The Current

I am thrilled about new legislation that’s going to be introduced this week in the House and the Senate. I know, not everybody’s pulse races at the idea of new legislation. And this legislation in particular may seem a little wonky: It is a bill to upgrade the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) to a full-fledged State Department Bureau. But let me explain why this simple little inside-the-Beltway measure could make a big difference for children, women and men in slavery.

The TIP Office was created by Congress in 2001 to lead our government’s global anti-slavery policies, and it does so admirably. Every year, the TIP Office’s experts compile and publish a report on 188 countries’ anti-trafficking efforts and devises diplomatic strategies to encourage greater success. The office also implements a small but significant grants program to NGOs around the world. IJM has been the recipient of several such grants for our anti-trafficking work in Cambodia, India and the Philippines over the past ten years.

But the TIP Office is less influential than it should be when anti-slavery policies compete with other U.S. interests. The powerful regional Bureaus at the State Department and U.S. embassies abroad have a number of geopolitical interests to promote, and anti-slavery priorities are often subordinated to other policy objectives. The TIP Office’s leaders are disadvantaged in discussions within the State Department because an office has less prestige than a State Department Bureau.  The Ambassador-at-Large who heads the TIP Office does not have direct access to the Secretary of State—but he would if the TIP Office were a Bureau and he were an Assistant Secretary of State.

Anti-trafficking leaders in Congress—Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) in the House and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in the Senate—are introducing a tiny bill that makes an important change: it elevates the TIP Office into a Bureau, headed by an Assistant Secretary of State. This small, virtually cost-free change will increase the TIP Office’s leaders’ access and influence dramatically. And that will be good news for those living in slavery.

The TIP Office represents some of the most marginalized people on earth, and so we as advocates need to make sure this office is as powerful as it can be. When the United States exerts its influence and presses foreign governments to rescue victims and prosecute traffickers and slave owners, we can see a real difference in the countries where IJM works.

The House bill, named the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act (HR 2283), and its companion bill in the Senate, S 1249, were introduced in June. We are thankful to Congressman Smith and Senator Blumenthal and their staff and for their willingness to fight for policies that will help bring an end to modern-day slavery.

Please join us in urging your Representative and Senators to co-sponsor this important legislation!