President Donald Trump has signed a bill to fund 200 additional child exploitation investigators, a major expansion of federal resources to combat child trafficking and exploitation. The measure, included in the $70 billion reconciliation package, provides $108.5 million in funding for child trafficking and exploitation enforcement.

Legislation Driven by Concerns Over Child Trafficking

The provision was driven in part by former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism on exposing rampant child trafficking. Tebow said that 338,000 unique IP addresses have downloaded, shared or distributed child rape images in the United States in a matter of months, but only a small number are looked into.

The measure, developed from Senator Josh Hawley’s Renewed Hope Act, gives Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) the funding to hire 40 new forensic analysts at the Victim Identification Laboratory at the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit of HSI, as well as 30 new child exploitation investigators at the Victim Identification Laboratory of the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit of HSI.

The White House referred to Trump’s comments in the Oval Office during the signing of the Secure America Act. “The bill provides crucial funding to domestic law enforcement investigations, combating child exploitation, continuing our work to restore law and order across our nation and to protect America’s youth,” Trump said.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.