Sen. Chuck Schumer unveils bill that would eliminate statute of limitations on sex trafficking lawsuits

Flanked by Long Island sex trafficking victims and advocates, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer unveiled a bill on Wednesday that would eliminate statutes of limitations on sex trafficking claims, which he said would prevent sexual predators from escaping accountability by running out the clock on lawsuits.

"Virginia’s Law" would allow traumatized trafficking victims to seek justice when they are emotionally and mentally prepared, Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during a news conference at the Suffolk offices of The Retreat, a nonprofit that provides support to domestic violence, sexual abuse and trafficking victims. The bill is named after Virginia Giuffre, one of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s best-known accusers.

"It makes it clear that abusers, and those who enable them, cannot escape responsibility, simply because time has passed," Schumer said. "It recognized what survivors have already known — time does not erase pain."

Under current federal law, survivors of sexual exploitation must file lawsuits within 10 years after they were abused, according to a Schumer spokesman. But many survivors of sexual assault and exploitation are not comfortable with disclosing their experiences until decades later, when they are in their 50s and 60s, according to Cate Carbonaro, the executive director of The Retreat.

"Virginia’s Law is going to have a real impact if it is passed, because centers’ survivors, it honors survivors’ timelines, not something a judge says, not something the legislature says," Carbonaro said. "It gives survivors the opportunity to heal on their own, to decide when they are ready."

The bill was introduced this week, and Schumer said he hopes to find a Republican to sponsor it in the House of Representatives.

Schumer said the overwhelming support in Congress late last year to pass legislation compelling the U.S. Justice Department to release its files on Epstein, who officials said took his own life while detained at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019, suggests Virginia’s Law will also get lawmakers’ approval.

"There’s still too many redactions, too many blank pages, too much unexplored," Schumer said of the Epstein files that have been released so far by the Justice Department. "We are pursuing that as we speak. But now that more has been released, we think it’s time to move this legislation. The fact that we got broad bipartisan support for releasing the files gives us real hope and an opportunity to get this."

Survivors are uncomfortable reporting their abuse and confronting their attackers for multiple reasons, said Laura Mullen, a survivor of sexual abuse and trafficking and now a senior advocate at ECLI-VIBES, which provides support to victims. Some fear retaliation, she said, while others don’t want to get their abusers in trouble. Many victims of sex trafficking, she said, are dependent on their abusers for food, shelter and drugs.

"My abuse happened when I was a young girl," Mullen said. "It was when I was older when I realized what happened to me was wrong."

Mullen urged Congress to pass Virginia’s Law, predicting that it would encourage more victims to come forward. "Justice should not expire," she said. "Accountability should not expire and neither should our right to be heard."