[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14843-14845]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            A CHILD IS MISSING ALERT AND RECOVERY CENTER ACT

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 5464) to direct the Attorney General to make an annual grant 
to the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center to assist law 
enforcement agencies in the rapid recovery of missing children, and for 
other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 5464

       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 ``A Child Is Missing Alert and 
     Recovery Center Act''.

     SEC. 2. DIRECTING THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO MAKE ANNUAL GRANTS 
                   TO A CHILD IS MISSING ALERT AND RECOVERY CENTER 
                   TO ASSIST LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES IN 
                   RECOVERING MISSING CHILDREN.

       (a) In General.--The Attorney General, acting through the 
     Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and 
     Delinquency Prevention, shall annually make a grant to the A 
     Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center.
       (b) Specified Use of Funds for Recovery Activities, 
     Regional Centers, Education, and Information Sharing.--A 
     Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center shall use the 
     funds made available under this Act--
       (1) to operate and expand the A Child Is Missing Alert and 
     Recovery Center to provide services to Federal, State, and 
     local law enforcement agencies to promote the quick recovery 
     of a missing child in response to a request from such 
     agencies for assistance by utilizing rapid alert telephone 
     calls, text messaging, and satellite mapping technology;
       (2) to maintain and expand technologies and techniques to 
     ensure the highest level of performance of such services;
       (3) to establish and maintain regional centers to provide 
     both centralized and on-site training and to distribute 
     information to Federal, State, and local law enforcement 
     agency officials about how to best utilize the services 
     provided by the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center;
       (4) to share appropriate information with the National 
     Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the AMBER Alert 
     Coordinator, and appropriate Federal, State, and local law 
     enforcement agencies; and
       (5) to assist the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
     Children, the AMBER Alert Coordinator, and appropriate 
     Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies with 
     education programs.

     SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MISSING CHILD.

       For purposes of this Act, the term ``missing child'' means 
     an individual whose whereabouts are unknown to a Federal, 
     State, or local law enforcement agency.

     SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

       For grants under section 2, there are authorized to be 
     appropriated to the Attorney General $5,000,000 for each 
     fiscal year from fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2014.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Schiff) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.


                             General Leave

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have an additional 5 legislative days to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5464, the ``A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery 
Center Act,'' helps address the terrifying experience of when a family 
member or friend goes missing.
  Under current law, there are programs such as Amber Alert to help 
missing children who are abducted or become victims of foul play. But 
these programs do not extend to situations where a child or elderly 
person becomes missing in other more innocent ways. H.R. 5464 fills 
this gap and authorizes money for annual grants to the A Child is 
Missing Alert and Recovery Center. This national nonprofit program 
provides assistance to local law enforcement throughout the country in 
all situations of missing persons, not only those involved in criminal 
activity.
  The center helps when a small child fails to come home from school or 
a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's disease walks out of her home 
in the middle of the night. When the terrifying event of a missing 
person is reported to the police, the responding police officer can 
call the center, which operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Based 
on information from the call, the center quickly prepares a recorded 
message that includes a description of the missing person, along with a 
location where the person was last seen. Within minutes, the center 
sends this recording to thousands of phones within a radius of the last 
known location. This activity can save not only precious lives, but 
also critically needed enforcement resources that would otherwise be 
spent in extended searches for missing persons.
  The bill before us today will make a significant contribution to the 
protection of children and vulnerable adults throughout the United 
States. I want to thank the sponsor of this bill, Ron Klein of Florida, 
for his leadership on this very important issue. I urge my colleagues 
to support the legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5464, a bill that would 
authorize the A Child is Missing Program for the next 5 years.
  I would like to thank the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Klein) for his work on this important bill.
  The A Child is Missing Program is an unsung tool that our law 
enforcement and communities have been using since 1997 to locate 
missing children and also elderly that are missing due to Alzheimer's 
or other difficulties.
  I would also like to recognize the founder of this program that was 
founded back in January 1997. I had the opportunity to meet with her in 
Cincinnati, the Greater Cincinnati area, Norwood, in particular, Sherry 
Friedlander, who is in the gallery today. And if she could stand, I 
would like to acknowledge her.
  Statistics released by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children 
reveal that more than 2,000 children go missing each day in this 
country. Let me repeat that, 2,000 children go missing every day in 
this country.

                              {time}  1700

  We know that the first couple of hours a child is missing are 
critical to the successful recovery of that child. While the AMBER 
Alert is a critical tool, it takes hours to initiate. The A Child is 
Missing program fills that void, alerting and mobilizing the community 
almost immediately. The A Child is Missing program has been credited 
with over 300 safe-assisted recoveries and is supported by law 
enforcement organizations all over the

[[Page 14844]]

country. In my own district, the First District of Ohio, local law 
enforcement agencies have directly benefited from the program. In fact, 
just this past May, we highlighted the program's success in the city of 
Norwood, as I mentioned before, Norwood, Ohio.
  H.R. 5464 will ensure that the program has the resources it needs 
over the next 5 years to continue serving communities like Norwood, 
Ohio, and communities all over the country. I urge my colleagues to 
support this critical program by passing H.R. 5464.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
references to occupants of the gallery.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield 5 
minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Klein).
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the lead sponsor 
of H.R. 5464 to urge my colleagues to vote in support of the A Child is 
Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act. And before I begin, I would like 
to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) and the gentleman 
from Ohio, as he supported the bill in committee as well; as well as 
Mr. Conyers of Michigan, the Chair of our Judiciary Committee; and the 
Chair of the Crime Subcommittee, Mr. Scott of Virginia, for their 
extraordinary leadership and support in moving this bill out of their 
committees and on to the floor. And also I would like to acknowledge 
and thank the ranking members, Mr. Smith and Mr. Gohmert. Mr. Gohmert 
was especially supportive during the hearing on the legislation in the 
Crime Subcommittee, and I would personally like to thank him for his 
remarks and support.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5464 would expand the widely praised A Child is 
Missing nonprofit organization into a national program with regional 
centers under the Department of Justice. The authorized funds would 
allow for the purchase of future technologies and techniques, 
centralized and on-site training, and for the distribution of 
information to Federal, State, and local law enforcement agency 
officials on the best ways to utilize the round-the-clock services 
provided by the A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center.
  Currently, A Child is Missing is the only program of its kind that 
assists in all missing cases involving abduction, children who are 
lost, wander, or run away; and adults with special needs such as the 
elderly who suffer with Alzheimer's, which is a concern in my district 
in south Florida.
  When a person is reported missing to the police, A Child is Missing 
utilizes the latest technology to place 1,000 emergency telephone calls 
every 60 seconds to residents and businesses in the area where the 
person was last seen. It works in concert with the existing AMBER Alert 
system and all other child safety programs and has the support of law 
enforcement agencies all across our country.
  A Child is Missing also fills a critical gap in time in the most 
dangerous cases. Although the AMBER Alert has been an extremely 
successful program, there is still a crucial void of 3 to 5 hours in 
many cases from when a child is first reported missing and when an 
AMBER Alert shows up on our highways or is announced, which is only 
activated when cases of criminal abduction have been issued. This 
critical period of time can be the difference between whether a child 
lives or dies. Recently, a Washington State Attorney General's office 
study showed that among cases involving children abducted and murdered, 
74 percent were slain in the first 3 hours. This only highlights the 
importance of this time element. Adding to this problem is the resource 
and manpower limitations facing many local law enforcement agencies. 
Roughly half of these officers in the United States have 25 or fewer 
officers, and an average 12-hour search for a missing child can cost up 
to $400,000.
  A Child is Missing helps to fill this critical gap in time as well as 
complement the AMBER Alert during the ongoing search. We know this for 
a fact because we have heard it from countless law enforcement officers 
from all over the United States.
  So the issue isn't whether A Child is Missing works or not. The real 
issue is that not enough local communities have access to the program. 
The founder and president of A Child is Missing, Sherry Friedlander 
from my home community of Ft. Lauderdale, has done an exceptional job 
in creating and spreading this program not only in our community but 
throughout all 50 States. But if we are going to bring the program to 
every community in all these States, then we will need to leverage the 
resources of the Federal Government, and that's exactly what this 
legislation does.
  H.R. 5464 has broad bipartisan support in Congress. We have 
cosponsors from all across the country including Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, 
Indiana, and New York. In the Senate companion legislation was 
introduced by Senator Menendez and is cosponsored by Senator Hatch, the 
distinguished former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We 
have such support because A Child is Missing provides a service that 
transcends politics. Our children are not Democrats or Republicans. 
They are our children, and they are all of our responsibility, and 
their protection requires us to work together to do what's best for 
their continued safety.
  That's why, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues today to support H.R. 
5464.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, thank you for your leadership 
in bringing this very important bill to the floor. I support this bill 
and urge my colleagues to do the same. This bill is good and it is 
necessary.
  The bill is sponsored by Mr. Klein and has bi-partisan support. It 
has 21 cosponsors, including the following Judiciary members: Chairman 
Conyers, Chairman Scott, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Cohen, 
Mr. Johnson, Ms. Sutton, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
  A child goes missing every 40 seconds. The successful recovery of 
missing children often requires a quick response. In 1997, Sherry 
Friedlander, the founder of A Child is Missing (ACIM), saw the need for 
a rapid-response program to persons who go missing, especially in 
situations that do not involve abductions. In response to this need, 
she established ACIM, a national non-profit organization that offers 
free assistance to law enforcement 365 days of the year, 24 hours per 
day. The program is not limited to children, but extends to elderly 
persons (suffering from senility or Alzheimer's), mentally challenged 
or disabled individuals and college students.
  When law enforcement receives a call regarding a missing person, the 
first-responder can immediately call ACIM for help. The officer 
provides critical information to ACIM, such as the person's age and 
description and the last time/place seen. ACIM uses that information to 
record a message that, within minutes, is sent via phone to 1000s of 
locations within a radius of the last sighting of the person. Through 
their computer mapping system, ACIM also can identify ``hot spots,'' 
such as water or wooded areas.
  ACIM complements the Amber Alert program by providing different 
services. While Amber Alert focuses on children who are abducted, ACIM 
covers all ``persons'' who go missing, including situations where 
criminal intent may not be at issue. Amber Alert uses television and 
highway signs to broadcast information about the abducted child and the 
related vehicle, while ACIM uses a rapid response telephone alert 
system and covers cases where there is no vehicle involved. The ACIM 
notification system often can respond more quickly than the Amber Alert 
program.
  ACIM would use the requested money to operate and expand the existing 
ACIM office in Florida, to develop Regional Centers for on-site 
training and communication with local law enforcement, to maintain and 
expand their computer and phone technologies, and to assist the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the AMBER Alert 
Coordinator, and appropriate law enforcement agencies with training.
  H.R. 5464 authorizes $5 million annual grants for 2009 through 2014 
to A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center (ACIM) to assist law 
enforcement in the rapid recovery of missing children and other 
individuals.
  I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and look forward to 
their testimony. I hope that we can ensure the health and safety of the 
young and the elderly--two vulnerable populations--whose rights I have 
long championed.
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.

[[Page 14845]]


  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 5464.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________