[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17016]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     PROTECTING AMERICA'S CHILDREN

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, each year more than 1,000 of America's 
children are abducted and taken out of the United States to foreign 
countries by noncustodial parents. One such child, Mikey Kale from 
Nevada, was abducted by his biological father and taken to war-torn 
Croatia. Mikey was just 6 years old at the time and his parents were 
recently divorced.
  Their divorce decree gave sole legal custody to Mikey's mom, but his 
father, who had visitation but no custodial rights, was able to obtain 
a passport for Mikey and subsequently and successfully abduct him, 
kidnapping him to Croatia.
  Fortunately, Mikey Kale made it back to his mom. Yet, it is an 
inconceivable but irrefutable fact that once a child is taken from the 
U.S., it is nearly impossible to get that child returned. Clearly, 
prevention is the key for protecting our children from international 
parental child abduction.
  I have an amendment today on the floor to help safeguard against 
these family tragedies, an amendment to make it more difficult for 
would-be child abductors to obtain passports for children by ensuring 
certain requirements are met before the issuance of a passport for a 
child under the age of 14. I urge all of my colleagues to support 
passage of this amendment, an amendment to protect America's children.

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