[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16395-16396]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 URGING MEMBERS TO JOIN CONGRESSIONAL MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN'S 
                                 CAUCUS

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Madam Speaker, today I rise to again urge my colleagues, 
if they are not already members, to join the Congressional Missing and 
Exploited Children's Caucus.
  In 1997, a little girl named Laura Kate Smither was abducted while 
jogging near her home in my congressional district. She was later found 
murdered. We have seen many of those stories, unfortunately too many of 
them lately. The pain that I saw and the terror that I saw my community 
go through, as well as the way they came together to search for this 
little girl, inspired me to want to do something to prevent this kind 
of loss in the future.

[[Page 16396]]

  I came to Congress with a lot of ideas and issues on my mind, but 
soon realized the importance of one that was not being adequately 
addressed; and so I founded the Congressional Missing and Exploited 
Children's Caucus to serve as a loud and unified voice for children all 
over the world.
  We have seen lots of stories recently on CNN and in our newspapers, 
elsewhere, during the summer. It is not that there are more but that we 
are becoming aware. I urge my colleagues to join this congressional 
caucus and to help us continue to fight child abduction and 
exploitation.

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