A Child Is Missing Alert And Recovery Center Act

Floor Speech

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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.

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