Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am honored today to speak in support of my legislation, the Protecting Against Child Exploitation Act, which aims to close a court- created loophole, and as the title suggests, further protect our children from predators. When I first arrived to Congress after almost 20 years of litigating constitutional law cases and drafting legislation for municipalities to control the proliferation of sexually oriented businesses, I was deeply concerned to learn that this particular loophole even existed in current Federal law, which essentially allows a child rapist to admit to sexually abusing a child and yet still evade punishment. The background is important to reiterate. As my chairman stated moments ago, this comes from a 2015 case, United States v. Palomino- Coronado, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the conviction of a child sex offender simply because the court determined the perpetrator lacked specific intent to record the disgusting images that were found on the offender's smartphone. This is despite the fact that the defendant admitted to sexually abusing the 7- year-old child from next door and memorializing the conduct. In its opinion, the court decided the lack of purpose or specific intent was enough to overturn the conviction, even though the defendant himself took the photo of the heinous act and subsequently admitted to sexually abusing this child.…”