On the recordSeptember 13, 2022
I thank the chair of the Judiciary Committee for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I am heartened that today we will vote to send this bill to the President's desk to guarantee justice for victims of child sex abuse. Experts estimate that more than 85 percent of child sex abuse goes unreported. Kids experiencing abuse face a variety of the barriers to reporting. Often they don't know how to recognize abuse, they don't know how to talk about their experiences, or they don't have a trusted adult they can contact. Even when survivors do report their abuse, their experiences often fail to reach the people in the justice system who can stop the predator. For all of these reasons, the process of disclosure of abuse can take decades. The average age of reporting child sex abuse is 52 years old. Tragically, statutes of limitations often prevent survivors who disclose their abuse as adults from getting their day in court. But justice systems are slowly beginning to understand how delayed disclosure impacts access to justice. In the past two decades, 48 States and Washington D.C., have amended child sex abuse laws to expand or eliminate statutes of limitations. Congress previously eliminated the Federal criminal statute of limitations for child sex abuse and sex trafficking and slightly lengthened the Federal civil statute of limitations.…
