WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin has co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to stop the trafficking of human beings who are being bought and sold domestically and across international borders and are being exploited through forced labor or sexual exploitation. The Congressman, Ranking Member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, said that "human trafficking is a scourge that involves sexual exploitation and forced labor and affects millions of people worldwide."

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, HR 972, will improve U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking. The United States estimates that 600,000 to 800,0000 women, children and men are victims of international human trafficking annually. The State Department estimates that trafficking internally within countries involves another two to three million people annually. An estimated 80% of the victims are women and girls.

"This bill improves efforts to combat trafficking in humans beings both internationally and domestically. We need a comprehensive strategy that will put a stop to the exploitation and enslavement of people," said the Congressman.

The legislation addresses trafficking by:

* Incorporating trafficking prevention activities in post-conflict and humanitarian emergency relief programs conducted by the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of Defense;

* Requiring that sex offender registries, as established by the Jacob Wetterling Act and Megan's Law, include convictions in foreign courts;

* Improving trafficking victims' access to information about federally funded victim services programs and facilitating access to counsel for victims;

* Establishing a guardian ad litem program for child victims of trafficking;

* Requiring USAID to establish a pilot program of long-term residential rehabilitation facilities for victims of trafficking and authorizing $2.5 million for 2 years for this purpose.

* Expanding U.S. criminal jurisdiction for felony offenses committed by contractors working abroad for Federal agencies;

* Amending the Uniform Code of Military Justice to create punitive provisions for sex and labor trafficking by members of the U.S. Armed Forces;

* Expanding the ability to prosecute traffickers for money laundering;

* Amending the Protect Act to require U.S. Embassies to seek local prosecution or extradition of American citizens who commit sex crimes overseas.

* Appointing the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking;

* Requiring that the Attorney General's annual report to Congress include data on the number of trafficking victims identified, and benefits granted, with respect to each trafficking case prosecuted by the Department of Justice;

* Refining criteria for determining whether a government is making ``serious and sustained efforts'' to eliminate trafficking;

* Expressing the need for research into the linkage between trafficking and the financing of terrorism; trafficking and HIV/AIDS; the development of an effective mechanism for quantifying the number of victims of trafficking; and the enslavement of children for use as soldiers;

* Requiring that human rights training for Foreign Service Officers include instruction about trafficking in persons;

* Requiring that the annual Trafficking in Persons Report include information on steps taken by the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other international organizations to eliminate involvement of the organizations' personnel in trafficking;

* Requiring that the Secretary of State certify prior to endorsing an international peacekeeping mission that measures have been taken to prevent the peacekeepers from being involved with trafficking.

* Directing the Secretary of Defense to designate within the Office of the Secretary of Defense a director of anti-trafficking policies;

* Directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate acts of trafficking;

* Providing new initiatives to combat the trafficking of U.S. citizens and nationals within the United States.

Other sponsors of the bill include: U.S. Reps. Chris Smith, R-NJ; Tom Lantos, D-CA; Roy Blunt, R-MO; Donald Payne, D-NJ; Frank Wolf, R-VA; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL; Mike Pence, R-IN; Joseph Pitts, R-PA and Eni, Faleomavaega, D-American Samoa.

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