Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act--
Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, this week, we are taking a big step forward in the fight to end online child exploitation. The bipartisan REPORT Act, which you and I led, has been signed into law, and now law enforcement and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children-- or NCMEC, as we call it--will have the resources that they need to better protect vulnerable children and track down these predators and pedophiles. This legislation has been urgently needed. And, Mr. President, I thank you for your leadership on this issue.
Here is a frightening statistic: In America, a child is bought or sold for sexual exploitation once every 2 minutes. In this country, in 2024, a child is bought or sold for sex once every 2 minutes. This abuse increasingly happens in the virtual space, where predators distribute child sexual abuse material; they recruit minors into sex trafficking rings; and they extort children into sharing explicit images of themselves.
Just last year, NCMEC received 36.2 million reports of online child sexual exploitation, a 23-percent increase over 2021.
NCMEC, whose CyberTipline serves as our country's centralized reporting system for online child abuse, does incredible work to track down these crimes and report them to law enforcement. But, tragically, so many more acts of online sexual abuse against children are going unreported.
Although criminal law requires electronic service providers to report any child sex abuse material on their sites, online platforms-- including Big Tech sites, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram--have no obligation to report content involving the sex trafficking or grooming of children or enticement crimes.
Most online platforms choose not to report this abhorrent material to law enforcement. And even when they do report the content, electronic service providers often omit necessary information to identify victims and track down their abusers.
We have also heard from victims, their families, and law enforcement about the need to modernize laws around reporting online sexual abuse. For example, children and their parents risk legal liability for transferring evidence of online sexual abuse that they have experienced when submitting reports to the NCMEC CyberTipline.
The REPORT Act addresses these issues and more to ensure that they are defending children against some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Now, electronic service providers will be legally required to report child trafficking and enticement.
To ensure compliance with the law, the REPORT Act raises the fine for first violations from $150,000 up to as much as $850,000, and subsequent violations, that fee is raised from $300,000 up to $1 million.
At the same time, the legislation enables victims to report evidence of online exploitation to the authorities and allows for the secure cloud storage and safe transfer of reports from NCMEC to law enforcement.
It also increases the retention period for CyberTipline reports from 90 days to 1 full year; meaning, law enforcement will have more time to track down and prosecute these criminals.
All together, these measures will do so much to protect the most vulnerable among us from online exploitation and help to put an end to this horrific abuse. Protests
Mr. President, across the country, we are witnessing one of the worst waves of anti-Semitism that we have ever seen in our Nation's history. I appreciate that my colleague from Oklahoma spoke previously to this.
One of the things that we have learned is a little bit about the leading perpetrators of these protests that are taking place. What we have found is that far-left activists, including college students at some of the most prestigious universities, are involved in these activities.
We have all seen the pro-Hamas demonstrators who are harassing and intimidating Jewish students. They are blocking them from attending class or even from accessing public spaces. They are doing this with these protests and with these illegal encampments.
Here are some examples of what we have had reported to us and what we have seen from individuals who are walking through these encampments with their cell phones. At Columbia University, activists chanted: ``We are Hamas'' and ``Long live Hamas.'' At George Washington University, one pro-Hamas demonstrator walked around campus with a sign calling for a ``Final Solution'' against the Jewish people.
We have seen activists hand out fliers calling for ``Death to America'' and ``Death to Israeli real estate.'' And at schools like Princeton, students have waved the flag of terror groups, including the flag of Hezbollah.
One thing should be obvious, the anti-Israel protests on campuses across this country are hotbeds for terrorist sympathizers and for anti-Jewish hatred. Never did I think I would see this in the United States of America.
In fact, some of these college groups who are out protesting, including at Columbia, have allegedly held events with the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. These demonstrations have absolutely no place in America, and Tennesseans are telling me these demonstrations have no place in our great State of Tennessee.
But instead of cracking down on these activists and the students who are out there peddling anti-Semitism and are glorifying terrorism, many schools are beginning to bow to their demands. I find this abhorrent and disgusting.
In negotiations with pro-Hamas demonstrators, Northwestern University agreed to offer coveted faculty positions to Palestinian academics and set aside full-ride scholarships for Palestinian students.
To appease its pro-Hamas students, Brown University, last week, agreed to hold a vote on divesting from Israel.
After negotiating with pro-Hamas activists for weeks, Columbia University has canceled its commencement ceremony.
We can only bring an end to this disturbing illegal behavior when there are actual consequences.
College students who promote terrorism on behalf of Hamas should be added to the TSA No Fly List, and we should deport foreign students on visas who support Hamas--a U.S.-designated terror organization. And universities that allow anti-Semitism on their campuses should be defunded. The Stop Anti-Semitism on College Campuses Act, which I introduced alongside Senator Tim Scott, would ensure that happens.
Instead of standing up for Jewish students, President Biden has drawn, unfortunately, a moral equivalence between pro-Hamas activists and pro-Israel Americans. When asked about the anti-Semitic demonstrations last month, the President said he ``condemn[s] those who don't understand what is going on with the Palestinians.''
At the same time, the President has focused on pushing billions in new illegal student loan forgiveness--forgiveness that could very well benefit the students who are out leading these demonstrations. So that is why I have joined my Senate Republican colleagues in introducing the No Bailouts for Campus Criminals Act, which would make any person who is convicted of a State or Federal offense in connection with a campus protest ineligible for any Federal student loan forgiveness.
The President is also reportedly looking to welcome Gazans to America as refugees. According to a recent poll, 71 percent of Gazans said they supported Hamas's horrific October 7 attack on Israeli civilians. Seventy-one percent of Gazans said they supported Hamas's horrific attack on October 7. More than 300 individuals on the Terror Watchlist have entered our country under President Biden, but, for some reason, this administration thinks that they can vet Gazans, who elected Hamas as their government, who support the terrorist attack. They think they can properly vet them and bring them into this country? Have they not asked Egypt, Jordan, other countries in the region why they will not take these Palestinian refugees? I think it would be instructive.
Our country cannot afford more failed leadership and not knowing who is coming into this country who may wish us harm. We would like to see the President rescind this and review his priorities and make it his priority to protect the American people.
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