[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 115 (Monday, July 14, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H6443-H6445]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A CHILD IS MISSING ALERT AND RECOVERY CENTER ACT
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 5464) to direct the Attorney General to make an annual grant
to the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center to assist law
enforcement agencies in the rapid recovery of missing children, and for
other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5464
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``A Child Is Missing Alert and
Recovery Center Act''.
SEC. 2. DIRECTING THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO MAKE ANNUAL GRANTS
TO A CHILD IS MISSING ALERT AND RECOVERY CENTER
TO ASSIST LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES IN
RECOVERING MISSING CHILDREN.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General, acting through the
Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, shall annually make a grant to the A
Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center.
(b) Specified Use of Funds for Recovery Activities,
Regional Centers, Education, and Information Sharing.--A
Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center shall use the
funds made available under this Act--
(1) to operate and expand the A Child Is Missing Alert and
Recovery Center to provide services to Federal, State, and
local law enforcement agencies to promote the quick recovery
of a missing child in response to a request from such
agencies for assistance by utilizing rapid alert telephone
calls, text messaging, and satellite mapping technology;
(2) to maintain and expand technologies and techniques to
ensure the highest level of performance of such services;
(3) to establish and maintain regional centers to provide
both centralized and on-site training and to distribute
information to Federal, State, and local law enforcement
agency officials about how to best utilize the services
provided by the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center;
(4) to share appropriate information with the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the AMBER Alert
Coordinator, and appropriate Federal, State, and local law
enforcement agencies; and
(5) to assist the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children, the AMBER Alert Coordinator, and appropriate
Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies with
education programs.
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MISSING CHILD.
For purposes of this Act, the term ``missing child'' means
an individual whose whereabouts are unknown to a Federal,
State, or local law enforcement agency.
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
For grants under section 2, there are authorized to be
appropriated to the Attorney General $5,000,000 for each
fiscal year from fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2014.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Schiff) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have an additional 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5464, the ``A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery
Center Act,'' helps address the terrifying experience of when a family
member or friend goes missing.
Under current law, there are programs such as Amber Alert to help
missing children who are abducted or become victims of foul play. But
these programs do not extend to situations where a child or elderly
person becomes missing in other more innocent ways. H.R. 5464 fills
this gap and authorizes money for annual grants to the A Child is
Missing Alert and Recovery Center. This national nonprofit program
provides assistance to local law enforcement throughout the country in
all situations of missing persons, not only those involved in criminal
activity.
The center helps when a small child fails to come home from school or
a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's disease walks out of her home
in the middle of the night. When the terrifying event of a missing
person is reported to the police, the responding police officer can
call the center, which operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Based
on information from the call, the center quickly prepares a recorded
message that includes a description of the missing person, along with a
location where the person was last seen. Within minutes, the center
sends this recording to thousands of phones within a radius of the last
known location. This activity can save not only precious lives, but
also critically needed enforcement resources that would otherwise be
spent in extended searches for missing persons.
The bill before us today will make a significant contribution to the
protection of children and vulnerable adults throughout the United
States. I want to thank the sponsor of this bill, Ron Klein of Florida,
for his leadership on this very important issue. I urge my colleagues
to support the legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5464, a bill that would
authorize the A Child is Missing Program for the next 5 years.
I would like to thank the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Klein) for his work on this important bill.
The A Child is Missing Program is an unsung tool that our law
enforcement and communities have been using since 1997 to locate
missing children and also elderly that are missing due to Alzheimer's
or other difficulties.
I would also like to recognize the founder of this program that was
founded back in January 1997. I had the opportunity to meet with her in
Cincinnati, the Greater Cincinnati area, Norwood, in particular, Sherry
Friedlander, who is in the gallery today. And if she could stand, I
would like to acknowledge her.
Statistics released by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children
reveal that more than 2,000 children go missing each day in this
country. Let me repeat that, 2,000 children go missing every day in
this country.
{time} 1700
We know that the first couple of hours a child is missing are
critical to the successful recovery of that child. While the AMBER
Alert is a critical tool, it takes hours to initiate. The A Child is
Missing program fills that void, alerting and mobilizing the community
almost immediately. The A Child is Missing program has been credited
with over 300 safe-assisted recoveries and is supported by law
enforcement organizations all over the country. In my own district, the
First District of Ohio, local law enforcement agencies have directly
benefited from
[[Page H6444]]
the program. In fact, just this past May, we highlighted the program's
success in the city of Norwood, as I mentioned before, Norwood, Ohio.
H.R. 5464 will ensure that the program has the resources it needs
over the next 5 years to continue serving communities like Norwood,
Ohio, and communities all over the country. I urge my colleagues to
support this critical program by passing H.R. 5464.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
references to occupants of the gallery.
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield 5
minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Klein).
Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the lead sponsor
of H.R. 5464 to urge my colleagues to vote in support of the A Child is
Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act. And before I begin, I would like
to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) and the gentleman
from Ohio, as he supported the bill in committee as well; as well as
Mr. Conyers of Michigan, the Chair of our Judiciary Committee; and the
Chair of the Crime Subcommittee, Mr. Scott of Virginia, for their
extraordinary leadership and support in moving this bill out of their
committees and on to the floor. And also I would like to acknowledge
and thank the ranking members, Mr. Smith and Mr. Gohmert. Mr. Gohmert
was especially supportive during the hearing on the legislation in the
Crime Subcommittee, and I would personally like to thank him for his
remarks and support.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5464 would expand the widely praised A Child is
Missing nonprofit organization into a national program with regional
centers under the Department of Justice. The authorized funds would
allow for the purchase of future technologies and techniques,
centralized and on-site training, and for the distribution of
information to Federal, State, and local law enforcement agency
officials on the best ways to utilize the round-the-clock services
provided by the A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center.
Currently, A Child is Missing is the only program of its kind that
assists in all missing cases involving abduction, children who are
lost, wander, or run away; and adults with special needs such as the
elderly who suffer with Alzheimer's, which is a concern in my district
in south Florida.
When a person is reported missing to the police, A Child is Missing
utilizes the latest technology to place 1,000 emergency telephone calls
every 60 seconds to residents and businesses in the area where the
person was last seen. It works in concert with the existing AMBER Alert
system and all other child safety programs and has the support of law
enforcement agencies all across our country.
A Child is Missing also fills a critical gap in time in the most
dangerous cases. Although the AMBER Alert has been an extremely
successful program, there is still a crucial void of 3 to 5 hours in
many cases from when a child is first reported missing and when an
AMBER Alert shows up on our highways or is announced, which is only
activated when cases of criminal abduction have been issued. This
critical period of time can be the difference between whether a child
lives or dies. Recently, a Washington State Attorney General's office
study showed that among cases involving children abducted and murdered,
74 percent were slain in the first 3 hours. This only highlights the
importance of this time element. Adding to this problem is the resource
and manpower limitations facing many local law enforcement agencies.
Roughly half of these officers in the United States have 25 or fewer
officers, and an average 12-hour search for a missing child can cost up
to $400,000.
A Child is Missing helps to fill this critical gap in time as well as
complement the AMBER Alert during the ongoing search. We know this for
a fact because we have heard it from countless law enforcement officers
from all over the United States.
So the issue isn't whether A Child is Missing works or not. The real
issue is that not enough local communities have access to the program.
The founder and president of A Child is Missing, Sherry Friedlander
from my home community of Ft. Lauderdale, has done an exceptional job
in creating and spreading this program not only in our community but
throughout all 50 States. But if we are going to bring the program to
every community in all these States, then we will need to leverage the
resources of the Federal Government, and that's exactly what this
legislation does.
H.R. 5464 has broad bipartisan support in Congress. We have
cosponsors from all across the country including Ohio, Kentucky, Texas,
Indiana, and New York. In the Senate companion legislation was
introduced by Senator Menendez and is cosponsored by Senator Hatch, the
distinguished former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We
have such support because A Child is Missing provides a service that
transcends politics. Our children are not Democrats or Republicans.
They are our children, and they are all of our responsibility, and
their protection requires us to work together to do what's best for
their continued safety.
That's why, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues today to support H.R.
5464.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for your leadership in
bringing this very important bill to the floor. I support this bill and
urge my colleagues to do the same. This bill is good and it is
necessary.
The bill is sponsored by Mr. Klein and has bi-partisan support. It
has 21 cosponsors, including the following Judiciary members: Chairman
Conyers, Chairman Scott, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Cohen,
Mr. Johnson, Ms. Sutton, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
A child goes missing every 40 seconds. The successful recovery of
missing children often requires a quick response. In 1997, Sherry
Friedlander, the founder of A Child is Missing (ACIM), saw the need for
a rapid-response program to persons who go missing, especially in
situations that do not involve abductions. In response to this need,
she established ACIM, a national non-profit organization that offers
free assistance to law enforcement 365 days of the year, 24 hours per
day. The program is not limited to children, but extends to elderly
persons (suffering from senility or Alzheimer's), mentally challenged
or disabled individuals and college students.
When law enforcement receives a call regarding a missing person, the
first-responder can immediately call ACIM for help. The officer
provides critical information to ACIM, such as the person's age and
description and the last time/place seen. ACIM uses that information to
record a message that, within minutes, is sent via phone to 1000s of
locations within a radius of the last sighting of the person. Through
their computer mapping system, ACIM also can identify ``hot spots,''
such as water or wooded areas.
ACIM complements the Amber Alert program by providing different
services. While Amber Alert focuses on children who are abducted, ACIM
covers all ``persons'' who go missing, including situations where
criminal intent may not be at issue. Amber Alert uses television and
highway signs to broadcast information about the abducted child and the
related vehicle, while ACIM uses a rapid response telephone alert
system and covers cases where there is no vehicle involved. The ACIM
notification system often can respond more quickly than the Amber Alert
program.
ACIM would use the requested money to operate and expand the existing
ACIM office in Florida, to develop Regional Centers for on-site
training and communication with local law enforcement, to maintain and
expand their computer and phone technologies, and to assist the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the AMBER Alert
Coordinator, and appropriate law enforcement agencies with training.
H.R. 5464 authorizes $5 million annual grants for 2009 through 2014
to A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center (ACIM) to assist law
enforcement in the rapid recovery of missing children and other
individuals.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and look forward to
their testimony. I hope that we can ensure the health and safety of the
young and the elderly--two vulnerable populations--whose rights I have
long championed.
Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 5464.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
[[Page H6445]]
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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