End Shutdowns Act

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an important piece of legislation I just filed, aptly named after the young Kansan whose life and bright future was cut short by a senseless act of violence and whose case now is the inspiration for why we desperately need to update the law.

Almost 12 years ago, on June 2, 2017, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith was abducted in broad daylight from an Overland Park, KS, parking lot. Kelsey's abduction was captured on the store's closed-circuit security camera, which left little doubt about the emergency sense of the situation. This was an emergency.

Here is the tragedy. Four days after Kelsey disappeared, authorities were able to locate her body after a wireless provider finally released the call information from her cell phone--4 critical days. Providing location information as fast as possible is absolutely critical to ensure that law enforcement officials can rescue victims in imminent danger of death or serious physical harm and hopefully prevent future fates similar to Kelsey's.

This legislation is the culmination of years of work among legislators at both the Federal and State levels, including industry stakeholders, privacy advocates, and, most importantly, Kelsey's brave parents, who spearheaded this initiative and have advocated to create commonsense reforms that properly balance the needs of law enforcement with Fourth Amendment protections for all of our citizens.

Through their advocacy and tireless efforts, Missey and Greg Smith have helped enact laws, oftentimes with unanimous support, in 23 States, including my home State of Kansas. This law provides law enforcement with the necessary tools to rescue individuals in emergency situations where the threat of death or serious bodily injury is imminent.

The impact of this law at the State level has been real and measurable. For example, in May 2012, one month after the enactment of its State's version of the Kelsey Smith Act, local authorities in Tennessee were successful in saving the life of a child who had been abducted by a suspected child rapist. Because the child was believed to be in imminent danger, the police were able to successfully receive the location of the suspect's cell phone in a window of time that led to the safe recovery of the child alive and before she was assaulted.

In February of 2015, Kelsey's Law helped save the life of a 5-month- old Lenexa, KS, girl when a car with a baby in the back seat was stolen from its mother. Through Kelsey's Law, police were able to ping that mother's phone, which was left in the car, and, within an hour, the baby was reunited with her parents.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the first 3 hours are critical to recovering a child alive. That is why it is necessary that in these narrowly defined, isolated instances in which a person's very life is at stake, an exemption should be made to allow wireless carriers to immediately ping an individual's phone and release to law enforcement the whereabouts of that individual.

Understanding this, my legislation would provide law enforcement with the ability to recover the location of children, other missing individuals, and only in very specific emergency situations; namely, where there is risk of death or serious bodily injury.

Don't just take it from Pat Roberts. Public safety professionals with experience in the field support this lifesaving legislation. According to the retired Johnson County sheriff, Frank Denning:

Time is of the essence in these types of incidents and the

narrow exception for law enforcement to act with immediacy is

key here. For this not to be a Federal law seems unjust to

those who have loved ones in harm's way and this type of

intervention can and will save lives.

Major Scott Boden with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Kansas says:

Over my 22-year law enforcement career with the Johnson

County Sheriff's Office, 17 years have been spent in our

dispatch/911 center. During that time, the Kelsey Smith Law

has been the single most important piece of legislation

related to potentially saving the lives of suicidal subjects,

assisting endangered children, and addressing live threats

when cell phone location is necessary and seconds count. The

difference this law has made cannot be overstated and I look

forward to the day it becomes available all across this

country as a resource to assist first responders in their

most critical service saving lives.

Jennifer Lanter, the 9-1-1 director for Loudon County, TN, says:

In Tennessee, we have had the privilege of having Kelsey's

Law enacted for several years. There are multiple examples of

how utilizing this law has resulted in lives being saved that

otherwise would have been lost.

This law enables the men and women that have dedicated

their lives to the protection of others to ensure they are

able to do everything possible to locate someone that needs

help. The benefits of this law being passed at the Federal

level will be far-reaching, and countless lives will be

saved.

It is not just these individual law enforcement officials who support this bill. The bill is also supported by the National District Attorneys Association, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major County Sheriffs of America, the National Association of Police Organizations, the Fraternal Order of Police,

and the National Sheriffs' Association. I don't know of any law enforcement organization that has been left out, and if it has been left out, it would certainly support the bill. CTIA, the wireless association, also supports this commonsense legislation.

Just this morning, I received a letter of support from John Walsh, who is the cofounder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and was the well-known host of the television show, ``America's Most Wanted.'' Mr. Walsh has dedicated his life to advocating for victims' rights. It began with his fight for the passage of the Missing Children's Assistance Act following the abduction and subsequent murder of his son Adam.

Fortunately, for my colleagues, voting for this bill will not take a blind leap of faith. Kelsey's Law is already saving lives in States like Kansas, New Jersey, Nebraska, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Tennessee, Hawaii, Missouri, Utah, West Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, Rhode Island, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Iowa, Washington, Louisiana, Delaware, Indiana, and Alabama. Yes, I wanted to repeat all 23.

Oftentimes, the approval by State legislatures has been unanimous, and that is because Kelsey's Law strikes the appropriate balance between ensuring that law enforcement has the tools it needs to help individuals who are in grave danger and ensuring that the proper checks are in place to guard against government overreach.

My legislation requires all law enforcement agencies to maintain a record of all requests made under the Kelsey Smith Act. This record will include the name of the officer who is requesting location information from a wireless carrier, a description of the request that explains the need for the disclosure of location information, and a declaration that an individual's location information is needed in order to offer him life assistance during an emergency situation that, again, involves a risk of death or serious physical harm.

I stress that nothing--absolutely nothing--in the Kelsey Smith Act prohibits wireless carriers from continuing to operate the robust law enforcement verification systems that they use today in order to make absolutely certain that when a request is made, it is coming from an authorized law enforcement official.

Kelsey was never given the opportunity to attend college or to get married or to have children and experience the American dream that many of us take for granted every day. Yet what she did do was to inspire her mother and her father to make it their mission in life to help educate and empower communities and children in order to help prevent another case like this from ever happening again.

Kelsey's father, Greg, who is a former law enforcement officer himself and a Kansas State senator, said it best when he quoted President Abraham Lincoln to describe what Kelsey had accomplished:

In the end, it is not the years in your life that count. It

is the life in your years.

I thank my colleagues for the opportunity to speak on the floor today and to offer what, I think, is a commonsense bill that will help prevent tragedies like Kelsey's. I also thank Senator Moran, Senator Fischer, and Senator Blunt for their strong support and cosponsoring of this bill. I welcome the President's support as well.

I ask every colleague in this body to consider one question: If it were your children, your grandchildren, your spouses, would you not want law enforcement to have immediate access to information that could potentially save their lives and bring them home?

Let's honor Kelsey's memory by passing this legislation in Congress. I see no reason why it could not pass by unanimous consent.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

Mr. President, today I introduced the End Shutdowns Act. Enacting this bill would go a long way towards avoiding the pain and suffering caused to families from government shutdowns, such as the recent 35 day partial shutdown.

I have been outspoken against President Trump's use of a government shutdown as a negotiating tactic, and--in an effort to take away that option in the future--this bill would initiate an automatic continuing resolution on October 1 if no appropriations bill is passed by that date. The legislation would then stop the Senate from moving forward with any other legislation, outside of an emergency scenario, until Congress reached an agreement on a long-term spending deal.

I am advocating for my colleagues to consider supporting this bill, especially those negotiating on the current spending bills set to expire February 15, to include legislation to prevent future shutdowns in any bipartisan deal reached by that deadline.

Mr. President, today I introduced the End Shutdowns Act. Enacting this bill would go a long way towards avoiding the pain and suffering caused to families from government shutdowns, such as the recent 35 day partial shutdown.

I have been outspoken against President Trump's use of a government shutdown as a negotiating tactic, and--in an effort to take away that option in the future--this bill would initiate an automatic continuing resolution on October 1 if no appropriations bill is passed by that date. The legislation would then stop the Senate from moving forward with any other legislation, outside of an emergency scenario, until Congress reached an agreement on a long-term spending deal.

I am advocating for my colleagues to consider supporting this bill, especially those negotiating on the current spending bills set to expire February 15, to include legislation to prevent future shutdowns in any bipartisan deal reached by that deadline.