Iowa Senate passes bill to help Boy Scout abuse victims

DES MOINES — The Iowa Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would temporarily lift the state’s statute of limitations for filing civil claims on sexual abuse to allow Iowa victims to receive full compensation from a national settlement with the Boy Scouts of America.

Senate File 2431 now heads to the Iowa House for consideration.

Lawmakers face a ticking clock. Iowa has one year from the effective date of the settlement trust — by April 19 — to change the law, or else Iowa survivors will receive less than others across the country, according to an attorney involved in the matter. That means lawmakers must pass and Gov. Kim Reynolds must sign the bill into law before then for survivors to receive the larger amount.

“Although this is not going to be able to take away the true pain that happened years ago, hopefully this will give a little bit of relief for their lives going forward,” said Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, the bill’s floor manager.

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What does the bill do?

The bill temporarily would lift the state’s statute of limitations so that victims of sexual abuse while in the Boy Scouts can receive damages from the Scouting Settlement Trust, a $2.5 billion fund established last year after the Scouts filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Scouts filed for bankruptcy in 2020 after several states enacted laws letting accusers sue over decades-old abuse allegations. The organization ultimately reached a settlement, approved in court in 2022, that would pay abuse victims amounts ranging from $3,500 to $2.7 million for claims against the Boy Scouts of America, as well as all claims against local Boy Scouts councils and supporting organizations.

The settlement involves more than 82,000 men who said they were abused as children by troop leaders. That fund — the largest of its kind in U.S. history to settle sexual abuse claims — began distributing payments last fall to victims.

But unless Iowa legislators take action in the next few weeks, the estimated roughly 300 to 350 Iowans involved in the settlement will receive a fraction of the awards they otherwise would be entitled to. When figuring compensation, the settlement uses a matrix that weighs a variety of factors ― including a state's civil statutes of limitations.

Iowa’s statute of limitations requires victims of child sexual abuse to file cases in district courts by the age of 19 or within four years of coming to the realization as an adult that their injuries and suffering are related to their alleged abuse. Because of Iowa's short statute of limitations, victims in the state could see their financial compensation from the Scouts reduced by 60 to 70 percent compared with victims in other states, according to an attorney.

And even then, people might only be paid 5 to 10 percent of the value because there’s not enough money in the fund.

The Senate bill, modeled after legislation passed in Alabama, creates an exception to Iowa’s civil statute of limitations for injuries resulting from childhood sexual abuse for “purposes of making a claim in a bankruptcy proceeding that was initiated on February 18, 2020” against the bankruptcy estate of a congressionally chartered organization. The language effectively would limit the exception to the Boy Scouts. The act would be repealed Dec. 31, 2026.

Sen. Janet Petersen, a Des Moines Democrat who has long advocated for eliminating the limitations and creating a revival window for survivors to file claims, thanked survivors for coming forward to share “painful stories” with lawmakers “to prevent a system that failed to protect them as children from hurting them again as grown-ups.”

Kraayenbrink said lawmakers were working on a companion bill in the House to ensure the measure makes it to Reynolds’ desk in time. The governor told reporters last week she’s “open” to supporting the bill.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com