The House on July 26 approved, 412-4, a bill (H.R. 4710) to set aside $5 million for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bolster efforts to prosecute child obscenity cases involving the Internet. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Steve Largent (R-OK), would direct the DOJ’s Criminal Division on Child Exploitation and Obscenity to hire and train new employees for the effort.
“It used to be that we were concerned about the dirty little bookstore down at the end of the street,” Rep. Largent said, adding: “Now the aggressive marketing tactics of the pornography industry have brought such material directly into the family rooms, our schools, our libraries, and offices of millions of Americans.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) commented, “I do not know if we are approaching this in the right direction, but I do say that this is an important step, and I support this legislation.”
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) also expressed support for the goals of the bill, but noted the FY2001 Commerce-Justice-State spending bill (H.R. 4690) already has been approved by the House. “Nobody said we ought to be prosecuting organized crime less, or child rapes less, or drug conspiracies less. It is not going to be additional money, because we have already had the appropriations bill pass the House,” he said, adding: “I would hope that we would not get into the minutia of the Justice Department budget and take money from an area when we have not said where it is coming from.”
