WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) today introduced The Trafficking in Persons Report Integrity Act (TIPRIA), legislation designed to comprehensively reform the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP). The TIP process came under large international scrutiny after the 2015 report rankings were proven to have been blatantly and intentionally watered-down due to political pressures that gave favorable status to certain countries despite failures to meet minimum legal standards prescribed by Congress.

As the U.S. government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking, the TIP report has been the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue. Today’s bill introduction comes on the heels of a study published earlier this week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealing serious flaws in the tier-ranking system for the TIP Report.

“After the past two reports’ fiascos of unwarranted, politically-driven upgrades of countries with deplorable human trafficking records like Cuba and Malaysia, the United States’ commitment and credibility in fighting the scourge of modern day slavery remains on the line,” said Senator Menendez. “Informed by both leading human rights advocates and the GAO’s investigative findings, this legislation charts a clear path to restore credibility and improve the TIP report ranking process through a series of bold reforms that inject transparency and make clear that it will never be subject to political manipulation again. I will work forcefully so that this important legislation is adopted and we can fully reestablish our ability to objectively evaluate countries’ actions to combat human trafficking, revitalize our support for the victims of modern day slavery, and recommit to putting the fight against human trafficking above politics.”

“In recent years, we’ve seen political agendas at the State Department interfere with America’s efforts to shine a light on human trafficking around the world,” said Senator Rubio. “The Trafficking in Persons Report should be above politics and should reflect the full extent to which modern slavery exists and what governments are doing – or failing to do – about it. Passing this bill will bring greater transparency to this process of preparing the report and in doing so, it will help us hold human traffickers around the world accountable.”

“The Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking (ATEST) has been dismayed by the State Department’s unwarranted tier ranking upgrades for certain countries in recent years, including Malaysia in the 2015 report and Thailand in 2016. By our assessment, neither country’s government had demonstrated significant or effective effort to combat human trafficking, particularly forced labor and sexual exploitation. The unjustifiable tier ranking upgrades for Malaysia and Thailand greatly tarnished the integrity of the TIP report, and we applaud Senators Menendez and Rubio for their efforts to ensure the report’s credibility moving forward," added Melysa Sperber, Director of The Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking (ATEST).

The Trafficking in Persons Report Integrity Act seeks to restore credibility to the TIP report by making sweeping reforms that strengthen the minimum standards countries must meet, clarify actions that countries must take to earn higher rankings, enhance transparency and Congressional oversight of the ranking process, and restrict certain U.S. assistance to governments that fail to combat human trafficking.

Senator Menendez has led the fight in Congress to avoid trade with human traffickers and the politicization of the TIP report, calling for hearings on the undue political pressure in 2015, and authoring an amendment to the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation that for the first time prohibited expedited “fast track” congressional consideration for any trade deal including a country ranked Tier 3 in a TIP report. The Menendez amendment was signed into law by President Obama on June 29th, 2015.

The Trafficking in Persons Report Integrity Act (TIPRIA)

Strengthens Minimum Standards and Clarifies the Ranking Process:

  • Requires any country whose government sponsors forced labor to be ranked Tier 3.
  • Makes TIP rankings contingent on concrete actions taken by a country in the defined reporting period.
  • Requires the State Department to specify of how the concrete actions (or lack thereof) undertaken by the country contributed to the change in ranking, including a clear linkage with the minimum standards. A recent GAO study highlighted this as a major gap in the existing TIP Report process.
  • Strikes existing language that implies a country can be placed on Tier 2 Watch List based on promises of future action.
  • Requires that countries must investigate and prosecute acts of trafficking without bias, instead of simply focusing on low-level prosecutions or neglecting involvement by government officials.
  • Current law states that a country that has been included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years must be automatically downgraded to Tier 3 if it does not achieve enough progress to earn an upgrade to Tier 2 in the third year. However, this requirement can be waived by the President for two additional years. The bill shortens the waiver to one year, adds a requirement that a country must take concrete actions to implement the principal recommendations of the annual report in order to be eligible for the waiver, and requires the Secretary of State to publish online a justification for the waiver along with detailed evidence demonstrating the country’s actions to combat trafficking.
  • Requires that any country that is automatically downgraded to Tier 3 must subsequently meet the requirements to be ranked Tier 2 and cannot simply be upgraded back to Tier 2 Watch List.

Increases Transparency & Congressional Oversight:

  • Current law states that a country that does not provide data on investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences shall be automatically deemed to be Tier 3. However, the Secretary of State may disregard that provision if the country has provided “some data” to the State Department and the Secretary has determined that the country is “making a good faith effort” to collect missing data. The bill adds a new requirement that before the Secretary makes such a determination, the Secretary must submit to Congress copies of the foreign government data and a description of the good faith efforts made by the country.
  • Current law requires the President to make, within 90 days after the publication of the annual or interim TIP report, one of several determinations on whether to withhold non-humanitarian, nontrade-related aid for Tier 3 countries. However, there is also blanket waiver authority for the President to waive, at any time, aid restrictions that had been previously imposed. The bill modifies this waiver to require the President to report to Congress before lifting previously imposed restrictions against a Tier 3 country.

Restricts Certain U.S. Assistance to Governments Failing to Meet Minimum Standards:

  • Current law states “it is the policy of the United States not to provide non-humanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance to any government” ranked Tier 3. The bill replaces “nontrade-related” with “non-anti-human trafficking related” in that policy statement, and in subsequent provisions that exempt trade-related aid from penalties applied to Tier 3 countries.
  • Current law directs the President to use the voice and vote of the United States to oppose any loan to a Tier 3 country by a multilateral development bank (MDB), but provides a frequently exercised waiver. The bill strengthens this provision by directing the President to use the voice and vote of the United States to oppose any loan to a Tier 2 Watch List or Tier 3 country, if that loan does not include a significant anti-trafficking component and removes the waiver.
  • Requires Treasury to report annually how the U.S. voted on each proposed MDB loan to Tier 3 and Tier 2 Watch List countries and how each MDB is implementing anti-human trafficking policies in its project safeguards and procurement policies.

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