{"id":19960,"date":"2023-09-18T12:21:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T16:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=19960"},"modified":"2023-09-18T13:38:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T17:38:09","slug":"sens-ossoff-blackburn-launch-bipartisan-inquiry-into-fbis-capacity-to-investigate-child-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sens-ossoff-blackburn-launch-bipartisan-inquiry-into-fbis-capacity-to-investigate-child-sexual-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Sens. Ossoff, Blackburn Launch Bipartisan Inquiry into FBI\u2019s Capacity to Investigate Child Sexual Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sens. Ossoff & Blackburn request data from DOJ & FBI about staffing levels of FBI field offices<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer, <\/em>DOJ acknowledged<\/em><\/a> growth in online child exploitation is \u201coutpacing\u201d their ability to respond<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Sens. Ossoff & Blackburn\u2019s bipartisan bill to protect children from exploitation passed the Senate Judiciary Committee<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington, D.C<\/strong>. \u2014 U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) are pressing the Department of Justice to strengthen its investigations of child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn, Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Human Rights Subcommittee, launched an inquiry with Attorney General Merrick Garland about the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s capacity to investigate and respond to crimes involving child sexual abuse and exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a June 2023 report to Congress<\/a>, the DOJ cited an international threat assessment demonstrating that \u201cthe growth in online child sexual exploitation is outpacing our ability to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur offices have recently received reports of chronic understaffing among the FBI field office teams responsible for processing and investigating allegations of child sexual abuse,\u201d Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn wrote to AG Garland. <\/strong>\u201cThese shortages reportedly force staff to manage heavy caseloads, allowing them insufficient time and resources to thoroughly investigate and respond to the numerous cases that come before them. Understaffing has, according to these reports, hindered the ability of FBI field office teams to refer cases to the appropriate state or local law enforcement agencies for further investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn\u2019s inquiry also cites fallout from the Larry Nassar case, in which interviews conducted by DOJ\u2019s Office of the Inspector General suggested that field agents\u2019 heavy workload may have contributed to the FBI\u2019s failures to investigative Nassar\u2019s sexual abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee passed Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn\u2019s bipartisan bill to protect children from online sexual abuse and exploitation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn also called on Attorney General Merrick Garland<\/a> and the Department of Justice to increase resources needed to prosecute cases involving the creation of child sex abuse material (CSAM) through artificial intelligence technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Sen. Ossoff\u2019s bipartisan bill with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to strengthen Federal protections against the sexual abuse of children, including online exploitation, passed the U.S. Senate.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn\u2019s inquiry to the DOJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sens. Ossoff & Blackburn request data from DOJ & FBI about staffing levels of FBI field offices This summer, DOJ acknowledged growth in online child exploitation is \u201coutpacing\u201d their ability to respond Earlier this year, Sens. Ossoff & Blackburn\u2019s bipartisan bill to protect children from exploitation passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Washington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Jon […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19960","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/19960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/19960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19976,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/19960\/revisions\/19976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}