[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 111 (Thursday, September 5, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H6063-H6064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORT THE NATIONAL AMBER ALERT NETWORK ACT
(Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, in 1997 I established the Congressional
Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus to provide a unified and loud
voice for missing children advocates within Congress. The gentleman
from Florida (Mr. Foley) and 157 other Members work with me in this
caucus today. While the caucus works to advance child safety
legislation, we are also initiating
[[Page H6064]]
community, State and national efforts to fight against the exploitation
and abduction of our children.
One of those community initiatives is a successful and effective way
to combat child abduction and it is called Amber Alert. The Amber Alert
is named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was tragically
abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996. The tragedy was felt
throughout North Texas, and it led to a search for new and innovative
community responses to help law enforcement officials find missing
children.
That response is the Amber Alert, and it has frequently been
successful in recovering missing children. We have been reading about
it in our news media in just recent weeks.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of our Members to take the opportunity to
join with us to make this a successful nationwide program, to join me
in supporting the Frost-Dunn National Amber Alert Network Act. The
National Amber Alert Network Act is a common sense approach to the
problem of child abduction. Child abduction is finally receiving the
attention it deserves. Let us take this opportunity to bring
legislation to the floor that all of America can be proud of.
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