H.R. 6260, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act; H.R. 5213, the Keep Violent Criminals Off Our Streets Act; H.R. 5625, the Cashless Bail Reporting Act; H.R. 3497, the Medal of Sacrifice Act; H.R. 6719, the Combating Online Predators Act of 2025; H.R. 6732, the Coercion and Sexual Abuse Free Environment Act of 2025; H.R. 6715, the Child Predators Accountability Act of 2025; H.R. 6622, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2025; and H.R. 2641, To amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to require all Federal contractors to participate in the E-verify program
2025-12-18
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Source: Congress.gov
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Committee will come to order without objection. The chair is authorized to declare recess at any time pursuant to Committee Rule 2, House Rule 11, Clause 2. The chairman may postpone further proceedings today on the question of approving any measure or matter or adopting an amendment for which a recorded vote is ordered. Recognize the gentleman from Wisconsin to lead us in the pledge. Soon to notice, I call up HR 6719, the Combating Online Predators Act of 2025 for purpose of markup move that the committee reported favorably to the House. The clerk will report the bill. HR 671. Without objection, the bill be considered as read and open for an amendment at any point. The chair now recognizes the gentlelady from the great state of Florida, Ms. Lee, for her opening statement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to begin by thanking you for this committee's strong and consistent focus on protecting children from online exploitation and for including this bill in today's markup. Last Congress, the Crime Subcommittee held multiple hearings focused on human trafficking, child protection and identifying victims. Through this committee, we also advanced the Report Act, which strengthened requirements for online service providers to report crimes involving child sex abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, legislation that was ultimately signed into law. That work matters, and it has made a real difference. But our work is not finished. Today, I'm bringing before the committee HR 6719, the Combating Online Predators Act, because we are seeing a disturbing and rapidly growing form of exploitation directed at children, sextortion. Sextortion occurs when a predator threatens to distribute sexually explicit images, often images a child has already been coerced into producing, unless the child complies with further demands. These demands may include additional explicit images, sexual acts, or money. The threat itself is the leverage, and it is devastatingly effective. The scope of this problem is alarming. Reports of sextortion have increased dramatically in recent years, and children, particularly teenage boys, are disproportionately targeted. The harm is not theoretical. It is real, and in some cases, it is fatal. Just last month, a 15-year-old boy from West Virginia died by suicide after being targeted in a sextortion scheme. His story is tragically not alone from a legal standpoint. This bill addresses a very specific and very real gap in federal law. Under current statutes, the act of threatening to distribute child sex abuse material in order to coerce a child is not always clearly captured. within existing CSAM provisions.
As a result, prosecutors are often forced to rely on a patchwork of other statutes, leading to inconsistent charging decisions and sentences that do not adequately reflect the seriousness of the conduct. That is not because prosecutors lack commitment or creativity. It is because the statute was not written with this modern form of exploitation in mind.
This bill amends Section 2252 and 2252 of Title 18 to explicitly criminalize the knowing threat to distribute child sex abuse material when that threat is used to coerce a minor to produce or transmit sexually explicit conduct. It is a targeted common sense update that aligns the law with the realities our children face online today. This legislation ensures that predators who use these threats as a weapon against Children can be charged appropriately and sentenced accordingly. No child should ever be placed in a position where they feel trapped, ashamed or hopeless because of an online predators threat. And no child should ever believe the only way out is to harm themselves.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back. The gentlelady yields back. The ranking member is recognized for an opening statement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I salute the gentlelady on her This is one of a host of bills we're looking at today, Mr. Chairman, that emerged magically almost from the legislative push and pull over the NDAA. A lot of them we have not had hearings on. We've not had an extended period of time to do any real legislative analysis on them. I've done my best to try to study up on them. My response on this one will be similar to my response on some others. I plan to support this bill today because it raises a very serious issue.
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