People hurt by trafficking can erase their criminal records.
H.R. 4323 — Trafficking Survivors Relief Act · Filed by Russell Fry (R-SC) · 19 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 10, 2025 · Signed
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This law lets people hurt by trafficking ask courts to erase their criminal records. Courts can erase records for crimes that were not violent. Courts can also erase some violent crime records if no child was hurt. The law gives people hurt by trafficking a legal defense called duress. This defense applies if they are charged with federal crimes. Courts must report how often they grant these requests.
Who it affects
People hurt by trafficking gain a way to clear criminal records. The records must have come from being trafficked.
One thing to notice
People hurt by trafficking must prove in court their crime came from being trafficked. Even if a record is erased, they may still owe money to crime victims.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
19 cosponsors: 10 Republicans, 8 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Jul 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 10, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
- Sep 10, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Sep 10, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote”
- Dec 1, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H4919-4921)”
- Dec 1, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Fry moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
- Dec 18, 2025 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8894)”
- Jan 12, 2026 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Jan 23, 2026 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-73”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $18,300,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 14 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 61% of bills with any report.
Russell Fry, who sponsored the bill, received $835,499 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $17,960,000 in 1 report
- National Marine Manufacturers Association — $340,000 in 1 report
- Tides Center — $0 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- duress — a legal defense that says someone committed a crime because they were forced or threatened.
- federal crimes — crimes that break laws made by the U.S. government, not state or local laws.
- erase — remove or cancel a court record, as if it never happened.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (16,743 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-01.
“People hurt by trafficking can erase their criminal records.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr4323/simple Report an error
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