Sen. Cruz Remarks On Senate Judiciary Committee Passing TREY’S Law To Protect Child Sexual Assault Victims

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, delivered remarks as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to pass the Terminating Restrictive Enforcement of Youth Settlements (TREY'S) Law. Sen. Cruz introduced and is leading the bipartisan legislation with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). The bill voids non-disclosure agreements that silence survivors of child sexual abuse.

Click here or on the image above to watch Sen. Cruz's remarks on TREY'S Law.

Please see below for Sen. Cruz's opening remarks as delivered:

"I'll speak briefly. I addressed this bill at greater length two weeks ago at the last markup we did. But Trey's Law is an important civil rights law and an important protection for kids.

"It is named for Trey Carlock, who is a Texan. As a young boy, he attended a Christian summer camp, and tragically, he was groomed and sexually assaulted by an adult male at that camp for a period of years. He lived with the agony of that abuse. Ultimately, litigation ensued. He settled that litigation, and as part of the settlement, he signed a non-disclosure agreement, and as a result, Trey kept the details of that abuse silent his entire life. He agonized under that silence. Ultimately, Trey took his own life in the aftermath of what had occurred at that camp.

"Trey's Law is a simple, common-sense step that says a non-disclosure agreement shall not be enforced to silence child victims of sexual assault. I wish I could say what happened to Trey was an outlier, was unusual, but it is not. Child sexual assault occurs far too often in this country, and frequently, litigation that ensues results in a non-disclosure agreement that attempts to muzzle the child from telling his story or her story forever. That is wrong.

"Trey's sister Elizabeth has been a heroic warrior, telling his story, advocating for this protection for kids. Texas has passed Trey's Law, as Senator Cornyn noted. Jeff Leach introduced it and carried it through in the state legislature. Thank you, Jeff, for doing so. Congress will be following Texas's lead very shortly, but this is an important common-sense protection. A number of senators are co-sponsors of this bill, and I am grateful for all of you, and I urge the committee to pass it."

Click here to read more about the bill.

BACKGROUND

Trey's Law prevents the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence survivors of child sexual abuse and trafficking. The bill makes any NDA provision unenforceable if it prohibits or restricts someone from disclosing the sexual abuse of a minor or facts related to that abuse. Importantly, this protection applies regardless of when the NDA was signed, whether before a dispute arose or as part of a civil settlement agreement.

The bill is named in honor of Trey Carlock, a beloved citizen of Dallas, Texas, who was silenced by an NDA after enduring a retraumatizing civil litigation process against Kanakuk Ministries. He ultimately died by suicide at age 28.