{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.peters.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/house-passes-peters-bipartisan-bill-to-fight-human-trafficking", "House Passes Peters Bipartisan Bill to Fight Human Trafficking", "2022-12-15", "2022", "2022-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "MI", "Gary C. Peters", "P000595", "www.peters.senate.gov", "garypeters", "https://www.peters.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 The House has passed bipartisan legislation authored by U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that would enhance our nation\u2019s ability to combat human trafficking. The bill, would make permanent and strengthen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT). The legislation passed the Senate in April, and now moves to the President to be signed into law.\n\n\u201cHuman trafficking is horrific and these crimes \u2013 which often go unreported \u2013 must be stopped,\u201d said Senator Peters. \u201cThis bipartisan bill will provide the Center for Countering Human Trafficking with tools, resources and authorities needed to disrupt human trafficking organizations and ensure our nation can protect victims of these terrible crimes.\u201d\n\nMillions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide \u2013 including thousands in the United States. According to DHS, traffickers might use violence, manipulation, false promises of jobs that pay well, or romantic relationships to lure victims into trafficking situations. Based on calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the Polaris Project found that in 2020 there were at least 16,658 human trafficking victims and survivors in the United States. However, the actual number of these crimes is likely much larger because these crimes often go unreported. In addition, the Michigan Human Trafficking Commission says that an extremely high number of human trafficking cases involve the sexual exploitation of a child. Eradicating these heinous crimes will require stronger anti-trafficking policies and ensuring that law enforcement professionals and the public are able to recognize indicators of human trafficking.\n\nThe Countering Human Trafficking Act will make permanent the CCHT, which oversees DHS\u2019s efforts to combat human trafficking and the importation of products that are made with forced labor. The Center also ensures the Department is leveraging and coordinating its capabilities and resources to fight back against traffickers. The bill would allow the CCHT to build out their permanent staff with Special Agents, criminal analysts, and others. It will also allow the Center to modernize their systems and operations to support worldwide investigations on human trafficking and forced labor in supply chains, and bolster efforts to protect human trafficking victims. Finally, the legislation will also expand and improve national public awareness and law enforcement training initiatives to boost efforts to counter trafficking.\n\nPeters\u2019 legislation to increase coordination between Department of Homeland Security components and the Blue Campaign, a national public awareness effort designed to educate law enforcement and the public to recognize human trafficking, was signed into law as a part of last year\u2019s National Defense Authorization Act.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:32:05Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.peters.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/house-passes-peters-bipartisan-bill-to-fight-human-trafficking"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0701379980891943, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}