[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 24302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


        INTRODUCTION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY FAMILY LOCATOR SYSTEM

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                    HON. JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 31, 2005

  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House 
about a bill that I have introduced recently--The National Emergency 
Family Locator System.
  We talk a great deal about being prepared as a Nation for when 
disaster strikes. Yet the images of the devastation of Hurricane 
Katrina are still fresh in our minds.
  Prior to Katrina, the dialogue in Washington was focused on 
preparedness in case of a terrorists attack.
  However, given the number of missing children, what is becoming more 
and more apparent is that our government needs to have the capacity to 
assist in reuniting families after disaster strikes.
  We must have a National Emergency Family Locator System. This bill, 
which is a companion bill to Senator Obama's Senate bill S.1630, will 
take us in that direction.
  This legislation directs the Department of Homeland Security to 
create a national service, so that after an emergency, displaced 
individuals can call one phone number or go to one website, and post 
their location or to be able to use this same secure, centralized 
system to check the status of missing loved ones.
  Finally, this bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to 
create a Family Preparedness Education program that encourages families 
to sit down and discuss how the family will reunite if disaster strikes 
their community.
  These are not pleasant conversations, but they are conversations that 
our Nation's families need to be having given the climate we now live 
in.
  I ask my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and I look forward 
to working with the Department of Homeland Security in implanting these 
important programs.

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