JTIP Office, is 
making sure that we are really making sure that our programs 
are not only available to those smaller NGO's, but also that 
they are--that our grantees are survivor-led.
    And so really focused on that, so thank you for your 
question.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Administrator Walsh?
    Mr. Walsh. Sure. First of all, localization is one of our 
top priorities across areas. It certainly applies here. There 
is a continual balance between ensuring accountability for the 
money that we put out into the field with minimizing the burden 
on implementers such that small organizations, local 
organizations, are as able to compete for and to implement 
programs with our money as any large conglomerate.
    And so I think we look at as No. 1, the percentage of money 
that is actually going to small organizations, and we are 
trying to continue to move that up.
    But it is--localization on CTIP programming or anything 
else is also about local voices designing it, per our last 
topic, is about how involved are they in monitoring the program 
as it goes on. So helping us gather very localized data so that 
work we do is actually tailored to local needs.
    And by way of one example, I would say in Malawi, there is 
an organization Global Hope Mobilization, really inspiring 
group, that is the direct implementer of a real whole-of-
society approach across really all the four Ps. There is no 
international intermediary. It is just a very effective group 
of locals in a country that is experiencing like a democratic 
and human rights opening. So a really important moment to take 
advantage of.
    And then in terms of you asked about the senior official 
accountable, on some level I regret to note that I suppose it 
is me. We are, in the center we are vastly smaller than JTIP in 
terms of a dedicated anti-trafficking office.
    That is somewhat balanced by the fact that our missions are 
implementing in a more decentralized way the vast majority of 
USAID's on-the-ground work.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you very much.
    Again, I want to thank you for your leadership. I thank you 
for your patience. This is a very long but I think a very, very 
incisive hearing from first our first panel and now the both of 
you. So thank you for that.
    I do want to thank CSPAN for being here. You know, they 
have independent editorial judgment as to what they cover, 
because there are so many hearings on Capitol Hill and so many 
events that they can go to.
    They are here today, and they have provided an opportunity 
for Americans to hear you and to hear our extraordinary panel 
that preceded you and the victims who just poured out their 
hearts about what they went through. But also what they are 
doing to mitigate and hopefully end this horrible scourge of 
human trafficking.
    So thank you. The hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 1:23 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

                                APPENDIX

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


            RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]



                              [all]