[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13050]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION AND NOTIFICATION ACT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, first of all, I appreciate very much the 
statement of the majority leader. I understand that he has other 
matters, and I will speak to him later about a number of other things.
  On the issue of sex offender legislation, yesterday, rightfully so, 
the majority leader sent a letter to Chairmen Specter and Sensenbrenner 
asking them to bridge their differences and finish the legislation. I 
commend Senator Frist for making this bill a priority.
  I agree that this is important legislation, and it should not be 
stalled by disagreements over controversial, extraneous matters. 
Specifically, the leader asked the two chairmen to complete work on the 
bill by the end of July. That timetable seems perfect for me. The 
Senate passed its version by unanimous consent on May 4. There should 
be no further delay. I believe this is an urgent matter.
  I remind my colleagues that when the Senate passed this version of 
the bill 2 months ago, Senator Kennedy--even though he felt very 
strongly about the hate crime bill--agreed to set that aside. That was 
a major concession by all of us who favor the hate crimes bill. We made 
the decision that the sex offender bill should not be delayed by 
unrelated matters.
  Since that time, I am sorry to report that some Members of the House 
have held up the sex offender bill by trying to add their own pet 
projects related to the death penalty, habeas corpus, and other 
matters. They are all important matters, but we have to move forward 
with this sex crime legislation.
  As the majority leader correctly wrote in his letter, ``We should not 
allow extraneous issues to delay this bill.''
  Why is the sex offender bill so important? Because the safety of 
children is at stake. The national sex offender registry will make it 
easier for local law enforcement to track sex offenders and prevent 
repeat offenses. The bill authorizes much-needed grants to local law 
enforcement agencies to establish and integrate sex offender registry 
systems.
  Is it going to take another news story about yet another brutal 
assault and murder of some young child to make it clear that we need to 
act now? I hope not.
  Obviously, there are still issues to work out between the House and 
Senate. I understand that. I favor, of course, the Senate-passed bill, 
S. 1086, which I think did a better job of distinguishing among types 
of offenders. We need to move forward without delays or distractions on 
unrelated issues.
  Finally, if anyone ever doubts that one person can make a difference 
in our country and our world, one only need to look at John Walsh. 
Because of the tragic event dealing with his son Adam, we now have a 
National Center for Missing Children. We have a TV program called 
``America's Most Wanted,'' and because of that program, we have gotten 
scores of felons who have done very bad things. I have never met John 
Walsh, but a former Governor of Nevada was a good friend of his. He 
told me years ago about this good man. I applaud John Walsh. It is 
because of him that we are moving forward on this legislation.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I know the Democratic leader has other 
statements to make. I think the signal that we are both sending is that 
this is significant legislation. It will directly impact families all 
over the United States of America. It is an obvious need. We have made 
huge progress and, as the Democratic leader said, much of that is to be 
attributed to John Walsh, his family, because of the tragedy they 
suffered with the loss of their child.
  Again, the Democratic leader and I are joined at the hip pushing this 
through in the Senate. We, working together, agreed to have a focused 
bill, a targeted bill, that would accomplish the specific objectives 
here. And our appeal today is that the House do likewise so we can pass 
this by July 27.

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