Bob Corker’s anti-slavery effort advances

WASHINGTON – Legislation that would create a $1.5 billion global fund to combat human trafficking won unanimous approval in a Senate committee Thursday, almost certainly guaranteeing a smooth path to becoming law.

“We’re getting ready to have a profound impact on people, the 27 million who are in slavery,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the bill’s lead sponsor, said after the vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Corker is the chairman.

The nonprofit End Modern Slavery Initiative Foundation would finance efforts around the world to rescue victims of human trafficking and prosecute the offenders.

The U.S. would contribute $250 million over seven years. Foreign governments would add $500 million, and $750 million would come from private donors.

Corker said the U.S. share, about $36 million a year, would come from existing foreign aid accounts and would not require new spending. President Barack Obama’s administration supports the idea, Corker said, and the State Department helped craft the legislation.

Human trafficking and sexual servitude trap men, women and children in forced labor in brothels, on fishing boats and in mines, factories and private homes around the world. Human rights groups say training and equipping local law enforcement to catch and imprison traffickers is the most effective strategy in ending modern slavery.

Programs eligible for grants from the proposed global fund would have to prove their work reduces the number of people trapped in slavery by at least 50 percent.

Corker said he expected the legislation to soon reach the Senate floor for a vote. It has broad support among human rights and anti-trafficking organizations, including United Way Worldwide and the International Justice Mission.

The Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, is among the measure’s co-sponsors.

Reach Mary Troyan at mtroyan@usatoday.com.