Democrats Block Hawley Bill That Increases Penalties on Child Sex Offenders

Matt PalumboApril 6, 2022

Senator Josh Hawley, who led the charge in exposing Biden SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s history of lenient sentences for child porn offenders, introduced the PROTECT Act of 2022 last week.

The Act would’ve set a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for child pornography offenses and prohibit Judges like Jackson from sentencing below the guidelines range.

Amazingly, the Act faced opposition from Democrats, with Senator Dick Durbin questioning the timing of the legislation. “Why now?” he asked. “I know why. He said as much,” Durbin said. “This senator has suggested over the course of the last two weeks and hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee that somehow this judge… aspiring to the Supreme Court is out of the mainstream when it comes to sentencing in child pornography cases.”

The Act is modeled after a similar bill from 2003 that was passed 84-0 (but was gutted by the SCOTUS in 2005), with Sen. Durbin among those voting in favor.

Sen. Hawley fired back “The Senator from Illinois says Congress hasn’t acted in 2 decades. That’s true. I haven’t been here for 2 decades. He has,” adding “the Senator doesn’t want tougher sentences, he doesn’t want to talk about this issue, he wants to sleep it under the rug. I’m here to say I won’t let that happen.”

In the end, Hawley was denied unanimous consent by Durbin.

I just went to the Senate floor to try to pass a bill toughening sentences on child pornographers. And the Democrats blocked it, again calling the child porn crisis a “conspiracy theory.” And that tells you everything you need to know

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 5, 2022

Child exploitation is a crisis. It’s exploding but Democrats refuse to act. They blocked my legislation on the floor today. They are the soft on crime party pic.twitter.com/5anL9Zntn5

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 5, 2022