Children's Safety Act of 2005

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S SAFETY ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - September 14, 2005)

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Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank my colleague for the time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 3132, the Children's Safety Act. I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) for advancing this legislation.

It is unfortunate, but our children are not as safe as they could be. There are nearly 550,000 registered sex offenders here in the United States, one for nearly every 200 children. Worse, many of these individuals are able to slip through the cracks and become lost to law enforcement because many of these do not register; and when they move, States do not reregister. A 2003 investigation found in California alone 33,000 registered sex offenders could not be accounted for.

Studies indicate that the recidivism rate for child molesters is as high as 13 percent.

Consider the horrific case that all of us have read about recently of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Jessica was abducted from her home, raped and then buried alive by a convicted sex offender who lived 150 feet from her home. Law enforcement officials had lost track of her murderer and were unaware that he worked at her school.

Mr. Chairman, when I worked in the White House, we worked on passing Megan's Law. That law was effective because it used the right technology at that point to help ensure the safety of our children. This legislation, with this type of technology, builds on the progress we made under Megan's Law to protect our children.

To utilize this new technology and to make our children safer, I introduced H.R. 3407, the Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde Act, with companion legislation in the Senate with Senator Nelson.

Similar to programs already under way in some States, the system would utilize electronic technology, such as GPS, to track sexual predators upon their release from prison. There is no opt in or opt out. It would be a system to track them within 10 feet of their location at any time.

I am pleased that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) has included an electronic monitoring pilot program in the Children's Safety Act. Furthermore, I am pleased that the chairman is also willing to address some of the other issues we discussed in the manager's amendment.

I would also like to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) for his help in securing our amendments.

Mr. Chairman, the fact is our children are not as safe as they could be. This bill, the Children's Safety Act, is an important step toward ensuring their safety and using the technology that is available today in the marketplace to ensure our law enforcement community has all the tools that are necessary to protect our children.

I support this bill and hope that my colleagues will join me and quickly pass this legislation.

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