Senate Passes Ellmers' Bipartisan Human Trafficking Legislation

Press Release

Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02) released the following statement following passage of her human trafficking legislation, The Trafficking Awareness Training for Health Care Act, which was proposed as amendment S. 308 to Senator John Cornyn's legislation, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.

"I am delighted that my legislation was included as an amendment to the Senate's human trafficking package, Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, and grateful to Senators Cassidy and Peters for their commitment to shepherding this amendment through the legislative process."

"As a member of the medical community, I know how often we are on the frontlines when it comes to caring for victims of human trafficking. As such, we need to ensure that healthcare professionals are prepared to recognize hallmark signs of abuse so they can intercede on behalf of the patient. This amendment, S. 308, will play a critical role in educating our country's medical community so that we can help victims break out of this cycle and put a stop to one of the gravest human rights violations in existence today."

On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, Congresswomen Renee Ellmers and Debbie Wasserman Schultz's human trafficking legislation passed the Senate as an amendment to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, as put forth by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Gary Peters (D-MI). A copy of this amendment can be found below.

On January 21, 2015, The Trafficking Awareness Training for Health Care Act of 2015 was introduced by Representatives Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23). This legislation trains healthcare workers to recognize the hallmark signs of human trafficking, thus allowing professionals to intervene on a patient's behalf. This legislation trains healthcare workers to recognize the hallmark signs of human trafficking, thus allowing professionals to intervene on a patients' behalf. A counterpart to this legislation was introduced in the Senate by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Gary Peters (D-MI).

This bipartisan legislation requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award a grant to a medical or nursing school within each of the 10 administrative regions to develop best practices for health care professionals. These best practices will allow for them to recognize, respond, and intervene on behalf of human trafficking victims.

From this grant, methods will be developed to train health care professionals on evidence-based practices used to help them identify victims of human trafficking when they are present in a healthcare setting. One entity in each of the 10 administrative regions of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will create a pilot program to test these best practices, and as a result, the findings of the pilot programs will be referred to as evidence-based methods for identifying the trademark signs associated with victims involved in this crime. Following this hierarchy, the Trafficking Awareness Training for Health Care Act will direct HHS to disseminate evidence-based best practices on their website and to health care professionals based in schools.

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