Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) today voted for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes an important provision he authored to protect the children of our service members from pedophiles and other dangerous criminals. The bill passed the Senate by a bipartisan 85-13 vote.

The NDAA, which directs our national defense policy, provides a pay increase for our troops and strengthens provisions related to military sexual assault.

In addition, the bipartisan legislation contains Sen. Toomey's Protecting Our Service Members' Children from Sexual and Violent Predators Act - a measure that provides that if a school district accepts taxpayer funds for educating military members' children, it must perform criminal background checks on teachers and other school workers who will have unsupervised access to children.

"While not perfect, this bipartisan bill provides for our national security and prioritizes the resources necessary to train and equip our warfighters," Sen. Toomey said. "We are still a nation at war, and it is vital we provide the support and resources to the men and women who are protecting our national security and working to defeat threats from ISIS, al Qaeda, and violent Islamist extremists.

"The bill also makes a promise to our military families that we will work to protect your children from convicted pedophiles and other dangerous criminals. I have fought for these protections for two and a half years. And in that time, another 1,150 school employees have been arrested for sexual misconduct with children. Clearly, we have not been doing enough, and this legislation is a significant step forward toward keeping child predators out of our classrooms. The men and women who sacrifice so much to defend and protect all of us absolutely deserve this commonsense safeguard for their children."

BACKGROUND: Sen. Toomey's longstanding efforts to protect children from pedophiles in the classroom began in 2013, when he and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) introduced the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act.

That bipartisan legislation had two parts:

First, the bill banned the terrible practice of administrators knowingly recommending for hire at another school a child molester so the predator became someone else's problem. The practice so common it has its own moniker, "passing the trash."

Second, the legislation required schools receiving federal funds to perform background checks on all new and existing workers who have unsupervised access to children. This includes substitute teachers, coaches, classroom aides, and bus drivers hired as contractors, who currently are not subject to background checks in 12 states. The background checks must be thorough, covering two state and two federal databases.
The "passing the trash" provision was enacted into law last December, when President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law. Sen. Toomey pledged to continue fighting to enact uniform background checks for school workers to prevent convicted pedophiles and other dangerous criminals from infiltrating the classroom.

• On March 3, Senator Toomey introduced the Protecting Our Service Members' Children from Sexual and Violent Predators Act.
• On March 4, Senator Toomey wrote to Chairman John McCain, asking him to incorporate the legislation into the fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

Chairman McCain led the effort in the Armed Services Committee to do just that. Thanks to his leadership and today's vote, we are one step closer to protecting America's children from sexual and violent predators.

The following organizations support the Toomey language:

Child Advocates

• National Children's Alliance
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• S.E.S.A.M.E.
• PA Coalition Against Rape
• Mass Kids

Law Enforcement
• National Association of Police Organizations
• National Sheriff's Association

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