Thank you very much. The hearing has reconvened and i want to thank the panel for the work youre doing and your patience and we wanted to hear from the amazing survivors and normally the administration goes first and youre kind for doing that. Two distinguished witnesses with the honorable cindy dire ambassador at large and ambassador do i recollects congratulations and shes a human rights advocate and lawyer with three decades of experience working at local, international and national levs to prevent Human Trafficking, sexual assault, and Domestic Violence and Vice President of Vital Voices Partnership and i would note parenthetically three teresalaura that i went to highl with served on that administration. On issues related to Human Trafficking and prior to that, she served as director of filing and she began as domestic and social environment advocate and she earned bachelors degree from texas a m and masters from baylor law school. That here while deputy administrator and u. S. Agency for International Development, mr. Chairman walsh oversees the bureau for democracy and Innovations Center for democracy and human rights and governance and served in a range of Foreign Policy roles as the u. S. Mission to the un and lead adviser on the process and tourism from the rocket and afghanistan and no easy place to distinguish them at large and more. Thank you, chairman smith, wild, distinguished members of the committee and thank you for allowing us to appear before you today to discuss the United States department of state effort to combat Human Trafficking and thank you for the opportunity to hear the amazing testimony of the panel before me. I hung on every word, the time flew back and it was an honor to listen to them. Thank you for that opportunity. Human trafficking is a crime that exists in every country and affects people of every age, ethnicity and gender which historically and systemically marginalized groups at risk. The last few years particularly challenging as we as you discussed earlier and see new trends in trafficking. The covid19 pandemic, inflation with russias war on ukraine, and disruption by Climate Change and exacerbated entrenched challenges and poverty and heightened job security in many sectors and diminished access to justice and services and disrupted Global Supply chains and contributed to new ways of risking migration. All of these factors and others heightened trafficking around the world and in recent years eve seen increased online recruiting and exploitation of trafficking victims, especially online Sexual Exploitation of children. More forced criminallalty and growing Carbon Monoxide illinois criminality and exploited victims worldwide and the scale of traffic asking vast and the challenge we face immense, but were not helpless. And we have using all the tools at our disposal to face these challenges head on. Today more than ever the United States sustained leadership and commitment to combating Human Trafficking in all forms is critical. During the last year trafficking and persons report launch ceremony, it will continue to take relentless diplomacy, coordination, advocacy and truth to stop . United states is committed to fighting it because trafficking destabilized is undermining economies and harms workers and exploits them and undercuts legitimate businesses and fundamentally and so profoundly wrong and state Department Office of combat trafficking and persons tip office and i have the honor to lead is advancing the United States global efforts to combat Human Trafficking through a three p frame work, the prosecution of traffickers, the protection of victims and the prevention of Human Trafficking. We address the three ps octoberively by analyzing government effort, engaging in strategic bilateral and multilateral diplomacy and foreign governments and Civil Society and advancing federal antitrafficking policies through interagency coordination. Human trafficking outside and advance the fight of Human Trafficking and it is this fourth p for partnership that strengthens the effectiveness of the other three ps in the fight against Human Trafficking. Trafficking response including addressing Human Trafficking in the context of impact of russias war in ukraine, documenting and decrying Human Trafficking in the peoples republic of china, especially specific areas and highlighting cubas coercive export Labor Program and diplomatic engagement with countries hosting these worners to mitigate their exploitation. Engaging with survivors and underserved communities and preventing Human Trafficking in Global Supply chain and in the u. S. Government of goods and services. We too recognize that combating Human Trafficking cannot be done alone. Local government and Civil Society to further advance the trafficking efforts. Thanksto sustained support from congress in particular through the Ground Breaking trafficking victims protection act of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations, the department has a well established set of tools to draw upon in the fight against Human Trafficking. For more than 20 years, the trafficking persons report continues to be the worlds most comprehensive resource on governmental antitrafficking effort and is our principle diplomatic tool to guide relations with foreign governments. Our most recent tip report included narratives for 188 countries and territories and it is introduction focused on the engagement of human survivors of trafficking. The tip report is one of the most powerful tools to encourage government around the world to improve their antitrafficking effort. Ensuring it remains accurate, objective and effective among my highest priority for the tip office. Similarly the target u. S. Foreign assistance and we bring to bear and the tip office leveraged 700 million in foreign funding to support nearly 1,000 antitrafficking projects across more than 90 countries to address both sex trafficking and labor trafficking worldwide. Through bilateral projects and innovative programming such adds Child Protection contacts cpc, partnership and the program to end modern slavery. Our Investments Trust worthy produced tangible results. Weave helped thousands of Human Trafficking survivors receive vital assistance and repatuation, psycho repate repatriation and building legal policy and infrastructure caring for victims and bring traffickers to justice. In places where individuals are particularly vulnerable to trafficking such as in southeast and south asia and many parts of africa, our assistance identifying victims of trafficking and ensuring they receive the protection and services they need. Chairman smith and ranking mcellroy wild, thank you for member wild, thank you for holding this hearing as this subcommittee considers legislation for the 118th congress. I look forward to working closely with you and your staff on legislative efforts to reauthorize the International Provisions of the tvpa which remain the cornerstone of the United States global efforts to combat trafficking. Copting to provide the appropriate tool we need to effectively deal with International Challenges today and tomorrow for individuals. Thank you. Thank you, chairman smith and Ranking Member wild and distinguishing members of the subcommittee. Thank you for your leadership on combating today and i just have to acknowledge just so unbelievable and powerful with feeling emotion rising within us feeling inspired by courage and showing more than administration and allowing me to thank the staff at us state and state Department Working on counter trafficking and so smart and so accomplished. But lead with their hearts and have done immense amounts of help against this terrible scourge. In 2001, tvpa and theyve provided traffic assistance in 88 countries and many more Larger Development contribute in one way or another to unpack to the counter trafficking site. In fiscal year 2022, we obligated 32. 5 million and counter activities and thats more than 3 million above our earmark and indicator of how important our missions around the world are very organically considering this work to be. Beyond our direct counter Trafficking Programming, a very large fraction of u. S. And International Development work helps in one way or another. Theyre causing counter trafficking and corruption or poverty or violence. Natural disasters and building capacity and directly relevant to the fight against trafficking. Trouble supporting them with the threats on strong in country presence and allowing us to design effectively monitoring interventions by local context and adaptions to the local context. Counter trafficking work tends to follow and we think in terms of four ps prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership. So just briefly first on prevention, we work to raise awareness of trafficking, particularly with the most vulnerable groups and high Risk Communities by promoting Public Information and education campaigns across source and transit and destination countries for trafficking by way of example in columbia, usa working in very high Risk Communities to protect the rights of venezuelaen migrants vulnerable to trafficking. And this program raising Awareness Among the communities of different methods of exploitation and compliment it with tools like training almost 4,000 Service Providers on how to address trafficking issues, genderbased violence and thats just in the past year. Second on protection, when we think about protecting trafficking survivors, usas approach, states approach also, is survivor centered trauma informed and everything said in the first panel about that resinates deeply with us. We help with the development of antitrust in many countries with real penalties for traffickers and direction. The provide Technical Assistance for a lot enforcement so they are maximally effective way of example for programs across the caribbean region to improve prosecution. Identify and investigate tracking. Theres no way to do this alone across government and Civil Society and faithbased Organization Advocacy organization we are all in it together is an all hands on deck approach. We bring together all of these constituencies to work on the problem which you cant imagine a more honorable population but it is most in the country. To align with National Action plan for Human Trafficking and survivor centered approaches partnering across these groups refer to better coordination within our own government and agency your roles and responsible is for staff and that guide and field guide to help implement and monitor and evaluate programming more effectively but also in effect of the incrementing guidance. Thank you for calling the hearing, we do not have monopoly on good ideas and through the exchange. Thank you for your testimony and leadership. I have a number of questions and hopefully we can do a second round and i can yield to my colleague. In opening, the importance of getting it right, how did we get it so wrong in 2015 and we say who testified at one of the hearings the information provided was right on but when it went up the chain of command for other reasons is associated with Human Trafficking, two or three countries were upgraded to watchlist. Malaysia china, they thought they were going to get in at the time making his way but these are not to speak to emily, is speaking truth to power and honest with so i want to thank carrie because she did a great job and we did lose in the one who broke the story things that changed secretary of state especially but we did this when he wrote the original law especially between what action might be taken, it is an administration call. I hope the wooden but i remember talking to a number of countries and they were angry because they were here three and others wrote it and therefore their records were worse so the argument is against this, its really against what happens when the goods chain of command and i will have them or try to give an accounting for that. Secretary great, i said make the decision and he said the book start with me it shouldnt be that way. They were very involved with Nuclear Negotiations with iran and the United States and partners in europe but i shouldnt give reason to get benefit the same with cuba and i tried to get to cuba and when we look like were moving toward this, he said he got to know deeper you get, thoughts about what human rights is all about but they were elevated as well. We hope the people up the chain of command will realize congress is that of and go where it goes which is an encouragement for you to be a report. Let me also ask if i could, obviously title 42 ending last night, have differences of opinion of what we should do. It established everything we would have mitigated illegal crossings. Chuck schumer botetourt, Hillary Clinton and others on both sides of the aisle and i think we would have a different dynamic today and im all for Legal Immigration and refugees, prosecution getting the help they need but one concern has lost 85000 Migrant Children unaccompanied minors and im wondering last year u. S. Included, it was pointed out our government continued not to mandate screening for adults in custody and did not scream trafficking indicators among the people it removed. Prioritize recommendations to screen individuals and immigration custody for Human Trafficking and wondering if home and security has followed through on the and do we know what has happened to the children . We heard today thousands of victims and children, we just dont know where they are. Thank you. First of all, i share your deep concern about not only unaccompanied minor children but all migrants and making sure those individuals making a perilous journey are protected specifically from trafficking. I know addressing the challenges of irregular migration specifically providing protection to refugees and offering lawful migration pathways are key priorities for the administration and during her previous testimony specifically called out offering lawful migration pathways and reducing vulnerability is part of the plan. We recognize placement in the western hemisphere has reached historic highs and im mindful of the comment about individuals who are fleeing under state of desperation to look at the crisis through that lens many of these individuals are fleeing in desperation. The administration is working with interagency groups in the department of Homeland Security which has the answers to the questions you are bringing up today health and Human Services and department of state for our role we see our highest purpose making sure we protect vulnerable and if they are screened. Are they . That was made a year ago. We agree with you all migrants should be screened. I will have to defer to my colleagues in regard to especially know the title 42 is expiring in title eight will come back up, i will defer to them. Its a perfect time to ask because we are having a change in authority under which we will be working. I do know as it pertains to screening, some of the work theyre doing specifically in the western hemisphere specifically encourages screening of migrants so they do receive protection and services and prevent individuals at great risk of trafficking from the systems of trafficking. We have programs in the region focused on screening and prevention. We have regional programs not just one country focus for the whole of region approach because we recognize the crisis but not one country can solve. Its important to know 80 million in Trafficking Programming, a region with the highest amount of programming which i think speaks to the administration sincere concern about this issue in addition to International Programming any we have, we are engaging in bilateral diplomacy making sure allies and colleagues in the region are doing what they need to for trafficking in the country before it goes further. We are making sure to call the efforts out in the reports, i share your emphasis and focus on getting it right and integrity