Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4307, the Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act.

This bipartisan bill is led by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg) and the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath). It directs the Secretary of the Department of Labor to develop and implement effective training to ensure that the Department of Labor enforcement personnel continue to be educated on identifying and responding to human trafficking.

It also ensures that Department of Labor employees are aware of how to refer potential cases of human trafficking to the Department of Justice and other appropriate authorities.

It requires a new annual report to Congress on the Department of Labor's trafficking prevention efforts, which will help guide the committee's future oversight efforts.

The Department of Labor's worker protection agencies play an essential role in enforcing Federal labor standards, ensuring workers are paid what they have been promised by their employers, and protecting health and safety in the workplace. Adequate training ensures that investigators are equipped to recognize red flags, such as confiscated identification documents, withheld wages, restricted movements, threats, coercion, and other indicators of forced labor.

These efforts should be appropriately funded, and the Department of Labor must continue to play a key role in fighting human trafficking. Wage and Hour investigators are often on the front lines and may be the only Federal officials in a position to encounter workers trapped in exploitative conditions.

Unfortunately, President Trump's fiscal 2026 budget request proposed cutting funding for the Wage and Hour Division by nearly 10 percent and reducing staffing by roughly 250 employees for non-H-1B activities.

Over the course of the past decade, the number of Wage and Hour staff has fallen from a little over 1,400 in fiscal year 2017 to just under 1,200 in fiscal year `25, an 18 percent decline, even as the Wage and Hour Division has tracked a 150-percent increase in child labor violations over the same period.

It is critical to follow up this authorization with additional funding because, without the additional funding, this bill could result in even fewer resources available for the Department to carry out their core missions because it imposes additional burdens on agency staff. Additional funding could allow the Department to continue its core functions and fulfill the responsibilities outlined in the bill.

No one should be forced to work under threats, abuse, or intimidation. This legislation recognizes the essential role the Department of Labor and worker protection agencies play in protecting vulnerable workers and holding traffickers accountable.

For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan proposal, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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