[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 28, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tell the story of Robert 
Marquette and his children, Ben and Rhea. Their story is the ninth in a 
series of 1-minutes on more than 10,000 children who have been taken, 
abducted, to foreign countries.
  In 1997, Robert Marquette's ex-wife, Rose Marie Marquette, abducted 
Ben and Rhea from Irving, Texas, and took them to Germany. Although 
Robert's home was named as the primary residence, Robert subsequently 
filed a Hague Convention petition through the State Department. His 
petition was heard by a German judge who violated the Hague Convention 
by refusing to return Ben and Rhea. He has filed numerous appeals, but 
they have all been denied.
  On June 15 this year, it will be 3 years since Robert has seen his 
children or spoken with them. The German authorities refuse to tell him 
where they are.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to help me reunite parents with 
their children and to support the resolution that I introduced, along 
with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), which urges signatories to 
uphold the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child 
abduction. We must bring our children home.

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