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Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, first, I would like to thank Senator Graham for his leadership for protecting our kids, and also I would like to thank him for giving me this opportunity to help him advance three bipartisan bills which could revolutionize child safety in the digital era.

As child predators have exploited the development of technology to harm and endanger our Nation's most vulnerable, our laws to address this grave and growing threat to our kids have fallen way, way behind.

We have three bills to talk about. One goes by the title of ``STOP CSAM.'' It strengthens reporting requirements of suspected abuse by expanding mandatory reporting and enhancing the CyberTipline, and it also protects child victims in court.

Another bill goes by the title of ``EARN IT.'' It modernizes section 230 to ensure that victims can secure justice.

And the last one, the SHIELD Act, would impose necessary criminal penalties for distributing illegal explicit material and hold sexual predators accountable.

I am proud to cosponsor both the STOP CSAM and the EARN IT Act and have supported all three bills in the Judiciary Committee as part of my efforts, joining with Senator Graham, to protect American youth. These bills are essential to protect our children and are examples of the fine bipartisan work that this body is capable of doing when we put constituents first.

Nothing is more important than protecting our youth, their childhood, and their futures. It is time to send these bills to the House and then hopefully through the House to President Biden. The longer we wait, the more children are victimized and more childhoods are lost. We owe it to them to do what is right.

Thanks again to Senator Graham for deferring to me, and thank you for your leadership.

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