A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend my colleagues for passing H.R. 1933, the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act. I introduced this bipartisan legislation with my good friend from Texas (Mr. Gohmert), who is the distinguished ranking member of the Crime Subcommittee and a former Texas State judge. I should also thank the distinguished chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Conyers of Michigan, Mr. Smith of Texas, and Mr. Scott, the chairman of the Crime Subcommittee, for their leadership in moving H.R. 1933 out of committee and to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1933 would expand the widely praised A Child Is Missing nonprofit organization into a national program with regional centers under the Department of Justice. It would accomplish this expansion through annual grants from the Attorney General in the amount of $5 million from 2010 through 2015. The funds would allow for the purchase of future technologies and techniques, centralized and onsite training, and for the distribution of information to Federal, State and local law enforcement agency officials on the best ways to utilize the round-the-

clock services provided by the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center.

Currently, A Child Is Missing is the only program of its kind that assists in all missing cases involving abduction, children who are lost, wander or run away, or adults with special needs such as the elderly who suffer from Alzheimer's or dementia, which is a major problem in my district in south Florida. When a person is reported missing to law enforcement, A Child Is Missing utilizes the latest technology to place 1,000 emergency telephone calls every 60 seconds to residents and businesses in the area where the person is last seen. It works in concert with the AMBER Alert system which you see on the highways, on those billboards or radio announcements, also known as the Silver Alert, and all child-safety programs, and has the support of law enforcement agencies all over the country.

A Child Is Missing also fills a critical gap in time in the most dangerous cases. Although the AMBER Alert has been an extremely successful program, there is still a crucial void in time when a child is first reported missing and when an AMBER Alert, which is activated only in cases of criminal abduction, can be issued, which is sometimes 3 to 5 hours later. This critical period of time can be the difference between whether a child lives or dies.

Recently, a Washington State Attorney General's office study showed that among cases involving children abducted and murdered, 74 percent were slain in the first 3 hours. So it is the first hours, the first minutes that are critical. And to the extent we can alert people in the local area by this telephone system to businesses and residences, we get the information about the potential child or abductor to the law enforcement as quickly as possible.

Adding to the problem is the resource and manpower limitations facing many local law enforcement agencies. Roughly half of these offices in the United States had 25 or fewer officers, and an average 12-hour search for a missing child can cost up to $400,000 in law enforcement expenses. That is a great fiscal burden during these difficult times of shrinking budgets. A Child Is Missing helps to fill this critical gap in time as well as complement the AMBER Alert during its ongoing search. We have heard this over and over again from law enforcement agencies that have received this; the real issue is that not enough communities have access to the program.

The founder and president of A Child Is Missing in Florida, Sherry Friedlander, who has done a remarkable job spreading the program to all 50 States, says that we're going to bring this program to every community, but we need there to be the leverage and logistics and some minor amount of resources that can help make it do so. And that is exactly what H.R. 1933 does. It has broad bipartisan support in Congress. I count cosponsors from all over the United States. On the Senate side companion legislation was introduced by Senator Menendez and Senator Hatch, the distinguished former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Because we are so proud of this great effort, we understand that children are not Democrats or Republicans, they are Americans, and they are our children and our responsibility. And their protection requires all of us to work together to do what is best for their continued safety. So as a result of all this, I appreciate this support we have got, and I urge our colleagues to support H.R. 1933.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, every 40 seconds a child goes missing in this country, over 2,100 every day of each year. At least 800,000 children are reported missing each year, and another 500,000 go missing without ever being reported.

The AMBER Alert system is activated when there is evidence that a missing child has been abducted and the police have sufficient information about the abductor or the vehicle to warrant use of that system, the AMBER Alert system. But without evidence of an abduction, law enforcement cannot issue an AMBER Alert. This is where A Child is Missing steps in.

A Child is Missing assists police in the first crucial hours of searches for missing children, elderly and the disabled. The first 6 hours after an alert are the most crucial in finding someone who is missing.

To date, more than 12 million calls have been made to the A Child is Missing system, resulting in over 8,000 missing person cases nationwide. These efforts have led to the recovery of 530 missing persons since the inception of this wonderful program.

This technology is particularly useful in rural communities with small police forces assigned to patrol large geographic areas. These law enforcement agencies often lack the manpower to launch a full-scale search for a missing child. A Child is Missing compensates for this reduced manpower by notifying thousands of area residents within minutes that a child has gone missing in their community. The A Child is Missing system can launch 1,000 calls in 60 seconds to residences and businesses in the area where the child was last seen.

Law enforcement officials around the country have successfully used this system to quickly distribute valuable information about the child while launching full-scale searches in a matter of minutes. Over 2,000 of the Nation's law enforcement agencies currently use this alert system.

H.R. 1933, the A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act, expands the availability of a system that helps locate a child as soon as he or she goes missing, often before the AMBER Alert can even take effect.

The bill authorizes $5 million for fiscal years 2010 through 2015 for grants to increase the use of this alert system. This simple system can mean the difference between life and death for a child and give peace of mind to so many parents whose children go missing every day.

Children are the greatest natural resources that we have in this country, and this legislation deals with the health of our kids. There is nothing that scares a parent or even a child more than for a child to be missing and fearful of not ever being recovered.

As founder and cochair of the Victims' Rights Caucus, I would like to thank Mr. Klein for his leadership in this issue.

I urge all my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield to the gentlelady from Florida, the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) as much time as she wishes to use.

I know of no other speakers, other than to close.

This legislation is important. As has been stated by the ranking member, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, whose granddaughter was born, happened to be born on her birthday, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen's birthday.

Most of us have kids. I have seven grandkids, and the worst thing that could ever happen was for one of those kids to disappear.

And we're judged, as a society, not by the way we treat the rich, the famous, the powerful, the all important. We're judged by the way we treat the innocent, and that includes kids and the elderly.

This legislation will help find those kids, the elderly, the disabled if they have the misfortune to disappear from home. And the amount of money being spent is almost nothing, considering how much money Congress has been spending lately, with $5 million. But that $5 million law enforcement can use to help find those kids.

So I would urge the adoption of this resolution.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1933) to direct the Attorney General to make an annual grant to the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center to assist law enforcement agencies in the rapid recovery of missing children, and for other purposes.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members

have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself so much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1933, the A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act helps address the terrifying experience of when a family member or friend ``goes missing.''

Under current law, there are programs such as AMBER Alert to help missing children who are abducted or victims of foul play. But these programs do not extend to situations where a child or elderly person becomes missing in other, more innocent ways.

H.R. 1933 fills this gap by authorizing money for annual grants to the A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center. This national nonprofit program provides assistance to local law enforcement throughout the country in all situations of missing persons, not only those involving criminal activity.

Mr. Speaker, the center helps when a small child fails to come home after school or a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's disease walks out of her home in the middle of the night. When the terrifying event of a missing person is reported to the police, the responding police officer can call the center, which operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

Based on information from the call, the center quickly prepares a recorded message that includes a description of the missing person, along with the location where the person was last seen. And within minutes, the center sends this recording to thousands of phones within a radius of the last known location.

This activity can save lives, as well as conserve critically needed enforcement resources that would otherwise be spent in extended searches for missing persons. The bill before us today will make a significant contribution to the protection of children and vulnerable adults throughout the United States.

I thank the sponsor of this bill, my good friend, Ron Klein of Florida, for his leadership on this important legislative issue.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how many more speakers my colleague on the other side would present?

With that being the case, Mr. Speaker, I will close when my friend, Judge Poe closes.

And by the way, before I do that, I would like to extend my humble congratulations to the Congresswoman for the birth of her first grandchild. That's great.

Mr. Speaker, I wholeheartedly agree with the comments of my good friend from Texas, Judge Poe. And he knows from practical experience what it means to a family when their loved one goes missing and then there is a positive outcome. And he's also aware of those situations that do not end on a positive note.

I also have the same experience in life, but fortunately, it's not due to a personal experience. But I just can't imagine how traumatic it must be for a mother or a father to be waiting at the bus stop for their child to disembark, and then that child is not on that bus. I can imagine the horror of waking up one morning, and my dear grandmother, who is mentally declining, has apparently been able to open the door and exit. And these are things that none of us wish on anyone.

And this bill, H.R. 1933, will hopefully add to the positive results that we have as we look for our missing children and our missing adults and the elderly.

And so, Mr. Speaker, having emphasized that I fully support this bill, I will yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, the Judiciary Committee's Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Karen Wilkinson for her work with the Committee for the past 2 years.

Karen came to us as a detailee from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. At the end of December, Karen will return to Phoenix, Arizona to continue her work as an Assistant Federal Public Defender representing indigent clients in federal criminal cases, where she worked for eight years before coming to the Committee. Prior to that, she clerked for the U.S. District Court for Arizona and then joined the law firm of Brown & Bain. Karen graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University Law School, received a Masters in Business Administration from NOVA University and her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan.

Karen's accomplishments during her tenure with the Committee include a number of bills that are very important to improving our country's criminal justice system. During the 111th Congress, she was responsible for guiding several legislative measures to approval on the floor of the House of Representatives, including: H.R. 448, the Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2009; H.R. 632, the National Silver Alert Act 2009; H.R. 748, CAMPUS Safety Act of 2009; H.R. 908, the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program Reauthorization Act of 2009; H.R. 1333, which amends chapter 40 of title 18 of the United States Code to exempt the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation of explosive materials for delivery to a federally recognized Indian tribes; H.R. 1727, the Managing Arson Through Criminal History, MATCH, Act; H.R. 1933, a Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act; S. 1289, the Foreign Evidence Request Efficiency Act of 2009, and H.R. 2661, the Court Security Enhancement Act of 2009.

In addition, she is shepherding several very important bills pending before the Judiciary Committee, such as: H.R. 503, the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2009; H.R. 3327, the Ramos-Compean Justice Act of 2009; H.R. 2289, the Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009; H.R. 2095, the Restitution for the Exonerated Act; H.R. 1149, the Child Protection Reauthorization Act of 2009 and H.R. 1422, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Reauthorization Act of 2009. Karen is also developing the Literacy Education and Rehabilitation Act, LERA, and the Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, legislation that would require a criminal defense representative to be appointed to the United States Sentencing Commission, as well as bills that would correct the firearm recidivist sentencing guidelines and the computation of good time credit in federal prison system.

We would like to thank the Administrative Office of Courts and the Federal Public Defender's Office of Phoenix for their generosity in allowing such a dedicated, responsible, and committed person to become such an integral part of our team. We are deeply grateful to Karen for her service, professionalism, and friendship during the past 2 years. She possesses that rare balance of humility, warmth, wit, and passion without a trace of ego, and she will be sorely missed. We wish her the best of luck and give her our thanks.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the time.

I congratulate our Florida colleague, Congressman Ron Klein, for the foresight of proposing this legislation, and I hope that our colleagues will join us in adopting this.

I rise today in support of Mr. Klein's bill, H.R. 1933, A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act. God forbid that parents would be forced to suffer the horror of their child going missing or even worse, hear the news that their child has been abducted. As parents, that possibility is a fear that we have known since our children are born. And certainly we must do everything in our power to avoid tragedy.

When it does strike, we must be organized, we must be coordinated, and we must be ready to respond. This bill does precisely that. Grants distributed to Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies through this act will aid in the recovery of so many children who are reported missing each and every year. Let us make sure that every parent is secure in the knowledge that local and national law enforcement agencies are prepared to coordinate an effective response to any missing child.

As a brand new grandmother--just 4 days ago, our first grandchild, Morgan Elizabeth Lehtinen was born, I know that this is a problem and a shock to every parent and every new grandparent, the possibilities of the dangers out in the world.

But when we pass this bill, we will know that our law enforcement agencies are ready to coordinate with other State and local and Federal agencies to make sure that we have a rapid response and one that is coordinated.

So I thank my good friend from Florida, Ron Klein, for its introduction. I thank the gentleman from Texas for the time.