On May 20, the United States Senate unanimously passed the federal version of Trey’s Law (S-3966), known as the “Terminating Restrictive Enforcement of Youth Settlements Law.”
The bill aims to void the use of nondisclosure agreements in settlements related to childhood sexual abuse, ensuring survivors are able to tell their stories regardless of what other legal agreements are right for them.
The bill, led by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), has gained bipartisan support over the past month. It is now cosponsored by numerous senators, many of whom rarely agree on major issues: Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) John Cornyn (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-Mo), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The next step in the lawmaking process is for the House of Representatives to pass its version of the bill (H.R. 8571). It would then be sent to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
The bill is named after Trey Carlock, a sexual abuse survivor who died by suicide in 2019. Carlock was abused by serial sexual abuser Peter Newman while attending Kanakuk Kamps and later entered a settlement agreement that included a restrictive NDA, barring him from telling his story. He died after engaging in the re-traumatizing legal process of further litigation attempting to hold additional parties accountable.
Since his death in 2019, his sister, Elizabeth Carlock Phillips, has fought to strengthen the rights of sexual abuse survivors by championing Trey’s Law and other relevant legislation, such as statute of limitations reform and the Cindy Clemishire Act. Having fought for Trey’s Law over the course of five legislative sessions so far, she views this work as both a public safety and freedom of speech issue.
She is determined to continue working until all survivors have a voice.
“The unanimous passage of Trey’s Law by the United States Senate today marks a historic turning point in the fight to protect children and survivors’ rights,” Phillips said. “For too long, predators have relied on the cover of NDAs, using institutional secrecy to hide their crimes and bury trauma secrets. By making these clauses void and unenforceable as a matter of federal law, this bipartisan bill prioritizes victims’ voices and public safety over a perpetrator’s freedom or a liable institution’s reputation. Thank you to Senators Cruz and Gillibrand for introducing this legislation, and to our many cosponsors for their steadfast leadership so that other child sexual abuse victims don’t have my little brother’s outcome. Today, we got one step closer to seeing truth set free nationwide.”
Texas is Trey’s home state and one of the seven states that have passed versions of Trey’s Law thus far.
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