States get seat at federal human trafficking awareness table
S. 1442 — Combating Trafficking in Transportation Act · Filed by Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 10, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill amends federal law to expand an existing Department of Transportation advisory committee on human trafficking by adding state transportation departments as members (increasing the committee from 15 to 16 members) and requiring the Secretary of Transportation to appoint a state DOT representative within 9 months of enactment. The bill also makes technical amendments to clarify the committee's reporting timeline.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is structural: it expands an existing federal advisory committee to include state transportation officials, improving intergovernmental coordination on human trafficking awareness in the transportation sector. This is a routine governance amendment with a clear public-safety purpose.
What the text implies
- State DOT participation may improve identification and reporting of trafficking indicators at rest stops, potentially increasing victim referrals to law enforcement.
- Expanded committee membership could slow decision-making if consensus-building becomes more difficult, though the bill does not impose new substantive mandates on the committee.
- The 9-month appointment deadline creates a specific implementation checkpoint but does not establish enforcement consequences for delay.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens benefit from expanded coordination between state and federal transportation agencies on human trafficking awareness, particularly at rest stops where trafficking victims may seek help. Adding state DOT representation to the advisory committee improves information-sharing and implementation of anti-trafficking measures across the transportation network.
Named in the bill
Department of Transportation, State departments of transportation, Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act (Public Law 115–99), Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Apr 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
- May 21, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $18,680,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 227 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Marsha Blackburn, the sponsor, reported $133,620 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $17,960,000 on 1 filing
- American Trucking Associations — $720,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,091 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
“States get seat at federal human trafficking awareness table” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1442 Report an error
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