White House Endorses Grassley-Durbin James T. Woods Act

White House Endorses Grassley-Durbin James T. Woods Act

The bipartisan legislative package ensures accountability for violent online criminal networks and child sextortion.

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration today endorsed Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) bipartisan JamesT.WoodsAct, a landmark legislative package that tackles disturbing developments in online child exploitation.

"The James T. Woods Act, named in honor of a young man who tragically lost his life as a result of online sextortion, would protect children from the darkest corners of the internet. I'm proud to work alongside Senator Durbin to create a safer future for the next generation, and I thank President Trump and his administration for their support," Grassley said. "Congress must act now to secure justice for American families by strengthening U.S. laws against online child abuse and ensuring our nation's law enforcement officers and prosecutors can more effectively combat child exploitation."

The James T. Woods Act is endorsed by over two dozen law enforcement and child safety organizations.

Grassley chaired a Judiciary Committee hearing last year to examine emerging online threats against children, where expert witnesses and a survivor parent called on Congress to address online child exploitation. The Judiciary Committee advanced the James T. Woods Act unanimously in February.

Background:

The James T. Woods Act is composed of three Grassley-Durbin bills: the Sentencing Accountability for Exploitation (SAFE) Act, the Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online (ECCHO) Act and the Stop Sextortion Act. The package would update insufficient federal sentencing laws against child sex abuse material and create two new crimes to address sextortion and violent online criminal networks, like 764, who coerce children into harming themselves or others.

The Sentencing Commission is currently held back from updating sentencing laws without congressional action, and there is currently no law that explicitly prohibits sextortion or the coercion of children into hurting themselves or others. These gaps have made it difficult for law enforcement, prosecutors and judges to effectively arrest, prosecute and sentence online predators.

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