[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 23] [House] [Pages 32207-32212] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN COMES FIRST ACT OF 2007 Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2517) to amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act to authorize appropriations; and for other purposes, as amended. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 2517 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Section 402 of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5771) is amended to read as follows: ``SEC. 402. FINDINGS. ``The Congress finds that-- ``(1) each year thousands of children are abducted or removed from the control of a parent having legal custody without such parent's consent, under circumstances which immediately place the child in grave danger; ``(2) many missing children are at great risk of both physical harm and sexual exploitation; ``(3) in many cases, parents and local law enforcement officials have neither the resources nor the expertise to mount expanded search efforts; ``(4) abducted children are frequently moved from one locality to another, requiring the cooperation and coordination of [[Page 32208]] local, State, and Federal law enforcement efforts; ``(5) growing numbers of children are the victims of child sexual exploitation, increasingly involving the use of new technology to access the Internet; ``(6) children may be separated from their parents or legal guardians as a result of national disasters such as hurricanes and floods; ``(7) sex offenders pose a threat to children; ``(8) the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention administers programs under this Act through the Child Protection Division, including programs which prevent or address offenses committed against vulnerable children and which support missing children's organizations; and ``(9) a key component of such programs is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which-- ``(A) serves as a national resource center and clearinghouse; ``(B) works in partnership with the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Secret Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and many other agencies in the effort to find missing children and prevent child victimization; and ``(C) operates a national network, linking the Center online with each of the missing children clearinghouses operated by the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as with international organizations, including Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France, and others, which enable the Center to transmit images and information regarding missing and exploited children to law enforcement across the United States and around the world instantly.''. SEC. 3. DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATOR. Section 404(b) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5773(b)) is amended-- (1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows: ``(1) In general.--The Administrator shall annually make a grant to the Center, which shall be used to-- ``(A)(i) operate a national 24-hour toll-free telephone line by which individuals may report information regarding the location of any missing child, and request information pertaining to procedures necessary to reunite such child with such child's legal custodian; and ``(ii) coordinate the operation of such telephone line with the operation of the national communications system referred to in part C of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (42 U.S.C. 5714-11); ``(B) operate the official national resource center and information clearinghouse for missing and exploited children; ``(C) provide to State and local governments, and public and private nonprofit agencies, and individuals, information regarding-- ``(i) free or low-cost legal, restaurant, lodging, and transportation services that are available for the benefit of missing and exploited children and their families; and ``(ii) the existence and nature of programs being carried out by Federal agencies to assist missing and exploited children and their families; ``(D) coordinate public and private programs that locate, recover, or reunite missing children with their families; ``(E) disseminate, on a national basis, information relating to innovative and model programs, services, and legislation that benefit missing and exploited children; ``(F) based solely on reports received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and not involving any data collection by NCMEC other than the receipt of those reports, annually provide to the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention-- ``(i) the number of children nationwide who are reported to NCMEC as missing; ``(ii) the number of children nationwide who are reported to NCMEC as victims of non-family abductions; ``(iii) the number of children nationwide who are reported to NCMEC as victims of parental kidnappings; and ``(iv) the number of children recovered nationwide whose recovery was reported to NCMEC; ``(G) provide, at the request of State and local governments, and public and private nonprofit agencies, guidance on how to facilitate the lawful use of school records and birth certificates to identify and locate missing children; ``(H) provide technical assistance and training to law enforcement agencies, State and local governments, elements of the criminal justice system, public and private nonprofit agencies, and individuals in the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of cases involving missing and exploited children; ``(I) provide assistance to families and law enforcement agencies in locating and recovering missing and exploited children, both nationally and, in cooperation with the Department of State, internationally; ``(J) provide analytical support and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies through searching public records databases in locating and recovering missing and exploited children and helping to locate and identify abductors; ``(K) provide direct on-site technical assistance and consultation to law enforcement agencies in child abduction and exploitation cases; ``(L) provide forensic technical assistance and consultation to law enforcement and other agencies in the identification of unidentified deceased children through facial reconstruction of skeletal remains and similar techniques; ``(M) track the incidence of attempted child abductions in order to identify links and patterns, and provide such information to law enforcement agencies; ``(N) provide training and assistance to law enforcement agencies in identifying and locating non-compliant sex offenders; ``(O) facilitate the deployment of the National Emergency Child Locator Center to assist in reuniting missing children with their families during periods of national disasters; ``(P) operate a cyber tipline to provide online users and electronic service providers an effective means of reporting Internet-related child sexual exploitation in the areas of-- ``(i) possession, manufacture, and distribution of child pornography; ``(ii) online enticement of children for sexual acts; ``(iii) child prostitution; ``(iv) sex tourism involving children; ``(v) extrafamilial child sexual molestation; ``(vi) unsolicited obscene material sent to a child; ``(vii) misleading domain names; and ``(viii) misleading words or digital images on the Internet; and subsequently to transmit such reports, including relevant images and information, to the appropriate international, Federal, State or local law enforcement agency for investigation; ``(Q) work with law enforcement, Internet service providers, electronic payment service providers, and others on methods to reduce the distribution on the Internet of images and videos of sexually exploited children; ``(R) operate a child victim identification program in order to assist the efforts of law enforcement agencies in identifying victims of child pornography and other sexual crimes; and ``(S) develop and disseminate programs and information to the general public, schools, public officials, youth-serving organizations, and nonprofit organizations, directly or through grants or contracts with public agencies and public and private nonprofit organizations, on-- ``(i) the prevention of child abduction and sexual exploitation; and ``(ii) internet safety.'', and (2) in paragraph (2) by striking ``$20,000,000'' and all that follows through ``2008'', and inserting ``$40,000,000 for fiscal year 2008 and such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2009 through 2013''. SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. Section 408(a) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5777(a)) is amended by striking ``2007 through 2008'' and inserting ``2008 through 2013''. SEC. 5. REPEALER. The Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5771 et seq.) is amended-- (1) by striking section 407, and (2) by redesignating section 408 as section 407. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Platts) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York. General Leave Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may insert material relevant to H.R. 2517 into the Record. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from New York? There was no objection. Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today I rise with my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson), the sponsor of H.R. 2517, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act, and urge my colleagues to support the reauthorization of the Missing Children's Assistance Act. I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Lampson, for his continued leadership on this issue. Mr. Lampson is founder of the Missing Children's Caucus and has worked tirelessly to support the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. His passion for protecting our Nation's children inspires [[Page 32209]] others to get involved and work to create safe places for our young people, including on the Internet. This bipartisan reauthorization continues the work of the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Child Protection Division's missing and exploited children's programs, including funding for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Furthermore, this legislation continues the authorization for National Incidence Studies, known as ``NISMART.'' According to CRS, the first NISMART study ``provided the first nationally representative, comprehensive data on the incidence of missing children.'' The second NISMART study resolved some methodological challenges of the first study, and included runaway or throwaway children as well. These studies have helped law enforcement, Federal agencies, and nonprofits in their work to prevent children from going missing or to help children get home. Missing children are some of our most vulnerable young people, and this work is critical in protecting this population. This legislation works to help protect not only children who go missing, but it also works to protect our children who are sexually exploited, a horrendous thought for any of us to consider, and yet it is part of our reality. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children serves not only as a national clearinghouse and resource center on missing children but also serves that same purpose for exploited children. Among multiple programs, NCMEC operates as a CyberTipline for tips and leads on child sexual exploitation. The CyberTipline allows for citizens and electronic communication providers to report incidents of various types of child exploitation, including online enticement of children for sexual acts, child prostitution, and child pornography. This reauthorization expands the reach of the CyberTipline to include categories of exploitation that connect with new technologies or activities. I want to share a success story from the Child Victim Identification Program at NCMEC. This program reviews child pornography to gain clues that will lead to the identification of a child. In this particular case in 2005, those reviewing these horrendous images also found images of a young boy partially clothed, including a photo of him in his Boy Scout uniform. They were able to read the patches on his uniform and discovered he was in the Nassau County Boy Scout Council, which I represent here in this Congress. The program has set procedure which led them to contacting law enforcement, who identified this child and later arrested a suspect. From this story, there are two points I want to make. First, this program does wonderful, and yet very difficult, work to protect and save children who are being exploited. Secondly, these crimes happen everywhere. Since its inception in 1984, NCMEC has received 173 reports of missing children in Nassau County, New York, and 4,319 for New York State. Of those 4,319 children who went missing, 4,146 were recovered. H.R. 2517 strengthens the ability of the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and its programs, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to work to eradicate child pornography, guide efforts for online safety for children and unite families. These programs also support the work of law enforcement, including training law enforcement on multiple issues around missing, runaway, throwaway and sexually exploited children. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals, the United States Postal Inspectors, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement all have detainees at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Until all children are safe from predators in our society, this work must continue and we must reauthorize the Missing Children's Assistance Act. Before I close, I want to thank the staff who worked on this reauthorization: Abby Shannon in Mr. Lampson's office, Deborah Kookbeck, Ruth Friedman, Denise Forte of the majority staff of the Committee on Education and Labor, and Kirsten Duncan and Susan Ross on the minority staff of the Committee on Education and Labor. H.R. 2517 is bipartisan effort and I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. PLATTS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2517, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007, which will amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act to authorize appropriations and for other purposes, and I want to commend both the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy), the chairwoman, for their leadership on this issue at the committee level and with the sponsorship of the legislation. And also on my side of the aisle, I commend the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) who will be speaking shortly for her leadership on this very important issue. {time} 1345 Every year, thousands of children are abducted or go missing. In 1984, Congress recognized the need for greater coordination of local, State, and Federal efforts to recover these children, and established the Missing and Exploited Children's Program under the Missing Children's Assistance Act. This act addresses the needs of missing, abducted, and sexually exploited children. The program was created to coordinate and support various Federal missing children's programs through the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, OJJDP, and includes the authorization for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The National Center is a not-for-profit corporation mandated by Congress which works in partnership with the Department of Justice. The center is funded in part by Congress and in part by the private sector and serves as the national resource center and clearinghouse for information on missing and exploited children. The National Center carries out many of the objectives of the Missing Children's Assistance Act in collaboration with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The National Center provides assistance to families and law enforcement agencies in locating and recovering missing and exploited children, both nationally and internationally. While the National Center receives leads on abducted, runaway, and sexually exploited youth and disseminates this information to various investigative law enforcement units, the center itself does not conduct the investigation of these cases. The National Center's Federal funding supports specific operational functions mandated by Congress, including a national 24-hour toll-free hot line; a distribution system for missing child photos; a system of case management and technical assistance to law enforcement and families; training programs for Federal, State and local law enforcement; and programs designed to help stop the sexual exploitation of children. Today, more missing children come home safely than ever before; however, there is still important work to be done. Hundreds of children still do not make it home each year, and many more continue to be victimized by acts of violence. In fact, children are the most victimized segment of our society and crimes committed against children of all ages are the most underreported of any victim category. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has worked with law enforcement on more than 133,000 missing child cases, and has played a role in reuniting more than 115,000 children with their families. With a 96.2 percent recovery rate, up from 62 percent in 1990, the National Center has analyzed more than 500,000 reports of crimes against children on the Internet and referred them to law enforcement, resulting in hundreds of arrests and successful prosecutions. [[Page 32210]] Today, law enforcement is responding more swiftly and effectively to reports of missing children. There is a national network in place, and parents are more alert, more aware, and talking to their children about their safety. With the changes made through this legislation, the Missing Children's Assistance Act and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will continue their important efforts focused on protecting our vulnerable missing children. Again, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) for his sponsorship of this bill. I reserve the balance of my time. Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) who has been certainly at the forefront on trying to protect our children. I thank him for his work. Mr. LAMPSON. I thank Chairwoman McCarthy for the good work that she has done and for allowing me the time to participate in this legislation and to bring it to the floor of the House of Representatives. It is critically important. My colleagues, I rise today to ask you all to join me in voting for H.R. 2517, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007. This bill amends the Missing Children's Assistance Act to reauthorize the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Department of Justice's missing and exploited children's program from 2008 to 2013. Each year, thousands of children are abducted or removed from the control of a parent having legal custody without that parent's consent, under circumstances which immediately place the child in grave danger. Recent video surfaced in Nevada, for example, of a young girl being molested time and time again. Our attention has also been captured by the mystery surrounding Baby Grace, another child who was murdered and put in a plastic box and dumped in Galveston, Texas, near my district. These gruesome acts remind us that we must do everything in our power to catch these creeps and protect our children. Many missing children are at great risk of both physical harm and sexual exploitation, and in many cases parents and local law enforcement officials have neither the resources nor the expertise to mount expanded search efforts. Abducted children are frequently moved from one locality to another, requiring the cooperation and coordination of local, State, and Federal law enforcement efforts. Growing numbers of children are the victims of child sexual exploitation increasingly involving new technology to access the Internet. Sex offenders pose a threat to children that increases as more offenders are released into the Nation's communities each year. On May 24, I, along with my cochairs of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, introduced H.R. 2517. Since its establishment in 1984, the National Center has assisted law enforcement with more than 137,600 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 120,300 children. The National Center's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 540,000 phone calls and leads. We are fortunate that this Nation has a national resource center and clearinghouse such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which works in partnership with the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Secret Service, and many other agencies in the effort to find missing children and prevent child victimization. The National Center operates a national and increasingly worldwide network and serves as a model for many other nations which are creating similar nonprofits. The National Center provides activities and services concerning missing children, including those abducted to or from the United States; exploited children; training and technical assistance; families of missing children; and partnerships with State clearinghouses, the private sector, as well as children's organizations. It is a primary component of the Department of Justice's missing and exploited children's program and employs over 300 people at its Alexandria, Virginia headquarters and its regional offices in California, Florida, Kansas, New York, and South Carolina. These regional offices provide case management and technical support in their geographic areas. And the Austin, Texas office is scheduled to open in the very near future. I would at this time like to recognize those staffers who have worked so diligently in bringing this legislation to fruition: Committee on Education and Labor staffers Denise Forte, Deborah Koolbeck, and Ruth Friedman; Congresswoman Judy Biggert's staffperson Brian Colgan; and my staffers, Dan Easley and Abby Shannon. I would also like to extend a thank you to my very strong Republican colleague and fellow caucus cochair, Judy Biggert, for championing this legislation and so much other similar legislation on her side of the aisle and for being such a tremendous benefit to America's children. I want to especially thank Chairwoman McCarthy. She herself is the victim of family violence. She lost her husband in a violent crime. And Chairman Miller for moving this legislation out of committee, and for their commitment and leadership to provide safety and security to America's children on playgrounds and on the Internet. And Mr. Ernie Allen, the president and CEO of the National Center; and Robbie Callaway, the president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs. And John and Reve Walsh, who have been with me all day today working on this legislation. They cofounded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and they have been fighting the good fight since the tragic abduction and murder of their son Adam in July of 1981. Their courage and their strength, which has done so much to help millions of children throughout the world, is extraordinary. Speaking on behalf of other parents and grandparents, we owe them our gratitude, and we thank you. Again, I strongly urge my colleagues to support this much-needed legislation. It is time that we all step up to protect our children by authorizing resources for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children so children are safer on and off the Internet, where they are free to learn and grow. Thank you all. I look forward to the support for this legislation. Mr. PLATTS. I yield 4 minutes to the gentlelady from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), who as has been referenced has been a true champion for protecting our Nation's children. Mrs. BIGGERT. I thank the gentleman for yielding. And, Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong support for H.R. 2517, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007. I was very pleased to be a cosponsor of this important bill which reauthorizes the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children through fiscal year 2013. I would like to take a moment to thank my fellow cochair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus and sponsor of the bill, Representative Lampson, for his hard work on child protection issues, and Chairwoman McCarthy for her work in leading this bill through the committee. It seems like every time I open the newspaper, I read another story of a child that has been abducted or has been sexually abused by a sexual predator. Naperville, Illinois, in my district, a city that has twice been voted by Money Magazine as the top city in the nation to raise children, has alone experienced over 30 cases in the last 4 years involving online sexual solicitation of a child. Clearly, more can and must be done on this issue. This problem is not regional. It is not isolated to big cities. It is not isolated to rural communities. This is a real national problem that will not go away until we give organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children the tools and the resources they [[Page 32211]] need to fulfill their mission and protect our children from current and emerging threats. Since authorized by Congress in 1984, NCMEC has been extremely successful in this mission. In fact, NCMEC has received nearly 2.3 million telephone calls, printed and distributed nearly 43 million publications, trained 231,000 law enforcement, criminal justice, and health professionals, worked more than 136,000 missing children cases, and, perhaps most importantly, played a role in reuniting more than 118,700 children with their families. In fact, the National Center's child recovery rate is an impressive 96.3 percent. For generations, the message was simple. Parents told their children that they should never talk to strangers. My parents told me and I told my children. But times have changed. There are more threats to our children today, and our message must change with technology. Similarly the role of the National Center has changed. This is why we need this bill passed on the floor today, to expand the National Center's congressionally mandated mission to include recent enhancements in technology and give them the resources to address these and other protective issues. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. PLATTS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite). Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2517, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children does invaluable work for our Nation, and I was proud to cosponsor this bill reauthorizing the funding. We should commend Representative Lampson for sponsoring this very important bill. When a child is missing, the center is often the only source of hope to families. This hope is rooted in the incredible success that the center has had in fulfilling its mission, which is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation as well as finding missing children. Since 1984, the center has helped law enforcement with more than 135,800 cases, resulting in recovery of more than 118,700 children. The services provided by the center never shined more brightly than during one of our country's darkest hours, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Amidst the chaos and destruction in New Orleans and the gulf coast, the center played a critical role in helping children return to their families. If you take a moment to look at the center's Web site, you will see success story after success story about children being reunited with parents and loved ones after harrowing experiences in the storm. For those who had already been through so much, the work of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was truly a godsend. {time} 1400 I only regret that this bill did not go through committee so that valuable amendments could have been offered. If this bill had been marked up, I would have taken that chance to insert language from the Audrey Nerenberg Act, H.R. 271, which I introduced. The Audrey Nerenberg Act would expand the center's mission to aid in the recovery of missing adults who have been certified with a mental capacity of less than 18 years of age. That bill is named after Audrey Lynn Nerenberg, who went for a walk on July 15, 1977, and never came back. She was just 10 months past her 18th birthday and has been missing for 30 years without a trace. Audrey suffered from mental illness, and although she was ill, the 18-year-old was not searched for in a way that a missing 8-year-old would have been. While I'm disappointed that this amendment could not be offered, I certainly continue to support the bill that's before us and the fine work of the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children. Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I have the right to close. Mr. PLATTS. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers. I will just urge a ``yes'' vote and again commend the Members and staff who have worked diligently on bringing this legislation to the floor, and look forward to its passage. I yield back the balance of my time. Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to thank Mr. Lampson again for his leadership on this important reauthorization which works to keep our Nation's children safe. And I want to also thank my ranking member of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, Mr. Platts, for his continued dedication to our work on the subcommittee. I chair the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities for the Committee on Education and Labor, and each member of this subcommittee is committed to helping the children of this Nation. Our jurisdiction has led us to dealing with some of the most upsetting and challenging issues around the welfare of our Nation's children. And this reauthorization is no exception. None of us would like to even think about any children in our lives, whether it's our own children, our grandchildren, our nieces or our nephews, any child in our lives going through missing or being sexually exploited. This is why this reauthorization is so critical and why this reauthorization is a bipartisan endeavor. Through cooperation with the municipal Federal agencies, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children takes in an average of 258 calls per day to national hotlines. It has received 5,422 tips through the CyberTipline, and has worked with countless families and organizations to raise awareness and bring children to safety. This work would not have been possible without our work here today in reauthorizing the Missing Children's Assistance Act through H.R. 2517 sponsored by my colleague from Texas, Mr. Lampson. I urge each Member to support this reauthorization. We, as a Nation, can do better to protect our children. And with that, I hope all of my colleagues will certainly vote for this. Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2517, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007, introduced by my good friend and colleague Congressman Lampson. I would like to thank him for his ongoing commitment to the extremely important issue of protecting our children, and I would also like to thank Chairman Miller for his leadership in guiding this legislation through the Committee on the Education and Labor. I am extremely proud to join over 90 of my colleagues in cosponsoring this crucial, bipartisan legislation. Mr. Speaker, the Protecting our Children Comes First Act of 2007 reauthorizes the Missing Children's Assistance Act through FY 2013, and it will increase federal resources for protecting and assisting missing children and their families. This legislation will provide the resources to ensure that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children can continue its important work to combat child abduction and exploitation. As Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I have been an outspoken advocate for the protection of our children against all predators, be it disease, natural disasters, or sexual deviants. While we may not be able to avoid natural disasters, there is nothing but a lack of political will and Congressional action that prevents us from protecting our children from known sexual predators. I am appalled that while the Department of Justice knows the location of hundreds of thousands of sexual predators that prey on our Nation's children within the U.S. at this very moment, the Department of Justice has consistently refused to take action or ask Congress for help despite the fact that law enforcement is investigating less than 2 percent of this criminal activity. I applaud this important piece of legislation for the accountability it will create by building the largest law enforcement army ever created for the protection of children. While the child exploitation industry is global in scale, the majority of both supply and demand is based right here, within the United States. Due to the lack of attention to this issue by the Department of Justice, it is hard to quantify the number of child pornography traffickers that are involved in this gross violation of our children's rights; the best estimates [[Page 32212]] are that this practice involves 485,000 perpetrators in the United States alone. A 2005 Justice Department study found that: 80 percent of child pornography possessors have images and videos depicting sexual penetration. Twenty percent of child pornography possessors have images of bondage, sadistic abuse, and torture. Eighty-three percent of child pornography possessors have images of children aged 6-12. Nineteen percent of child pornography possessors have images of infants or toddlers. Only 1 percent of child pornography possessors restricted their ``collecting'' to images of nude children. Law enforcement reports of websites providing live ``pay-per-view'' rape of very young children. Mr. Speaker, we must act now to protect our children from these atrocities and this legislation is an important first step in doing so. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's' (NCMEC) mission is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation; help find missing children; and assist victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them. Established in 1984, NCMEC is a nonprofit organization that provides crucial services nationwide for families and professionals in the prevention of abducted, endangered, and sexually exploited children. Mr. Speaker, as technology continues to evolve, there are continuously a new range of tools available to NCMEC to employ in its important work. In recent years, the Center's workload has expanded exponentially, largely due to the growth of the Internet. Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, stated that it anticipates in excess of 110,000 reports through the CyberTipline, which the public may use to report Internet- related child sexual exploitation, and provides technical assistance to individuals and law-enforcement agencies in the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of cases involving missing and exploited children, among other tasks. This is an increase of around 3,500 from last year. Mr. Speaker, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has proven a crucial tool in combating the exploitation and abduction of our Nation's children. It is vital that we continue to ensure that it continues to receive the funding that it needs to carry out its mission. This Congress has taken a firm stance on supporting legislation that protects our children, as can be seen by the passage of numerous pieces of legislation that binds our government to take meaningful action towards the protection of our children. I was a proud cosponsor of the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2007, introduced by my distinguished colleague from Florida, Representative Wasserman-Schultz, which passed the House 415-2 last month. Our children are this Nation's most valuable asset and this legislation ensures that we will invest all the necessary resources to provide them the protection they deserve. This legislation is imperative to ensuring the protecting our Nation's children by providing funding to those agencies with our children's best interest at heart. As the Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, a Representative of the people of the United States, and a mother of two, I am proud to support this legislation and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation. Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2517, as amended. The question was taken. The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it. Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. ____________________