Congress Passes “Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008″

Great news!

Last night Congress passed H.R. 7311, which reauthorizes (through 2011) the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and enhances measures to combat trafficking in persons.

I know (from a past feministing blog entry by Jennifer Podkul at Ayuda) that there was some controversy about the effects this law would have on prosecuting crimes of human trafficking. My initial reading of the reauthorization language doesn’t lead me to believe that would still be the case, since the “force, fraud or coercion” language wasn’t stricken from the bill, it was just slightly reworded (feel free to chime in if my reading is incorrect here).

For additional information on the bill check out the Feminist Law Professor blog, and the statement by Equality Now.