SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Rep. Burgess Owens is teaming up with a Democratic colleague on a bill to close gaps in the federal government’s efforts to stop child trafficking identified by a 2023 report by the Government Accountability Office.

That report , published in December 2023, found that two federal offices lack a collaboration mechanism specifically aimed at preventing child trafficking.

It recommended that cabinet secretaries over the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Trafficking in Persons ensure collaboration on combating child trafficking between both offices, which it said would “better enable the offices to overcome challenges specific to children and meet the distinct needs of child trafficking surv

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