we have pretty clear policies on a lot of these things. so i have tried to make clear in very stern language to not just the field offices involved here, but to the executive management of every single field office and the entire leadership team of the fbi that on no planet is what happened in this case acceptable. one last quick question. it seems that a lot of the decisions were being pinned on whether or not there was alleged violation of the sex tourism statue. why is that such an exclusive remedy that if you re not on all fours with that, in fact, the fbi agent felt that they were constrained to do anything? well, i m not steeped in the particulars of the sex tourism statute the way that i used to be. but what i would say is one of the things we ve tried, both the deputy director and i, to make clear too p people is we don t t
foreclosed by our policies. we have clear policies on a lot of these things. i have tried to make clear in very stern language to not just the leadership team of the fbi that on no planet is this acceptable. it seems a lot of the decisions were being pinned on whether or not there was alleged violation of sex tourism statute. why is that such an exclusive remedy that if you re not on all fours with that, in fact, the fbi agent felt they were constrained to do anything? well, i m not steeped in the particulars of the sex tourism statute in the way that i used to be. what i would say, one of the things we try to make clear to people is that we don t want
0 i was never prompted. senator padilla? i think i had a female in the room at the olympic training center, but i can t say for sure. i feel like we all have the same people. if i recall, my direct communication was with a male in the room. okay. senator padilla? good morning. i want to start by thanking chairman durbin and all those who have made this hearing possible and to the panelists. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. i admire and respect each one of you for choosing to participate today, for sharing your testimony with us. coming here today was not easy. i recognize that you each had the option of respectfully declining the invitation to be here. but you didn t. and i hope that you understand that your presence here is not just so important to the members of this committee and to the senate as a body, but also speaks volumes for the countless victims of abuse that are out there listening or watching, or will listen. or will watch. i appreciate the conversat
misleading. a state department spokesperson tells cnn there are no legal grounds to deny a sex offender a passport, and rigorously adheres to u.s. law in issuing passports. but in the report the state department did indicate to gao that it is interested in looking at any proposed legislation that could give it the authority to deny passports to sex offenders. but tony, we also learned that there is a law that requires the state department to deny passports to people convicted under the sex tourism statute, which is a law that was put into effect in december 2008 that focuses on the sex offenders who travel to foreign countries for the explicit reason of committing sex crimes overseas. but when we asked gao when gao asked the state department about the sex tourism law, the department said it was not aware of that statute. so i mean, very quite a bit of time had passed when they weren t aware of that actual statute. yeah, absolutely.
are no legal grounds to deny a sex offenders a passport and rigorously adheres to the u.s. law in issuing the passports, but the state department did indicate to the gao, it is interested in looking at the legislation to deny passports to sex offenders, but wolf, we learned that there is a law that the state department must deny passports to those sex offenders who were violating the sex tourism statute which is when a sex offenders travels overseas to commit crimes with underaged person, but when asked about it, the state department said they were not aware of the statute. are there circumstances that the state department can prevent a passport? if you are behind in child