Preventing Child Trafficking Act of 2025
Summary
S. 1049, the Preventing Child Trafficking Act of 2025, would direct the Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime and the Department of Health and Human Services to work together to prevent child trafficking and support survivors. The bill is based on recommendations from a 2023 Government Accountability Office report that found the two agencies were not adequately coordinating specifically on child trafficking prevention, despite collaborating on broader human trafficking efforts.
Under the bill, the two departments would be required to develop and implement strategies to prevent child trafficking, establish measurable performance goals for anti-trafficking programs, and use baseline data from existing programs to set realistic targets. The agencies would need to follow leading collaboration practices to overcome challenges unique to child trafficking and better serve survivors' needs.
The bill would also require the Director of the Office for Victims of Crime to submit a report to Congress within 180 days describing the steps taken to implement these anti-trafficking recommendations. This report would provide oversight and accountability for how federal agencies are addressing child trafficking. The Senate passed this bipartisan bill unanimously in December 2025, and it is now being considered by the House of Representatives.