Senator Hirono Introduces “Talia’s Law”

Senator Hirono took to the Senate floor to share the story of Talia Williams, a five year old girl who was killed by her father, and to introduce an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would close a loophole that kept Talia’s case from the hands of civilian authorities.

From Senator Hirono’s floor speech:

“I am hopeful that, by requiring such dual reporting, no military connected children will remain in abusive homes because information never made it to the right person.  There were many mistakes made in Talia’s case. Some of those mistakes are of the type that no law might rectify – reluctance to get involved in the affairs of others. Reluctance to implicate abuse.  Perhaps fear of repercussions or out of respect for a member’s service and personal affability. However, in a case like Talia’s more should have been done, and could have been, if only the right people were made aware of the situation. I hope that we do not continue to ignore this one glaring reporting loophole, leaving in place a hole in our safety net wide enough to miss the torture and untimely death of a child like Talia.”

The AP and KITV covered Senator Hirono’s efforts.

Click the photo above to watch Senator Hirono’s entire floor speech