BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1942
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1942 (Cristina Garcia) - As Amended April 13, 2016
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|Policy |Labor and Employment |Vote:|7 - 0 |
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| |Judiciary | |10 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires, by January 1, 2018, that a hotel or motel
providing lodging services in the state to train its employees -
who are likely to interact, or come into contact with, victims
of human trafficking - in recognizing the signs of human
trafficking and how to report those signs to the appropriate law
enforcement agency, and requires the Department of Justice (DOJ)
to develop guidelines for this training by July 1, 2017.
AB 1942
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FISCAL EFFECT:
First-year cost of $272,000 and ongoing cost of $475,000 (GF) to
DOJ to survey best practices, engage stakeholders, develop
guidelines and create a curriculum model for the hotel/motel
industry regarding human trafficking. On an ongoing basis, DOJ
would continue to be engaged to assess the training curriculum
success, make improvements based on feedback and update the
guidelines as they continue to gather intelligence.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose/Background. According to the author, this bill aims
to address the lack of awareness on human trafficking in
California, particularly in regards to who is at risk, how to
identify the signs, and how to report the signs. Hotels and
motels, like mass transit locations, are high-risk areas for
human trafficking in both sexual and labor trafficking.
Currently, there is no requirement for the hotel and motel
industry to provide human trafficking awareness training for
employees.
The Attorney General's office reports that human trafficking
is the world's fastest growing criminal enterprise with a
global industry estimated at $32 billion-a-year. The human
trafficking industry affects more than 20.9 million people
globally. Contrary to public perception that human trafficking
victims are from other countries, data collected from
California's task forces indicate that the vast majority of
victims are Americans. Notably, 72% of all human trafficking
survivors are U.S citizens, with 80% of human trafficking
victims in the U.S being women, and 50% being children who
attend school in the day and are trafficked at night.
California, in particular, is one of the top four destination
AB 1942
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states for human trafficking in the U.S.
Related Legislation. AB 1595 (Campos), also on today's
agenda, requires training for employers that provide mass
transportation services in recognizing the signs of human
trafficking and how to report those signs to the appropriate
law enforcement agency. Analysis Prepared by:Pedro Reyes /
APPR. / (916) 319-2081