LIFT Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4478 To amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to ensure adequate time for the preparation of the annual Trafficking in Persons Report and to require the timely provision of information to the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Bureau of Diplo- matic Security of the Department of State regarding the number and location of visa denials based on grounds related to human trafficking. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES AUGUST 6, 2020 Mr. BLUMENTHAL (for himself and Mr. HAWLEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to ensure adequate time for the preparation of the an- nual Trafficking in Persons Report and to require the timely provision of information to the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security of the Department of State regard- ing the number and location of visa denials based on grounds related to human trafficking. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4478 IS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLES. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Leveraging Informa- 2 tion on Foreign Traffickers Act’’ or the ‘‘LIFT Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4 It is the sense of Congress that— 5 (1) the annual Trafficking In Persons Report 6 prepared by the Department of State pursuant to 7 the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (the 8 ‘‘TIP Report’’) remains one of the most comprehen- 9 sive, timely, and important sources of information on 10 human trafficking in the world, and currently in- 11 cludes 187 individual country narratives; 12 (2) in January 2019, the statute mandating the 13 TIP Report was amended to require that each report 14 must cover efforts and activities occurring within the 15 period from April 1 of the prior year through March 16 31 of the current year, which necessarily requires 17 the collection and transmission of information after 18 March 31; 19 (3) ensuring that the Department of State has 20 adequate time to receive, analyze, and incorporate 21 trafficking-related information into its annual Traf- 22 ficking In Persons Report is important to the quality 23 and comprehensiveness of that report; 24 (4) information regarding prevalence and pat- 25 terns of human trafficking is important for under- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4478 IS standing the scourge of modern slavery and making 1 effective decisions about where and how to combat 2 it; and 3 (5) United States officials responsible for moni- 4 toring and combating trafficking in persons around 5 the world should receive available information re- 6 garding where and how often United States diplo- 7 matic and consular officials encounter persons who 8 are responsible for, or who knowingly benefit from, 9 severe forms of trafficking in persons. 10 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 11 In this Act: 12 (1) LOCATIONS OF UNITED STATES VISA DENI- 13 ALS.—The term ‘‘location of United States visa de- 14 nials’’ means— 15 (A) the United States diplomatic or con- 16 sular post at which a denied United States visa 17 application was adjudicated; and 18 (B) the city or locality of residence of the 19 applicant whose visa application was so denied. 20 (2) RELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT- 21 TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant congressional commit- 22 tees’’ means— 23 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 24 the Senate; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4478 IS (B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 1 Senate; 2 (C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 3 the House of Representatives; and 4 (D) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 5 House of Representatives. 6 SEC. 4. ANNUAL DEADLINE FOR TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 7 REPORT. 8 Section 110(b)(1) of the Trafficking Victims Protec- 9 tion Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7107(b)(1)) is amended by 10 striking ‘‘June 1’’ and inserting ‘‘June 30’’. 11 SEC. 5. UNITED STATES ADVISORY COUNCIL ON HUMAN 12 TRAFFICKING. 13 (a) EXTENSION.—Section 115(h) of the Justice for 14 Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 (Public Law 114–22; 15 129 Stat. 243) is amended by striking ‘‘September 30, 16 2021’’ and inserting ‘‘September 30, 2025’’. 17 (b) COMPENSATION.—Section 115(f) of such Act is 18 amended— 19 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 20 end; 21 (2) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at 22 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 23 (3) by adding at the end the following: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4478 IS ‘‘(3) may each receive compensation for each 1 day such member is engaged in the actual perform- 2 ance of the duties of the Council.’’. 3 (c) COMPENSATION REPORT.—Not later than 120 4 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec- 5 retary of State shall submit a plan to the relevant congres- 6 sional committees for implementing compensation for 7 members of the United States Advisory Council on Human 8 Trafficking pursuant to section 115(f)(3) of the Justice 9 for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, as added by sub- 10 section (b)(3). 11 SEC. 6. TIMELY PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO THE OF- 12 FICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAF- 13 FICKING IN PERSONS OF THE DEPARTMENT 14 OF STATE. 15 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 106 of the Trafficking 16 Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7104) is 17 amended by adding at the end the following: 18 ‘‘(l) INFORMATION REGARDING HUMAN TRAF- 19 FICKING-RELATED VISA DENIALS.— 20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State 21 shall ensure that the Office to Monitor and Combat 22 Trafficking in Persons and the Bureau of Diplo- 23 matic Security of the Department of State receive 24 timely and regular information regarding United 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4478 IS States visa denials based, in whole or in part, on 1 grounds related to human trafficking. 2 ‘‘(2) DECISIONS REGARDING ALLOCATION.— 3 The Secretary of State shall ensure that decisions 4 regarding the allocation of resources of the Depart- 5 ment of State related to combating human traf- 6 ficking and to law enforcement presence at United 7 States diplomatic and consular posts appropriately 8 take into account— 9 ‘‘(A) the information described in para- 10 graph (1); and 11 ‘‘(B) the information included in the most 12 recent report submitted in accordance with sec- 13 tion 110(b).’’. 14 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 103 of 15 such Act (22 U.S.C. 7102) is amended by adding at the 16 end the following: 17 ‘‘(18) GROUNDS RELATED TO HUMAN TRAF- 18 FICKING.—The term ‘grounds related to human traf- 19 ficking’ means grounds related to the criteria for in- 20 admissibility to the United States described in sec- 21 tion 212(a)(2)(H) of the Immigration and Nation- 22 ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(H)).’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 4478 IS SEC. 7. REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 1 (a) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 90 days after 2 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 3 State shall submit a report to the relevant congressional 4 committees that— 5 (1) describes the actions that have been taken 6 and that are planned to implement section 106(l) of 7 the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as 8 added by section 6(a); and 9 (2) identifies by country and by United States 10 diplomatic and consular post the number of visa ap- 11 plications denied during the previous calendar year 12 with respect to which the basis for such denial, in- 13 cluded grounds related to human trafficking (as de- 14 fined in section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Pro- 15 tection Act of 2000, as amended by section 6(b)). 16 (b) ANNUAL REPORT.—Beginning with the first an- 17 nual anti-trafficking report required under section 18 110(b)(1) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 19 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7107(b)(1)) that is submitted after the 20 date of the enactment of this Act, and concurrent with 21 each such subsequent submission for the following 7 years, 22 the Secretary of State shall submit a report to the relevant 23 congressional committees that contains information relat- 24 ing to the number and the locations of United States visa 25 denials based, in whole or in part, on grounds related to 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 4478 IS human trafficking (as defined in section 103 of the Traf- 1 ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended by 2 section 6(b)) during the period covered by each such re- 3 port. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Aug 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4478.IS S4478 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS