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Extracted Text (OCR)
The Department also objects to the new paragraph (11), which lists as a criterion for
ascertaining whether the government in question has made “‘serious and sustained” efforts to
eliminate trafficking “[w]hether the government has made serious and sustained efforts to reduce
demand for commercial sex acts and for participation in international sex tourism by nationals of
the country.” We object to this language because it is vague and will, by implication, require the
United States Government to evaluate itself under this “serious and sustained” standard. The
Department prefers the language that was added by the 2005 reauthorization of the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act, which evaluated whether countries “adopted measures” to reduce
demand,
6. Section 107
Section 107(a) of the Act raises separation of powers and Chadha concerns. Section
107(a) would add a new 22 U.S.C. § 7107(b)(3)(D), which would limit the amount of time that a
country could remain on the Tier IT Watch List to two years, “unless the Secretary of State
provides to the appropriate congressional committees credible evidence that” the country had
taken certain steps to make significant efforts to counter trafficking. That provision further
requires that “[s]uch credible evidence” shall be provided to Congress in a report.
To the extent that section 107(a) purports to give congressional committees authority to
determine whether the Secretary’s decision to exempt a country from the watch list is based on
sufficiently “credible evidence,” the provision would give the committees a role in executing the
law that the Constitution does not allow. “{O]nce Congress makes its choice in enacting
legislation, its participation ends. Congress can thereafter contro! the execution of its enactment
only indirectly—by passing new legislation” —-that complies with the bicameralism and
presentment requirements of Article I. Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U.S. 714, 733-34 (1986); see also
INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 951-52, 958 (1983). To avoid this concern, we recommend
replacing “provides to the appropriate congressional committees credible evidence” with
“determines;” and replacing “Such credible evidence” with “Such determination.”
Ts Section 108
DOJ opposes the requirement in section 108 to create a database “combining all
applicable data collected by each Federal department and agency represented on the Interagency
Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking.” The database would contain law enforcement
sensitive information, which would prevent the data from being accessible to non-law
enforcement agencies, many of which are a part of the interagency task force, Furthermore, such
a database would be difficult to create, particularly within the timeframe provided in the statute,
because it would require information from multiple agencies that collect data in varying forms
and levels of specificity.
8. Section 109
This section authorizes the President to establish an award for efforts against trafficking
and directs him to establish procedures for selecting recipients of the award. DOJ opposes this
provision, as it interferes with the President’s policy-making authority.
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