[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 207 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H7011-H7014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMBAT ONLINE PREDATORS ACT
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (S. 134) to amend title 18, United States Code, with regard to
stalking.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 134
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Combat Online Predators
Act''.
SEC. 2. ENHANCED PENALTY FOR STALKERS OF CHILDREN.
(a) In General.--Chapter 110A of title 18, United States
Code, is amended by inserting after section 2261A the
following:
``Sec. 2261B. Enhanced penalty for stalkers of children
``(a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), if
the victim of an offense under section 2261A is under the age
of 18 years, the maximum imprisonment for the offense is 5
years greater than the maximum term of imprisonment otherwise
provided for that offense in section 2261.
``(b) Limitation.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to a
person who violates section 2261A if--
``(1) the person is subject to a sentence under section
2261(b)(5); and
``(2)(A) the person is under the age of 18 at the time the
offense occurred; or
``(B) the victim of the offense is not less than 15 nor
more than 17 years of age and not more than 3 years younger
than the person who committed the offense at the time the
offense occurred.''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the
beginning of chapter 110A of
[[Page H7012]]
title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after
the item relating to section 2261A the following new item:
``2261B. Enhanced penalty for stalkers of children.''.
(c) Conforming Amendment.--Section 2261A of title 18,
United States Code, is amended by striking ``section 2261(b)
of this title'' and inserting ``section 2261(b) or section
2261B, as the case may be''.
SEC. 3. REPORT ON BEST PRACTICES REGARDING ENFORCEMENT OF
ANTI-STALKING LAWS.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Attorney General shall submit a report to
Congress, which shall--
(1) include an evaluation of Federal, Tribal, State, and
local efforts to enforce laws relating to stalking; and
(2) identify and describe those elements of such efforts
that constitute the best practices for the enforcement of
such laws.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline) and the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr.
Armstrong) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Rhode Island.
General Leave
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Rhode Island?
There was no objection.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, the safety of our children is paramount, and the
preservation of their future is critical.
Across this country and around the world, we have awakened to a new
normal where our lives are tethered to the internet like never before.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us to execute our daily
routines online.
Children and adolescents across this country are engaged in virtual
learning every day. Therefore, they are spending countless hours on the
internet.
While this approach to learning is vital in keeping our children safe
from the spread of the virus, the widespread use of the internet and
social media can make stalking easier to carry out, allowing predators
to exploit the easy access to our children.
The borderless nature of the internet has allowed these types of
internet crimes to transcend jurisdictional boundaries. Current Federal
law prohibits narrowly defined instances of stalking where they are
accomplished via interstate travel or through electronic means.
This is why we must make sensible modifications to the stalking
statute, especially given that children and adolescents are, in many
respects, among the most vulnerable of our population.
Stalking affects millions of men and women in the United States.
Stalking is common. About 1 in 6 women and 1 in 17 men have experienced
stalking in their lifetimes.
Stalking starts early. Nearly 54 percent of female victims and 41
percent of male victims experience stalking before the age of 25 and
16.3 percent of female victims and 20.5 percent of male victims before
the age of 18.
Stalking impacts the physical and mental health of victims. Research
shows that stalking can lead to depression and post-traumatic stress
disorder. About 68 percent of female victims and 78 percent of male
victims experience threats of physical harm during their lifetimes.
I support S. 134, the Combat Online Predators Act, because this bill
amends 18 U.S.C. 2261A, which criminalizes stalking when a person
travels in interstate or foreign commerce with the intent to kill,
injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with the intent
to otherwise kill, injure, harass, or intimidate another person.
This can be even more critical when young people are victimized in
this way, which may occur in person or online, via cellphones,
computers, email, text messages, and on social media platforms, which
is sometimes referred to as cyberstalking.
Consequently, this bill is timely because it increases the maximum
prison term for a stalking offense by adding 5 years if the victim is
under the age of 18. The increased maximum penalty for this crime when
committed against our children is reasonable.
This bill also understands that some behavior among young people
should not be subject to enhancement that would apply to individuals
who are older and more mature. Therefore, this bill makes an exception
where the enhanced penalty shall not apply for the person who violates
the stalking statute if the person is under the age of 18 at the time
of the offense, or the victim of the offense is not less than 15 nor
more than 17 years of age and not more than 3 years younger than the
person who committed the offense at the time the offense occurred.
The bill further requires that the Attorney General submit to
Congress a report which shall include an evaluation of Federal, State,
Tribal, and other local efforts to enforce laws related to stalking and
to identify and describe those elements of such efforts that constitute
the best practices for the enforcement of such laws.
Mr. Speaker, this is a sensible bipartisan bill, and I urge all of my
colleagues to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 134, the Combat Online Predators
Act.
This bill will give law enforcement officers additional tools to keep
children safe from adults who stalk or target them both in person and
online. This bill raises the maximum criminal penalty for stalking by
an additional 5 years if the victim is a minor.
In addition, the bill directs the Attorney General and the Department
of Justice to produce a report evaluating Federal, State, and local
laws that relate to stalking and to describe best practices for
enforcing those laws.
We must do everything in our power to protect the most vulnerable
among us from digital predators. We must ensure that courts have the
ability to sentence convicted stalkers to an appropriate prison term.
This bipartisan bill will help to protect our Nation's children from
online predators, give their families peace of mind, and make our
communities safer.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick), my friend.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Dakota
(Mr. Armstrong) for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, as my friend, David Cicilline, just alluded to, we have
no higher responsibility than to protect our children.
Cyberstalking is a serious crime that needs to be met with stricter
penalties and more cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies,
including my friends and colleagues in my former agency, the FBI.
The Office of Women's Health defines stalking as repeated contact
that makes one feel afraid or harassed. Each year, this crime affects
an estimated 7.5 million people, including many children.
Stalking disproportionately impacts women. Stalking victims are 50
percent more likely to be female, and according to the CDC, one in six
women has experienced some form of stalking in their lifetime.
Mr. Speaker, my Combat Online Predators Act ensures that not only are
we increasing penalties for these crimes, but we are also requiring
Federal law enforcement officials to evaluate and update practices to
combat this online harassment.
This bill provides enhanced criminal penalties for stalkers under
title 18, section 2261, by up to 5 years if the victim is a minor.
Moreover, the legislation calls for the Attorney General and the
Department of Justice to produce an evaluation of Federal, State, and
local efforts to enforce laws relating to stalking and to identify and
describe elements of these enforcement efforts that constitute best
practices across the United States.
Moreover, Mr. Speaker, this legislation was inspired by the story of
a family in my district in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the Zezzo
family, whose teenage daughter, at the age of just 13 years old, was
cyberstalked by a friend's father through social media.
[[Page H7013]]
Despite the stalking being sexual in nature, the then 51-year-old
stalker pleaded guilty only to a misdemeanor stalking charge and was
sentenced to probation and counseling.
Three years later, in 2016, this very same stalker began making
contact again. Hiding behind social media, the predator created a
perverted library of over 15,000 posts detailing his warped vision to
marry her and his insistence that no one could ever stop him from being
with her.
Thankfully, Mr. Speaker, following a sting operation by our hero law
enforcement officers, local police arrested him and sentenced him to
between 18 months and 7 years in State prison.
Sitting with the Zezzo family, I saw the pain in their eyes. After
hearing the disturbing story of cyberstalking endured by this young
girl and her family for years, the pain that they have endured for
years and still endure to this day, I knew that something had to be
done.
My Combat Online Predators Act is the first step in making the
internet a safer environment for all users, especially young Americans,
and this step cannot come soon enough.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Cicilline and members of the committee. I
thank the Zezzo family, particularly Madison and Erin Zezzo, for their
advocacy in this incredibly important issue. They have turned their
unspeakable pain into action and provided a voice for all cyberstalking
victims across this country, especially our young victims and our
children.
We will continue to fight for justice for all victims.
Mr. Speaker, I also thank Representative Stephanie Murphy, my partner
in this legislation, and Senator Pat Toomey and Senator Bob Casey from
my home State of Pennsylvania, all of whom had a part to play in this.
Mr. Speaker, we must do everything we can to forcefully respond to
egregious instances of stalking and cyberstalking, especially when
committed against the most vulnerable among us.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the
Combat Online Predators Act.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a distinguished and respected member of the
Judiciary Committee.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager of the bill for his
leadership continuously on issues of technology as well as his very
fine work on the issues of antitrust.
Mr. Speaker, let me thank the manager of this legislation. As well, I
thank the Senate and the Senate sponsor for some very important
legislation.
It is interesting that we would be able to bring this legislation up
in a time when our children, in particular, are wedded to virtual
technology or virtual learning all over America, leaving them
vulnerable in terms of what has the opportunity to become a predator.
So, I couldn't think of a more important moment to bring up S. 134,
the Combat Online Predators Act, making it very clear the lack of
tolerance for practices that would create harassment of children.
Clearly, now, with virtual learning being at the cornerstone of the
survival of education for our children with COVID-19 raging, it seems
an appropriate initiative.
The legislation calls for the Attorney General and the Department of
Justice to produce an evaluation of Federal, State, and local efforts
to enforce laws relating to stalking and to identify and describe
elements of these efforts that constitute best practices.
Our intent here is to save lives and, as well, to protect our
children, protect their minds, protect their thoughts, protect the
information that might draw them to leave home. We know that that
certainly has been a basis for many of our children running away,
because someone caught them on the internet.
At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I want to express my appreciation to
the United States Senate because this was a difficult amendment to be
able to craft and to understand, and that is that we recognize that
children can be children.
In essence, this legislation also has, for parents to understand, a
provision that if children are within a certain age and the stalker is
not much older than a child over 15 and under 17 and they engage in the
kind of play that teenagers might engage in--we call it Romeo and
Juliet--that those individuals would be exempt from the criminal
aspects of this legislation.
I think it is a very important exception inasmuch as we want parents
to be engaged as much as we can in teaching teenagers and young people
and overseeing their activity, making sure they don't do things that
would create a criminal liability or criminal acts.
So, I support this legislation because of its fairness; because of
the recognition by the Senate of the importance of that exemption; and,
most of all, to be able to make a national statement while we are in
the midst of COVID-19, and our children are facing virtually
everything, that we want to combat online predators.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this act, S. 134, to
protect our children.
{time} 1700
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Puerto Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon).
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, I think everything
has been said. Everything now is online, and that is the reason this
bill is so important as well. That is the reason why I rise in support
of S. 134, the Combat Online Predators Act.
I am a proud cosponsor of the House companion bill, H.R. 4203, which
was introduced by my good friends, Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick
and Stephanie Murphy.
I think this legislation is straightforward. It increased the maximum
prison term for a stalking offense by 5 additional years if the victim
is under age 18. Additionally, the Attorney General must issue a report
on the best practices for the enforcement of Federal, State, local, and
Tribal stalking laws as well.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, during a 12-month
period, an estimated 14 in every 1,000 persons age 18 or older are
victims of stalking. Overall, 7.5 million people across the Nation
reported being affected by these, according to the National Center for
Victims of Crime and sponsored by the Office of Violence Against Women.
The same study shows 46 percent of the stalking victims experienced
at least one unwanted contact per week, and 11 percent of the victims
say they have been stalked for 5 years or more.
Approximately one in four stalking victims reported some form of
cyberstalking. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 83
percent of victims reported that they received emails from their
stalkers, while 35 percent reported receiving instant messaging.
In addition to stalking, every jurisdiction in the U.S. has laws
addressing electronic harassment, and Federal law also criminalizes the
use of technology in stalking.
Puerto Rico has recently taken steps to enact a special leave policy
for those who are victims of crimes, such as gender-based crimes,
abuse, harassment, and felony stalking. The special leave law provides
up to 15 days annually where an employee is able to address crimes
through legal means to ensure that victims are able to seek the proper
resources necessary to achieve justice.
While Puerto Rico may lead in terms of supporting those afflicted by
these crimes, justice must be severe for those who prey on the most
vulnerable among us.
Again, I thank Representatives Fitzpatrick and Murphy for leading the
House version of this legislation, and, of course, the Senate for
passing this bill. That is the reason I urge my colleagues to support
S. 134.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, technology has improved our lives in a
myriad of ways, but it has also given bad actors more tools and, in
many instances, stalkers can victimize their targets without ever
leaving their home and a victim can often feel like they have nowhere
to escape.
I applaud the work of Senator Toomey and Congressman Fitzpatrick,
[[Page H7014]]
who sponsored the House companion to this bill on this important
legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this
bipartisan measure because stalking is a crime in which victims are
made to live in constant fear. The effects of stalking can manifest
both physically and mentally and have short-term and long-term
consequences.
In this digital and technological world that we have now all immersed
ourselves in, it is imperative that we remain more vigilant of the
nefarious activities of those lurking in the shadows to exploit our
children's vulnerabilities.
Hence, I support the Combat Online Predators Act and I urge all of my
colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, S. 134.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________