[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 31, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H5450-H5452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ADAM WALSH REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2012

  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass 
the bill (H.R. 3796) to reauthorize certain programs established by the 
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, as amended.

[[Page H5451]]

  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 3796

       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 ``Adam Walsh Reauthorization 
     Act of 2012''.

     SEC. 2. SEX OFFENDER MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE (SOMA) PROGRAM 
                   REAUTHORIZATION.

       Section 126(d) of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and 
     Safety Act of 2006 (42 U.S.C. 16926(d)) is amended to read as 
     follows:
       ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are 
     authorized to be appropriated to the Attorney General 
     $20,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2013 through 2017, 
     to be available only for--
       ``(1) the SOMA program; and
       ``(2) the Jessica Lunsford Address Verification Grant 
     Program established under section 631.''.

     SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF FEDERAL ASSISTANCE WITH RESPECT TO 
                   VIOLATIONS OF REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS.

       Section 142(b) of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and 
     Safety Act of 2006 (42 U.S.C. 16941(b)) is amended by 
     striking ``such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 
     2007 through 2009'' and inserting ``$46,200,000 for each of 
     the fiscal years 2013 through 2017''.

     SEC. 4. DURATION OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS 
                   FOR CERTAIN JUVENILES.

       Subparagraph (B) of section 115(b)(2) of the Adam Walsh 
     Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (42 U.S.C. 
     16915(b)(2)) is amended by striking ``25 years'' and 
     inserting ``15 years''.

     SEC. 5. PUBLIC ACCESS TO JUVENILE SEX OFFENDER INFORMATION.

       Section 118(c) of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and 
     Safety Act of 2006 (42 U.S.C. 16918(c)) is amended--
       (1) by striking ``and'' after the semicolon in paragraph 
     (3);
       (2) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and
       (3) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
       ``(4) any information about a sex offender for whom the 
     offense giving rise to the duty to register was an offense 
     for which the offender was adjudicated delinquent (or 
     otherwise convicted) as a juvenile; and''.

     SEC. 6. PROTECTION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FROM STATE 
                   NONCOMPLIANCE PENALTY UNDER SORNA.

       Section 125(a) of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and 
     Safety Act of 2006 (42 U.S.C. 16925(a)) is amended by 
     striking ``shall not receive'' and all that follows and 
     inserting ``shall return to the Attorney General (for 
     reallocation in accordance with subsection (c)), from the 
     funds allocated to the jurisdiction for that fiscal year 
     under subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime 
     Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3750 et 
     seq.), 10 percent of the amount the jurisdiction may retain 
     under paragraph (1) of section 505(c) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 
     3755(c)).''.

     SEC. 7. COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION OF SEX OFFENDER ISSUES.

       Section 634(c) of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and 
     Safety Act of 2006 is amended by adding at the end the 
     following new paragraph:
       ``(3) Additional report.--Not later than one year after the 
     date of enactment of the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 
     2012, the National Institute of Justice shall submit to 
     Congress a report on the public safety impact, recidivism, 
     and collateral consequences of long-term registration of 
     juvenile sex offenders, based on the information collected 
     for the study under subsection (a) and any other information 
     the National Institute of Justice determines necessary for 
     such report.''.

     SEC. 8. JUVENILE SEX OFFENDER TREATMENT GRANTS 
                   REAUTHORIZATION.

       Section 3012(c) of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 
     Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3797ee-1(c)) is amended 
     by striking ``$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2007 
     through 2009 to carry out this part'' and inserting 
     ``$2,979,000 for each of the fiscal years 2013 through 2017 
     to carry out this section''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.


                             General Leave

  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 3796, as 
amended, currently under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was 
enacted in 2006 to honor the victims of several violent crimes against 
children, including Adam Walsh, a 7-year-old boy who was abducted from 
a store where his mother was shopping in July 1981 and found murdered 
just 2 weeks later.
  This important legislation is primarily known for its efforts to 
create a national sex offender registry.
  The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, or SORNA, created 
a more uniform system of sex offender registries throughout the country 
by providing minimum standards that each State must meet.
  In addition to SORNA, the Adam Walsh Act made the U.S. Marshals 
Service responsible for the apprehension of both Federal and State 
fugitive sex offenders, as well as for the investigation of sex 
offender registry violations. The Marshals Service apprehended over 
11,000 fugitive sex offenders in 2010 alone.
  H.R. 3796, the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 2012, introduced by 
Crime Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, reauthorizes the two key 
programs created by the Adam Walsh Act. It provides funding for the 
U.S. Marshals' sex offender apprehension activities and gives grants to 
States and other jurisdictions to implement the national sex offender 
registry requirements. These two programs are reauthorized for 5 years 
at amounts that reflect the fiscal year 2012 appropriation levels.
  The original Adam Walsh Act contained over 20 different programs and 
was scored at approximately $1.5 billion over 5 years. By contrast, 
H.R. 3796 is targeted, fiscally responsible legislation that only 
reauthorizes the act's most primary programs at an estimated cost of 
less than $300 million over the same period.
  I thank Mr. Sensenbrenner for his leadership on this bill, and I urge 
my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 3796.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in regard to H.R. 3796, the Adam Walsh 
Reauthorization Act of 2012. H.R. 3796 authorizes various grant 
programs originally established pursuant to the Adam Walsh Child 
Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
  While I support reauthorizing these programs, I am concerned about 
what is missing from H.R. 3796. Unfortunately, the bill fails to 
address the many problems that the States and Indian tribes have 
encountered in implementing the Sex Offender Registration and 
Notification Act, known as SORNA, which is one of the provisions of the 
original Adam Walsh Act. So far, only 15 States have been found by the 
Attorney General to be in compliance.
  Years before SORNA became law, many States had developed their own 
sex offender registries and dedicated substantial resources and 
research to develop effective sex offender management systems. To 
ignore these efforts in favor of SORNA'S prescriptive ``one size fits 
all'' system is not only wasteful, but it could adversely affect public 
safety. I offered 10 amendments in the full committee markup of the 
bill seeking to provide States and tribes with more flexibility to cost 
effectively manage sex offenders and to more fully comply with SORNA. 
Despite the committee's failure to adopt all of these proposed 
improvements, there are several positive aspects of H.R. 3796 that make 
changes to the underlying bill which will assist States in this regard.
  For example, the bill, as amended, ensures that provisions of the 
Byrne JAG grant funding, intended for distribution to local governments 
and entities, are not penalized by the States' noncompliance with 
SORNA.
  In the absence of this provision, States that have been unable to 
comply with SORNA would soon suffer up to a 10 percent reduction in 
their Byrne JAG grant awards, which is a particularly harsh penalty in 
these difficult economic times. H.R. 3796 at least ensures that the 
localities that have no control over whether or not a State complies 
with SORNA are not penalized.
  Three other positive aspects of the bill, as amended, are the 
following: the bill gives flexibility to put juveniles on a law 
enforcement agency registry only, not on the public registry, that is, 
juveniles can be only in the law enforcement-only registry, but not 
publicized. We had heard testimony that putting juveniles on a public 
registry

[[Page H5452]]

would actually be counterproductive, and this bill protects that.

                              {time}  1930

  The bill reauthorizes funding under the Adam Walsh Act for treatment 
of juvenile sex offenders. And the bill requires the public safety 
impact of long-term or lifetime registration on juvenile registrants to 
be studied.
  Finally, H.R. 3796 lowers the age after which certain juveniles 
adjudicated delinquent with a clean record can apply for removal from 
the sex offender registry from 25 years down to 15 years. This is an 
improvement to current law, given the research documenting that sex 
offender treatment reduces recidivism by more than 90 percent for 
juveniles and that long-term public registry adversely impacts the 
rehabilitation of teenage offenders, though for the same reasons it 
would have been best to eliminate the requirement to put juveniles on 
the registry in the first place.
  I am pleased, therefore, that H.R. 3796, in reauthorizing the Adam 
Walsh Act, has improved at least in these aspects. I regret that it 
didn't improve some of the things that weren't addressed in the bill. 
But I think it's important that we pass the bill, and I urge my 
colleagues to vote in favor of this bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume 
to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), former chairman of 
the Judiciary Committee and the sponsor of this legislation.
  Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Speaker, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and 
Safety Act, enacted in 2006, is landmark legislation intended to keep 
our communities--and most importantly our children--safe from sex 
offenders and other dangerous predators.
  This bipartisan bill strengthened sex offender registry requirements 
and enforcement, extended Federal registry requirements to Indian 
tribes, and authorized funding for several programs intended to address 
and deter child exploitation.
  The centerpiece of the Adam Walsh Act is the national Sex Offender 
Registration and Notification Act, or SORNA. SORNA's goal is to create 
a seamless national sex offender registry to assist law enforcement 
efforts to detect and track offenders. SORNA provides minimum standards 
for State sex offender registries and created the Dru Sjodin National 
Sex Offender Public Website, which allows law enforcement officials and 
the general public to search for sex offenders nationwide from just one 
Web site.
  H.R. 3796, the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 2012, reauthorizes 
two key programs from the original Adam Walsh Act--grants to the States 
and other jurisdictions to implement the Adam Walsh Act sex offender 
registry requirements, and funding for U.S. Marshals to locate and 
apprehend sex offenders who violate registration requirements. These 
programs are crucial to efforts to complete and enforce the national 
network of sex offender registries, particularly in light of the 
already-passed July 2011 deadline for the States to come into 
compliance with SORNA. H.R. 3796 reauthorizes both these programs at 
levels commensurate with their fiscal year 2012 appropriations.
  The bill also makes changes to the SORNA sex offender registry 
requirements in response to feedback from the States. The bill changes 
the period of time after which juveniles adjudicated delinquent can 
petition to be removed from the sex offender registry for a clean 
record from 25 years to 15 years, and provides that juveniles do not 
need to be included on a publicly viewed sex offender registry. 
Instead, it is sufficient for juveniles to be included on registries 
that are only viewed by law enforcement entities. The bill, as amended 
by the Judiciary Committee, also reauthorizes grants for the treatment 
of juvenile sex offenders. I believe these provisions strike an 
appropriate balance between being tough on juveniles who commit serious 
sex crimes but understanding that there can be differences between 
adult and juvenile offenders.
  The Adam Walsh Act has already been a public safety success. To date, 
the Justice Department has deemed 50 jurisdictions substantially 
compliant with the SORNA requirements, with two Indian tribes meeting 
this goal in just the 2 weeks since the Judiciary Committee considered 
H.R. 3796 at markup.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 3796, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the 
ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a 
quorum is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

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