Rep. Chris Smith Speaks at Freedom Requires Action Summit

Be part of the solution for policy change by joining us in Washington D.C for the Freedom Requires Action Summit.

Safe House Project is honored to host the 2nd “Freedom Requires Action” event at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 23rd. This 2-hour event brings together policymakers, corporate executives, survivors leaders, and community advocates to highlight the multidisciplinary strategy that is being used to combat trafficking in the United States, and galvanize communities in the next frontier in the fight against trafficking.

Click here for tickets and more information. 

Elected in 1980, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester, N.J.) is currently in his 22nd two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and serves residents of the Fourth Congressional District of New Jersey. In the 2021-2022 117th Congress, Mr. Smith served as a senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Ranking Member of its Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee. He served as the Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and Ranking Member of the bipartisan House/Senate/White House Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), serving as chairman twice, and also serves as “Special Representative” on Human Trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Previously, he served as Co-Chair and highest-ranking House member of the bipartisan House/Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) serving as chairman five times, and served as Chairman of the Veterans Committee (two terms), the Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Operations, and the Subcommittee on Africa.

 In 2019, his Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (House of Representatives 2200 or HR 2200, now Public Law (PL) 115-425)  was signed into law by the President in January 2019. The law authorized $430 million over four years for a comprehensive whole-of-government effort to fight sex and labor trafficking at home and abroad. Rep. Smith is the author of five of America’s comprehensive anti-human trafficking laws, including the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, PL 106-386), a groundbreaking law designed to prevent modern-day slavery, protect victims, and enhance civil and criminal penalties against traffickers. He is also the prime sponsor of the law that first reauthorized of the landmark Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Division B of his TVPA of 2000.

Biography courtesy of www.chrissmith.house.gov/biography/