Amy and Vicky Child Pornography Victim Restitution Improvement Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I thank the majority leader for moving
ahead on S. 295, which we call the Amy and Vicky Act.

The need for this bill arises because of the Supreme Court's 5-to-4
decision last year in Paroline v. United States.

The Court at that time limited the recovery that a victim of a child
pornography offense could receive, even as additional wrongdoers saw
her image as it was repeatedly posted on the Internet.

Rather than making the offender provide restitution for all the harms
caused by the repeated viewings, the Supreme Court limited the recovery
against any one defendant to the relative harm that defendant caused.

This bill will expand the categories of loss for which the victim
could recover. It would reverse, then, the Supreme Court by permitting
the victim to recover up to the full loss from any one defendant,
subject to a minimum amount, depending upon the defendant's conduct. No
longer, then, would the victim receive restitution from each defendant
limited to that defendant's own actions. Each defendant would be
jointly and severally liable for the victim's entire loss.

The bill sets up a contribution procedure for those defendants, which
then would make the victim whole. Of course, that is the main point.

The choice is between the convicted child pornography offender being
held responsible for the full loss and the innocent victim not
receiving full compensation.

The Supreme Court ruled that the victim could not receive all her
restitution from any one single defendant, even as her damage suffered was compounded. This bill appropriately rejects that. I hope it is not the last time this Congress overturns a Supreme Court decision.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this legislation, as I was
in the last Congress. I was pleased that the first legislation the
Judiciary Committee took up when I became chairman was this bipartisan
child pornography bill, and I am glad to have shepherded that bill
through the committee so that the Senate at this time can take it up as
one of its first legislative items.

We should all commend, as I do, Senator Hatch for his work on this
very important piece of legislation.

I yield the floor.

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