Expedited Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect to State Child Protective Services

Floor Speech

In 2005, 5-year-old Talia Williams was beaten to death by her own father, who was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii at the time. Talia suffered through months and months of abuse from her father and her stepmother, which ultimately led to her death.

Why didn't someone do something? Why was this allowed to occur? Why didn't someone take action to stop this horrific abuse that was visible to so many who knew Talia? There were multiple reports that were made to military officials, but when it came right down to it, nothing was done to take Talia out of harm's way.

I am rising today to ask my colleagues to support my bill, H.R. 3894, Talia's Law, because more than 10 years after Talia's tragic death, the same gaps in the military's reporting requirements that failed to protect Talia remain unchanged. In fact, over the last decade, there have been 29,000 cases of child abuse and neglect in military homes.

Now, outside of the military, in the civilian world, doctors, psychologists, social workers, teachers, or other professionals who work closely with children are required to report any suspected cases of child abuse and neglect directly to that State's Child Protective Services.

But the military's reporting requirements do not require that direct reporting to State authorities. So reports of Talia's suspected abuse never reached the Hawaii Child Protective Services. Instead, they stayed within the Army's chain of command.

Now, I know there were a lot of people around Talia who had good intentions and who were gravely concerned about the abuse that they were seeing, but the fact remains that Talia was never removed from this abusive environment.

To close this gap and fix this problem, Talia's Law requires the same protections that exist for any other child, whether they are in a military household or not. This bill requires immediate and direct reporting to State Child Protective Services in cases of suspected abuse and neglect.

I recently spoke to Talia's mother, Tarshia, who knows that this bill will not bring Talia back, it cannot right the wrongs that failed to protect Talia.

But what she does know and what she does hope is that the passage of this bill will take an important step forward in helping to better protect the thousands of other children in military families who may be facing this same situation and get them the care and services that they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to honor Talia and all of our children in military families and support H.R. 3894.

I would also like to thank my colleague, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Stefanik) for her very thoughtful remarks on this and for championing Talia's Law to be able to help these children who are facing numerous challenges and who deserve better than to have this kind of abuse.

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