Highway Funds Now Eligible for Human Trafficking Awareness Signs at Rest Stops

This new legislation, the Combating Trafficking in Transportation Act, makes two highly specific changes aimed at increasing public awareness about human trafficking, especially along major travel corridors. Essentially, it clears the bureaucratic path for states to use existing federal highway money to put up anti-trafficking signs at rest stops and welcome centers. It also makes a small but important tweak to the federal advisory committee that focuses on this issue.

Clearing the Road for Awareness Signs

If you’ve ever stopped at a rest area on the Interstate, you know they’re a hub for commercial traffic—and unfortunately, that makes them potential areas for human trafficking activity. This bill, under SEC. 2, directly addresses this by changing the rules for federal highway funding. It adds the purchase and installation of human trafficking awareness signs at rest stops and welcome centers to the list of eligible projects that federal highway funds can cover. Crucially, these specific sign projects are now exempt from some of the usual, complex rules about how those highway funds are allocated, potentially speeding up implementation.

Even better for state departments of transportation (DOTs), the bill explicitly confirms that the funds they receive through the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBG) can be used for these new awareness signs. This means states don't need to find a new pot of money; they can redirect existing transportation funds for this specific public safety purpose. For the average traveler or truck driver, this means seeing more signs with clear information and hotlines at locations where they stop to rest, potentially increasing the chances of reporting suspicious activity.

Expanding the Advisory Committee's Reach

The second part of the bill, SEC. 3, focuses on the Department of Transportation’s advisory committee on human trafficking. This committee advises the Secretary of Transportation on how to fight trafficking involving commercial vehicles. The bill increases the size of this committee from 15 to 16 members, adding a mandatory representative from State departments of transportation (DOTs).

Why does adding one person matter? State DOTs are the ones who actually manage the roads, rest stops, and welcome centers. By adding a State DOT representative, the committee gains direct, on-the-ground expertise about implementation challenges, maintenance issues, and the best placement for those new awareness signs. This new member must be appointed within nine months of the bill becoming law, ensuring that local knowledge is brought into the federal planning process fairly quickly.