With an overwhelming showing of bipartisan support Wednesday, the House voted to pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, sending the bill that would require more oversight of youth residential treatment facilities to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The legislation has been championed by model and Hilton hotel heiress Paris Hilton, who herself spent time in residential youth programs as a teenager. She was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for the House vote. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous vote earlier this week.

What You Need To Know

  • With an overwhelming showing of bipartisan support Wednesday, the House voted to pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, sending the bill that would require more oversight of youth residential treatment facilities to President Joe Biden’s desk

  • The legislation has been championed by model and Hilton hotel heiress Paris Hilton, who herself spent time in residential youth programs as a teenager. She was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for the House vote

  • Currently, some programs use disciplinary methods on minors including restraints and seclusion
  • The legislation will require centers to notify parents and the state any time they use restraints or seclusion rooms for minors
  • Hilton testified to Congress about the abuse she suffered during her time at a boarding school in Utah, including being force-fed medications, kept in solitary confinement without clothes and sexually abused by staff
  • Hilton's advocacy has helped changed laws to protect minors in at least eight states, including in her home state of California, where similar legislation will go into effect on Jan. 1.

The bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna D-Calif. and Buddy Carter, R-Ga., will establish a federal oversight group under the Department of Health & Human Services to increase transparency and encourage best practices for the health, safety, care, treatment and appropriate placement of youth in residential programs for substance abuse and behavioral issues.

Currently, some programs use disciplinary methods on minors including restraints and seclusion. The legislation will require centers to notify parents and the state any time they use restraints or seclusion rooms for minors.

Hilton testified to Congress about the abuse she suffered during her time at a boarding school in Utah, including being force-fed medications, kept in solitary confinement without clothes and sexually abused by staff. Details of the abuse were chronicled in a documentary titled “This is Paris” that was released in September 2020.

“I just had tears flooding down my face,” said Hilton, still visibly emotional, outside the Capitol Wednesday following the vote. “I was just so excited…[it] felt like a dream…something that I've been praying for every night for years.”

Hilton has visited Washington multiple times in recent months to advocate for the bill’s passage alongside Khanna and Carter, as well as Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. Her advocacy has helped changed laws to protect minors in at least eight states, including in Hilton's home state of California, where similar legislation will go into effect on Jan. 1.

Khanna said Wednesday he believes the new law and efforts to more closely scrutinize these facilities have made a difference in the lives of “thousands of American kids.”

“I'm so proud to have worked hand in hand with Rep. Carter on this for years to show that Congress can work and come together and we can do these things when we have outside voices speaking out and sharing their stories,” he said. “There have been so many survivors who have come forward with courage to share their stories, to share what these congregate care facilities are like, to call for action.”

“And I'm convinced our bill is going to have these standards now so that congregate care facilities know they can't be abusing kids,” Khanna said.

The bill will become law once Biden signs it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.