[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 50 (Thursday, April 18, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3627-S3628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REID:
  S. 1684. A bill to require that applications for passports for minors 
have parental signatures; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.


            the mikey kale passport notification act of 1996

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation I intended 
to offer as an amendment to the immigration bill. Unfortunately, it 
does not appear I will have the opportunity to offer this as an 
amendment to that bill. I therefore decided to offer this as a 
freestanding bill as I believe it is an issue that needs to be 
addressed whether or not we decide to go back to this bill.

  Much of the debate on the immigration legislation involves complex 
issues and arcane areas of the law. My legislation is pretty easy to 
understand. It is a common sense legislative solution to a simple, but 
troubling, issue. The issue my bill attempts to resolve is that of 
international parental abductions. Significantly, my bill does not 
attempt to right a wrong. Rather, it attempts to prevent future wrongs 
from occurring. And there is little dispute that absent legislation, 
future wrongs will occur.
  The wrong that occurs is best illustrated by a living nightmare 
forced upon an American family from Henderson, NV. No parent should 
ever have to go through what Fred and Barbara Spierer went through in 
1993. That year, on Valentine's Day, Barbara Spierer's ex-husband took 
her son to his native country, war-torn Croatia. She would soon learn 
that upon their arrival, her ex-husband initiated official custody 
proceedings in a Croatian court.
  Through tremendous emotional and financial costs, Fred and Barbara 
Spierer were able to secure the return of young Mikey. Incredibly, this 
could all have been prevented if our laws didn't permit such easy 
procurement of passports for minors. Few would disagree that parental 
consent should be given before a passport is issued to a minor child. 
Both parents ought to be notified before the State Department issues a 
document permitting their child to be taken out of this country.
  Presently, such joint notification is not required. Under current 
law, one parent can apply for a U.S. passport for his or her child, 
receive it, and then depart from the country with that child. Again, 
this can all be accomplished without the notification of the other 
parent. Current law is an invitation to engage in the grossest of 
misbehavior by a scurrilous parent. And engage in it they do. Sadly, 
the case of Fred and Barbara Spierer is not an isolated incident.
  International parental abductions are a growing problem. In 1994, 
there were over 600 cases of children being abducted from the U.S.A. 
Thousands of parents are attempting to bring home their children who 
were taken from this country by a mother or father. While these cases 
are tracked by the State Department, children's advocates believe many 
more go unreported. Often, the children are snatched during a divorce. 
The abducting parents usually have strong ties to a foreign country. 
But sometimes an American-born mother or father will take off for an 
unfamiliar nation to flee U.S. law. Regrettably, such surreptitious 
travel is made quite easy because of current law. Why? Because one 
parent can procure the child's passport without the other one knowing.
  Left-behind parents are faced with wading through a maze of foreign 
laws and customs in their efforts to secure their child's return. 
Imagine how difficult it is to find a missing child in the United 
States and then multiply it by 1,000. That's about how difficult it is 
to locate and return a child abducted overseas. And finding a missing 
child is only the start.
  A parent must then take their case to the foreign country's legal 
system. Most nations do not recognize custody orders from U.S. courts. 
Even when criminal charges have been filed against the abducting parent 
in the United States, many nations will not honor a U.S. request for 
extradition. Some countries simply discriminate against women. The 
decision to fight for a child's return consumes enormous amounts of 
time and money. Many parents are simply without the financial 
wherewithal to engage in a protracted international legal battle.
  For a variety of reasons, the Government is able to do very little to 
assist these parents. The current budgetary constraints realistically 
preclude doing more to secure the return of abducted children. But they 
do not preclude efforts to implement additional barriers to prevent 
these tragic abductions from occurring.
  My bill takes cost effective steps toward preventing future 
abductions. It implements a system of checks prior to the issuance of a 
minor child's passport. Both parents would be required to sign the 
passport application of a child under the age of 16. Or, if the parents 
were already divorced, the application would have to be signed by the 
parent of the child having primary custody. If such a law had been in 
place by 1993, Barbara Spierer's ex-husband would not have been able to 
abduct their child to Croatia. The passport would not have been issued 
because her written permission had not been given. I believe it is 
drafted in such a manner so as to give the State Department the

[[Page S3628]]

discretion to implement a reasonable and flexible rule.
  This bill is not just about parental rights and preventing these 
tragic international abductions. It is also about protecting the rights 
of our children. No one disagrees that the rights, liberties and 
freedoms provided in our Nation make it the best country in the world. 
No child should be forced to lose these rights. No child should be 
forced to undergo what Mikey Kale lived through. No American child, 
regardless of his age, should be abducted to the middle of a war torn 
part of the world. American parents should not be forced to endure the 
living nightmare that the Spierers' were forced to go through. If my 
bill prevents only one family from having to endure this nightmare it 
will be judged a success. I believe that more can be done but this is 
the most cost effective step we can take today.
  I encourage my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and support 
it should we return to consideration of the immigration bill.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1684

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. PASSPORTS ISSUED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 16.

       (a) In General.--Section 1 of title IX of the Act of June 
     15, 1917 (22 U.S.C. 213) is amended--
       (1) by striking ``Before'' and inserting ``(a) In 
     General.--Before'', and
       (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
       ``(b) Passports Issued for Children Under 16.--
       ``(1) Signatures required.--In the case of a child under 
     the age of 16, the written application required as a 
     prerequisite to the issuance of a passport for such child 
     shall be signed by--
       ``(A) both parents of the child if the child lives with 
     both parents;
       ``(B) the parent of the child having primary custody of the 
     child if the child does not live with both parents; or
       ``(C) the surviving parent (or legal guardian) of the 
     child, if 1 or both parents are deceased.
       ``(2) Waiver.--The Secretary of State may waive the 
     requirements of paragraph (1)(A) if the Secretary determines 
     that circumstances do not permit obtaining the signatures of 
     both parents.''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall apply to applications for passports filed on or after 
     the date of the enactment of this Act.
                                 ______