[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4990 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4990
To comprehensively combat child marriage in the United States.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
August 1, 2024
Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Schatz, and Mrs. Gillibrand) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To comprehensively combat child marriage in the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Child Marriage Prevention Act of
2024''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Over 300,000 minors were married in the United States
between 2000 and 2018. Most were wed to adult men and some were
as young as 10 years of age, though most were 16 or 17 years of
age.
(2) Child marriage limits educational opportunities. Women
who marry before they turn 19 years of age are 50 percent more
likely to drop out of high school and 4 times less likely to
graduate from college.
(3) Girls who marry in their early teens are up to 31
percent more likely to live in future poverty.
(4) Child marriage has harmful consequences for mental and
physical health. Women who married as children have higher
rates of certain psychiatric disorders. Another study found
that women who marry before 19 years of age have a 23 percent
greater risk of developing a serious health condition,
including diabetes, cancer, heart attack, or stroke.
(5) Child marriage can facilitate physical, emotional, and
verbal abuse. Girls and young women 16 to 24 years of age
experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence, and
girls 16 to 19 years of age experience intimate partner
violence victimization rates that are almost triple the
national average. Further, the majority of States allow
marriage to be used as a defense to statutory rape laws, which
can incentivize perpetrators to marry victims to preempt
prosecutions.
(6) 70 to 80 percent of marriages entered into when at
least one person is under 18 years of age ultimately end in
divorce. According to one study based on census data, 23
percent of children who marry are already separated or divorced
by the time they turn 18 years of age.
(7) Depending on the State, a child facing a forced
marriage or a married minor trying to leave may find themselves
with few options. A minor trying to avoid a forced marriage may
not be able to leave home without being taken into custody and
returned by police and may not be able to stay in a domestic
violence shelter at all or in a youth shelter for longer than a
few days. Friends or allies of a child escaping a marriage who
offer to take them in could risk being charged with
contributing to the delinquency of a minor or harboring a
runaway. And, if the minor attempts to obtain a home of their
own, they may find no one willing to rent to them, because in
many circumstances, minors cannot be held to contracts they
enter.
(8) Depending on the State, a minor who is being forced or
coerced into marriage may not be entitled to file on their own
for a protective order. Further, not all States clearly treat
married minors as emancipated, meaning they still have the
limited legal status and rights of a child and face similar
vulnerabilities and challenges seeking help.
(9) Child marriage in the United States can also be
facilitated through the immigration system. Subject to rare
exceptions, United States immigration law recognizes marriages
as valid if they were legal where they took place and where the
parties will reside. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
reported that between fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2017, it
approved 8,686 petitions for spousal or fiance visas that
involved at least one minor, though it remains unclear how many
of these visas were ultimately approved by the Department of
State. However, approximately 2.6 percent of fiance and spousal
petitions were returned unapproved to U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services between fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year
2017. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that the United
States issued a visa to a significant number of the spouses and
fiances named on the 8,686 petitions.
(10) Four States set no statutory minimum age for marriage.
In 13 States and the District of Columbia, clerks acting on
their own--without judges--can issue marriage licenses for all
minors. Four States permit pregnancy to lower the minimum
marriage age and in one State, Mississippi, the statute sets
different conditions for approvals for girls and boys.
(11) There is a growing movement to eliminate child
marriage in the United States and 13 States--Delaware, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York,
Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan, Washington,
Virginia, and New Hampshire have set the minimum age for
marriage at 18 years of age, with no exceptions. Since 2016, a
total of 35 States have enacted new laws to end or limit child
marriage with 5 more States requiring parties to be legal
adults (meaning that the only exception to the requirement to
be 18 years of age to be married is for certain court-
emancipated minors). Until all States take action, however, the
patchwork of State laws will continue to put all children,
particularly girls, at risk, given the ease with which they can
be taken out of their home State into another State with lax or
no laws.
(12) The foreign policy of the United States is already
imbued with these understandings that child marriage is harmful
and should be prevented, including the following:
(A) The Department of State in its Foreign Affairs
Manual states the Federal Government view of ``forced
marriage to be a violation of basic human rights. It
also considers the forced marriage of a minor child to
be a form of child abuse, since the child will
presumably be subjected to non-consensual sex.''.
(B) The United States Agency for International
Development observes that Child, Early, and Forced
Marriage (In this paragraph referred to as ``CEFM'')
``impedes girls' education and increases early
pregnancy and the risk of maternal mortality, obstetric
complications, gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS.
Children of young mothers have higher rates of infant
mortality and malnutrition compared to children of
mothers older than 18. . . . CEFM is also associated
with reductions in economic productivity for
individuals and nations at large. CEFM is a human
rights abuse and a practice that undermines efforts to
promote sustainable growth and development.''.
(C) Congress enacted the Violence Against Women
Reauthorization Act of 2013 (Public Law 113-4; 127
Stat. 54), which requires the Secretary of State to
establish and implement a multiyear strategy--
(i) to ``prevent child marriages''; and
(ii) to ``promote the empowerment of girls
at risk of child marriage in developing
countries''.
(13) In 2021, the National Strategy on Gender Equity and
Equality named child marriage as a form of gender-based
violence that undermines human rights globally and
domestically, noting--
(A) ``Millions of women and girls remain at risk of
female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and child,
early and forced marriage, forms of gender-based
violence that undermine security and human rights,
including here in the United States''; and
(B) ``In the United States, we will collaborate
with state officials to prevent and address harmful
practices that undermine human rights, including laws
that permit child, early and forced marriage . . . and
ensure access to social services for those harmed.''.
(14) The report titled ``U.S. National Plan to End Gender-
Based Violence: Strategies for Action,'' published in May,
2023, which focuses on preventing and addressing various forms
of interpersonal violence occurring within the United States,
defines gender-based violence as a ``range of interpersonal
violence across the life course'' including child, early, and
forced marriage.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Noncitizen.--The term ``noncitizen'' means any person
who is not a citizen or national of the United States.
(2) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the several
States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth,
territory, or possession of the United States.
SEC. 4. FEDERAL COMMISSION TO ADDRESS CHILD MARRIAGE.
(a) In General.--There is established within the Department of
Health and Human Services a commission, to be known as the National
Commission to Combat Child Marriage in the United States (in this
section referred to as the ``Commission''), which shall--
(1) conduct a comprehensive study on child marriage in the
United States, including--
(A) applicable laws, or the absence of laws, which
define or prohibit child marriage;
(B) the extent to which such marriages currently
occur;
(C) the extent to which such marriages occurred
over the last 5 years in each State;
(D) the circumstances in which such marriages take
place (including risk factors that may have played a
role in such marriages taking place); and
(E) the impact of such marriages on the individuals
who were married before turning 18 years of age;
(2) build upon the evaluations of other entities and avoid
unnecessary duplication, by reviewing the findings,
conclusions, and recommendations of other commissions, the
Federal Government, State and local governments, State task
forces, and nongovernmental entities relating to child marriage
in the United States;
(3) submit a report on specific findings, conclusions, and
recommendations to eliminate child marriage in the United
States to--
(A) the Committee on the Judiciary and the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of
the Senate;
(B) the Committee on the Judiciary and the
Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House
of Representatives; and
(C) the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and
(4) carry out other duties as described in subsection (c).
(b) Composition of Commission.--
(1) Members.--The Commission shall be composed of 10
members, of whom--
(A) 1 member shall be appointed by the President;
(B) 1 member, who is of a different political party
than that of the member appointed under paragraph (1),
shall be appointed by the President;
(C) 4 members shall be appointed by the Secretary
of Health and Human Services;
(D) 1 member shall be appointed by the majority
leader of the Senate;
(E) 1 member shall be appointed by the minority
leader of the Senate;
(F) 1 member shall be appointed by the Speaker of
the House of Representatives; and
(G) 1 member shall be appointed by the minority
leader of the House of Representatives.
(2) Governmental appointees.--An individual appointed to
the Commission may not be an officer or employee of the Federal
Government.
(3) Commission representation.--The Commission shall
include at least--
(A) 1 survivor of child marriage;
(B) 1 representative from a private nonprofit
entity with demonstrated expertise in working with
survivors of child marriage in the United States;
(C) 1 representative from a private nonprofit
entity with demonstrated expertise in working with
immigrant survivors of child marriage in the United
States; and
(D) 1 representative from a private nonprofit
entity with demonstrated expertise in working with
State governments to limit child marriage.
(4) Qualifications.--Members appointed under paragraph (1)
shall have demonstrated experience or expertise in--
(A) providing services to survivors of child
marriage in the United States;
(B) providing services to immigrant survivors of
child marriage in the United States;
(C) working with State governments to limit child
marriage;
(D) the medical challenges that survivors of child
marriage face;
(E) the mental health challenges that survivors of
child marriage face;
(F) legal issues involving individuals who were
married or sought to marry before becoming 18 years of
age;
(G) conducting research on the impact of child
marriage on individuals who were married before
becoming 18 years of age;
(H) risk factors that play a role in child
marriage; or
(I) issues of forced or coerced marriage, family
violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, or child
abuse.
(5) Initial meeting.--Not later than 120 days after the
appointment of members of the Commission, the Commission
shall--
(A) hold an initial meeting, at which the members
shall elect a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, who
shall be of different political parties, from among
such members and shall determine a schedule of
Commission meetings; and
(B) begin the operations of the Commission.
(6) Quorum and vacancy.--
(A) Quorum.--A majority of the members of the
Commission shall constitute a quorum, but a lesser
number of members may hold hearings.
(B) Vacancy.--Any vacancy in the Commission shall
not affect its powers and shall be filled in the same
manner in which the original appointment was made.
(c) Duties of the Commission.--The Commission shall--
(1) conduct pursuant to subsection (a) a comprehensive
study that examines and assesses the adequacy of laws
addressing child marriage, the extent of child marriage across
the country, risk factors that play a role in child marriage,
and the impact of child marriage on those individuals in the
United States who marry before becoming 18 years of age,
including making specific findings relating to--
(A) threats to such individuals' safety and well-
being, including--
(i) physical and mental health, economic,
and educational impacts;
(ii) forced or coerced marriage;
(iii) family violence;
(iv) vulnerability to abuse and
exploitation;
(v) sexual assault;
(vi) child abuse and neglect; and
(vii) human trafficking;
(B) barriers to and gaps in services for minors
facing the threat of forced marriage or already married
minors seeking protection from abuse;
(C) Federal laws, regulations, policies, and
programs relevant to child marriage and individuals who
marry before becoming 18 years of age; and
(D) based on a survey of such laws, State laws
defining or prohibiting child marriage, including
lessons learned from States that have, or that lack,
laws, regulations, and policies to limit child
marriage; and
(2) submit to the President, the Secretary of Health and
Human Services, and Congress a report on the specific findings,
conclusions, and recommendations to address and ultimately
eliminate child marriage in the United States and improve
services and outcomes for survivors of child marriage in the
United States, including specific recommendations on policies,
regulations, and legislative changes as the Commission
considers appropriate to address child marriage in the United
States.
(d) Powers of the Commission.--
(1) Hearings.--The Commission may hold such hearings, meet
and act at such times and places, and receive such evidence as
may be necessary to carry out the functions of the Commission.
(2) Information from federal agencies.--
(A) In general.--The Commission may access, to the
extent authorized by law, from any executive
department, bureau, agency, board, commission, office,
independent establishment, or instrumentality of the
Federal Government such information, suggestions,
estimates, and statistics as the Commission considers
necessary to carry out this section.
(B) Provision of information.--On written request
of the Chairperson of the Commission, each department,