The U.S. Senate will debate the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill today, which contains critical funding for provisions in the PROTECT Our Children Act.
Passage of the CJS Appropriations bill by the Senate would clear the way for final negotiations between the House and Senate. PROTECT is conducting a campaign now to ask House leaders to yield to the Senate and allocate $30 million to the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces, which are the backbone of U.S. law enforcement capacity to combat child pornography trafficking.
PROTECT is also asking House and Senate negotiators to break the ICACs out of a larger "Missing and Exploited Children" budget, where they are lumped together with funding for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and other programs. Without the breakout, it is unlikely the ICACs will ever see the full $30 million.
