34 U.S.C. § 20703 — Victim-centered child human trafficking deterrence block grant program

(a) Grants authorized. The Attorney General may award block grants to eligible entities to build, improve, or expand programs that help law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and victims' services groups work together to rescue and restore trafficking victims while investigating and prosecuting child human trafficking.

(b) Authorized activities. Grants may fund:
(1) Specialized training for law enforcement, first responders, health and child welfare officials, juvenile justice staff, prosecutors, and judges, to identify victims and trafficking acts, address child victims' unique needs, help rescue them, investigate and prosecute traffickers (including buyers of sex from children and complex trafficking networks), and use "safe harbor" and similar state laws that avoid prosecuting child trafficking victims for prostitution.
(2) Dedicated anti-trafficking law enforcement units and task forces, including: partial salaries for officers, limited to the share of their time spent on trafficking cases; investigation costs like wiretaps, expert consultants, travel, and technical help; dedicated prosecution units, including partial prosecutor salaries and trial costs, limited to the share of time spent on trafficking cases; victim witness safety, assistance, and relocation programs coordinated with child advocacy centers, social services, health agencies, housing agencies, legal services, and nonprofits experienced with trafficking victims; and other victim-assistance programs or staff, like child advocates or forensic interviewers.
(3) Law enforcement efforts to find homeless and runaway youth, including pay for retired federal officers helping with that work.
(4) Problem-solving court programs for trafficking victims, including: mandatory training for the judges and staff running them; ongoing judicial supervision of suspected victims, whether or not they've been charged with a trafficking-related crime; individualized court-ordered treatment plans (outpatient treatment, life skills, housing, job training, education, family support, job placement); centralized case management combining all of a victim's cases; regular required court appearances to check compliance; dismissal of nonviolent charges against victims who complete treatment; and collaboration with child advocacy centers, welfare agencies, shelters, and nonprofits.

(c) Application. Entities apply to the Attorney General, describing planned activities, a detailed spending plan, required assurances, and disclosure of other related federal grants applied for or received in the past 5 years. Applications get preference if they cover all the activities in (b)(1)-(3), or include a plan to keep funding the work after the grant ends. An entity can't be penalized for only recently starting to collect data on child trafficking.

(d) Duration and renewal of award. Grants expire 3 years after being awarded, and can be renewed up to twice, for up to 2 years each time.

(e) Evaluation. The Attorney General must contract with an experienced nongovernmental group to periodically evaluate each grant's impact, have the DOJ Inspector General check those evaluations for statistical validity, and send the results to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.

(f) Mandatory exclusion. An entity found to have misused grant funds is barred from more block-grant money for 2 fiscal years.

(g) Compliance requirement. An entity that violated the terms of any government grant program in the past 5 years is ineligible for a grant here.

(h) Administrative cap. Administering these grants can't cost more than 5 percent of the total spent on this section.

(i) Federal share. The federal government pays 70 percent of program costs in year one, 60 percent in year two, and 50 percent in year three and after.

(j) Authorization of funding; fully offset. The Attorney General, consulting the HHS Secretary, may award up to $7,000,000 a year from the Domestic Trafficking Victims' Fund (18 U.S.C. § 3014) for fiscal years 2016 through 2020.

(k) Definitions. "Child" means someone under 18. "Child advocacy center" means a center created under the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990. “Child human trafficking” means one or more severe forms of trafficking in persons^*, as defined in 22 U.S.C. § 7102, involving a victim who is a child. "Eligible entity" means a state or local government with significant child-trafficking activity, demonstrated cooperation across agencies, a workable plan covering shelter, trauma-informed care, specialized training, prevention, deterrence, and prosecution of offenses involving child human trafficking, including soliciting, patronizing, or purchasing sexual acts with children; cooperation or referral agreements with organizations providing outreach or related services to runaway and homeless youth; law-enforcement protocols to screen every person arrested for prostitution, adult or child, for victimization by sex trafficking^* and other crimes such as sexual assault and domestic violence; and cooperation or referral agreements with State child-welfare agencies and child-advocacy centers, and that assures victims won't have to cooperate with law enforcement to get services.

(l) Grant accountability; specialized victims' service requirement. No grant money can go to any group unless it has real experience serving trafficking victims or similar populations, or has staff specially trained to treat trafficking victims.