ALSOBROOKS, MURKOWSKI INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO PROTECT CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL ABUSE

June 25, 2026

WASHINGTON, DC - As reported in NBC News, Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced the Preventing Risk and Exploitation through Validated Education and Network based Training (PREVENT) Act. This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require the CDC to maintain and expand a national child sexual abuse prevention program. The program must identify gaps in federal research and prevention practices and address them by improving surveillance and data collection-including tech-facilitated abuse, strengthening and developing evidence-based prevention policies and interventions, expanding dissemination of proven strategies, and increasing understanding of risk and protective factors for both victimization and perpetration. The bill authorizes $6 million annually for FY 2026-2030 to carry out these activities.

"As a former prosecutor who spent a career working to hold abusers accountable, I know how devastating the scourge of child sexual abuse is for families across this country. For too long, our country has focused on response and prosecution for the survivors of child sexual abuse. And while that remains critical, we must also invest in primary prevention. I am proud to partner with Senator Murkowski to ensure these critical research programs are written in law - so even in the face of cuts at the CDC, prevention efforts will continue to be funded and expand," said Senator Alsobrooks.

"Child sexual abuse remains a widespread and evolving threat, with online exploitation creating new risks and challenges for children, families, and communities," said Senator Murkowski. "Continued federal investment in research is critical to advancing evidence-based prevention strategies that stop abuse before it occurs, rather than responding after harm has already been done."

"The members of the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Now Coalition-MOORE, the Kempe Foundation, Prevent Child Abuse America, and Futures Without Violence-strongly support the Preventing Risk and Exploitation through Validated Education and Network-based Training (PREVENT) Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to strengthen the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's child sexual abuse prevention program. This important legislation recognizes child sexual abuse as a preventable public health issue and invests in the research, data collection, and evidence-based strategies needed to stop abuse before it occurs. The bill also addresses the growing threat of technology-facilitated child sexual abuse and will help to ensure prevention efforts keep pace with the realities facing children today. We applaud Senators Alsobrooks and Murkowski for their leadership and urge Congress to advance this critical legislation to better protect children and strengthen communities nationwide," said Stefanie Rinehart, the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Now Coalition.

"CDC funding has been critical to advancing the field of child sexual abuse prevention, supporting research at MOORE | Preventing Child Sexual Abuse, a research center located within the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and at research centers located across the country. The latest prevalence estimates indicate that 1 in 5 US children will be impacted by child sexual abuse prior to age 18, lending urgency to solidifying this essential federal support. MOORE applauds Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) for introducing the PREVENT Act to authorize the CSA prevention program at the CDC, and we look forward to working with the Senators to advance this critical legislation. If we are to prevent child sexual abuse at scale, then we need this significant federal investment in child sexual abuse prevention research," said Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau, Moore Family Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Director of MOORE.

"I've spent over a decade working to protect Alaska's children, and one of the hardest parts of this work is knowing that too often we're responding to harm that could have been prevented. Alaska has some of the highest rates of child sexual abuse in the nation, and our rural and Tribal communities face barriers to prevention resources that most of the country never has to think about. Investing in research helps tell us what actually works here - in our villages, in our hub communities, in places where the nearest service provider might be a plane ride away," said Trevor Storrs, President & CEO of Alaska Children's Trust.

"No single system can prevent child sexual abuse alone. This legislation helps move the field forward by supporting the knowledge, coordination, and resources needed to strengthen prevention efforts and help states and communities take meaningful action before harm occurs. Prevent Child Abuse America supports this important step toward prevention," said Melissa Merrick, President and CEO, Prevent Child Abuse America.

Child sexual abuse remains a widespread crisis in the United States, with at least one in four girls and one in twenty boys having experienced child sexual abuse. Federal child protection efforts have historically focused on response and prosecution rather than primary prevention, leaving significant gaps in research, early-intervention strategies, community-based prevention programming, and nationwide data on both in-person and tech-facilitated abuse. The rise of online exploitation, including grooming, image-based abuse, and rapidly increasing reports of child sexual abuse material, has further underscored the need for coordinated federal prevention efforts. The total lifetime economic burden of child sexual abuse in the United States in 2015 was estimated to be at least $9.3 billion. CDC has taken steps to research perpetration risk factors and develop prevention frameworks, but these activities remain underfunded and fragmented, prompting renewed bipartisan interest in expanding federal leadership on evidence-based prevention, surveillance, and public-health strategies to protect children.

Read full bill text here.

###