U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) advanced a bipartisan child abuse survivor protection bill in the Senate while also pushing foreign policy measures targeting Tanzania and a United Nations agency that senators say has documented ties to Hamas.
Protecting Child Abuse Survivors From Silence
One of the Senate’s biggest moves came May 20, when lawmakers unanimously passed TREY’S Law. The bill, led by Cruz and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), would void nondisclosure agreements used to silence survivors of child sexual abuse.
The legislation would make an NDA provision unenforceable if it prevents a victim, or anyone with knowledge of the abuse, from disclosing what happened to a minor. TREY’S Law would apply to agreements signed before, on, or after enactment, including NDAs included in civil settlements.
The bill honors Trey Carlock, a Dallas man who endured years of silence after former Kanakuk Ministries director Pete Newman sexually abused him at the Christian sports camp, according to Cruz’s office. An NDA tied to a civil lawsuit prevented Carlock from speaking publicly about what he suffered. He died by suicide at age 28.
“No child who has endured sexual abuse should be forced to carry that horror in silence. Non-disclosure agreements are too often used to protect abusers, with incalculable and catastrophic consequences for their victims. We owe it to Trey to ensure that victims have the right to speak about their experiences and that contracts are not used to silence survivors,” Cruz said.
Carlock’s sister, Elizabeth Phillips, who founded Trey’s Law as an initiative of the advocacy group No More Victims, said the Senate’s unanimous passage “will say to every survivor currently living under a gag order: ‘Your voice is yours again. You are free to speak about what happened to you. And what you have to say matters.’”
“For decades, survivors of child sexual abuse have suffered in the shadows due to the misuse of NDAs in civil settlement agreements, terrified that sharing their story would lead to a lawsuit or other repercussions. TREY’S Law doesn’t just protect future victims; it restores the voices of those silenced by existing NDAs,” Phillips added.
Accountability Push In East Africa
Cruz also joined U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) in introducing the Reassessing the United States-Tanzania Bilateral Relationship Act, a bill responding to what Cruz described as a campaign of “political repression and religious persecution” by the Tanzanian government.
The bill follows a State Department review announced in December 2025 and would require a full reassessment of U.S. relations with Tanzania. It would also require the Trump administration to examine China’s military, economic, and political influence in Tanzania.
The act would also require the U.S. government to identify Tanzanian officials allegedly involved in political violence, religious persecution, censorship, or other human rights abuses, while authorizing targeted sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes. Under the legislation, certain U.S. assistance to Tanzania would also pause until the secretary of state certifies that the government has enacted democratic reforms, ended politically motivated prosecutions, and stopped censorship of media and civil society actors.
Cruz cited the country’s October 2025 elections as a catalyst for the bill, saying, “Tanzanian authorities severely undermined the legitimacy and fairness of the October 2025 elections by barring opposition parties, arresting and abducting religious leaders, and manipulating ballots. They have systematically weaponized state power to control religious expression, bar Christian gatherings, and restrict Church activity. This bill will help counter that political repression and the persecution of Tanzanian Christians.”
Pressing Trump To Dismantle UNRWA
In a separate letter dated May 18, Cruz and U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) joined 23 Senate colleagues in asking President Donald Trump to work with the United Nations to dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA.
The push to dismantle UNRWA follows USAID Office of Inspector General findings that identified multiple UNRWA employees who allegedly participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, as well as 14 others affiliated with Hamas, according to Cruz’s office. The inspector general’s office has expanded its investigation to examine more than 100 UNRWA employees for potential ties to Hamas and involvement in the attacks, Cruz’s office said.
“We strongly urge your administration to take decisive action to fully dismantle UNRWA and eliminate it from the UN budget. Any aid organization in Gaza or otherwise must be demonstrably free of ties to terrorism and committed to transparency, accountability, and peace. We must ensure this failed system doesn’t continue reinforcing the conditions that have fueled terrorism for generations,” the letter reads.
