philes, serving to justify their conduct, assist them in seducing their victims, and provide a means to blackmail the children they have molested in order to prevent exposure.' We also found that the vast majority of child pornography now available in the United States is produced and traded among individual pedophiles through the informal network just mentioned. For the most part, this exchange of pornography is carried out for sexual gratification and as a method of developing trust and comraderie among pedophiles, rather than as a profit-making activity. Often this sordid material, along with thinly-disguised solicitations for child prostitution and information on children who may be available for molestation, is openly advertised in newsletters and other materials published by pedophile support groups. And even though child pornography and child prostitution are themselves illegal, Mr. Chairman, the advertisements, under current law, are not. In my opinion, it makes no sense whatsoever to outlaw the production and sale of child pornography, then turn around and permit this harmful and illegal material to be publicly advertised. I would be like outlawing gambling and then showing the lottery results every night on TV. To close this loophole, on May 1 of this year I introduced S. 2398, the Child Sexual Abuse and Pornography Act. S. 2398 would prohibit any advertisement offering child pornography, as well as any advertisement soliciting sexually explicit conduct with a minor. Twenty-one other Senators have now signed on as cosponsors. The bill provides for prison terms of up to ten years for a first offense, and up to 15 years for a second conviction. I believe this legislation will provide an important tool for law enforcement authorities and prosecutors in their efforts to clamp down on those who would sexually abuse innocent children. The bill further tightens our child abuse law by eliminating all references to gender in the statute prohibiting the interstate transportation of minors for prohibited sexual conduct-popularly known as the Mann Act. Our investigation showed that many pedophiles abuse young boys as well as young girls, and that they sometimes "trade" their young victims across state lines, without actually "selling" their services in the traditional sense. S. 2398 would make the Mann Act applicable to such activities regardless of the sex of the minor involved, and regardless of whether the transportation of the minor was "commercially exploited." I might add that this change is similar to changes in the child pornography law made by the 1984 Act. I am pleased to report that on August 11 of this year, the Juvenile Justice Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on my bill; and I am hopeful that the bill will move quickly through the Senate. The Department of Justice, the Postal Inspection Service, and other law enforcement organizations have enthusiastically endorsed the bill. (The Department raised some minor concerns which I believe can be addressed in report language.) Indeed, as one witness, Bruce Taylor of the Citizens for Decency Through Law, stated, it's importance lies in enabling them to prevent further crimes before they occur. I am delighted to note that the Chairman and his staff, working with my staff, are in the process of drafting a companion bill for the House and Congressman McCollum has expressed an interest in working with us as well. In addition to calling for a ban on child pornography advertising such as that embodied in S. 2398, the Investigations Subcommittee report also recommends continued international law enforcement pressure on foreign child pornographers, and the creation of regional child exploitation task forces to facilitate the exchange of information and investigative leads among federal, state and local law enforcement authorities in the United States. I commend these suggestions to this Subcommittee's attention, and I will be glad to discuss them in more detail if you would like. I want to conclude by noting once again that every piece of child pornography depicts a terrible crime-the sexual abuse of a child. Child sexual abuse is a terrible tragedy that transforms one of life's most precious times into a psychic nightmare of abuse and guilt. And once the gift of childhood innocence is taken away, it can never be restored. Mr. Chairman, where you find child pornography, you will probably find an actual or potential child molester. I hope this subcommittee will see fit to expedite consideration of companion legislation to S. 2398, so that Congress can act quickly to insure that the child pornography and child prostitution law are free of any loopholes that might permit child pornographers and child abusers to escape prosecution for their unconscionable crimes. Thank you again for this opportunity to testify, Mr. Chairman. I will be happy to answer any questions the Subcommittee may have. Mr. HUGHES. Let me ask you where S. 2398 stands in the Senate at the present time. Senator ROTH. As I mentioned, we had a hearing before the subcommittee. Mr. HUGHES. Has markup been scheduled? Senator ROTH. It has not yet, to my knowledge. But we do expect that it will move quickly through the committee. I am sure once that happens the leader will schedule it for early action in the Senate. Mr. HUGHES. Well, it is my hope that when we return from our August recess that we can schedule a markup. The staff is working very closely, as you have indicated, with your staff. It is my hope we can have a product to move out of our subcommittee in early September when we come back. So, I look forward to working with you and trying to move this legislation or some variation of it, because I think it is an important matter to be dealt with. It is my hope that we can do it before we recess in October. Senator ROTH. That certainly is my hope, and I think there is sufficient time. I don't see the legislation having too much trouble in either House. So, I think it is doable. Mr. HUGHES. I look forward to working with you on that subject. That is a vote, so I am going to have to recess to catch it. Thank you very much for joining with us this morning. I look forward to working with you. Senator ROTH. Thank you. Mr. HUGHES. The subcommittee stands recessed for 15 minutes. [Recess.] Mr. HUGHES. The Subcommittee on Crime will come to order. I want to apologize for the delay. I was wondering where all our colleagues were this morning, and as I went around trying to find them, I find there are more press conferences going on this morning, in addition to markups, and meetings, but they will be drifting in as we begin the panel discussion. Hopefully, we will have most of our members here before we finish this panel discussion. I am going to ask our next witnesses to appear as a panel. STATEMENTS OF VICTORIA TOENSING, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, CRIMINAL DIVISION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE; STEVEN BISHOP, POSTAL INSPECTOR, MANAGER OF FRAUD AND PROHIBITED MAILING BRANCH, U.S. POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE; AND DANIEL MIHALKO, PROGRAM MANAGER FOR PROHIBITED MAILING, FRAUD AND PROHIBITED MAILING BRANCH, U.S. POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE Mr. HUGHES. The first witness will be Victoria Toensing, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice. Mrs. Toensing previously served as chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Intelligence and was assistant U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Michigan. She is a graduate of Indiana University, and in Michigan, Detroit University of Law. She has testified before this committee on other occasions, and we certainly welcome you here again this morning. Other witnesses will be Postal Inspector Steven Bishop and Mr. Daniel Mihalko. Mr. Bishop is Manager of Fraud and Prohibited Mailing Branch, U.S. Postal Inspection Service. His duties consist of managing policies and program objectives in the area of mail fraud and prohibited mailings. He provides policy guidance and advice to some 335 field and headquarters employees concerning program objectives and policies. Prior to his present appointment, he has held several responsible positions with the Postal Service, including program manager and postal inspector. He holds an A.A. degree in political science and a B.A. degree in sociology from the California State University at North Ridge. Mr. Mihalko is program manager for Prohibited Mailings, Office of Criminal Investigations. He assumed his present position on April 4 of this year and oversees the development and maintenance of national prohibited mailings programs. Prior to this he was Senior Investigator on the U.S. Attorney General's Commission on Pornography. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. I want to welcome you also to the panel discussion this morning. We have your statements which, without objection, will be made part of the record. We do have somebody here to object. Without objection, they will be admitted and you may proceed as you see fit. Welcome. Ms. TOENSING. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for asking me here to discuss what the Department's enforcement program is in this area of child pornography. I appreciate your putting my prepared statement in the record. I will be brief in my remarks because I am sure you have some questions that you want to ask. Briefly, we approach our attack on child pornography domestically and internationally. Domestically, we have our enforcement principally through investigations, undercover type investigations, and through border seizures of child pornography. I know that it has been mentioned here earlier, but I would like to praise again the Congress for helping us out. It was an excellent example of our two branches coming together with a common concern, which was child pornography, and a statute that was not working. The statute that was signed in May 1984 was very successful, because we now believe that we have a very effective tool for attacking child pornography. The statistics are an amazing success story. In the last 2 years we have prosecuted almost three times as many people, indicted and convicted almost three times as many people as we did in the entire 62 years put together. Senator Roth mentioned earlier about the indictment in Cleveland. In Cleveland yesterday, we just added 15 more defendants to that list. So, we do have a vigorous prosecution going on out there in the U.S. attorney's office. We are finding that as a result that the material is becoming rather difficult to find. Certainly it is becoming very difficult to set up shop here in the United States. So we have had to attack it, Mr. Chairman, as we are in another subject area of very much concern to you, and that is the drug area. We have also had to go internationally. In this regard, the Justice Department, along with the Postal Service and the State Department, the FBI, and Customs, has put together an interagency task force. We are working with European countries where we gather evidence here and we have a device for sharing some of that evidence with the European countries so that they can then go out and investigate the suspected sources of child pornography which we suspect are coming here to the United States. That is our basic outline. We testified last week-I was out at the ABA convention in New York, but my section chief testified in support of Senator Roth's bill. So, we are in support of that legislation. We have a few technical amendments that we have suggested. I have that testimony, if your staff would like to take advantage of that. Thank you. Mr. HUGHES. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. [The statement of Victoria Toensing follows:] |