Miller Requests Chairman Kline to Investigate Child Abuse Reporting Laws After Release of Penn State Sexual Abuse Investigative Report
WASHINGTON – In light of the Special Investigative Counsel report released today on the child sexual abuse scandal at The Pennsylvania State University, Rep. George Miller (D – Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, sent a third letter to Chairman John Kline (R – Minn.), requesting the committee begin a significant investigation into whether federal laws adequately protect children from physical and sexual abuse.
“Our Committee has a duty to act. We should never wait when children’s safety is at stake. And, politics and ideology must not be allowed to stand in the way of Committee action,” Miller wrote. “Ensuring child abuse allegations are properly handled at an institutional level, regardless of the setting, is a difficult and challenging problem, and we should be fulfilling our obligation now to determine whether federal laws and policies effectively protect children and discourage these institutional breakdowns. I ask again, in light of the Special Investigative Counsel report and our moral obligations, that the Committee convene a hearing this month to begin a significant investigation into how we can help prevent institutional failures to protect children in all settings within our jurisdiction.”
This is Miller’s third request of Chairman Kline to examine whether laws adequately keep children safe from abuse. In November 2011, on the heels of reports of sexual abuse by Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and events at The Citadel, Miller sent a letter to Kline calling on the committee to convene a hearing to examine whether federal laws specifically designed to protect children and students require changes. Last month, in response to new cases of abuse and the guilty verdicts in the Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal, Rep. Miller sent a second letter to Chairman Kline again requesting him to engage the committee to thoroughly examine whether laws adequately keep children safe from abuse. No formal response to either request has occurred to date.
In June, committee Republicans rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D – N.Y.) to the most recent Committee Activities Report that would have required the panel to conduct oversight of how elementary and secondary schools, as well as higher education institutions, handle reports of child abuse, and hold a hearing to investigate potential flaws in child abuse reporting laws and evaluate whether a legislative solution is appropriate.
The full text of the letter to Chairman Kline can be found here.
Read the full text of Miller’s letter to Chairman Kline below:
Dear Chairman Kline:
Today, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Special Investigative Counsel Louis Freeh issued a report on the child sexual abuse scandal at The Pennsylvania State University. The report highlights fundamental institutional breakdowns at the University, where protecting institutional reputation took precedence over protecting children. For example, the Special Investigative Counsel concluded that, “in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the University … repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse from the authorities, the University’s Board of Trustees, the Penn State community, and the public at large.” These findings rightfully enrage us, but, as we all know too well, this is not the first time that we have seen child abuse go unaddressed because of other institutional priorities.
Our Committee has a duty to act. We should never wait when children’s safety is at stake. And, politics and ideology must not be allowed to stand in the way of Committee action. Ensuring child abuse allegations are properly handled at an institutional level, regardless of the setting, is a difficult and challenging problem, and we should be fulfilling our obligation now to determine whether federal laws and policies effectively protect children and discourage these institutional breakdowns. I have written you twice before on this request, to no avail. Congresswoman McCarthy and I offered an amendment to the recent Committee Activities Report in an attempt to require our Committee to act on these issues. That amendment was rejected by the Majority.
I ask again, in light of the Special Investigative Counsel report and our moral obligations, that the Committee convene a hearing this month to begin a significant investigation into how we can help prevent institutional failures to protect children in all settings within our jurisdiction.
Sincerely,
GEORGE MILLER
Senior Democratic Member
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