Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2025
This bill, titled the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2025, reauthorizes and strengthens the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 and updates several related policies. Domestically, it transforms and expands prevention and survivor-support programs, notably renaming and reshaping grants for prevention education as Frederick Douglass Human Trafficking Prevention Education Grants, with explicit emphasis on accessibility, cultural responsiveness, trauma-informed approaches, and workforce training. It also creates a new Frederick Douglass Human Trafficking Survivors Employment and Education Program under the Health and Human Services (HHS) umbrella to assist adult trafficking survivors with life skills, education, employment, and mental health supports for up to five years per participant. Globally, the bill extends and tightens U.S. foreign assistance programs aimed at ending modern slavery, updates the tiered classification of countries (including a Tier 2 watch list), and imposes stronger counter-trafficking considerations in development and disaster-response policies. It clarifies what counts as nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign aid to ensure appropriate restrictions and expectations. The measure adds a focus on trafficking related to organ harvesting and improves reporting and transparency (including a printed hardcopy version of the annual TIP report). It also updates funding levels for the relevant programs for 2025–2029, extends related laws such as the International Megan’s Law, and sets specific effective dates for newly amended provisions.
Key Points
- 1Frederick Douglass Prevention Education Grants (Title I, Sec. 101)
- 2- Renames and expands the grants previously used to assist in recognizing trafficking as “Frederick Douglass Human Trafficking Prevention Education Grants.”
- 3- Requires grants to be linguistically accessible, culturally responsive, and age-appropriate; prioritizes local educational agencies in high-risk trafficking areas and partnerships with nonprofits, law enforcement, and tech/social media companies.
- 4- Establishes explicit selection criteria (stakeholder engagement, train-the-trainers approach, scalable evidence-based programs, and use of tech/tools) and mandates data collection on at-risk populations (e.g., homeless youth, minority groups, foster youth).
- 5- Requires a detailed federal report every 540 days and annually thereafter with metrics on grant recipients, trainings, victims identified/served, and demographic data while protecting privacy.
- 6Frederick Douglass Survivors Employment and Education Program (Title I, Sec. 102)
- 7- Creates a program within HHS to help adult trafficking survivors (18+) reintegrate into society by providing life skills, education, and employment support.
- 8- Services include literacy/ESL, job training, diplomas or equivalents, resume/ interview help, record expungement assistance, college enrollment, scholarships, case management, and access to victim compensation or mental health funds.
- 9- Services may be provided for up to five years per eligible individual; cooperatives agreements with eligible organizations are allowed.
- 10Overseas anti-trafficking grants and tier system (Title II, Sec. 201-204)
- 11- Extends and updates the “program to end modern slavery” grants (NDAA 2017) with deadlines moved to 2029; awards on a competitive basis.
- 12- Reforms the Tier 2 watch list process (Section 110) to focus on those countries needing special scrutiny and updates several related conforming amendments across laws to reflect “Tier 2 watch list” terminology.
- 13- Integrates counter-trafficking considerations into U.S. development assistance and disaster-response planning, ensuring foreign aid does not worsen trafficking risk and includes protections in planning/execution.
- 14- Clarifies the scope of nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance, outlining what counts and what does not (e.g., humanitarian aid and specialist programs remain excluded from this category).
- 15Organ harvesting, reporting, and transparency (Title II, Sec. 205-208)
- 16- Adds trafficking for organ harvesting to the reporting framework and emphasizes governments’ efforts to prevent and address such trafficking.
- 17- Removes duplicative reporting requirements and aligns reporting across related laws.
- 18- Requires a printed hardcopy version of the annual TIP (Trafficking in Persons) report for public access.
- 19Authorization of appropriations and funding levels (Title III, Sec. 301-302)
- 20- Reauthorizes TVPA funding for 2025–2029 with adjusted totals:
- 21- Approximately $30.755 million annually for sections 106(b) and 107(b) and the added sections 101 and 102, with $5 million of this amount annually dedicated to the National Human Trafficking Hotline and related cybersecurity/public education efforts (in coordination with Homeland Security).
- 22- Up to $37.5 million annually may be used for programs to end modern slavery.
- 23- Approximately $111 million for certain programs (2025–2029) with specified allocations, including housing assistance grants for trafficking victims ($35 million annually).
- 24- Extends authorizations under the International Megan’s Law (to 2025–2029).
- 25Effective dates and related updates (Title II, Sec. 207; Sec. 208)
- 26- Some provisions take effect at the start of the first full reporting period after enactment, with other updates requiring TIP reporting print availability.
- 27International Megan’s Law extension (Title III, Sec. 302)
- 28- Extends the period for the International Megan’s Law provisions to 2025–2029.