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Attorney General outlines expansion of human-trafficking work, cites $10M private grant for Operation PA Strike
Summary
AG Sunday told lawmakers his human-trafficking section opened in 2024 and is handling dozens of cases; he identified a $10 million private grant from the Howard Buffett Foundation to support a five-year initiative for education, victim services and investigations.
Attorney General Dave Sunday told the House Appropriations Committee that combating human trafficking is a top priority for his office and that investigators have opened dozens of cases since launching the unit in 2024.
"Since this section was launched in 2024, we have 65 active human trafficking cases, 14 labor trafficking cases ... 31 arrests, and 6 grand jury presentments," Sunday said, citing figures compiled by his staff.
Sunday said the office secured a private, multimillion-dollar grant from the Howard Buffett Foundation to fund Operation PA Strike, an initiative he described as focused on public education about trafficking and on investigations to identify and prosecute traffickers. He characterized the Buffett award as a one-time $10,000,000 enhancement to be spent over five years.
Representatives from both parties asked about staffing and sustainability. The attorney general said the trafficking section currently includes four attorneys and approximately five agents and that investigative work often requires forensic accounting, analysts and wraparound victim services.
"The more we can do to attack the money, the better we will be and the stronger we'll be to protect the children in Pennsylvania," Sunday said, when asked about statutory changes and enforcement tools aimed at prosecuting those who finance trafficking.
AG staff told the committee that Howard Buffett funding will support non-lawyer wraparound services and program enhancement, while the office continues to request recurring state resources to staff attorneys and agents.
