In response to the Justice Department’s inspector general reported on the FBI’s mishandling of the allegations of sexual abuse by USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran issued a joint-statement with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on the FBI’s failure to act on reports it received.

“We are appalled by the FBI’s gross mishandling of the specific warnings its agents received about Larry Nassar’s horrific abuse years before he was finally arrested. How many athletes would have been spared unimaginable pain if the FBI has done its job? The Department of Justice now needs to decide if it is going to be yet another institution that fails survivors or if it is going to enforce some measure of accountability for these crimes.”

The Senators added, “We would like to see Inspector General Horowitz, FBI Director Wray and Attorney General Garland appear before the Senate to discuss the report’s findings and explain what steps are being taken to ensure that this never happens again.”

Sens. Moran and Blumenthal co-authored of the Empowering Olympic, Paralympic, and Amateur Athlete Act, which was approved by Congress last year, and introduced Olympic reform legislation to reform the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee in the wake of abuse allegations.

USA Gymnastics contacted the FBI about the allegations against Nassar in 2015. It took months before the agency opened a formal investigation.

In 2018, Senator Moran (acting as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray on whether the FBI received reports of sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics.

In 2019, Moran secured Director Wray’s commitment in an Appropriations Subcommittee hearing that the agency would prioritize and take Office of Inspector General recommendations seriously.