1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Rescuing Animals With Rewards Act of 2019” or the “RAWR Act”.
Rescuing Animals With Rewards Act of 2019
AN ACT
To amend the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to authorize rewards for thwarting wildlife trafficking linked to transnational organized crime, and for other purposes.
2. Findings; Sense of congress
Findings— Congress finds the following:
Wildlife trafficking is a major transnational crime that is estimated to generate over $10 billion a year in illegal profits and which is increasingly perpetrated by organized, sophisticated criminal enterprises, including known terrorist organizations.
Wildlife trafficking not only threatens endangered species worldwide, but also jeopardizes local security, spreads disease, undermines rule of law, fuels corruption, and damages economic development.
Combating wildlife trafficking requires a coordinated and sustained approach at the global, regional, national, and local levels.
Congress stated in the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt Wildlife Trafficking Act of 2016 that it is the policy of the United States to take immediate actions to stop the illegal global trade in wildlife and wildlife products and associated transnational organized crime.
Sense of Congress— It is the sense of Congress that the Department of State’s rewards program is a powerful tool in combating sophisticated international crime and that the Department of State and Federal law enforcement should work in concert to offer rewards that target wildlife traffickers.
3. Rewards for justice
Subparagraph (B) of section 36(k)(5) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2708(k)(5)) is amended by inserting “wildlife trafficking (as defined by section 2(12) of the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt Wildlife Trafficking Act of 2016 (16 U.S.C. 7601(12); Public Law 114–231)) and” after “includes”.