{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2024/12/news/blackburn-ossoff-introduce-bill-to-help-rescue-more-children-from-violence-by-recording-child-protective-services-interviews/6583f60b-5203-4a53-8e5e-6edfd577b4f2", "Blackburn, Ossoff Introduce Bill to Help Rescue More Children from Violence by Recording Child Protective Services Interviews", "2024-12-18", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Marsha Blackburn", "B001243", "www.blackburn.senate.gov", "blackburn", "https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/news/cc8c80c1-d564-4bbb-93a4-f1d772346ae0", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) introduced the Generate Recordings of All Child protective Interviews Everywhere (GRACIE) Act, which would incentivize states to require the recording of all Child Protective Services (CPS) interviews with children and adults. Modernizing CPS interview protocols would increase the likelihood that child trafficking victims will be identified and removed from dangerous situations, including sex and labor trafficking, domestic violence, physical and emotional abuse, and other forms of violence.\n\n\u201cChildren are often silenced by their abusers, and we need to do everything in our power to ensure that does not happen,\u201d said Senator Blackburn. \u201cThe GRACIE Act would help give more children a voice, increase domestic violence reporting, and strengthen the foster care system.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe can never do enough to support vulnerable children in Georgia and across the country,\u201d said Senator Ossoff. \u201cSenator Blackburn and I are introducing this new bipartisan bill to strengthen transparency in State child protective agencies and help States better fund their operations.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nIn the U.S., 37.4% of children will be interviewed by CPS at some point in their childhood. These initial interviews can be traumatic, so we must do everything we can to ensure transparency and accountability during the process. CPS is the gateway to the foster care system, and approximately 60% of U.S. domestic child sex trafficking victims have engaged with the foster care system. Many of them undergo multiple interviews without one CPS staffer identifying them as child trafficking victims or removing them from real-time trafficking violence.\n\nCPS has a history of distorting the testimony of children who are trying to speak out about abuse and trafficking. As a result, children can remain in abusive and dangerous situations. CPS interview protocols are broken, and mandating all CPS interviews be recorded would be a good first step toward fixing this broken system.\n\nThe U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has required recordings of all interrogations for nearly a decade, and state law enforcement departments often require police body cameras. Similar accountability measures are long overdue in the child protection space. It is imperative that federal and state legislation require at least audio recording\u2013if not video recording, too\u2013of all CPS interviews.\n\nTHE GRACIE ACT:\n\nThe GRACIE Act would create a grant program within the DOJ to award grants to states that require the recording of all CPS interviews with children and adults. This legislation includes provisions to protect the privacy and security of those recordings, so they are not shared with anyone outside of a law enforcement investigation. They would also only be retained for the amount of time needed to deal with the case.\n\nENDORSEMENTS:\n\nThis legislation is endorsed by Street Grace, No Trafficking Zones, Pearl at the Mailbox, The Foundation United, Rights for Girls, and 3Strands Global.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2024/12/news/blackburn-ossoff-introduce-bill-to-help-rescue-more-children-from-violence-by-recording-child-protective-services-interviews/6583f60b-5203-4a53-8e5e-6edfd577b4f2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8384496904909611, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}