WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight continues to press for answers about the administration of the National Human Trafficking Hotline and the potential conflicts of interest by staff overseeing the hotline at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The hotline, a critical public safety resource for victims of trafficking, is administered by Polaris Project through a grant from HHS’s Administration for Children & Families. Polaris has received millions in federal funding since 2007 for its role in operating the hotline. A notice of funding was posted in January 2025 as the department considered whether to renew that grant to Polaris amid the questionable administration of the hotline by the grantee.
Over the last several years, bipartisan coalitions of state Attorneys General have raised serious concerns about Polaris’s failure to refer tips from third parties about the sex trafficking of victims to local law enforcement. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley also wrote to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy outlining issues with Polaris’s management of the hotline and questioning the role of Katherine Chon, Director of HHS’s Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP), in overseeing the program.
Chon co-founded Polaris and led the organization for nearly a decade before joining HHS. After her departure from Polaris, she married her successor, Bradley Myles. These relationships raise serious ethical questions regarding her continued involvement in decisions affecting Polaris, including the awarding and oversight of the grant to operate the hotline.
In a letter to the FOIA office at the Department of Health and Human Services, Empower Oversight president, Tristan Leavitt, wrote, “Ms. Chon should not be involved in overseeing the administration of the hotline by Polaris. One of the key components of Ms. Chon’s resume is her founding of Polaris. If Polaris is removed from the administration of the hotline, it would unmistakably reflect poorly on her professional history. It is unclear how Ms. Chon would have received clearance from ethics officials at HHS to continue participating in the administration of the hotline.”
On May 28, 2025, Empower Oversight submitted a FOIA request seeking all communications between Ms. Chon and HHS employees involving Polaris or the National Human Trafficking Hotline. A second FOIA request, submitted June 3, 2025, seeks communications between OTIP and state attorneys general, following indications that OTIP may be defending Polaris’s handling of the hotline to those offices.
Empower Oversight’s request today seeks communications dating back to 2007, covering any records involving Chon and Polaris, as well as records reflecting potential conflicts of interest or coordination with state attorneys general concerning the hotline.
To read the state Attorneys General letters, click here for 2023 and here for 2025.
To read Grassley’s initial disclosures, click here.
To read the May 14, 2025 letter to Kennedy, click here.
To read the May 28, 2025 FOIA request, click here.
To read the June 3, 2025 FOIA request, click here.
To read the Aug. 5, 2025 FOIA request, click here.
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