A Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act
A CHILD IS MISSING ALERT AND RECOVERY CENTER ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 14, 2008)
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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.
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 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.
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