[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 109 (Tuesday, September 3, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8093-S8095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Hatch, Mrs. 
        Clinton, Mr. Hutchinson, Mrs. Carnahan, Mr. Bennett, Mr. 
        Rockefeller, Mr. Helms, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Harkin, Ms. Collins, 
        Mr. Kyl, Mr. Durbin,

[[Page S8094]]

        Mr. Edwards, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Crapo, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Allard, Mr. 
        Voinovich, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Lott, Mr. Biden, Mr. 
        Lugar, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Sessions, and Mr. Inhofe):
  S. 2896. A bill to enhance the operation of the AMBER Alert 
communications network in order to facilitate the recovery of abducted 
children, to provide for enhanced notification on highways of alerts 
and information on such children, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I am introducing today with my 
friend from California, Senator Feinstein, legislation to improve the 
current system of AMBER Alert plans that exist in various States. Our 
legislation recognizes the tremendous job that those involved in AMBER 
alerts are playing and we seek to build on their efforts.
  In 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas was abducted 
and brutally murdered. Her death had such an impact on the community 
that local law enforcement and area broadcasters developed what is now 
known as AMBER Alert, America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. 
An AMBER alert is activated by law enforcement to find a child, when a 
child has been abducted. An Alert triggers highway notification and 
broadcast messages throughout the area where the abduction occurred.
  As we have seen this summer, AMBER plans in different communities 
have worked to bring children home safely. To date, AMBER Alert has 
helped recover 27 children nationwide. Many communities and states have 
outstanding AMBER plans, however, the vast majority of States do not 
yet have comprehensive, statewide coverage and lack the ability to 
effectively communicate between plans. This is a critical issue 
particularly when an abducted child is taken across State lines.
  The bill I am introducing today establishes an AMBER Alert 
Coordinator within the Department of Justice to assist States with 
their AMBER plans. An AMBER Alert Coordinator is needed to address 
situations such as the recent examples of interstate travel with 
abducted children. We have witnessed several successful stories of 
AMBER plans helping to recover a child within a region, however, many 
gaps exist between the various AMBER plans around the country. The 
AMBER Alert Coordinator will facilitate appropriate regional 
coordination of AMBER alerts, particularly with interstate travel 
situations, and will assist states, broadcasters, and law enforcement 
in setting up additional AMBER plans.
  The AMBER Alert Coordinator will set minimum, voluntary standards to 
help states coordinate when necessary. The AMBER Alert Coordinator will 
help to reconcile the different standards for what constitutes an AMBER 
alert. In doing so, the Coordinator will work with existing 
participants, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children, local and state law enforcement and broadcasters to define 
minimum standards. Overall, the AMBER Alert Coordinator's efforts will 
set safeguards to make sure the AMBER alert system is used to meet its 
intended purpose.
  In addition, the bill provides for a matching grant program. The 
grant program will help localities and states build or further enhance 
their efforts to disseminate AMBER alerts. To this end, the matching 
grant program will fund road signage and electronic message boards 
along highways, dissemination of information on abducted children, 
education and training, and related equipment.
  Our bill has the strong support of the National Center of Missing and 
Exploited Children and the National Association of Broadcasters, who 
play essential roles in the AMBER Alert system. I urge the Senate to 
act expeditiously on this legislation to further protect America's 
children.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today, I am pleased to join Senator 
Hutchison in introducing legislation that will save children's lives by 
expanding the existing AMBER Alert program nationwide.
  AMBER Alerts are official bulletins broadcast over the airwaves to 
enlist the public's help in tracking down abducted children facing 
imminent danger from their kidnappers.
  The power of the AMBER alert can be seen in the recent kidnapping of 
Tamara Brooks and Jacqueline Marris.
  On August 1, 2002, twenty-four hours after the State of California 
launched its statewide AMBER Alert program, Tamara Brooks, 16, and 
Jacqueline Marris, 17, were abducted from their vehicles at gunpoint in 
Lancaster, CA.
  Shortly thereafter, the California Highway Patrol issued an AMBER 
Alert on the girls disappearance.
  Within the next few hours, concerned members of the community called 
into CHP hotlines, delivering a flurry of crucial tips that helped 
locate the suspect.
  A driver on state Highway 178 spotted the abductor's stolen white 
bronco in Walker Pass, approximately 70 miles east of Bakersfield.
  Two hours later, a CalTrans worker spotted the suspect on Highway 
178, and,
  A Kern County animal control officer spotted the Bronco on a local 
dirt road.
  Based on these tips, sheriff's deputies located the girls and their 
abductor, Roy Ratliff, in a vehicle in a dry riverbed, just 12 hours 
after the abduction.
  Ratliff was killed during an exchange of gunfire with sheriff's 
deputies, and the girls were returned home safely.
  The AMBER Alert system and the effective work of the Kern County 
Sheriff's Department may be the only reasons those girls are alive 
today.
  Children abducted in States without an AMBER Alert system, however, 
may not have been so fortunate.
  That is why we are introducing this legislation, to spur the 
development of State and local AMBER plans across the country so we can 
increase the chances that children abducted by strangers can be 
returned home safely.
  Each year, more than 58,000 children in the United States are 
abducted by non-family members, often in connection with another crime.
  In the most dangerous type of child abduction, stranger abduction, 
fully 40 percent of children are murdered.
  Speed is crucial to any effective law enforcement response to these 
most deadly cases.
  According to a study by the U.S. Department of Justice, 74 percent of 
children who were abducted, and later found murdered, were killed 
within three hours of being taken.
  AMBER Alerts are a proven weapon in the fight against stranger 
abductions, especially in those cases where an abducted child is facing 
an imminent threat of harm.
  The program is named after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman who was 
kidnapped and murdered in Arlington, TX in 1996.
  The power of the AMBER alert system is that an alert can be issued 
within minutes of an abduction, disseminating key information of the 
crime to the community at large.
  Nationally, since 1996, the AMBER Alert has been credited with the 
safe return of 29 children to their families, including one case in 
which an abductor reportedly released the child after hearing the alert 
himself.
  These are 29 families who didn't have to suffer the pain of losing a 
loved one. Twenty-nine families who didn't have to bury a child.
  Since the State of California first adopted AMBER alerts a month ago, 
the State has issued 13 AMBER alerts. Each of the AMBER Alerts 
concluded with the missing child being united with their families.
  Eight of these alerts involved stranger abductions. Four involved 
family members, and one case is considered a false alarm.
  I would like to describe two of these cases: the rescue of four-year-
old Jessica Cortez from Los Angeles and 10-year-old Nichole Timmons 
from Riverside.
  Jessica disappeared from Echo Park in Los Angeles on August 11, 2002.
  But when Jessica's abductor took her to a clinic for medical care, 
receptionist Denise Leon recognized Jessica from the AMBER Alert and 
notified law enforcement.
  Without the publicity generated by the alert, Jessica could have been 
lost to her parents forever.
  Nichole Timmons was kidnapped from her Riverside home on August 20.
  In Nichole's case, an Alert was issued not just in California, but in 
Nevada as well.
  A tribal police officer in Nevada spotted the truck of Nichole's 
abductor and stopped him within 24 hours of the abduction.

[[Page S8095]]

  He was found with duct tape and a metal pipe.
  The AMBER Alert enabled Nichole to return home safely to her parents.
  The legislation we are introducing today is simple, yet very 
important.
  First, it would establish a national coordinator for AMBER Alerts in 
the Department of Justice to expand the network of AMBER Alert systems 
and to coordinate the issuance of region-wide AMBER Alerts.
  We need regional coordination of AMBER Alert because, as we saw in 
the case of Nichole Timmons, abductors of children may cross State 
lines as they flee crime scenes.
  Second, the bill would establish grant programs in the Department of 
Justice and the Department of Transportation to provide for the 
development of AMBER Alert systems, electronic message boards, and 
training and education programs in states that do not have AMBER 
Alerts.
  To date, AMBER Alert systems exist in only 15 States and 32 local and 
regional jurisdictions. This bill would help the expansion of AMBER 
Alerts to new jurisdictions.
  Third, the bill directs the Department of Justice to establish 
minimum standards for the coordination of AMBER alerts between 
jurisdictions.
  Minimum standards are needed because many of the existing AMBER plans 
have slightly different standards for an AMBER Alert, such as when to 
issue an alert.
  Without a common standard, sharing AMBER Alerts between states will 
be difficult.
  I would also like to stress what the bill does not do.
  It is the specific intent of this bill not to interfere with the 
operation of the 50 State and local AMBER plans that are working so 
well.
  Participation in regional AMBER plans is only voluntary, and any plan 
that wishes to go it alone may still do so.
  The bill also does not change the very strict criteria of the AMBER 
Alert.
  AMBER Alerts are successful because they are issued rarely, and only 
when strict criteria are met.
  A typical AMBER Alert is only issued when a law enforcement agency 
confirms that a stranger abduction has occurred, the child is in 
imminent danger, and there is information available that, if 
disseminated to the public could assist in the safe recovery of the 
child.
  The effectiveness of the system depends on the continued judicious 
use of the alert so that the public does not grow to ignore the 
warnings.
  This bill is carefully designed to preserve the Alert's ongoing 
effectiveness.
  In sum, through this legislation, we can extend to every corner of 
the nation a network of AMBER Alerts that will protect our children.
  If we can set up a program that will increase the odds that an 
abducted child can return to his or her family safely, then I believe 
the program will be well worth it.
  We know the AMBER Alert system works. We know that every community in 
America should have access to it.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I am proud to join with Senators Kay Bailey 
Hutchison (R-TX) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) in introducing the 
``National AMBER Alert Network Act of 2002'' which will extend the 
AMBER Alert (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) system 
across our Nation. The recent wave of child abductions across our 
Nation, including the kidnaping of Elizabeth Smart in my own home state 
of Utah, has highlighted the need for legislation to enhance our 
ability to protect our Nation's children against predators of all 
types.
  When a child is abducted, time is of the essence. All too often it is 
only a matter of hours before a kidnaper commits an act of violence 
against the child. Alert systems, such as the AMBER Alert system, 
galvanize entire communities to assist law enforcement in the timely 
search for and safe return of child victims.
  The AMBER Alert system was developed in 1996 in Texas after 9-year-
old Amber Hagerman was kidnaped. To date, the system has been credited 
with the recovery of 27 missing children. Nonetheless, only 16 States 
have adopted statewide AMBER Alert systems. Just this year, my home 
State of Utah adopted a statewide alert program aimed at preventing 
child abduction called ``Rachel Alert.'' The program was named after 
young Rachel Runyan who was abducted and later found murdered.
  We recently witnessed the success of the AMBER Alert system in 
California. There the AMBER system was used to broadcast the 
disappearance of Nichole Timmons who was safely recovered in the 
neighboring state of Nevada after she was recognized. In another recent 
California case, the AMBER Alert system was used when Tamera Brooks and 
Jaqueline Marris were kidnapped. Just hours after their abduction, and 
minutes before their possible murder, the two young women were found.
  The legislation we introduce today will enhance our ability to 
recover abducted children by establishing a Coordinator within the 
Department of Justice to assist States in developing and coordinating 
alert plans nationwide. The Act also provides for a matching grant 
program through the Department of Justice and the Department of 
Transportation for highway signs, education and training programs, and 
the equipment necessary to facilitate AMBER Alert systems.
  I support the National AMBER Alert Network Act and other legislative 
proposals that will improve our ability on a national level to combat 
crimes against children. For that reason, I will introduce in the 
coming days comprehensive legislation that will enhance existing laws, 
investigative tools, criminal penalties and child crime resources in a 
variety of ways. I believe Congress must do all it can to ensure that 
we devote the same intensity of purpose to crimes committed against 
children, as we do to other serious criminal offenses, such as those 
involving terrorism.
  We have no greater resource than our children. I invite the 
Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other 
entities and professionals who are charged with protecting our children 
to work with me to improve our Federal laws and to assist States in 
doing the same.
  I commend Senator Hutchison for her tireless efforts on behalf of 
children and families and urge my colleagues to work with us to enact 
this critical legislation which will increase the chances that future 
victims of child predators will be found swiftly and returned home 
safely.
                                 ______