Senate Republicans are introducing funding measures to combat online child abuse

Senate Republicans on Tuesday included a significant increase in funding to combat child sex trafficking and exploitation in their reconciliation bill, adding to the drumbeat in Congress to better protect children online.

The measure, championed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, would increase the number of specialists who fight child sex abuse and child trafficking materials in the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative division to 200 from seven. The additional roles would cost $108 million over three years, the largest one-time increase in spending by Congress to combat these forms of child abuse, Mr. Hawley said.

The provision is included in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding reconciliation bill, which is expected to pass the Senate as early as this week. The House is expected to take up the Senate measure by June 1, a deadline set by President Trump.

“It’s going to be a huge 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 passed, the measure would be one of the first tangible efforts by Congress in recent years to better protect children online.

Lawmakers have introduced a series of child safety laws in recent years that would force social media companies to strengthen privacy protections, curb addiction to social networks and hold sites accountable for hosting sexually abusive material. But despite numerous hearings and recommendations from pediatricians, educators and parents, nearly all efforts stalled after the tech industry poured millions of dollars into lobbying against them.

The amount of child sexual abuse material on the Internet has increased at an alarming rate. In 2025, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 21.3 million reports of suspected abuse, an increase of 800,000 reports from the previous year.

Law enforcement said the child abuse material is closely linked to child trafficking. Perpetrators use the photos to blackmail and control victims – and then further exploit the trafficked children by making and selling new material.

The inclusion of Mr. Hawley’s measure in the Reconciliation Bill accelerates its path to becoming law.

The measure aims to increase staffing and training at the Department of Homeland Security to improve forensics and victim identification training. The aim would be to save the estimated 89,000 children found in online sex abuse material who remain unidentified, Mr Hawley said.