Paris Hilton’s bill to reform the “troubled teen” industry passed the House of Representatives Wednesday and headed to President Biden’s desk.
Hilton, 43, has spent years advocating for the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, which would put up guardrails and increase oversight of facilities that involuntarily house teenagers.
“Today is a day I will never forget,” Hilton wrote in an Instagram post. “This moment is proof that our voices matter, that speaking out can spark change, and that no child should ever endure the horrors of abuse in silence.”
Hilton has testified in front of Congress and released a documentary on her experience in a facility for wayward youths in Utah. During her time at the Provo Canyon School in Utah, Hilton said she was physically and emotionally abused, held in solitary confinement and forced to shower while staffers watched.
The new bill, which passed with an overwhelming 373-33 margin, would create a group under the Department of Health and Human Services that would monitor when teenagers at “troubled teen” camps are punished physically or with solitary confinement.
Though the bill passed the Senate unanimously last week, Hilton returned to Capitol Hill on Monday to push it through the House before the 118th Congress ends on Friday. She met with several Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle during her trips to D.C.
“To the children still trapped in these systems: I will never stop fighting for you,” she wrote Wednesday on Instagram. “Change is possible!”