Business Meeting on Child Sexual Abuse Bills, ATM Crime, DOJ Nominations

good morning today we have fourteen items on the agenda nine nominees and four bills the first is a nomination of gregory gilmore to be united states attorney for the central district of illinois We'll vote on Mister Gilboa's nomination today. And the remaining nominees will be held over for future. Consideration. We'll also hold over Senator Cruz and Gallego's bill. That bill is entitled the Safe Access to Cash Act. And that will be considered at a future day. The main thrust of today's meeting will be to continue our committee's long-standing important and bipartisan work to protect American children. We have four important child safety bills on our agenda today. H R six seven one nine, combating online predator act. S three three nine eight, stop sextortion act. S three three nine seven, the echo act. S three three nine four safe act. The three senate bills are led by this senator and ranking member Durbin and have very strong bipartisan cosponsors. All three take critical steps to protect American children. I wish the people that show up at my town meetings at the back of the town meeting hall and say how come you guys can't get along they think that republicans and democrats never speak to each other that's what the news media does to give uh irrational and irresponsible report of what goes on in congress now senator durbin and i don't agree on a lot of things but there's been real bipartisan support on these bills and i wanna make it very clear that they tackle what we have all considered very serious problems and that uh the the uh uh the uh sentencing laws and uh and actions don't keep up with what has developed on the internet so i wanna talk about the safe act led by myself and ranking member durbin cosponsored by senators blackburn graham chahine moody cortez and federman that's a group of republicans and democrats this safe act repeal outdated sentencing's laws and require the sentencing commission to develop a sentencing guidelines for child sexual abuse material that accounts for modern indicators of especially dangerous conduct The ECHO Act is also led by this senator and ranking member Durbin, and is cosponsored by senators Klobuchar, Cornyn, Graham, Shaheen, Moody and Blackburn, another group of bipartisan senators. It creates a new crime that prevents individuals from coercing children into physically harming themselves, others or animals. It takes direct aim at heinous crimes like network six seven six four that use group chats to curse emotionally emotionally vulnerable children into engaging in abusive, degrading, and sometimes fatal conduct. The next act is called the stop Sex Torchion Act, again led by this senator and ranking member Durbin, and is co-spotted by senators Klobuchar, Cornyn, Blackburn, Graham, Shahain, Moody, Britt and Kennedy, another group of bipartisan senators. It criminalizes the extortion and coercion of children using child sex abuse material known commonly as sex torchion. There is currently no law that explicitly prohibits sextortion. And this committee is going to fix that gap today. All three of these bills have a strong list of endorsing organizations besides bipartisanship here in the Congress, including Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, THORN, National Center for Sexual Exploitation the National District Attorneys Association FBI Agents Association the National Association of Assistant US Attorneys Internet Works Snap, Inc. and then even more organizations beyond the names I the eight I just listed. My plan for today, instead of voting on each of these bills individually will be to vote on a combined package of these three bills as amendment as an amendment to the house passed combating online predators act and i hope we can have cooperation in making that happen before we get to the votes i wanna tell everyone how we got here today more than four months ago Senator Durbin and I came together with the intent of drafting critical legislation protecting children. This is something that both of us care deeply about, as well as other members on this committee and i- i- and except for variations on the exact wording of the bill, I think unanimously backed by this committee. Our staffs work closely together So for those at the back-end of my town meetings that yell out how you guys can't get to get along, I wanna emphasize our staffs work closely together. That's how things get done here in the United States Senate. And we were both fortunate to have experienced prosecutors on our teams who've handled exactly these cases and have done it for decades. Their first-hand, our staff's first-hand, on-the-ground experience was very critical to drafting these bills. After months of negotiation and hard work to develop this legislation, we introduced these bills early December last year. The next day, this committee heard Tamea Woods' testimony. And I want to extend a warm welcome to the Woods family who are sitting in the audience today. What I've learned in my time here is that there is no greater love or advocate than mothers and fathers who've lost their children too soon. Mister and Mrs. Woods' brave bravery in the face of unimaginable tragedy is inspiring to say the least. In that December hearing, we heard Mrs. Wood's son, James, was groomed and then terrorized by messages spanning just twenty hours. These short twenty hours cost James his life. And it's a tragedy he's not here today. A sick man whose entire mission was to terrorize children like James, use the internet to convince another human being that their life should end. The Woods and all parents, just like the Woodses across this entire country deserve justice and that's why we're here today. And that's why we're going to honor James's legacy by naming our combined packages of bills after him. Today's mark-up is about taking needing action to protect our children. Too many families personally know the toll that the dark side of the internet continues to take on Americans' children. In twenty twenty five, the National Center for Missing and exploited children received thousands of reports of online sextortion. The alarming and increasing reports have the FBI's attention and the FBI note quote, " an alarming number of deaths by suicide", end of quote. Evil groups like seven six four That happens to be named after the first three digits of a Texas zip code of origin, and the name comes from the FBI. Seven six four encourages children to mutilate, harm, and even kill themselves. Many of the perpetrators in these groups are themselves minors. We've identified numerous cases where fifteen sixteen and seventeen year seventeen year olds have coerced and tortured other children sometimes leading to their death it's an unspeakable and really unthinkable tragedy this legislation is needed and is obviously very timely because our s- our criminal codes have not kept up with what happens on the internet. Right now, there's no law on the books, squarely addressing the gross coercion perpetrators wage against vulnerable children online. Mrs. Woods, we're thankful that you um I'm I'm sorry, just a minute here. Uh The bills were consi- the bills we're considering today criminalizes these horrible acts and protects our children and with respect to the sextortion act the bill addresses the exact type of conduct that Mrs. Woods and her family experienced and she testified before this committee i'm very grateful to ranking member Durbin for his work to advance this impactful legislation i'm also grateful to our other co-sponsors and to our groups and advocates who worked with us to provide their expertise to inform these bills i know it means a lot to the families who suffered unthinkable pain i know many of them are watching the mark up today mrs woods we're thankful you shared your family's story with us and for all the work that you do in will continue to do to honor james s legacy in preparation for this mark up we worked hard to listen to folks and make these bills the best that we could do to make a difference in the lives of the american children and families we've kept an open mind and we've listened not only during the initial drafting phase but also after introduction The manager's amendment that we're advancing today reflects the extensive negotiation process with members of this committee and their stakeholders. And I really expect uh uh respect the staff's on the Democrat side and the Republican side working so closely on this and finding common ground. As with every piece of legislation, compromise was necessary. But I'm confident that we've landed in a good place. And my hope is that everyone sees these changes for what they are, a very critical effort to enact life-saving legislation to protect children from some of the most unthinkable darkness that can be perpetrated by a fellow human. Senator Durbin.

Thank you, Chairman Grassley, and I hope the people s standing in the back. This is a bipartisan effort that really gets to the heart of why we're here today, and why many of us chose to make this our life. To be able to help families protect their kids is the highest priority in my agenda when it comes to legislation. Mister and Mister Woods, thank you for being here. We thank you so much for your testimony and breaks my heart to think what you've been through, but you didn't hide in darkness and and grief, you spoke up, you've been a leader, you can make a difference. Mister Chairman, I wanna make one general observation that is bipartisan as well. We do pretty well on the committee. We get all the votes in the committee. Everybody's for the legislation in the committee, and then nothing happens. Year after year we've been pa- even while I was chairman, we were passing this legislation at the committee level and nothing happened. Several times I've gone to the floor with a unanimous consent request to try to bring up this legislation and it's been stopped by one member. That's all it takes in the Senate. One member stands up and objects. This time let's make sure it's different. If we pass this meaningful legislation, let's make a bipartisan promise to do something about passing it on the floor. I think we ought to, uh, consider the possibility of meeting with not only the Republican Leader, Senator Thune, but the Democratic Leader, Senator Schumer, and tell them we want this to be a priority. If the United States Senate was paid by the hour based on legislation produced, we wouldn't get paychecks, because we're not doing very much of that. We're doing nominations day after day and resolutions that mean little or nothing, and nothing substantive. This is the most substantive thing we can do to protect children and grandchildren across America. Let's do it together, let's do it bipartisan, let's make it a priority. We have four and a half weeks left of this period. let's make sure that we have the leaders uh knowing the fact that it's a priority for all the members of the committee. So if we have to meet with them personally, maybe that's one way to approach it. But let's get it beyond the committee this time, let's get it on the floor, let's get some record votes, and I'll be glad to work with you in that regard, both democratic and republican side. I have an unrelated topic I'd like to say a few words about.

Proceed.

I wanna raise a matter that goes to the core of this committee's oversight responsibility. It demands our most immediate attention. And that's the mass detention of immigrants by the Trump administration. Armed with unprecedented funding from the so-called Big Beautiful Budget Bill, ICE has dramatically expanded its detention capacity. ICE is holding about sixty five thousand individuals nationwide, nearly double the number under the previous administration. How does that sixty five thousand number? compared to the bureau prisons federal prisons hundred and fifty three thousand for the federal prisons but ice has now created sixty five thousand before ice got on this rampage we still had more people incarcerated in the united states than any country on earth per capita and this makes it even worse despite president trump's claims over and over again like going after the worst of the worst eighty six percent of immigrants arrested last year have never never been charged or convicted of a violent crime Eighty six percent. The administration is now planning to turbocharge its mass deportation. They're purchasing warehouses across the country, some capable of holding eight thousand five hundred people. Blueprints show plans to repurpose structures built for storing and distributing consumer products to confine thousands of human beings at a scale that raises serious concern about crowding safety public health and dignity. The head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops recently wrote, "The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American. Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country. It is also a moral inflection point for this committee. The proof of dangerous condition is in the numbers."

Mm.

In twenty twenty five, ICE reported thirty two deaths in immigrant detention, the highest number in more than twenty years. This disturbing trend is continuing. We're only two months into the new year and at least eight people have already died in ICE custody. You don't know that because there's no video cameras recording it in the prisons. These deaths were preventable. Many immigrants died of treatable diseases like heart disease, respiratory infection and diabetes. Nine eleven calls from these facilities highlight a system that is overwhelmed and internal audits have documented failures to meet the most basic standards of care. This is beyond the pale. We should not be a death sentence for detention on a immigration charge. Earlier this year, Geraldo Lunes Campos died at the Camp East Mountain Montana facility in Texas. Witnesses reported he was choked to death by guards. An autopsy by the county medical examiner determined that his death in detention was a homicide. The Trump administration's response? He tried to deport the witnesses to the homicide, forcing a judge to step in and order DH death to preserve evidence. Another man recently died at the same facility in Texas. Instead of transferring him to a local medical examiner, d h s moved his body to a nearby army base which is now refusing to result re worth the results of his autopsy as one federal judge recently noted about ice detention under the trump administration this is not what civil enforcement looks like in a humane system of government to make matters worse d h s continues to obstruct independent investigations of these failures it has repeatedly defied court orders tried to hide evidence blocked members of congress from accessing detention facilities and ignored congressional oversight requests. Last week a federal court ruled that the detention facility at broadview outside the city of chicago which has been a busy place for a long time had to grant access to religious individuals who were coming in to bless people provide them with communion and ashes for those who were catholic on ash wednesday it was the only after the killing of alex pretty and Minneapolis and mounting public concern about her rogue a- agency that Secretary Noem finally agreed, after more than a year, to come before this committee. Given the deaths, violence and mismanagement occurring right now, under her watch, this committee needs clear answers and meaningful accountability. Next Tuesday's hearing will be just the beginning, not the end, of our oversight responsibility. the senate homeland security and government affairs committee recently held a hearing with senior ice cbp and uscis uh uh as officials immigration falls within the judicial committee's jurisdiction we cannot defer this responsibility to other committees and ignore this historic injustice mister chairman i urge you to to convene a public oversight hearing with these agencies to address their records when human beings are dying under federal supervision oversight is not optional it is our responsibility i yield

thank you now would you like to go to mister gilmore's nomination

sure

you wanted to speak on it

see if i could find it

yeah see if it's here

i know it's here

Thank you.

I'm sorry, we'll be right with you. That's what I think.

Yep. Sorry.

Mr. Chairman, Greg Gilmore seeks the US Attorney's spot in Central District of Illinois. I support him. Senator Duckworth supports him. He's been a federal prosecutor for more than thirty years, held several key positions in the US attorney's office. We have a nonpartisan group that gives us recommendations for nominations in the central district of Illinois. They believe he's ready for this assignment and I do too. It's an example of how this process should work. We were consulted by the White House, we worked with Darren LaHood, the Republican senior congressman in our delegation, and this is a bipartisan choice. I think he's ready for the job and I support him.

K. Uh we'll now turn to this nomination of Mister Gilmore US Attorney Central District Illinois unfavorably reporting the nomination the clerk will call the roll

Mister Graham

aye by proxy

Mister Cornyn

aye

Mister Lee

aye

Mister Cruz

aye

Mister Hawley Mister Tillis

aye

Mister Kennedy

aye by proxy

Missus Blackburn

i by proxy

mister smith mrs. bryant aye mister durbin

aye

mister whitehouse

i by proxy

miss klobuchar aye mister coons

i by proxy

mister blumenthal

no

mr. rono

i by proxy

mister booker

i by pro no by proxy

mister peter

i by proxy

mister welsh

aye

chairman grathley

aye

the news book the argument twenty the news are two

uh the clerk uh has said that a vast majority supports the nominations will be favorably reported to the uh hill alright to the floor uh we'll next turn to the legislation hr sixty seven nineteen entitled combating online predator act i'll now i'll now call now call up amendment number s i l two six two three six this manager's amendment contains the combined amended text of the following three grassley durbin senate bills on our agenda uh stop sextortion echo act safe act to honor his legacy we have named the uh combined legislation james t woods act without objection we'll adopt the manager's amendment uh i hear no objection so it's adopted i'd uh i understand that senator moody would like to speak

yes sir

please proceed

thank you thank you mr. chairman thank you to you and your staff and all of my colleagues today for the opportunity to advance this good legislation, and I cannot think of any problem um more ripe for our consideration and our energy and efforts to get done than this issue. Uh, I served as a federal prosecutor. I know what it means to have legislation that defines the problem, and specifically it's easier to go after monsters like this if we have that tool. I'm also the mother, uh, a mother of a of a child, a teenager that's facing all of the same issues that our children face. today. It's a really scary world out there right now for those of us parenting teenagers.

Yeah.

Um, my son is growing up in a world where it's really impossible to prevent him from having exposure to social media or with any other people online. I've said it before in this committee and in other places. When we were growing up, those warnings of stranger danger, don't go with that person, don't get in the van, those are no longer sufficient. They don't work anymore because stranger danger now applies when they're in their rooms. under our own roofs. People can get to them through their technology. It's crept into every facet of our lives. And it happens today, and it is a threat all of our children face, and we have to neutralize this threat and put monsters behind bars that would prey upon them. We heard from Mister and Mrs. Woods, we heard specifically from Mrs. Woods in December. She had powerful testimony that underscored why Congress needs to get off the sidelines and act now. And I'm so proud of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. for being willing to move this important uh legislation forward. Her son, James Timothy Woods, was taken from them at seventeen because of the predatory predatory targeting of this young man. And she was very clear, and it weighed on my heart, she said over and over that this was preventable, and it was. He was the victim of financial sextortion and uh he was a young man that r- received almost two hundred messages over the span of nineteen point five hours. She she classified what happened to him as murder. Uh, I believe that is true. Um. I just want you to know that your testimony meant, I know it was difficult for you, but it meant so much to us, all of us on this dais. And I want you to know it made a difference. And if we get this through, and I'm hopeful that we will. Uh, it will be because of people like you and your son. What he went through, it will not just be what happened to you, this will affect all families, it will protect so many others. So your testimony and you being here and your time here made a difference. And it makes a difference to parents right now, dealing with the same threats that you were having to face. So thank you so much. Um, I am hopeful after all of this goes through and we deal with the manager's amendment, um, I am hopeful that we can permanently honor James' memory by making a bill called the James T. Woods Act. Um, that is the least we can do uh to honor all of the efforts that you have put into this and help us remember such a fine young man. Thank you. Thank you, Mister Chairman.

S s Senator Durbin.

Senator Moody, I agree with every word you said. I'm glad that you saluted Mister Woods for being here initially to testify and again here today. Let's make a promise if it does pass out a committee, this bill, that we do something about getting it on the floor and passed as soon as possible. A House bill was passed we have an opportunity to work out our differences with them uh we have dropped them all in the past let's not do it again for the good of our children and grandchildren let's do this on a bipartisan basis thank you for what you said

uh now at this point would anyone else like to speak if not we'll move to passing to the legislation ok uh and uh at this point uh i don't hear anybody wanting to speak so i now asked uh to report the bill by voice vote those in favor say aye

aye

aye those opposed say no uh the ayes have it the bill is reported uh is that the end of our business

mister chairman

meeting adjourned

mister chairman

oh i'm sorry

i'd i just i asked that i'd be added as a cosponsor to the bill

yeah uh senator cruz will be added as a cosponsor to all three bills yes all three bills

yes

thank you meeting adjourned

thank you thank you

thank you