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MOORE, DURBIN, SCHATZ, GILLIBRAND INTRODUCE CHILD MARRIAGE PREVENTION ACT
Moore, Durbin, Schatz, Gillibrand Introduce Child Marriage Prevention Act
Bicameral legislation takes important steps to help end child marriage in America
According to Unchained at Last, between 2000 and 2021, more than 314,000 minors (i.e., under the age of 18) were married in the United States. In certain instances, girls as young as 10 were married to men decades older. Child marriage is legal in 34 states, including Wisconsin. Congresswoman Gwen Moore, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Child Marriage Prevention Act, which would take steps to reduce child marriage across the United States.
“The practice of child marriage should not exist anywhere, especially not in the U.S. But in 34 states, including Wisconsin, child marriage is legal. Young girls are put on a harmful trajectory in life that keeps them from controlling their own futures when they enter, or are forced to enter, into these marriages. I am proud to partner with Senator Durbin to protect young people from this predatory and harmful practice. Our legislation takes a critical first step toward ending child marriage and protecting our children,” said Congresswoman Gwen Moore…
https://gwenmoore.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5957
Specifically, the Child Marriage Prevention Act would:
- Establish a National Commission to Combat Child Marriage to study, evaluate, and report on eliminating child marriage in the United States;
- Require a report by the Government Accountability Office examining the harmful impacts of child marriage across the United States;
- Incentivize states to ban child marriage (such as through increased Violence Against Women Act grant funding);
- Fund states-based task forces to examine and issue recommendations for eliminating child marriage in their individual states;
- Prohibit child marriage from occurring on federally funded land or buildings or property owned by the federal government (such as military bases).
- Instruct the Attorney General to promulgate a model state statute that prohibits child marriage.
- This bill would also close immigration loopholes that facilitate child marriage, requiring that both parties in a couple seeking a marriage-based visa be at least 18 years of age at the time of filing and for the U.S. petitioner to have been at least 18 years of age at the time of their marriage, with rare exceptions.
- In addition, this bill would amend how a proxy marriage (in which one of the two parties is not physically present for the ceremony) can be established for immigration purposes, replacing a problematic consummation requirement that incentivizes rape, with a requirement that parties to a marriage have previously met in person within two years of the date of the ceremony.