[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5300]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              LUDWIG KOONS

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Madam Speaker, about 1,000 children a year are taken 
outside the borders of the United States. These are noncustodial 
parental abductions. We have thousands of them across our country, and 
I urge each of my colleagues to help join that fight to bring them 
home.
  One such case is that of Jeff Koons, who I have been talking about 
now for several months. The last time I talked about it, he had been 
awarded custody by the courts in New York, but soon thereafter his ex-
wife filed for custody and a divorce suit in Italy. Well, he went along 
with that.
  He argued the matter in Italy that New York laws should be followed. 
He even went along and hired psychiatrists to evaluate both himself and 
his ex-wife to see who would be fittest of the parents. Lo and behold, 
after a year of investigation, the Italian court-appointed psychiatrist 
determined that custody should be granted to Mr. Koons.
  On February 28, 1998, a panel of judges of the First Section of the 
Rome Tribunal found that Jeff Koons should have custody and granted 
that custody. That custody was to commence on August 1, 1998; and as I 
look, we are now in April of 2002. Four years later, Mr. Koons still 
does not have his son.
  Father Coughlin spoke of trustworthy people bringing hope to a 
fearful world. Where are the trustworthy people? Bring our children 
home.

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