[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 206 (Monday, December 7, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Jenna Quinn Law

  Madam President, part of that is the Jenna Quinn Law. This bipartisan 
piece of legislation that I introduced with Senator Hassan over a year 
and a half ago to help identify and stop child sexual abuse in 
communities across our country has passed the Senate unanimously but is 
stuck in the House of Representatives.
  Nationwide, there are more than 42,000 survivors of child sex abuse--
adults now, 42 million adult survivors of child sexual abuse.
  Sadly, these victims often stay silent for days, months, years, even 
a lifetime. As a result, they and countless other victims continue to 
be abused. We need to stop this cycle as quickly as possible, and that 
is why the Jenna Quinn Law is so important.
  It is modeled after a 2009 Texas law, which requires teachers, 
caregivers, and other adults who work with children to receive training 
on how to identify and report child sexual abuse.
  After the Texas law passed in 2009, one study found educators 
reported child sexual abuse at a rate almost four times greater after 
the training than they got during their pretraining career.
  Jenna Quinn herself tells the story of her own mother saying: If I 
had just known that you were showing all the classic symptoms of a 
victim of child sexual abuse, I would have intervened sooner.
  Well, the 2009 Texas law was one of the first to mandate this 
training, and now more than half of all the States have adopted a form 
of Jenna's Law. So you may ask: Why do we need to pass a Federal law? 
Well, the States don't have the funding for the training, and that is 
what the Jenna Quinn Law provides. It allows current Department of 
Health and Human Services grant funds to be used for this specialized 
training.
  This bill has received the support of every member of the Senate 
Health Committee--Republicans and Democrats, not surprisingly--and it 
has passed the Senate unanimously, but it has been months, and we are 
still waiting for the House of Representatives to act.
  Just last week, House Democrats, under Speaker Pelosi, did find time 
to act on a bill to decriminalize marijuana; on a bill to deal with 
large cats, the ``Tiger King'' bill. But did they have time to provide 
assistance to small businesses? Did they find time to pass bipartisan 
COVID-19 relief? Did they find time to pass the Jenna Quinn Law, which 
I am sure, if put on their suspension calendar, would pass very quickly 
and go to the President for his signature?
  In a move that defies common sense, the chairman of the Education and 
Labor Committee in the House, Congressman  Bobby Scott, is blocking--
blocking--the Jenna Quinn Law.
  He voted to decriminalize marijuana; he voted to ban the private 
ownership of big cats, but he won't even let the Jenna Quinn Law 
receive an up-or-down vote on the floor of the House of Representatives
  Well, if you are confused by the logic of this move, you are not 
alone, especially because the urgency for this legislation has only 
grown during the pandemic.
  As families have stayed at home as part of the mitigation efforts, 
their lives have been filled with a range of new stressors. Loss of 
income, isolation, health anxiety, and the stress of teaching children 
at home can test even the healthiest families and relationships. But 
they also put children at a higher risk for abuse and neglect.
  In April of this year, nationwide reports of abuse or neglect dropped 
an average of 40 percent compared to the same time last year. Now, 
ordinarily, you would say: Well, that is good news. But the reason the 
reports of abuse and neglect have dropped is because children have not 
been going to their classrooms, where the teachers who train in 
identifying these signs and symptoms can see them and help them by 
intervening.
  In 2018, two-thirds of the reports of child abuse were submitted by 
people who came in contact with children as part of their jobs. I 
mentioned teachers, counselors, caregivers, also police officers, 
lawyers, social services, but predominantly teachers who see these 
children at school.
  Teachers, educational professionals, and other support staff at 
schools, like busdrivers, are responsible for more than half of the 
reports of child abuse.
  But as I said, with children home during the pandemic, out of sight 
from their teachers and other adults they would otherwise see on a 
routine basis, abuse is becoming more difficult to identify and report, 
not because it is not happening but because these children are having 
to suffer silently, living with, perhaps locked down with, their 
abuser.
  As the stresses of the pandemic and the lack of reporting take a 
violent toll on our children across the country, it is time for action, 
not excuses, not decriminalizing marijuana, not a ``Tiger King'' bill 
but passing legislation that will actually make their lives better, 
give them some hope--not action at some time in the future but now.
  And there is one person in the House of Representatives who is 
holding that up right now, and he is Chairman Scott.
  Children are suffering every day. They are not worried about politics 
or whether Chairman Scott has the leverage he needs to advance a larger 
partisan bill later on next year. These victims are worried about their 
own safety. They are worried about: How much longer will it be until 
some adult identifies my abuse and gets me out of this abusive 
relationship--gets me out of a living nightmare?
  Well, the sort of mindless obstruction we are seeing from Chairman 
Scott in the House exemplifies everything people loathe about 
Congress--holding up a bill to prevent child sexual abuse as a means to 
gain political leverage for a bigger partisan bill. It is just 
shameful. Let's call it what it is--shameful.
  It is time for Chairman Scott to stop blocking the Jenna Quinn Law so 
we can provide training to the men and women most likely to stop the 
cycle of child sexual abuse.