Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) announced that last night, two legislative packages she helped secure to prevent human trafficking passed the Senate. Senator Cortez Masto’s bipartisan provision in the Abolish Human Trafficking Reauthorization Act of 2022 will ensure that Department of Justice grant funding can be used for training to help law enforcement officers identify child trafficking cases and give critical assistance to victims. The bipartisan measure she secured in the Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 will help combat human trafficking activity on social media platforms, including Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram. Together, these two pieces of legislation will deliver significant resources to law enforcement and service providers combatting human trafficking across the U.S.
“Combatting human trafficking requires resources, creativity, and dedication. I’ve worked to prevent human trafficking, hold perpetrators accountable, and help survivors heal since I was Nevada’s Attorney General, and I’ll keep up this fight,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “These bipartisan bills I helped secure will give us critical new tools in the fight against human trafficking, and I urge the House to pass them.”
Senator Cortez Masto’s bipartisan Interdiction for the Protection of Child Victims of Exploitation and Human Trafficking Act, to train law enforcement officers to recognize and rescue at-risk, trafficked, and exploited children, was included in the Abolish Human Trafficking Reauthorization Act of 2022. Her bipartisan legislation to help combat human trafficking activity on social media platforms, the Human Trafficking Online Research Act, was included as part of the Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022.
Senator Cortez Masto has been an outspoken advocate for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. In 2020, she passed the bipartisan Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act to help address the epidemic of missing, murdered, and trafficked Indigenous women. She has repeatedly called on the administration to do more to address the epidemic of violence against Native women and girls, including securing federal funding to protect Native communities, urging the administration to draft a plan to address this issue, and requesting the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the federal response to this crisis. She has also introduced legislation to combat trafficking at transportation hubs.
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