Congress passes Paris Hilton-backed bill aimed at protecting institutionalized youth

(CNN) — Paris Hilton is celebrating a big win on Capitol Hill after the US House and Senate both voted to pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, a bill for which Hilton has been a vocal supporter that is aimed at improving protections for institutionalized youth.

Hilton, who has spoken about the past abuse she faced while attending programs for troubled teens, said in a statement posted to her X page on Wednesday shortly after the bill was passed in the House of Representatives that the “moment is proof that our voices matter” and that “speaking out can spark change.”

“I did this for the younger version of myself and the youth who were senselessly taken from us by the Troubled Teen Industry,” she wrote.

Hilton’s statement continued: “To the countless survivors who shared their stories, to the families who stood with us, and to the coalition, thank you from the bottom of my heart for standing with me. To the legislators who chose courage over complacency and fought for me: you’ve made my dream come true.”

Addressing the children “still trapped in these systems,” Hilton vowed in her statement that she will “never stop fighting for you.”

Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican from Georgia and co-sponsor on the bill, thanked Hilton “for her hard work, her bravery and her vulnerability in sharing her story about abuse at the hands of a youth residential treatment facility” during Tuesday’s session, when the bill was first brought to the House floor. The vote was postponed and took place Wednesday.

The Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act pushes for more transparency and accountability in youth residential programs, as well as calls for more protections for those housed within these facilities and overall reform of how the facilities operate to “ensure they provide safe, supportive, and nurturing environments,” according to its official website.

The bill was introduced to Congress in April 2023, shortly after Hilton released her memoir, in which she recounts her own experience being physically and emotionally abused at a boarding school for troubled teens after first speaking about it in depth in her 2020 documentary “This Is Paris.”

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Hilton has since been an outspoken advocate on child welfare issues. She has previously said she still suffers from PTSD from the abuse she experienced during her time at the institution.

The bill was unanimously passed in the Senate last week.

A personal fight

Hilton has visited Congress several times throughout the past few years to lobby for the health, safety and well-being of children.

During a visit to the White House in 2022, Hilton met with policy staff and people who survived abuse while in youth residential treatment facilities to discuss “issues pertinent to the protection of institutionalized youth in America,” a White House official told CNN at the time.

In June, Hilton appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee at a hearing focused on foster care and the reauthorization of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, which provides resources to states to promote child welfare.

She recounted for the committee the traumatic experience of being taken from her bed in the middle of the night when she was 16 years old and taken to what would end up being the first of four different troubled youth facilities she would attend.

“I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked, and thrown into solitary confinement. My parents were completely deceived – lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing,” she said. “So can you only imagine the experience for youth who are placed by the state and don’t have people regularly checking in on them?”

Hilton, a mother of two, told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins during an appearance on Monday’s episode of “The Source” that becoming a mom has further fueled her urge to fight for better protections for children, saying she can’t imagine her son ever experiencing what she has.

She said she plans to keep fighting even harder “for the future of my children and all the children in the world.”