[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9350]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     NATIONAL MISSING CHILDREN DAY

  Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I rise today to promote awareness of 
missing children and honor those who work to search and rescue the 
thousands of children who disappear each year. As my colleagues may 
know, today is recognized as National Missing Children Day.
  In proclaiming the first National Missing Children Day in 1983, 
President Ronald Reagan noted, ``Our children are the Nation's most 
valuable and most vulnerable asset. They are our link to the future, 
our hope for a better life. Their protection and safety must be one of 
our highest priorities.'' Since that time, National Missing Children 
Day has been a reminder that we must strengthen our resolve to keep 
children safe.
  I believe that the Federal Government can help state and local law 
enforcement agencies reunite missing and runaway children with their 
families. In particular, the Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children 
Protection Act enacted by Congress last year is an example of an 
effective federal and state partnership that reduces crime and prevents 
missing children cases. This law reauthorized the National Center for 
Missing and Exploited Children and the Runaway and Homeless Youth 
Program through fiscal year 2003 and provides local communities with 
the resources to find missing children and prevent child victimization.
  In my home state, the Jacob Wetterling Foundation and Missing 
Children Minnesota have worked effectively to locate missing children 
and raise public awareness about ways to prevent child abduction and 
sexual exploitation. Additionally, the Minnesota Association of Runaway 
Youth Services, comprising eighteen nonprofit agencies in Minnesota, 
has been instrumental in providing services to runaway and homeless 
youth and their families. Their efforts have been guided by the Runaway 
and Homeless Youth Program, which provides resources to community-based 
organizations to provide outreach, temporary shelter, and counseling 
each year to thousands of Minnesota's homeless young people.
  I am also working to secure federal funding to support the State of 
Minnesota's development of a statewide criminal justice information 
sharing system that would allow police, judges, and other criminal 
justice professionals to communicate quickly about the criminal 
histories of violent offenders. My proposal will help to provide local 
communities with the technology to identify criminals and protect our 
communities from sexual predators and violent offenders.
  As chairman of the Minnesota House Crime Prevention Committee, 
Representative Rich Stanek recently led the effort to pass ``Katie's 
Law''--legislation that will provide state funding for an integrated 
criminal justice system. I greatly appreciate Representative Stanek's 
dedication to improving the Minnesota criminal justice system and the 
opportunity to work with him on this very important public safety 
initiative.
  Mr. President, I again commend the numerous volunteers, 
organizations, businesses, state legislators, and government agencies 
who all work on a daily basis to find missing children. I look forward 
to our continued work together.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I rise to commemorate this very special 
day, National Missing Children's Day. Proclaimed by President Ronald 
Reagan in 1983 and honored by every administration since, May 25th is 
the day 6 year old Ethan Patz disappeared from a New York City street 
corner on his way to school in 1979. His case remains unsolved and is 
an annual reminder to the nation to renew efforts to reunite missing 
children with their families and make child protection a national 
priority. As a mother of two beautiful children, I cannot imagine what 
I would do if my children were missing. All of us with children know 
that this a parent's greatest nightmare. Yet every 18 seconds a child 
disappears, and so each day over three thousand parents go through the 
terror of losing their child.
  The Theme of this year's National Missing Children's Day is ``Picture 
them Home.'' This national public awareness campaign is aimed at 
encouraging the public at large to be aware of their important role in 
the recovery of these children. One in six children featured in the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's photo-distribution 
program is recovered as a direct result of someone in the public 
recognizing the child in the picture and notifying the authorities. 
Unlike so many of our national tragedies, we can do something to help 
return a missing child to their families. I urge the American public to 
really look closely at pictures of missing children they see. The small 
gesture can be the key to reuniting a mother or father with their 
missing child.
  In closing, I would like to commend those individuals who were 
honored this morning by the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children (NCMEC), the Fraternal Order of Police and the Office of 
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the U.S. Department of 
Justice Fifth Annual National Missing and Exploited Children's Awards 
Ceremony.
  Sergeant Investigator Awilda Cartagena, Texas Dept. of Public 
Safety--For the recovery of Johnny Tello, a family abduction victim 
from Dallas, Texas, after a six-year search. Special Agent K. Jill 
Hill, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Little Rock, Arkansas--For the 
location and recovery of non-family abduction victim, three-year-old 
Destiny Leann Richards, who was kidnapped from her home in Mabelvale, 
Arkansas, on June 11, 1999, and located in a wooded area the next 
evening following extensive ground searches. Detective Captain David W. 
Bailey, accepting for the Lancaster (Ohio) Police Department--for the 
successful local location and recovery of three-year-old Ashley 
Taggart, abducted in April 1999 and found three days later in the home 
of a twice-convicted sexual predator. Senior Resident Agent Scott 
Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Painesville, Ohio, Township 
Division--for the recovery of Nicole Nsour, an international child 
abduction victim, whose non-custodial father abducted her and held her 
in Jordan for over two months. Postal Inspector Paul Groza, Jr., U.S. 
Postal Inspection Service-Northwest Portland, Oregon--for the 
investigation resulting in the conviction of Jonathon and Sarah Aragorn 
for their construction of a Web Site to procure children for sexual 
relations with themselves and their children. Officer James E. Lee, 
Lake Bluff, Illinois, Police Department--For the investigation and 
arrest of Donald C. Moore, a local child mentor who was victimizing 
area youth entrusted to his care. Detective Michael Schirling, 
Burlington, Vermont, Police Department--For the investigation and 
apprehension of a 19-year-old fraternity president, summer camp 
counselor and student at the University of Vermont at Burlington, for 
possession of child pornography and child sexual abuse.

                          ____________________