Stopping Child Exploitation – Letter to the DOJ

April 30, 2026 The Honorable Todd Blanche Acting Attorney General United States Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Acting Attorney General Blanche:

In a 2023 report, Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress that “[c]hild exploitation crimes and the threats facing children have been exploding in scale, complexity, and dangerousness.”1 Even in today’s political climate, protecting children from exploitation has widespread support across partisan and ideological lines. During National Child Abuse Awareness Month, we write to urge two concrete steps that can demonstrate your leadership in tackling this serious crisis.

National Strategy Report

When it enacted the PROTECT Our Children Act in 2008, Congress required the Attorney General to “create and implement a National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction.”2 The strategy was first due to Congress by October 13, 20093, and an updated strategy addressing covering nearly two dozen mandatory components by “February 1 of every second year thereafter.” Your predecessors, of both parties, have failed to meet this important obligation.

• Attorney General Eric Holder submitted the initial strategy in August 2010,4 10 months

late, and failed to do so at all in either 2011 or 2013. • Attorney General Loretta Lynch submitted the strategy due in February 2015 more than a

year late.5 • Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr failed to submit the strategies due in

February of 2017 and 2019.

1 National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention & Interdiction: A Report to Congress – 2023, at i, https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-06/2023_national_strategy_for_child_exploitation_prevention_interdiction_- _a_report_to_congress.pdf. 2 34 U.S.C. § 21111(a). 3 Id. at § 21111(b). 4 The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction: A Report to Congress – August 2010, https://www.justice.gov/psc/docs/natstrategyreport.pdf. 5 The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction: A Report to Congress – April 2016, https://www.justice.gov/d9/pages/attachments/2016/04/19/2016_natl_strategy_rpt_- _online_version_updated_final_08_16_2016.pdf.

• Attorney General Garland failed to submit the strategy due in February 2021 and submitted

the strategy due in 2023 several months late. • Attorney General Pam Bondi failed to submit the strategy due in 2025.

In a 2022 report, the Government Accountability Office documented this poor record and observed that the strategy “is not up-to-date on key technology advances that are making it more difficult to catch perpetrators.”6 This was, GAO concluded, “due in part to [the Justice Department] not making the strategy a priority.” We urge you to break this pattern and assert this Administration’s leadership by promptly submitting a bold and innovative strategy for combatting child exploitation.

Victim Restitution Report

When Attorney General Bondi served as Florida Attorney General in March 2018, she joined her counterparts from the other 49 states, four territories, and the District of Columbia on a letter7 endorsing the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act.8 Congress responded and unanimously enacted it into law, improving the process for obtaining restitution for child pornography victims. U.S. Sentencing Commission data show that this law has dramatically increased the percentage of child pornography defendants required to pay restitution as well as the median restitution award that victims actually receive.

The law also required the Attorney General to submit to Congress a report on “the progress of the Department of Justice in implementing the amendments made by [the law]…and shall include an assessment of the funding levels” for the fund created to help child pornography victims. That report was due “[n]ot later than” December 7, 2020. It has never been submitted.

The number of children identified in child sexual abuse material “has risen almost ninefold” since Congress first required a national strategy to combat child exploitation and we know that only a fraction of victims are actually identified. Technology has made it easier to victimize children and harder to catch and punish the perpetrators.

More than four decades ago, in New York v. Ferber,9 the Supreme Court recognized that “[t]he prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse of children constitutes a government objective of surpassing importance.”10 Turning that aspiration into reality requires leadership and determined action. Submitting the reports that Congress has required, with candid assessments of the crisis

6 Government Accountability Office, Online Exploitation of Children: Department of Justice Leadership and Updated National Strategy Needed to Address Challenges, Dec. 14, 2022, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23- 105260. 7 The letter can be found here: https://agportal- s3bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/uploadedfiles/Another/News/Press_Releases/NAAG%20Final%20Child%20Pornogra phy%20Victim%20bill.pdf. 8 Public Law 115-299, 132 Stat. 4383 (Dec. 7, 2018). 9 458 U.S. 747 (1982). 10 Id. at 757 (emphasis added).

Tim Chapman President Advancing American Freedom Foundation Defending Education Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Pacific Justice Institute National Center on Sexual Exploitation Delegate Kathy Szeliga Mayland House of Delegates, District 7A Vice Chair of the Maryland Freedom Caucus Delegate Robin Grammer, Jr. Maryland House of Delegates, District 6 Delegate Brian Chisholm Maryland House of Delegates, District 31 Representative Kathy Edmonston Louisiana House of Representatives, District 88 Shawnna Bolick Arizona State Senator, District 2 Rio Grande Foundation Delaware Family Policy Council Donald T. Eason President Center for Urban Renewal and Education West Virginia Center-Right Coalition Christian Medical & Dental Associations Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University Association of Mature American Citizens

Stacie Rumenap Founder and CEO Stop Child Predators Liberty Justice Center Stop Child Predators The Justice Foundation Save Our States Delegate Ryan Nawrocki Maryland House of Delegates, District 7A Whip of the Maryland Freedom Caucus Delegate Lauren Arikan Maryland House of Delegates, District 7B Representative Becky Currie Mississippi House of Representatives Delegate Matt Morgan Maryland House of Delegates, District 29A Braxton Mitchell Montana House of Representatives, District 5 New York State Conservative Party American Association of Evangelicals Paul Teller President Teller Strategies Concerned Women for America Women for Democracy in America, Inc. National Apostolic Christian Leadership Conference Center for Arizona Policy

facing our children and meaningful action steps to tackle that crisis, can show that protecting children from exploitation is indeed a top priority. We stand ready to assist in this great cause.

Audrea Decker Executive Director WallBuilders' Pro-Family Legislative Network Moms for Liberty Tradition, Family, Property, Inc. Taxpayers Protection Alliance Maureen Flatley President Stop Child Predators Kerri Toloczko Senior Fellow Institute for Liberty Noah Webster Educational Foundation AdvanceUSA International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers Robert Schwarzwalder, Jr., Ph.D. Senior Lecturer, Regent University JCCWatch.org

Frontiers of Freedom Tim Jones Former Speaker Missouri House of Representatives American Family Association Action New Jersey Family Policy Center The Wagner Center Hon. William Wagner (Ret) Former Federal Prosecutor Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section, U.S. Department of Justice Cathy Adams 2nd VP Eagle Forum Alabama Policy Institute Charlie Gerow Men and Women for a Representative Democracy in America, Inc Melissa Ortiz Principal & Founder Capability Consulting Liberty Counsel Action .

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