Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Passage Of Bipartisan Kids’ Online Safety Legislation

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor immediately before Senate passage of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s and Teens Online Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). The Senate passed the bill 91-3. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Today is a momentous day. The Senate keeps its promise to every parent who has lost a child because of the risks of social media. Today, after a lot of hard work, twists and turns, the Senate is passing two vital pieces of legislation with a strong bipartisan vote – the Kids’ Online Safety Act, KOSA, and the Children and Teens’ Online Protection Act, COPPA.

By passing KOSA and COPPA, we are one step closer to the most important update in decades to federal laws protecting kids on the internet. Once we act, the House should pass these bills as soon as they can.

This is such an important piece of legislation. And I say to my colleagues who have worked hard, Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn, Markey and Cassidy, Durbin, Klobuchar, Chair Cantwell, and others: thank you.

But thank you, above all, to the parents who advocated so tirelessly for these bills. I’ve sat with them. I’ve heard the terrible stories: children, teenagers, perfectly normal, then some algorithm captures them online by accident, and they end up committing suicide shortly thereafter. I’ve heard those stories. You imagine being a parent and living with that.

So, we have to do something. And these parents have turned their grief into grace. These parents are the reason that we succeeded today.

Today, the Senate tells the parents: we hear you, we are taking action. I’m so glad that we have a broad bipartisan vote here. It shows the chamber can work on something important, that no one let partisanship get in the way of passing this important legislation. But this is a historic moment. This is a moment when the Senate has said: there have been horrible abuses, we must end them, and we will.

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