[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 45 (Thursday, March 20, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CHILD ABDUCTION PREVENTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CAROLYN McCARTHY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 19, 2003

  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, in October 2002, the Office 
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention released a report 
entitled the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, 
and Thrownaway Children, which estimate there are almost 800,000 
reported cases of missing children. This equates to over 11 children 
per 1000 in the U.S. that are missing. Worse yet are the hundreds of 
thousands of missing children that are not reported. While a large 
number of missing children are runaways, too many are missing due to 
abduction. One way to decrease this number is to pass H.R. 1104, the 
Child Abduction Prevention Act. H.R. 1104 is better known as America's 
Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response Plan, the AMBER Alert.
  Currently, the AMBER alert is a voluntary partnership between law-
enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin in 
case of child abduction. Almost 40 states have established AMBER 
alerts. Since the program began a little over six years ago, the AMBER 
alert has been credited with the recovery of 47 children. If the plan 
were implemented nationwide, with federal funding, the possibilities of 
recovering more children increase exponentially.
  As a parent and a grandparent, I strongly support this legislation 
and urge my colleagues to do the same, our children deserve it!

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