[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 136 (Wednesday, October 16, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S10559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MISSING CHILDREN'S ASSISTANCE ACT

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise today as an original cosponsor of 
the Missing Children's Assistance Act and to urge its prompt 
consideration by this body.
  The Justice Department recently reported that in 1999, 797,500 
children were reported missing to police or to missing children's 
agencies. That is equivalent to a startling 11.4 children per 1,000 in 
the U.S. population. There were 58,200 children who were victims of a 
non-family abduction in 1999. One hundred fifteen of these children 
were taken in a manner that we would think of as a stereotypical 
kidnapping, and tragically, in half of these cases, the child victim 
was sexually assaulted by the perpetrator. These statistics are 
unacceptable. As a Nation we should strive every day to eliminate the 
scourge of abducted children.
  That's exactly what the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children is all about. Since it was established in 1984, the Center has 
served as a resource to parents, children, law enforcement, schools, 
and the community to assist in the recovery of America's abducted 
children. It has worked on over 73,000 cases of missing and exploited 
children and successfully returned more than 48,000 of these children 
to their families. The Center is constantly striving to raise the 
Nation's awareness of preventative measures that can be taken to keep 
our children safe from abduction, sexual exploitation, and molestation. 
These notable endeavors have contributed to a substantial increase in 
nation's recovery rate of missing children from a dismal 61 percent in 
the 1980s to 91 percent today.
  For these reasons, I rise today with the Senator from Utah and the 
Senator from Vermont to introduce the Missing Children's Assistance 
Act. This act will expand the ability of the National Center for 
Missing and Exploited Children to protect our children by doubling the 
Federal contribution to the Center to $20 million a year and by 
ensuring that Congress will continue to support the Center's noteworthy 
efforts through 2006. The act also authorizes the creation of a 
CyberTipline. As technology continues to transform and modernize our 
lives, we must make provisions to insure that our children will be safe 
from perpetrators who prey on children through the Internet. The 
CyberTipline will provide a forum for individuals to contribute tips 
and suspicions of Internet-related and other types of sexual 
impropriety directed towards minors to the authorities. It will allow 
those wary of contacting law enforcement a safe place to do so, while 
making it possible for law enforcement and missing children agencies to 
send email alerts to thousands of individuals instantaneously.
  In the end, I believe that this act will make the Nation a safer 
place for our children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children has done a tremendous job of raising the nation's awareness of 
child abduction, and this act will make it possible for the Center to 
continue with these endeavors. I urge support for the Missing 
Children's Assistance Act. It is fundamental that our children's safety 
remain at forefront of our national agenda.

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