Sound of Freedom was released less than a month ago, but it’s already having an impact in Congress.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters that he would be holding a screening of the new film for members of Congress on Tuesday evening and that Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, who the film is based on, and actor Jim Caviezel would be in attendance.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Fla.) told Fox that she was looking forward to attending the screening, remarking, “America is number 1 in the world in consuming child pornography and child sex trafficking, and the Biden Administration has lost over 85,000 migrant children.” (RELATED: Sound of Freedom — Ringing Ticket Sales)

The following morning, Republican representatives swung into action during a U.S. House Energy Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing. On Wednesday, they called on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to testify regarding the 85,000 missing children who crossed the southern border unaccompanied. Becerra dodged questions, asserting that the representatives’ statements amounted to a “misunderstanding.”

“You and I don’t agree on the policies that brought these children to our border. But I believe that no matter the policies, once they are in our care and we have taken on the responsibility for them, we must care for them properly,” Subcommittee Chair Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) told Becerra during his opening remarks. “It does appear that the children’s welfare was not a primary concern.”

Becerra acknowledged reports indicating that companies are illegally employing and exploiting increasing numbers of children, but he claimed that the HHS has no legal responsibility for unaccompanied minors once it places them in the custody of a vetted sponsor.

Morgan said that, as of March 31, 2023, the last time the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) published numbers for fiscal year 2023, they had processed almost 60,000 unaccompanied minors, “putting the agency on pace for over 120,000 referrals for the third year in a row.” (VIDEO: The Absurd Media Reaction to Sound of Freedom)

The ORR and HHS are supposed to work together to identify and vet sponsors for children, placing them with close family members who live in the United States. Becerra told the subcommittee that fewer than 15 percent of children are placed with sponsors who are not their “parent, legal guardian, or close family member.”

The HHS performs checks on the minors, calling their sponsors a month after the children have begun living with their sponsors. According to data obtained by the New York Times, “[T]he agency could not reach more than 85,000 children.”

These children frequently become “part of a new economy of exploitation.” They frequently end up working on assembly lines or construction sites.

“Children [are] dropping out of school or never signing up as they owe a debt to the smuggler that trafficked them. Children [are] running away from their sponsors, the ones that ORR placed them with because they were being sold for sex,” said Committee Chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) during the hearing.

Representatives also questioned Becerra on the measures taken at the border to ensure that children who are accompanied by an adult are not being sex-trafficked. (READ MORE: Does Mel Gibson Plan to Make a Four-Part Docuseries on Child Sex-Trafficking?)

Griffith openly referenced Sound of Freedom during the hearing, citing a scene where a child sex trafficker claims to be the child’s uncle, using fake documents to verify his relationship. He pointed out that the ORR uses DNA tests just 23 percent of the time to verify the relationship between children and those claiming to be their relatives.

Becerra admitted that, while the department does use voluntary DNA testing, they frequently resort to using birth certificates and other documentation to verify an individual’s identity.

“But a birth certificate coming from another country, just like the passports presented in the film last night, may be forged,” Griffith said.

It’s a testament to Sound of Freedom’s surprising success that the film is making waves among legislators. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.