WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) introduced the Child Predators Accountability Act to ensure abusers who include children in the production of sexually explicit content are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The bipartisan legislation would amend current law to clarify that the passive engagement of a child in sexually explicit conduct violates federal law, specifically addressing the Seventh Circuit's outlier decision in United States v. Howard.

"Congress must protect children from abuse and ensure all predators are held accountable for their disgusting crimes," Grassley said. "By closing this legal loophole, the bipartisan Child Predators Accountability Act makes clear that child exploitation will never be tolerated, and anyone who uses children in any sexually exploitative context will face justice."

"Any sick human being who takes advantage of an innocent child while they're asleep or unconscious must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Cornyn said. "By closing legal loopholes being exploited by criminals, this legislation would make abundantly clear that these heinous individuals can and should be brought to justice for the crime of child pornography and prevent any offender from evading tougher penalties on a technicality."

"We must do everything we can to protect our children from online exploitation and sexual abuse, including closing loopholes in existing law that prevent the prosecution of abusers," Klobuchar said. "Our bipartisan legislation will ensure that those who abuse children are held fully accountable."

"One of our most important duties in Congress is to be a voice to the voiceless and protect the most vulnerable among us-our children," Britt said. "This bipartisan effort would help ensure no child predators slip through the cracks and that justice is deservedly served to these heinous individuals. I'm tremendously grateful for my colleagues' leadership on this, and I hope it is passed by the Senate expeditiously and signed into law."

The legislation is endorsed by Raven, National Children's Alliance (NCA), Rights4Girls, National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies (ASCIA), and Major Counties Sheriffs Association (MCSA).

Background:

In August 2017, law enforcement arrested Matthew Howard on suspicion of possession of child pornography. A subsequent search of Howard's computer uncovered a trove of child pornography, including at least two videos where Howard produced sexually explicit content depicting his sleeping nine-year-old niece. Howard pled guilty to possessing pornographic images of other minors, but contested the charges related to producing child pornography involving his niece, on the basis that she was asleep and therefore did not "engage" in any sexually explicit conduct.

The district court rejected Howard's argument, but in United States v. Howard, the Seventh Circuit court reversed the child pornography convictions, holding that a perpetrator does not violate the production of child pornography statute if the minor victim is a passive participant in the sexual offender's explicit conduct. Howard conflicts with holdings from the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth and Ninth Circuits, which have held that the federal statute is violated when a minor is the subject of an offender's photography or video, as Howard's niece was.

The Seventh Circuit's decision sets up a dangerous legal precedent and threatens prosecutions for offenders who film sexually explicit content of minors when they are sleeping, drugged or otherwise unconscious. The Child Predators Accountability Act would address this discrepancy, clarifying that the passive engagement of a child in sexually explicit conduct violates federal law.

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