In a 2023 report, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress that “[c]hild exploitation crimes and the threats facing children have been exploding in scale, complexity, and dangerousness.” Even in today’s political climate, protecting children from exploitation has widespread support across partisan and ideological lines.

Just as Child Abuse Awareness Month closed in April, a coalition of grassroots groups sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche urging stronger leadership.

A few laws Congress has passed to combat this scourge require reports on the Justice Department’s efforts. The 2008 PROTECT Our Children Act, for example, requires the attorney general to submit a biannual National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. The law spells out nearly two dozen specific areas that the strategy must address.

Attorneys general of both parties have failed to meet this responsibility. Of the nine reports required so far, only three have been submitted at all, none of them even close to its deadline. Every Attorney General from Eric Holder to Pam Bondi has failed to submit at least one report altogether.

The General........

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