Senate Republicans on Tuesday included in their reconciliation bill a significant increase in funding to fight child sexual trafficking and exploitation, adding to a drumbeat in Congress to better protect children online.
The measure, championed by Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, would increase the number of specialists combating child sexual abuse material and child trafficking at the Department of Homeland Security’s investigations division to 200 from seven. The additional roles would cost $108 million over three years, the greatest one-time increase in Congressional spending to fight those forms of child abuse, Mr. Hawley said.
The provision is included in the reconciliation bill to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, which is expected to pass the Senate as soon as this week. The House is expected to take up the Senate’s measure by June 1, a deadline that President Trump set.
“This will be a tremendous step forward to be able to do something very tangible and very immediate to help children who have been harmed in the worst possible way by the online world,” Mr. Hawley said in an interview.
If it passes, the measure would become one of the first tangible efforts by Congress in recent years to better protect children online.
Lawmakers have introduced a number of child safety bills in recent years that would force social media companies to beef up privacy protections, limit social media addiction and hold sites liable for hosting sexual abuse material. But despite numerous hearings and endorsements from pediatricians, educators and parents, nearly all the efforts stalled after the tech industry poured millions of dollars into lobbying against them.
The amount of child sexual abuse material online has risen at an alarming rate. In 2025, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 21.3 million reports of suspected abuse, an increase of 800,000 reports from the previous year.
Law enforcement has said child abuse material is closely linked to child trafficking. Perpetrators use the photos to blackmail and control victims — and then further abuse trafficked children by making and selling new material.
The inclusion of Mr. Hawley’s measure in the reconciliation bill fast-tracks its path to becoming law.
The measure focuses on increasing staffing and training at the Department of Homeland Security to improve forensics and training to identify victims. The aim would be to rescue an estimated 89,000 children found in online sexual abuse material who remain unidentified, Mr. Hawley said.
Cecilia Kang reports on technology and regulatory policy for The Times from Washington. She has written about technology for over two decades.
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