Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (Iowa) praised the Trump administration for overhauling the National Human Trafficking Hotline after a whistleblower came forward to him about the previous contractor’s mismanagement.
National Review first reported on whistleblower disclosures to Grassley in May alleging Polaris Project, the contractor running the human trafficking hotline, failed to report complaints to law enforcement.
The whistleblower disclosed to Grassley specific instances where Polaris’s system led to situations where credible tips were not reported to law enforcement. Empower Oversight, the legal group representing the whistleblower, told Grassley that the person made disclosures internally and to government offices including the HHS inspector general. The whistleblower was put on leave around the time they came forward.
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Grassley referenced the whistleblower disclosures and subsequent data from the Department of Health and Human Services backing it up.
“However, there’s one topic that we should all agree on, and that is the effectiveness of the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services announced they’ve awarded the contract to run the hotline to a new contractor. Very good news!” Grassley said.
“An audit of 294 cases was carried out. According to HHS, of the 294 cases, four trafficking cases weren’t correctly reported because of a clerical error. In 24 trafficking cases, staff...
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