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DOJ opposes section 214(d), as it could be construed to require the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make legislative recommendations to Congress in violation of the Recommendations Clause. To avoid this concern, we recommend inserting ", if any," after "recommendations" in section 214(d)(2)(E). Further, DOJ finds subsection (d) redundant. A thorough study of services available to domestic and foreign victims was conducted by the Senior Policy Operating Group in 2005-2006 and found few statutory differences between the treatment of domestic and foreign victims.

Subsection (d)(2)(C) contains a redundant statement. Victims of sex trafficking are victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons.

17. Section 221

In subsection (a), DOJ opposes the proposed change of removing the knowledge of an age requirement for violations of the juvenile provision in 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a). This runs counter to the criminal law goal of punishing culpable states of mind. This change of law would create a strict liability crime, similar to 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a), with a similarly severe 10 year mandatory minimum sentence. However, unlike section 2423(a), subsection (a) is exceedingly harsh in that it fails to set forth an affirmative defense. Therefore, the suggested subsection (a) would create a rare circumstance wherein there is a substantial mandatory minimum sentence for an already unusual strict liability crime. Accordingly, this provision is likely to face significant legal challenges.

DOJ opposes subsection (b) in its entirety. The proposed language is both over-inclusive and under-inclusive of human trafficking activities, and the language is vague. Moreover, the provision is unnecessary because section 1589 already prohibits many of these activities when they result in "serious harm," whether physical or emotional, to the victim.

The Department opposes subsection (f)(1), which would expand the Mann Act to include cases "affecting" interstate commerce. The Department does not require any additional statutory authority or expanded jurisdiction in order to continue its successful prosecution of human trafficking cases and related criminal conduct. Federal law prioritizes crimes in which victims have been trafficked as a result of force, fraud, or coercion, including the sex trafficking of children in which coercion is presumed, i.e., crimes that fall under the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition on slavery and involuntary servitude, and commercial sex involving transportation in interstate commerce. The Department's record during the last six years demonstrates its success in investigating and prosecuting trafficking and related crimes and in convicting and securing appropriate sentences for traffickers.

At the same time, pandering, pimping, and prostitution-related offenses have historically been prosecuted at the state or local level. This allocation between state and Federal enforcement authority does not imply that these crimes are less serious, but rather reflects important structural allocations of responsibility between state and Federal governments. The federalization of these crimes would treat them differently than other serious crimes such as murder and rape, which are prosecuted at the state level. Kidnapping, similarly, is a Federal crime only when it involves transportation "in" interstate commerce. Furthermore, the

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