Dialog of US Senate on HR 4472 on
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CHILDREN'S SAFETY
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---
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senate will now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 4472, which the clerk
will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as
follows:
A bill (H.R. 4472) to protect children, to
secure the safety of judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and their
family members, to reduce and prevent gang violence, and for other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 4686
(Purpose: In the
Nature of a substitute)
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. CORNYN).
Under the previous order, the Hatch amendment at the desk is agreed to.
The amendment (No. 4686) was agreed to, as
follows:
(The amendment is printed in today's RECORD
under ``Text of Amendments")
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I thank my
colleagues for granting unanimous consent to pass the most comprehensive child
crimes and protection bill in our Nation's history--H.R. 4472, the Adam Walsh
Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
This bill started in the House of
Representatives by a courageous and ambitious Congressman from
I also thank Senator Biden, who joined me in sponsoring
the original Senate version of this bill. Senator Biden and I have worked together
on so many bills, none more important than what we are accomplishing today for
our children. Senators FRIST, SPECTER, and REID thank you for
making this bill priority and for getting this bill through.
The bill we are about to pass, the Adam Walsh
Child Safety and Protection Act, represents a collaboration between the House
and Senate to include the strong provisions of S. 1086, the Sex Offender
Registration and Notification Act, and H.R. 4472, The Child Safety Act. It
creates a National Sex Offender Registry with uniform standards for the
registration of sex offenders, including a lifetime registration requirement
for the most serious offenders. This is critical to sew together the patch-work
quilt of 50 different State attempts to identity and keep track of sex
offenders.
The Adam Walsh Act establishes strong Federal
penalties for sex offenders who fail to register, or fail to update their
information, including up to 10 years in prison for non-compliance.
The Adam Walsh Act imposes tough penalties for
the most serious crimes against children, including a 30 year mandatory penalty
for raping a child and no less than 10 years in prison for a sex trafficking offense.
In fact, this bill creates a series of assured penalties for crimes of violence
against children, including penalties for murder, kidnapping, maiming, and
using a dangerous weapon against a child. And the bill allows for the death
penalty in the most serious cases of child abuse, including the murder of a
child in sexual exploitation and kidnapping offenses.
The bottom line here is that sex offenders
have run rampant in this country and now Congress and the people are ready to
respond with legislation that will curtail the ability of sex offenders to
operate freely. It is our hope that programs like NBC Dateline's ``To Catch a
Predator'' series will no longer have enough material to fill an hour or even a
minute. Now, it seems, they can go to any city in this country and catch dozens
of predators willing to go on-line to hunt children.
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Laws regarding registration for sex offenders
have not been consistent from State to State now all States will lock arms and
present a unified front in the battle to protect children. Web
sites that have been weak in the past, due to weak laws and haphazard updating
and based on inaccurate information, will now be accurate, updated and useful
for finding sex offenders.
There are more than a half-million registered
sex offenders in the
Another important part of this bill will help
prevent the sexual exploitation of children through the production of sexually
explicit material. Every day we hear new stories about how pornographers and
predators take advantage of new technology to exploit children in new ways. It
is very difficult for legislatures even to keep up, and when we do pass new
legislation, it is often stymied in the courts.
Federal law requires producers of some
sexually explicit material to keep records regarding the identity and age of
performers and to make those records available for inspection. The current
statute, however, was enacted before the Internet existed and covers only some
sexually explicit material. The provisions in the act before us brings key
definitions in the law up to date, extends the record keeping requirement to
more sexually explicit material, and makes refusal to permit inspection of
these records a crime.
I want to thank John Walsh, host of ``
This is smart legislation and I am very proud
of the Adam Walsh Act. I am determined that Congress will play its part in protecting
the children of my home state of
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I begin speaking to
this legislation by thanking my buddy. And I know that is a colloquial
expression in this formal place we work when I say ``my buddy,'' but Senator Hatch and I have worked together for a
long time. It is hard for me to believe we have been here as long as we have. I
have actually been here a couple years longer than he has. We have our
differences in philosophy. We have never had any differences personally. We
have never had any differences in terms of our relationship.
The two things I am proudest of that we have
both done is we have both--and I say this somewhat self-serving, I
acknowledge--we both always hired staff that is respected. I do not think there
has ever been a time that Orrin
has not had a staff and staff members who my staff completely, totally trusted.
I think it is fair to say that is the case on Orrin's side as well.
That makes a gigantic difference because I
think the work that Ken Valentine, the fellow sitting to Orrin's right, did--a loner, Secret
Service guy from the administration, from the executive branch--and a fellow I
am very proud of, whom I will mention in a moment--the work they did with John
Walsh and others, to overcome the hurdles that get thrown in the way of good
legislation because everybody has their own agenda.
Everybody knows that for Orrin and me--and I
would add my friend from North Dakota--that some of us have had this as sort of
a--I have been accused of this being a hobbyhorse for me, this, all the work we
have done for so long on dealing with child predators and abused women and abused
children. But what happens sometimes is that good legislation gets stuck
because other Senators, who do not have that as the same priority--although
they are for it--attach a lot of extraneous things because there is something
they feel is even more critical than the legislation, and they see it, to use
the Senate jargon, as a vehicle to get their views heard and their legislation
passed.
Well, as to the work that Dave Turk of my
staff did and Ken Valentine did in order to sort of clear the way for this, I
think everyone who has worked on this, including John Walsh, would acknowledge
is extraordinary.
So I want to personally--there are others, I
am sure. There are others. I do not mean, by mentioning these two individuals,
to in any way denigrate the incredible work done by so many others. But I think
sometimes the public wonders why we pay staff members--all of whom can make a
lot more money if they did something else--the kind of salaries they get paid,
in relative terms. It is because they are so good. They are so dedicated. They
are so talented.
In my experience of being here 33 years, I
have found that when a staff member, no less than a Senator, has an
intellectual as well as an emotional commitment to what they are doing, it is
even more effective.
I know for my friend and staff member, Dave
Turk, who is a father, and for Ken Valentine, whom I have only gotten to know
personally recently, this is more than legislation, this is more than passing
this piece of legislation. This is the stuff of which your life's work is
viewed as being worthwhile.
I remember Jerry Brown, when he used to be the
Governor of California, once said when he was cutting pay--I am not making a
judgment of whether he should have or should not have--when cutting the pay of
State employees, he made a statement only Jerry Brown could make, 20 years ago:
Well, they have the psychic remuneration of living in California. I do not know
about that. But I can tell you that the psychic remuneration for Orrin Hatch and Joe Biden and
Ken Valentine and Dave Turk, and many others who
worked on this, makes this job worthwhile.
The two things of which I am most proud that I
have done in 33 years are dealing with this issue in particular and culminating
in this legislation, the Adam Walsh Child Protection Safety Act, and the
Violence Against Women Act--which, I might add, one of only seven guys who
jumped out front in 1994 to get that done was also Orrin Hatch.
So, Senator Hatch,
I thank you. We have been in the minority, the majority, the minority; we have
switched places back and forth, but it has never changed our relationship,
never changed how we have worked with each other, and never changed the good
work I think we and many others can say we are proud to have participated in.
Mr. President, I wish to talk a few minutes
about the actual act. Congress has done a good deal over the last 25 years--and
I might add, starting with, God love him, our old and deceased friend, Senator
Thurmond from
But every time we have done something
significant, the bad guys have figured out a way to take advantage of it, to
find a loophole, to find an opening. And that is what this is about--and I wish
he had floor privileges because he could speak to it better than any of us--but
this is about, to paraphrase John Walsh, with whom I had dinner the other
night--this is about closing the door. This is about uniting 50 States in
common purpose and in league with one another to prevent these lowlifes from
slipping through the cracks. So we recognize that what we have done in the past
did not do all we wanted to do.
I might add one more thing. Joe Biden and
Orrin Hatch come from
different sides of the political spectrum on a lot of things. But I can assure
you, not only is this tough, but the civil liberties of Americans are not in
jeopardy with this. This is not--this is not--a case where in order to get bad
guys we have had to in any way lessen the constitutional protections made
available
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to good guys. So I
think it is a proud piece of work.
The
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act
takes direct aim at this problem. Plain and simple,
this legislation, I can say with certainty, will save children's lives.
Sexual predators must be tracked, and our cops
and our parents have a right to know when these criminals are in their
neighborhoods. That is what we do here.
First--an important point--let's start at the
beginning. This legislation requires sex offenders to register prior to their
release from prison, to make sure we give them absolutely no opportunity to do
what happens now: fall through the cracks between the moment the prison door
opens and before they set up a residence.
We also make sure we are keeping tabs on
everyone who poses a threat to our kids. Advances in technology are a great
thing, but many times there is a dark side. The Internet, for example, puts the
knowledge of the world at a child's fingertips, but it can also be and is
abused by sexual predators causing kids harm. To steal a phrase from my son,
who is a Federal prosecutor, he told me: Dad, it used to be you could lock your
door or hold your child's hand at the mall and keep them out of harm's way.
But today, in my son's words, with a click of
a mouse, a predator can enter your child's bedroom in a locked home and begin
the pernicious road to violating that child. That is why this legislation adds
the ``use of the Internet to facilitate or commit a crime against a minor'' as
an offense that could trigger registration.
And once someone is on a sex offender
registry, we make sure they can't go back into hiding in the shadows. Under
this bill, child predators would be required to periodically and in person
check in with the authorities.
They also would be required to update their
photographs so law enforcement and parents will know where these folks are and
what they look like now and not solely what they looked like years ago that is
unrecognizable now.
And if a registered offender fails to comply
with any of these requirements, he or she faces a felony of up to 10 years in
prison. If an unregistered sex offender commits a crime of violence, the
offender will face a 5-year mandatory prison sentence in addition to any other
sentence imposed.
A noncompliant sex offender will also face
John and I were talking about it at dinner.
These guys saddle up, to use his phrase. They are the most underrated,
underestimated part of American law enforcement. They do the job incredibly
well. They want to get in on this, and they are now part of this. We now have
designated their expertise and manpower to track down these individuals.
One of the biggest problems in our current sex
offender registry system happens when registered sex offenders travel from one
State to another.
This bill fully integrates and expands the
State systems so that communities nationwide will be warned when high-risk
offenders come to live among them. And we target resources under this bill at
the worst of the worst and provide Federal dollars to make sure States aren't
left holding the bag.
We also require the U.S. Department of Justice
to create software to share with States in order to allow for information to be
shared instantly and seamlessly among them. When a sex offender moves from
This bill also mandates a national sex
offender Web site so that parents can find out who is living in their
neighborhoods. Parents will now be able to search for information on sex
offenders by geographic radius and ZIP Code.
Do we have a silver bullet, a foolproof system
here? I have been around too long to know the answer to that question is no.
What we do have is a slew of commonsense ways for fixing our current problem.
As I mentioned earlier, it has taken us months
and years to get to the point of enacting this important bill into law. Again,
I give credit where credit is due, as has already been mentioned, to John and Reve Walsh. I know we are not supposed to--and I will
not--violate Senate rules by pointing out who is where. But the fact is, if I were sitting next to them in the gallery now, I
suspect if I put my hand on his arm, I would feel the tension in his arm.
This has to be a very bittersweet moment for
John Walsh. For what are we doing here today? We are naming a bill that will
save the lives of hopefully thousands of other young people after a beautiful
young boy who was victimized and killed.
The thing I find most amazing about John and Reve is, I don't know how anybody
who has lost a child can have the courage to do what they have done. I know
from my own experience, which I will not speak to, there are certain
circumstances I cannot walk into because it reminds me of one of my children I
lost.
I could never do what John and Reve did. I could never do what they did. And we could have
never done today what we are doing without them. That is not hyperbole; that is
the God's truth. We could never have gotten this done without John and Reve Walsh.
It has to be one god-awful bitter moment, for
the 27th of this month, if I am not mistaken, will be the 25th anniversary.
A lot of people on this floor, including one
of my colleagues I am sitting with, have lost children. It doesn't matter
whether it is 2 years past, 10 years, 25 years, or 50 years past. That part
never passes. I thank John and Reve for their
courage, courage way beyond anything I could possess.
I have known John for many years. We go way
back to 1984, working together to create the
John, you have been an inspiration. You
continue to be. Don't underestimate it. You have been doing it so long, don't underestimate how many thousands of people take
solace from what you do and what you have done.
It has not been my style in 33 years to take
the floor to speak in such personal terms, but this is ultimately personal. It
is the ultimate, ultimate personal thing, your child.
Earlier this week I had a chance to sit down
with Ed Smart whose daughter Elizabeth--what a magnificently beautiful, poised,
gracious young woman--then 14 years, was abducted at gunpoint from her family
in Salt Lake City while her parents and four brothers slept. She was found 9
months later. The strength of that family's character, its resilience is
remarkable.
I have taken too much of the Senate's time.
Let me again thank my colleague from
Other Senators, including my colleague on the
floor, who has been relentless, absolutely relentless, Senator Dorgan; he added a major, important
piece to this legislation. I thank him for that. Senator Bill Nelson, Chuck Grassley, all
contributed important parts to this bill. They each took tragedies that
happened in their States and used them as a call to action.
Senators FRIST and REID--our
majority and minority leaders--also deserve all our thanks by ensuring that
this important bill was treated with the priority it deserved.
Congressman Foley
has worked tirelessly on this bill in the House for
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years, and Congressman Pomeroy was by his side. And Chairman Sensenbrenner guided this bill through
the House of Representatives.
I don't think there is one of us on this floor
who wouldn't trade away this bill for being able to bring back to life all
those innocent lives that were lost that allowed us, in a bizarre way, to
produce this legislation.
We cannot redeem the dead, but we can, in
fact, protect the living. I think this bill, with the many parts I didn't
mention, including
Again, I close by thanking John Walsh.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. DORGAN. Is there an order of speaking this
evening, if I might inquire of the manager.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous
consent that we go back and forth so long as we have people on both sides. So
the distinguished Senator from
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from
Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I will pick up
where the Senator from
Given the nature of the tragedy they
experience, it could have easily destroyed them. They took this horrific
incident and turned it into a tremendous good. As Senator Biden says, who knows
personally, I can't think of anything worse than losing a child. Losing a child
in such an incredibly tragic situation has to be more than you can possibly
bear. To take that emotion and channel it into a positive course for the
benefit of other children is an incredible legacy for Adam. I know John and Reve do it for that reason, to build this incredible
legacy. This legacy is added to today by naming this bill the Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act.
Not only is this a great thing they are doing
for society, they are a great model for so many who experience tragedies every
single day. People can look at them and see how something that I am sure
brought them to their knees can be turned around to do so much good for so
many. So they are not only helping the children, helping those who are victims
of crime, but they are helping those who are victims of life's tragedies that
befall us all and giving them an inspiration to move forward and turn tragedy
into triumph. This is another triumph. It may not even be the biggest triumph they
have experienced, but it is certainly a triumph and a positive thing to add to
that legacy.
I rise to talk about two pieces of this bill I
have been working on and of which I am the author. One is called Project Safe
Childhood. The second is called the Schools
The Justice Department, in reviewing and
seeing the incredible proliferation of child exploitation crimes, basically
being proliferated through the Internet, took on a new program within the
Department. This new program was in response to what we see of sexual predators
on the Internet and with other types of sexual trafficking, again, as a result
of the Internet and other places. They developed a program which is a very good
program. It has five main purposes:
First, it seeks to integrate Federal, State,
and local efforts and investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases.
Second, the project allows major case
coordination between the Department of Justice and other appropriate Federal
agencies.
Third, it increases Federal involvement in
child exploitation cases by providing additional investigative tools and
additional penalties that are available under Federal law that State and local
governments may not have.
Four, the project provides increased training
for Federal, State, and local law enforcement regarding the investigation and
prosecution of computer-facilitated crimes against children.
Finally, it promotes community and educational
programs to raise national awareness about the threat of online sexual
predators and to provide information to families on how to report violations.
As the father of six children, I can tell you
that what Senator Biden
said about what parents used to feel they could do to protect children--locking
doors and being with them--has gotten a lot more complex, with that fiber optic
tube that runs into your house that allows the entire world to come crashing
into your home and allows sick people to be able to prey on members of your
family. We need to do more to educate parents. This is like pointing a loaded
gun at your child, in many cases, and asking them to get on and play. This is a
dangerous tool.
Yes, there are wonderful things on the
Internet. There is a tremendous world of knowledge and adventure on the
Internet. But as we know, too often the major traffic on the Internet is not
those wonderful and informative sites. They are sites that prey on our failings
and weaknesses, prey on the unsuspecting, on the innocent, in many cases. We as
parents have to be better armed to deal with these people who want to reach
into our homes and corrupt members of our families, corrupt everything that we
are trying to teach them not to do and, worse yet, potentially could opt them
into behavior that could risk, ultimately, their lives.
So this program is very important that the
Justice Department is engaged in. I contacted the Department and worked with
them to develop an authorization bill so we could provide a stable stream of
funding for Project Safe Childhood and expand the program in a way that the
Department on its own could not do.
For example, increasing
penalties for registered sex offenders, child sex trafficking and sexual abuse,
and other child exploitation crimes, which this does. It creates a
children's safety online awareness campaign and authorizes grants for child
safety programs. So in addition to what the Justice Department program does, we
add those provisions to help with better coordination between State, local, and
Federal prosecutors and investigators.
I had a meeting in the western district of
Pennsylvania with our
So I am grateful that Senators SPECTER,
HATCH, and LEAHY have worked to include that provision in the bill.
I think it will take us a step forward in protecting our children from these
predators and from exploitation.
The second piece of legislation is called the
Schools
Obviously, the vast majority of teachers and
people who work in schools are good and decent people and are there because
they want to help children, not because they want to harm children. But like
anything else, if you are someone who is a sexual predator,
and you are looking to harm children, what better place to go than a place
where there are children every single day you could possibly exploit.
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So it is important that we have sufficient
checks in place to make sure that these predators are not in educational settings
where they can harm and corrupt our children.
The current state of play is basically a
mishmash of different State laws and different participation in a system
created to help schools access information about criminal background checks.
Some States require, for example, only a State background check, while other
States require an FBI background check. With these disparities, individuals
continue to find opportunities to evade safeguards that have been put into
place.
In
Beginning in 2007,
So we are addressing that issue in
I think it just goes to show you that there is
no good system out there. What we need to do is allow States to access a
database that was established by Congress in 1998 in the National Crime
Prevention and Privacy Compact. This compact allows States to share background
information on individuals seeking employment in a school district. This is an
important thing to have all the States participating in. I will not go through
all of the problems, but there are all sorts of memoranda and agreements and
data-sharing information. As a result of that, only roughly half of the
States--26 States--participate in the compact. Even States that have joined the
compact don't always get access to the information they need. This is a
problem.
You could have a man from
This is obviously a great threat to our
children. So what this bill does is give schools across our Nation an essential
resource when making hiring decisions. They will be able to access this
database and conduct fingerprint-based background checks on individuals who are
seeking work with or around children in schools. So this is another important
step in protecting our children, in addition to all of the other provisions in
this bill--protecting our children in this case in our schools.
I thank, again, the chairman and ranking
member for their tremendous assistance to me in getting this legislation in the
final package. Again, I congratulate all who have been involved in this very
important legislation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous
consent that 3 minutes be yielded to the Senator from Georgia, and then we go back
to the Senator from North Dakota, and then to Senator Allen, and that would be it for now.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I thank the
Senators for their courtesy. I thank Senator Hatch
from
Masha is a young
lady who, at an early age in
Masha is,
fortunately, now living in a loving home in
In researching this case, we found that young Masha, and many others like her who have been abused in
their lives, could not even recover under the laws as they existed. What Masha's law does, and what is incorporated in here, is it
changes ``any minor'' to ``any person,'' so that if a minor is depicted in
photographs pornographically that are distributed over the Internet, but by the
time the abuser is caught, the minor is an adult, they can still recover. They
cannot now, and that is ridiculous. It makes sure that recovery on the part of
a minor can take place when they become an adult, whether or not the guilty
person is incarcerated. It raises from $50,000 to $150,000 the penalty for
which that individual can be recompensated if, in
fact, someone who depicts that picture and puts it on the Internet and uses
them is caught and convicted. That compensation is to be paid to the
individual.
Although I don't think there is any price too
high to cost an individual who would take advantage of a minor, I think it is
only appropriate to triple that penalty and make sure that reaching the age of
adulthood does not exempt someone from recovery. It is a tribute to continuing to
do what this bill does, and that is look after the protection
of minors and ensure that those who violate them are caught and punished and
have to pay to the maximum extent.
I thank the Senator from
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. DORGAN. First, let me say to the Senator
from
This is a piece of legislation about
protecting children. I don't know what is second place in the
lives of many people, but I know what is in first place, and that is the
protection of children. They cannot protect themselves. It is our
responsibility as parents; it is our responsibility in this country to do the
things necessary to protect our children. There are so many stories that it is
almost hard to begin, and you don't know where to stop.
My interest in this goes back some long ways.
My colleagues have described John Walsh and the tragic loss of his son Adam
Walsh. Those of us who have lost children understand that pain, but it must be
enormously compounded by the pain of someone who loses a child who has been
abducted.
My experience, especially with respect to
North Dakota, a couple of years ago was to learn one day that a wonderful young
woman had been abducted in a parking lot of a shopping center in Grand Forks,
ND, a young woman named Dru Sjodin,
and, we later found, murdered.
There is a trial underway for someone charged
with murder in that case, but that case is like so many cases, it seems to me.
It is the case of Adam Walsh, it is the case of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, it is the case of a 12-year-old girl named Polly Klaas. It is the case of Sarah Michelle Lunde,
age 13.
Pull back the curtain and then ask the
question: Who is it abducting these children? Who are the sexual predators
killing these children?
This is not some mystery. We know the answer
to this. The answer is, in most cases, that these murders and these abductions
are done by those who have been in our criminal justice system and who have
abducted and murdered before.
I held a meeting in
The Senate has passed Dru's
law twice on its own. We have not gotten it
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through the
A meeting I held in
Prior to the meeting, I searched the computer
for a registry of sex offenders to find out who was living within 1 mile of
where we were meeting at city hall in Fargo, ND, who had previously been
convicted as a sexual predator--who were they? I would share the names with the
folks who came to that meeting to say: Here is a registry in
This is a poster that I showed the folks who
came to
That is his sheet from the registry in
What I didn't know that day was that 1 month
before the meeting I was having in
That is why we need a national registry.
Strangely enough, in April of last year, he appeared on those charges, and a
county judge set the bail at $15,000, and he was released after posting cash,
promising to stay in touch, and he absconded and that is it. The judge said he
didn't know he had this record.
Then 2 months later, this man we know now from
intense media coverage was arrested in
Dylan's remains were later located, and Shasta
Groene, the young girl, was spotted in a Denny's
restaurant by a sharp-eyed waitress who called the police, and she was saved.
This case is an example of why there must be a
national registry.
Dru's law, which I
introduced, has three components. One is the creation of a national registry of
sex offenders. The underlying legislation improves on that by not only requiring
the national registry but also standardizing the information that will be in
the national registry.
Second, Dru's law
requires that when a violent, high-risk sex offender is about to be released
from
incarceration, the
local authorities must be notified, the local States attorney must be notified.
There is such a high risk to the population of this high-risk offender being
released that perhaps there is cause to seek additional civil incarceration,
civil commitment, but they can't do that if they don't know about the impending
release.
In fact, when a high-risk offender is released
from prison, they can't just say: So long, good luck. That is exactly what
happens in too many cases.
Martha Stewart is thrown in jail. They put
Martha in jail for 6 months, and when she gets out of Federal prison, she gets
out of Federal prison wearing an ankle bracelet, an electronic bracelet that
allows law enforcement to track her whereabouts.
I can give you an example of a very violent
sex offender let out of prison with no maintenance, no monitoring, no
electronic bracelet, just: So long, see you later; you served your time. Yes,
we will see them again when they create another violent crime, another rape,
another murder, another abduction. That is why I support passing this kind of
legislation.
This legislation is going to save lives. Again
I ask the question, and it is so fundamental: If we send Martha Stewart home
with an electronic bracelet on her ankle, we can't do that to violent sex
offenders when the psychiatrists at the institute of incarceration have said,
``We believe this person to be at high risk for real
offending''?
Nearly three-quarters of the violent sex
offenders are going to repeat that offense when released from prison. We know
that from statistics. Do we have an obligation to protect children? The answer
is, you bet we do, and it is long past the time. That
is why this legislation is so very important.
As I said when I started, there is so much
here that is partisan in this Chamber and the other
Chamber, and there is so much that swirls around all of us in politics that we
don't like very much about today. But there are times when we do things that
will make a difference, and we do things working together, Republicans and Democrats.
This is one of those moments of which we can be proud.
Senator Hatch
and Senator Biden
did a wonderful job. They mentioned their staffs, and that is important. It is
always the case that politicians take the bows, but it is important to understand
that staff plays a very significant role in helping us write legislation, do
the research to get it correct and get it passed.
I thank my colleagues, and I especially say to
the parents of Dru Sjodin:
I believe that in honor of her memory we have, in this legislation, done
something significant. Section 120 is the Dru Sjodin national sex offender public Web site. We create the
three elements in Dru's law in this legislation, and
I believe, in her memory, we will save other lives.
There are many parents out there today who
have lost children, some to the horror of abduction by sexual predators. If
this legislation will--and I believe it will--prevent others from experiencing
that horror, and if this legislation will--and I believe it will--save children,
then we will have done significant work here tonight. It is perhaps little
noticed by some. We don't have on legislation of this type perhaps filled
Chambers and substantial attention to it, but while it is perhaps little known
publicly, what transpires here in the Senate tonight will have a significant
influence on the future of children in this country.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. CHAFEE).
The Senator from
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous
consent that the distinguished Senator from
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from
Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, I rise this evening
in strong support of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. I
commend Senator Hatch for his
steadfast leadership, his wisdom, and perseverance in finally getting this
measure to the floor for a vote. It is long overdue.
I have always believed that one of the very
top, most important responsibilities of government at the Federal, State, or,
for that matter, the local level is the safety and security of our people,
particularly the most vulnerable people in our society--our children.
When I was Governor of the
Clearly, the abolition of parole, truth in
sentencing, and longer sentences for
[Page: S8018]
felons has made
I am going to talk about Adam Walsh, but there
are a lot of other victims of crimes. I remember when we were trying to get the
legislature and people behind the abolition of parole and truth in sentencing,
listening to the stories of loved ones, of parents who would tell their
stories, of people released early and where they have preyed upon, killed, or
raped again.
I will always remember a lady talking about
being raped, and then right after her, another woman was talking about being
raped again, a second time, by that same person. That rapist was released
early.
I remember talking about a police officer with
young children. The police officer was killed on Father's Day in
The story of a young person working in the
bakery in
Before I became Governor in
Studies show that there are more than 550,000
registered sex offenders in the
Some may wonder, why
is there such a focus on sex offenders? Why is there such a focus on pedophiles
and sex offenders and rapists? The reason is, if you look at the
statistics--and it is not unique to
Now, these days, child predators have increased
their ability to inflict harm on our children by exploiting new communications
technologies, including the Internet. Please understand: I believe the Internet
is the greatest invention since the Gutenberg press for the dissemination of
information and ideas. It is a wonderful tool. And ever since I have been in
the Senate, I have been working to make sure that avaricious State and local
tax commissars don't impose 18-percent taxes on the Internet in monthly
charges. We don't want the Internet monthly bills to look like a telephone
bill. Ron Wyden from
But the Internet also can create new
opportunities for criminals, especially child predators. It is vitally
important that we as parents and as elected leaders take the necessary steps to
make the Internet as safe as possible for our children, as safe as possible for
our children when they are at home, as safe as possible for them at schools, as
well as in libraries.
I recently introduced a bill called the Internet
Tax Nondiscrimination Act. This bill makes permanent the Internet tax
moratorium, which is scheduled to expire next year. This measure also increases
the ability of parents to protect their children from Internet predators. In
fact, this is still law today. We want to keep this going.
In our bill, we impose a responsibility on
Internet service providers to offer customers filtering technology. The ISPs,
or Internet service providers, need to limit access to material that would be
harmful to minors. This feature will create a powerful, and does create a
powerful, financial incentive for ISPs to provide the filtering technology that
parents need. Once parents are empowered with this technology, I guarantee you
they will use it to protect their young sons and daughters. I am pleased the
Senate Commerce Committee approved this bill as part of the telecom reform bill
on a vote of 19 to 3.
However, we as a legislative body have much
more work to do, especially when it comes to increasing penalties on Internet
predators, by giving law enforcement officials the tools they need to catch
Internet predators and convict them. This is a key reason I have signed on as a
cosponsor of the Adam Walsh Act. This legislation is vitally needed. As I said,
it should have been passed many years ago. This legislation honors the memory
of a 6-year-old boy named Adam Walsh who was kidnapped and murdered nearly 25
years ago. This bill also recognizes the tireless efforts of his parents, John
and Reve Walsh, who have been outstanding advocates
for children all across
The Adam Walsh Act--and I want to focus on one
title--this bill in title 7 includes what is called the Internet Safety Act,
sets out several provisions that will dramatically increase Internet safety,
including tough new penalties for child exploitation enterprises and repeat sex
offenders. This title also creates a new crime--and this is important--a new
crime for embedding words or digital images on to the source code of a Web site
with the intent to deceive a person into viewing this obscenity. This is
vitally important for all people. I tell you, it is important for families and
children. This section is going to help stop pornographers from tricking
children into visiting their sites with words that are designed to attract
innocent young people.
The Internet safety provisions in this measure
also fund Federal prosecution resources, including 200 new Assistant U.S. Attorney
positions to help prosecute persons for offenses related to sexual exploitation
of children, and 45 more computer forensic examiners. These are the experts who
will be helpful within the regional computer forensic laboratories in the
Department of Justice. They include 10 more Internet Crimes Against
Children task forces. These are also important. There is some good work being
done in
The Internet safety provisions in this bill
also expand the civil remedy available to children who have been sexually
abused and exploited.
This is vitally important, commonsense
legislation that is going to protect and, indeed, it is going to save lives. It
is perfect that we pass a bill named after Adam Walsh, a child who lost his
life at age 6 to a child predator. It can be Adam Walsh, but to all the parents
who are out there who lost a young child to a sexual predator, it can be their
name put in here as well. The parents of Adam Walsh have dedicated their lives
to making sure there are not other parents grieving with the loss of their son
or their daughter. Adam's spirit lives on and the inspiration for action is in
this measure, action that will save lives. More children will be able to grow
up with the innocence they deserve and the safety they deserve, thanks to the
efforts of Adam Walsh's parents and also the wisdom, on a bipartisan basis, of
the Senate not to dawdle, but to act. I commend the Senate for acting,
particularly those in the committee. I am honored to be a cosponsor, and I look
forward to the passage of this act, the signing by the President, and the
protection of children all across
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I too rise to
support the Adam Walsh Child
[Page: S8019]
Protection and
Safety Act of 2006. This act represents landmark, bipartisan legislation to
protect the most vulnerable among us: our children. Over the last several
months, the House and the Senate met, negotiated, and finally reached agreement
on this important measure.
I want to note and, in doing so, commend the
tremendous leadership Chairman Specter
and Senator Hatch, our
immediate past chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and their respective
staffs, as well as the House Judiciary Committee chairman, JIM SENSENBRENNER
and his staff, for all their tireless dedication to this legislation. Many
people have devoted time and effort to see this bill through, ensuring that we
do everything within our power to protect our children.
The crimes of child abuse and child exploitation
are astounding but, unfortunately, all too prevalent. The recent wave of child
abductions in this country demonstrates the need for this type of response from
the Congress. There is only one way to deal with those who prey on children:
They must be caught sooner, punished longer, and watched closer than they are
today.
Before I came to the Senate, I was honored to
serve as the chief law enforcement officer of the State of
I want to take a moment to highlight another
very important participant in these negotiations who has been noted and praised
for his efforts, but I think we can't say enough to recognize his contribution.
John Walsh has a long-standing commitment to fighting for child victims and
measures to protect children across this country. As has been recounted, his
son Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a mall in
As many of you know, John Walsh is the host of
``
The title of this current bill appropriately
honors Mr. Walsh's efforts, and I am told the President will sign the bill, if
we pass it, on July 27, marking the 25th year since the day Adam was abducted.
I do not pretend to understand the pain and
trauma the Walsh family or others have had to endure as a result of these
terrible crimes against children. But I am eternally grateful for the way John
Walsh has used this pain and this trauma to improve the lives of other people
and to ensure we take every step within our power to protect our children
against like crimes committed against Adam Walsh.
I wish to take a second to highlight other
important measures contained in the bill which will enhance existing laws,
enhance investigative tools, criminal penalties, and child crime resources in a
variety of ways. This bill requires sex offenders to register and, in the case
of the most serious offenders, to do so for up to the length of their entire
lives. It requires them to report in person at least once each year to update
personal information and to take a new photograph. It requires public posting
for public access on the Internet of information about sex offenders so it is
widely available, and so parents can take steps necessary to protect their
children. It forces States to comply with this program or, I should say,
persuades them to comply with the program by linking participation to Byrne
grant funding, and it punishes with imprisonment up to 10 years those who fail
to register, and if they commit a violent crime while unregistered, they can be
punished for up to 30 years consecutive to any underlying conviction. It
requires the Attorney General of the
It also includes many of the provisions of the
Internet Safety Act which I cosponsored with Senator JON KYL and others
which, among other things, creates a new crime outlawing child exploitation
enterprises, and would imprison for a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years
those who act in concert to commit at least three separate violations of
Federal child pornography, sex trafficking, or sexual abuse laws against
multiple child victims.
It also enacts various other important
provisions, including making the failure to register as a sex offender a
deportable offense for aliens and preventing sex offenders from taking
advantage of our immigration laws.
This is one of those fine times in the U.S.
Congress where we have come together on a bipartisan basis to do something that
rises above partisanship and is enormously significant in terms of improving
our quality of life and protecting those who are most vulnerable among us. This
Congress continues to act on measures that benefit our Nation and protect our
children. It has long been said that societies are ultimately judged on how
they treat their elderly and their young. This bill is an important step toward
improving the safety of those who are our youngest and most vulnerable.
Finally, Mr. President, I would like to
specifically express my gratitude to the many dedicated staff who worked
tirelessly on this bill for some time, including Matthew Johnson and Lynden Melmed from my own staff. Additionally, I would like to
thank the following staff:
Allen Hicks, Mike O'Neill, Matt Miner, Todd Braunstein, Brett Tolman, Lisa
Owings, Bruce Artim, Ken Valentine, Tom Jipping, Dave Turk, Bradley Hayes, Joe Matal,
Nicole Gustafson, James Galyean, Amy Blankenship,
Jane Treat, Sharon Beth Kristal, Julie Katzman, Noah Bookbinder, Christine Leonard, Lara Flint,
Marianne Upton, Preet Baharara,
Melanie Looney, Anna Mitchell, Gabriel Adler, Alea
Brown, Bradley Schreiber, Mike Volkov, Sean
McLaughlin, Bobby Vassar, and Greg Barnes.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise to speak
about the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. I thank the Senator from
Last June, the entire Nation was horrified by
the kidnapping and murders of the Groene family and
the tragic crimes upon little Shasta Groene.
Joseph Duncan was a convicted sex offender who
beat Brenda Groene; her 13-year-old son, Slade; and
her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie to death. Their bodies were found in their home in
Six weeks later, on July 2, restaurant workers
in
This did not have to happen.
In 1980,
[Page: S8020]
served his sentence in
prison until he was released on parole in 1994.
In 2000, he moved to
In April of 2005, a
On May 16, the Groene
family was found dead and it wasn't until July 2 that Shasta was recovered.
Joseph Duncan was essentially lost by three
States. He moved from State to State to avoid capture.
No one knew where he was nor even how to look
for him.
I say again, this did not have to happen.
There is no worse crime than a crime against a
child, and one crime against a child is too many. That is why I have
cosponsored the Child Protection Safety Act, because we need better
information. We need a better system to keep that information accurate, and we
need better standards to keep that system from breaking down when we need it
most. The Senate must pass this bipartisan legislation to improve the national
sex offender database, to link State tracking systems, and to prevent sex
offenders from escaping and moving to other States.
Today there is far too much disparity among
State registration requirements and notification obligations for sex offenders.
Yes, there is already a National Registry, but it is based on often outdated
listings from all 50 States. Worse, there are currently no incentives for
offenders to provide accurate information, which helps to undermine the system.
Child sex offenders have exploited this stunning
lack of uniformity, and the consequences have been tragic. Twenty percent of
the Nation's 560,000 sex offenders are ``lost'' because State offender registry
programs are not coordinated well enough.
We take these numbers very seriously in
One in five girls is estimated to be a victim
of sexual assault. One in ten boys is estimated to be a victim. Only 35 percent
of these cases are ever reported to the police. That is why this spring,
We also established a minimum sentence for
certain sex crimes and tougher registration rules. Back in 1990 we were the
first State to enact a sexual predator involuntary commitment law that ensures
predators who are about to be released after serving their time can be
prevented from being released if mental health officials believe that they will
endanger the community.
This law has become a national model for other
States to follow. Today, these sexual predators are housed on
Here is what I know. Local law enforcement
needs the tools and information that this legislation will give them to defend
our children. It will help us close the gap between Federal and State sex
offender registration and notification programs. Every State needs to update
one another and the national registry in real time, and we need to recognize
that tough punishment today will prevent terrible costs tomorrow.
We must keep our communities safe, and I know
that is why the Senate is going to act on this legislation tonight. The Adam
Walsh Protection and Safety Act creates this registry
on a national level that is so long overdue. It provides strong, practical
tools for law enforcement The new registry will expand
the scope and duration of sex offender registration and notification
requirements. It will keep track of all sex offender information--addresses,
employment, vehicle, and other related information. And, as my colleague from
Now the public will be able to search for sex
offender information by geographic radius and zip code, and the bill also, as
my colleague from
It requires that the sex offenders register
prior to their release from prison or supervised programs.
I will yield the floor.
Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I rise today to
support the Adam Walsh Child Protection Safety Act of 2006, H.R. 4472. I say
that as an Arkansan because I know people in
Senator Frist made a statement a few
moments ago about child predators on the Internet. It is a real problem. It is
something we in the Congress are trying to deal with in this legislation. It is
something we need to keep focused on even though we passed this legislation. We
need to keep focused on it so we can make sure that what we have on the books
works. I am very proud of the Senate tonight for considering this. I am very
proud of the Congress for the way they have handled this and moved this through
the process.
I also wish to say another word. There is a
program around the country called Code Adam. Actually, an
Lastly, my friend, Colleen Nick, whom I met
through my time in the attorney general's office in Arkansas--her daughter
Morgan Nick was abducted from a ballfield in Alma,
AR, several years ago when Morgan was about 5 years old. Colleen has devoted
her life to missing children issues. So I am proud that this passed tonight for
Morgan and Colleen and the Nick family because I have talked to them and spent
a lot of time with the Nicks. I know the void it creates in a parent's life and
in a family's life when one of their children is missing and never found.
Mr. President, I am very proud to support this
legislation. I believe it makes
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise today in
strong support of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. I am proud to
be a cosponsor of this bill and am even prouder that we have been able to work
across party lines and in both Houses to come up with a bill that we all can
support and that will genuinely help protect our children from sexual
predators.
[Page: S8021]
My commendations and heartfelt sympathy go out
to John and Révé Walsh, Mark Lunsford, and all the
other parents and loved ones of children who were taken so violently from those
who loved them so dearly. Without the tireless efforts of these folks, this
bill might not be on the floor here today, as we near the 25-year mark of the
disappearance and murder of Adam Walsh.
The urgency of passing this legislation is
clear. The murders of Jessica Lunsford, Sara Lunde,
Tiffany Souers, and Jetseta
Gage, who was from my home State of
As I mentioned, Jetseta
Marrie Gage was from my home State of
On
Bentley had been previously convicted for
committing lascivious acts with a minor. Unfortunately, this man only served a
little over 1 year in prison for his previous sex crime conviction. Two days
later, due to a tip received by a woman responding to the Amber Alert, Jetseta's body was found stuffed in a cabinet in an
abandoned mobile home. She had been sexually molested and suffocated with a
plastic bag. I can't help but wonder whether Jetseta
would still be alive today had her killer received stricter penalties for his
first offense. It breaks my heart to hear about cases like this, but it is even
more disheartening when you know that it might have been prevented with
adequate sentencing and that hers is just one tragic story in a long list of
horrific crimes committed every year.
Child sex offenders are the most heinous of
all criminals. I can honestly tell you that I would just as soon lock up all
the child molesters and child pornography makers and murderers in this country
and throw away the key. As it should all of us, the thought of what these
predators do to our innocent children literally makes me sick to my stomach.
The thought that we might not do what we could to deter them but also to
prevent the same people from committing the same crimes against other children
is unacceptable. According to a study funded by the Department of Justice, 5.3
percent of sex offenders were rearrested within 3 years following their release
for another sex crime. Also, compared to non-sex offenders released from State
prisons, released sex offenders were four times more likely to be rearrested
for a sex crime. Even more troubling, according to several federally funded
studies, child molesters have an even higher rate of rearrest
than rapists.
Three years ago, we passed the PROTECT Act, a
bill I worked on with my colleagues to provide the judiciary with the necessary
tools to ensure that our children and grandchildren grow up in a safe
community, free from child predators. This bill complements the process we
started with the PROTECT Act, and adds much needed additional protections for
children and for our communities.
The bill before us today includes parts of the
Jetseta Gage Prevention and Deterrence of Crimes Against Children Act, a bill that I introduced last year to
strengthen penalties for criminals who commit sex offenses against children. It
ensures that those who commit heinous crimes against our children are
appropriately punished and that anyone thinking of committing similar crimes
will think twice about the repercussions. The bill increases penalties for
sexual offenses against children, including sexual abuse, murder, kidnapping,
sex trafficking, and various activities relating to the production and
dissemination of child pornography.
This bill goes far beyond these penalty
increases, however. It establishes sex offender registration and notification
requirements, essential to aid parents in monitoring their children's
environments. It strengthens child pornography prevention laws and sets up
grants, studies, and other programs for the safety of children and communities.
It delves into Internet crimes, an area that is becoming increasingly important
in light of the dangers posed to children and the lack of knowledge on the part
of parents, which hampers their ability to protect their children. My good
friend from
As the elected representatives of the American
people, our foremost duty is to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Child rapes and murders are now being reported on our news programs on a
regular basis. We have the power to prevent so many of these crimes by creating
stronger deterrents and letting parents know where these sex offenders lurk
after they are released. When crimes are committed, the least we can do is
ensure that the rapists and murderers won't get the opportunity to hurt another
child.
It is a tragedy that it took so many stories
like those of Adam Walsh, Jetseta Gage, and Jessica
Lunsford for a law of this nature to be proposed. I strongly believe that a
vote for this bill can save the lives of children in the future. We have an
obligation as legislators to protect our citizenry. We have an obligation as
adults to protect our youth. We have an obligation as parents to protect our
children. I urge my colleagues to join me in doing just that by voting in favor
of this bill.
Mr. NELSON of
This legislation includes a number of changes
to safeguard children, including tougher sentences for crimes committed against
children, a publicly accessible national database of sex offenders, and a
Federal requirement for convicted sex offenders to register their locations
with law enforcement officials. The bill also includes a provision, which I
authored, to track released sex offenders.
Sadly, events of the recent past highlight the
need for us to know the location of convicted sexual offenders if they are
released back into our communities.
In my State of
Jessica Lunsford of
In response to these tragic events, Florida
enacted a law that provides tougher sentences for child sex offenders and aids
law enforcement in effectively monitoring those sex offenders. The law requires
sex offenders, released back into our communities, to wear a device to allow
authorities to track them via a global positioning system.
My provision in the Adam Walsh Act provides Jessica
Lunsford and Sarah Lunde grants to aid States and
local government in purchasing electronic monitoring systems, such as global
positioning systems, that will provide law enforcement with real time
information on the whereabouts of sex offenders released from prison to within
10 feet of their location. Law enforcement will be able to restrict the
movements of sex offenders
by programming these
systems to alert authorities if a sex offender goes to a park, amusement park,
elementary school or other areas determined to be off limits. The ankle
bracelets used to monitor their movements are tamperproof and will alert law
enforcement in the event that an offender has removed it so law enforcement can
immediately act to apprehend the offender.
[Page: S8022]
The grants will provide a total of $15 million
to State and local government to help implement laws in order to get tougher on
sex offenders released back into their communities with electronic monitoring
technology. The bill will provide for $5 million in grants for fiscal years
2007 through 2009. The bill then directs the Attorney General to provide a
report to Congress assessing the effectiveness of the program and making
recommendations as to future funding levels.
In the
Children are our most important treasure and
protecting them is one of our most sacred responsibilities. I hope this bill
will serve as a living memorial to all the children and serve as some comfort
to their families. I hope the Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde
grants provided in this bill will allow law enforcement to help prevent other
families from suffering similar tragedies.
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today the Senate
passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which will help
prevent the child exploitation by, among other things, creating a national system
for the registration of sex offenders. Included in this legislation is a very
important provision that I authored with Senator Isakson called Masha's Law. Masha's Law is named after a very brave 13-year-old girl--a
Russian orphan who was adopted by a
Masha's photographs
are among the most commonly downloaded images of child pornography. Law
enforcement estimates that 80 percent of child pornography collections contain
at least one of her photographs. In fact, it was the high volume of images
being distributed by this one individual that raised suspicions and led law
enforcement officials to the home of Masha's adopted
father. While he is currently in jail accused of sexual abuse and facing
Federal charges, the damage to Masha continues every
day as her pictures continue to be downloaded. Masha
has sought compensation through a little used provision in the Child Abuse
Victims' Rights Act of 1986 that provides statutory damages for the victims of
sexual exploitation. Nothing will ever compensate Masha
for the horrific experiences she has had, but the penalties provided in current
law are embarrassingly low--they are one-third of the penalty for downloading
music illegally.
According to the Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, child pornography has become a multibillion dollar Internet
business. With the increasingly sophisticated technology of digital media,
child pornography has become easier to produce, transfer, and purchase. We are
not doing enough to deter those who post and download child pornography.
Masha's Law would do
two things; first it would increase the civil statutory damages available to a
victim of child exploitation; and second, it would ensure that victims of child
pornography whose images remain in circulation after they have turned 18 can
still recover when those images are downloaded. The injuries do not cease to
exist simply because the victim has turned 18. They continue and so should the
penalties.
These changes are long overdue. I am proud
that the Senate has passed this important legislation, and I am grateful to Masha for having the courage to stand up and make her voice
heard.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I am
proud to be a cosponsor of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of
2006, which provides law enforcement officers with several important tools to
protect our children. In the past three decades, we have all seen and heard
about the many tragic cases of children being assaulted and killed by sex
offenders. These are absolutely horrifying events, and as legislators, we have
an obligation to do all we can to prevent such crimes in the future. We need to
improve and enhance sex offender registration and tracking laws and increase
penalties for those who violate them, which this act will accomplish.
There are several prongs to this act, which is
what will make it successful. The core of this bill establishes a national sex
offender registry. Although each State has a registry, there are no uniform
standards. There is no easy way to access information from different
jurisdictions. This act creates a uniform Federal standard which divides
offenders into tiers, depending upon the offense for which they were convicted.
It establishes registration guidelines for each tier, including how long a
person would need to be registered and how often he or she must come in for a
personal verification of the registration information. The act also creates
community notification requirements and will make it a felony for sex offenders
to fail to register and update their information on a regular basis. The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender
Public Web site will allow the public to search for information on sex
offenders by ZIP Code and geographic radius.
All of these changes will help make our
tracking laws more effective and will allow parents and members of the local
community to be vigilant about the potential dangers of sex offenders in their
neighborhoods.
But before we can put a predator can appear on
the registry, he needs to be caught and prosecuted. The Adam Walsh Act includes
urgently needed resources to assist law enforcement in these endeavors. This
act establishes 10 new task forces dealing with Internet crimes against
children, 45 new computer forensic examiners to deal exclusively with child
sexual exploitation, and 200 new Federal prosecutors--all designated to combat
child sexual exploitation.
This act also tries to protect children from
being victimized in the first place. It provides grant money for educating
parents and children about those who use the Internet to prey upon children. It
funds Big Brothers and Big Sisters and includes my bill for the reauthorization
of the Police Athletic Leagues. These two programs provide kids with
supervision and role models and mentors who can help protect them from
predators. In addition, it mandates that potential foster and adoptive parents
go through a thorough criminal background check before a child can be placed
with them.
Also incorporated in this bill are aspects of
the Internet Safety Act which I proudly cosponsored. These include establishing
new criminal penalties to keep up with the constantly increasing level of
depravity among pedophiles--for example, the child exploitation enterprises
provision to prosecute the ``molestation on demand'' child pornographic
industry that has sprung up in recent years. Sexual predators of children are
among the worst kind of offenders, and it is only right that there are
sentencing enhancements for registered sex offenders who reoffend.
This is a good piece of legislation. I am
pleased so many of my colleagues support it, and I
look forward to its pending passage.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, in May, the Senate
passed the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act to standardize and
strengthen registration and monitoring of sex offenders nationwide. Since its
passage, the House and Senate have worked closely to resolve their differences
and to improve the overall quality of the legislation. The bill before us today
contains difficult compromises, but it has achieved that goal.
[Page: S8023]
This legislation is critically important to
safeguard victims of sexual abuse from harm. It will help protect innocent
people from violent offenses. It recognizes the victims and all the suffering
both they and their families have endured.
With this legislation, we are recognizing the
loss of Molly Bish from
With this bill, we also remember with sadness
another
Several changes have been made to this
legislation as a result of our work with the House. It is important to make
sure that information on offenders who pose a potential threat is available to
the public at large, and this bill provides for Internet listing and community
notification about such individuals.
At the same time, in order for the registry to
be effective, it should be targeted toward those who present the highest risk
to our communities. The current version takes a more sweeping approach toward
juvenile offenders by expanding their registration requirements. The Senate
bill allowed each State to determine whether a juvenile should be included on
the registry. This compromise allows some offenders over 14 to be included on
registries, but only if they have been convicted of very serious offenses. For
juveniles, the public notification provision in this bill is harsh given their
low rate of recidivism, which is less than 8 percent according to the most
recent studies. For this reason, it is especially important that the bill
includes funding for treatment of juvenile offenders. These provisions
recognize that juvenile offenders, who have much lower rates of recidivism and
have been shown to be much more amenable to treatment than their adult counterparts,
shouldn't be lumped together with adult offenders.
The bill also provides increased funding for
programs to prevent these offenses before they occur. It also authorizes
funding for sex offender treatment and management within the Federal prison
system. These provisions will be helpful in reducing the future risks to
society by convicted sex offenders. If Congress is serious about addressing
this problem, it must commit itself to fully funding the legislation.
All States currently have registration
requirements for sex offenders, but this bill will create a system of national
tracking and accountability that preserves the ability of individual States to
provide additional procedures to assure the accuracy and usefulness of the
registries.
For this reason, section 125 of the compromise
is very important. Each State will face challenges in the implementation of
these new Federal requirements, and States should not be penalized if exact
compliance with the act's requirements would place the State in violation of
its constitution or an interpretation of the State's constitution by its
highest court.
The
No State should be penalized and lose critical
Federal funding for law enforcement programs as long as reasonable efforts are
under way to implement procedures consistent with the purposes of the act. It
is essential that the Federal Government continue to collaborate and to provide
support for State and local governments, including the prevention,
intervention, and enforcement of antigang and antidrug activities as a result of this bill.
At the same time, the new mandatory minimum
sentences in the act aren't justified by any empirical data or sound policy.
Mandatory minimums prevent prosecutors and judges from doing what they do
best--making individual determinations on sentencing, based on the
circumstances of individual cases. With more than 2 million Americans in prison
or jail--including 12 percent of all African-American men between the ages of
20 and 34--no one can seriously argue that there is an epidemic of leniency in
Federal sentencing. This latest batch of mandatory minimums undermines more
than two decades of legislative work devoted to striking a sensible balance
between consistent sentencing and the need to provide judges with the
discretion to make sure each sentence fits the crime.
Although it is important to have strong
penalties for crimes against children, I have major reservations about the
broad expansion of the death penalty in this compromised legislation. It is
clear that continued imposition of the death penalty will inevitably lead to
the wrongful execution of more and more people. Justice Marshall, in
particular, wrote powerfully on this issue. He believed that if our citizens
knew the truth about the death penalty, ``its disproportionate imposition on
racial minorities and the poor, its utter failure to deter crime, and the
continuing likelihood of executing the innocent,'' it would be rejected as
morally reprehensible.
Last year, the Supreme Court struck down the
death penalty for juveniles--persons 17 years old or younger. The Court's
ruling was significant. It was long past time to erase that stain from our
human rights record. The basic injustice of the death penalty is obvious.
Experience shows that imposition of the death penalty inevitably leads to
wrongful executions. Many of us are concerned about the racial disparities in
the imposition of capital punishment and the wide disparities in the State in
its application. The unequal, unfair, arbitray, and discriminatory use of the death penalty is completely
contrary to our Nation's commitment to fairness and equal justice for all, and
we need to do all we can to correct this fundamental flaw.
Finally, the national registry of
substantiated cases of child abuse in this bill should not be implemented until
Congress has a full understanding of its scope and effectiveness. The proposed
registry raises serious implementation challenges and could create an
additional and unnecessary burden for States. Not all States maintain the same
registry information, and most States maintain different rules on disclosure.
Tribal entities, which are included in this proposed registry, currently
maintain no registries at all.
I am concerned that this registry raises
serious privacy concerns by including information on cases without the
opportunity for due process. For this reason, it is important that the study on
establishing data collection standards be completed before such a
[Page: S8024]
registry is established.
Current standards for inclusion in child abuse registries vary greatly, with
some requiring credible evidence and others requiring no standard other than
the judgment of the case worker.
During the most recent reauthorization of the
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, we improved current child abuse
systems to ensure that law enforcement has the information it needs to pursue
and prosecute cases.
A new provision was added to require States to
``disclose confidential information to any Federal, State, or local government
entity, or any agent of such entity, which has a need for such information in
order to carry out its responsibilities under law to protect children from
abuse and neglect.'' Rather than developing additional registries and reporting
requirements, States need Federal assistance to effectively carry out their
roles and responsibilities under CAPTA. I am concerned that this new registry
will have limited value in improving or standardizing State recordkeeping for
child abuse and neglect cases.
Despite these provisions, I commend the work
that has been done on this bill. Without further delay, it is important that we
get this bill to the President so that it can be signed on July 27th, the 25th
anniversary of the abduction of Adam Walsh, and to honor all of the work his
parents have done in his memory to protect children in communities across the
country.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the foundation of
democracy lies in a government that reflects the voice of its citizens. The
Constitution, the beloved document that chartered our system of government,
makes this clear. ``We the people'', are the very first words of our
Constitution: ``We the people.'' This is no mistake,
for our Founders sought to create a government that would reflect the will of
those who send us here.
Voting is the underpinning of our democratic
process. In an address to Congress, President Lyndon B. Johnson said that, ``In a free land where men move freely and act freely, the
right to vote freely must never be obstructed.'' With the act of casting one's
ballot, each citizen has ensured a place in the democratic process, fulfilling
the civic responsibility that each and every one of us must safeguard and
cherish. All citizens deserve this right, and all should utilize it.
Like so many worthwhile initiatives,
safeguarding the freedoms of democracy can sometimes exact a heavy toll. Wars
have been fought on our own soil to ensure these freedoms, and our country's
history has been blemished with the events of a less enlightened time. But even
through strife and toil, our democracy emerged intact, our Republic
strengthened by the sacrifices made by the citizens who fought for equality and
the right to vote.
I met yesterday with Mr. James Tolbert,
President of the West Virginia NAACP, and other members of the West Virginia
NAACP delegation. They were here in
While the various reauthorizations of the
Voting Rights Act have forged the pathway to the polls for all Americans, the
ability to vote is but half of the process. Democracy works best when the
people are vigilant in protecting of their rights, and engage in the electoral
process. Our democracy is strongest when there is free and open access to the
polls for everyone, and when the people embrace the vote as both a right and a
responsibility.
Indeed, the decades that have followed the initial
passage of the Voting Rights Act have witnessed the progress of our Nation. To
continue in our efforts, we have only to look to past successes for
inspiration. To be ardent in the defense of our democracy is to preserve it for
the generations to come.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise
to speak in strong support of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of
2006. This bill will strengthen our power to keep
I have had a personal interest in children's
welfare and child-safety issues for many years, predating my time in the
Senate, in fact. Before being elected to this Chamber, I served as
judge-executive of
In 1981, we hosted in
That event began a decades-long friendship
between John and me, centered around this issue. Together,
we lobbied Congress--and I remind you, I was not yet a Senator at this
time--for legislation that would create a nationwide organization to track
missing kids. In 1984, our efforts bore fruit, and President Ronald Reagan
signed the bill creating the
I believe government must do all it can to
support groups such as the NCMEC and others and our law enforcement agencies in
their efforts to find missing children, return them to their families, and
shield them from sexual predators. The work these groups do is vital to
protecting families, and I applaud their dedication and compassion.
Passage of this bill will further the mission
of comforting parents everywhere and protecting our children. The National Sex
Offender Registry will contain up-to-date data on all sex offenders nationwide,
and there are harsh penalties for any offender who does not register.
The bill imposes tougher penalties for sex
offenses and violent crimes against children. It also allows for civil
commitment procedures for any sex offenders who demonstrate while incarcerated
that they cannot be trusted to be unleashed on society.
The bill addresses child exploitation over the
Internet with stringent Internet safety provisions. It also contains several
worthy programs, grants, and studies to address child and community safety.
I would especially like to note that the bill
strengthens the pornography recordkeeping and labeling requirements passed by
Congress in 1988 to protect children from exploitation by pornographers. These
provisions were originally part of S. 2140, the Protecting Children from Sexual
Exploitation Act of 2005, sponsored by my good friend from
I was pleased to join him as a cosponsor of
that bill and am doubly pleased now to see these provisions included in this
bill, which I feel confident in saying will soon reach the President's desk and
receive his signature.
Finally, the portion of this legislation that
parents may find the most comforting is the creation of the Dru
Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Web site. Parents
will now have the power to search for sex offenders in their own community. The
good that can come from this power to arm parents with the right information
cannot be measured.
I ask my colleagues to join me in commending
John Walsh for his commitment to this important issue. His drive to see that
the tragedy that befell his own family does not fall on another has not diminished
in the 25 years I have known him. I am glad that we can honor John by naming
this important legislation after his beloved son.
Those who would prey on the weakest among
us--our children deserve to feel the full weight of the law brought down on them.
It is hard to imagine a crime that does more to destroy families or dreams of a
bright future. This legislation will ensure that kids, parents, and law
enforcement agencies have the tools they need to fight child predators and
sexual criminals. For that reason, I am proud to support its passage.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I rise today to
comment on the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. This legislation
will create a national sex offender registry that will make it possible for law
enforcement and concerned citizens to track sexual predators. The bill also
includes tough penalties that will ensure that these individuals will actually
register. There currently are over 100,000 sex offenders in this country who
are required to register but are ``off the system.'' They are not registered.
The penalties in this bill should be adequate to ensure that these individuals
register. In addition to allowing up to 10 years in prison for an offender who
fails to register, the bill also imposes a mandatory 5 years in prison for an
offender who has neglected his obligation to register and commits a crime of
violence.
I would like to focus my remarks on
legislation that I have introduced that has been incorporated in this final
bill. I am particularly pleased to see that the bill maintains the ChildHelp National Registry of Cases of Child Abuse and
Neglect. Section 663 of the bill instructs the Department of Health and Human
Services to create a national registry of persons who have been found to have
abused or neglected a child. The information will be gathered from State
databases of child abuse or neglect. It will be made available to State
child-protective-services and law-enforcement agencies ``for purposes of
carrying out their responsibilities under the law to protect children from
abuse and neglect.'' The national database will allow States to track the past
history of parents and guardians who are suspected of abusing their children.
When child-abusing parents come to the attention of authorities--when teachers
begin to ask about bruises, for example--these parents often will move to a
different jurisdiction. A national database would allow the State to which
these parents move to know the parents' history. It will let a
child-protective-services worker know, for example, whether he should
prioritize investigation of a particular case because the parent has been found
to have committed substantiated cases of abuse in the past in other States.
Such a database also would allow a State that is evaluating a prospective
foster parent or adoptive parent to learn about past incidents of child abuse
that the person has committed in other States.
I am also proud to see that the Internet
SAFETY Act, which I introduced with several colleagues earlier this year, has
been incorporated as title
Section 701 makes it a criminal offense to
operate a child exploitation enterprise, which is defined as four or more
persons who act in concern to commit at least three separate violations of
Federal child pornography, sex trafficking, or sexual abuse laws against
multiple child victims. This offense is punished by imprisonment for 20 years
up to life.
Section 702 provides that if an individual who
is required to register as a sex offender under Federal or State law commits
specified Federal offenses involving child pornography, sex trafficking, or
sexual abuse against a minor victim, the offender shall be imprisoned for 10
years in addition to any penalty imposed for the current offense.
Section 703 makes it a criminal offense to
embed words or digital images into the source code of a Web site in order to
deceive people into viewing obscenity on the Internet. Offenses
targeting adults are
subject to up to 10 years imprisonment; offenses targeted at child victims are
subject to up to 20 years imprisonment.
Section 704 authorizes appropriations for the
U.S. Attorney General to hire 200 additional Assistant United States Attorneys
across the country to prosecute child pornography, sex trafficking, and sexual
abuse offenses targeted at children.
Section 705 authorizes appropriations for the
hiring of 30 additional computer forensic examiners within the Justice
Department's Regional Computer Forensic Laboratories, and 15 additional
computer forensic examiners within the Department of Homeland Security's
Section 706 authorizes the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention to create 10 additional Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, Task Forces.
Finally, section 707 of the Internet SAFETY
title expands the civil remedies for sexual offenses by allowing the parents of
a minor victim to seek damages, and by allowing a minor victim to seek damages
as an adult.
Title II of today's bill also includes a
number of penalty increases and other improvements to Federal criminal sex
offenses. Many of these provisions appeared in the Internet SAFETY Act, as well
as in the Jetseta Gage Act, which was introduced by
Senator GRASSLEY in 2005 and of which I was an original cosponsor.
Section 211 suspends the statute of limitations for all Federal felony offenses
of sexual abuse, sex trafficking, or child pornography. Other provisions of
title II increase penalties for coercion and enticement by sex offenders,
conduct relating to child prostitution, aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse,
abusive sexual contact, sexual abuse of children resulting in death, and sex
trafficking of children. Title II also makes sexual abuse offenses resulting in
death eligible for the capital punishment, and expands the predicate offenses
justifying mandatory repeat-offender penalties for offenses involving child
pornography and depictions of the sexual exploitation of children. Finally,
title II adds sex trafficking of children to the set of repeat offenses that
are subject to mandatory life imprisonment.
Another provision that I have pursued during
this Congress and that is included in this final bill is section 212, which
extends several of the guarantees of the 2004 Crime Victims' Rights Act to
Federal habeas corpus review of State criminal convictions. Because such cases
involve Federal courts but State prosecutors, this extension is limited to
those provisions of CVRA that are enforced by a court--Congress cannot compel
State prosecutors to enforce a Federal statute. The victims' rights extended by
section 212 to Federal habeas proceedings are the right to be present at
proceedings, the right to be heard at proceedings involving release, plea,
sentencing, or parole, the right to proceedings free from unreasonable delay,
and the right to be treated with fairness and with respect for the victim's
dignity and privacy.
The bill also makes some technical
improvements to the
Finally, I would like to take a moment to
recognize all of the staff who worked so hard to see this bill through to completion.
Please allow me to
[Page: S8026]
thank Ken Valentine and Tom Jipping of Senator HATCH's
staff, Dave Turk of Senator BIDEN's staff,
Julie Katzman and Noah Bookbinder of Senator LEAHY's staff, Nicole Gustafson of Senator GRASSLEY's staff, as well as Chad Groover, who has since left Senator GRASSLEY's
office but who played a critical role in developing many of the penalty
enhancements included in title II, Christine Leonard of Senator KENNEDY's staff, Lara Flint of Senator FEINGOLD's staff, Nate Jones
of Senator KOHL's staff, Sharon Beth Kristal of Senator DEWINE's
staff, Reed O'Connor of Senator CORNYN's
staff, Jane Treat of Senator COBURN's staff,
Greg Smith of Senator FEINSTEIN's staff,
Marianne Upton of Senator DURBIN's staff,
Bradley Hayes of Senator SESSIONS's staff,
Bradley Schreiber of Mr. FOLEY's staff, and
last but not least in this group, Brooke Bacak of my
Republican Policy Committee staff.
I would especially like to thank Allen Hicks
and Brandi White of Senator FRIST's staff, who
were very helpful in securing the inclusion of the Child-Abuse Registry in this
bill, Matt Miner of Senator SPECTER's staff,
who played a critical role in negotiating the final bill, and Mike Volkov, Sean McLaughlin, and Phil Kiko
of Mr. SENSENBRENNER's staff. The bill that we
have today would not exist were it not for the professionalism, expertise, and
dedication of the SENSENBRENNER staff. Often it is easy in Congress
simply to pass any bill dealing with a subject so that we can say that we have
addressed the problem. This is not such a bill. This is a strong, tough bill
that will make a difference in the safety and security of our Nation's
children. It is a bill of which we can all be proud, and Mr. SENSENBRENNER's staff deserves recognition for their
contribution to that result.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, back in May 2005,
with the leadership of Senator Specter,
Senator Biden,
Senator Kennedy, and others,
the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an important child safety bill, S.
1086. The committee worked tirelessly to craft a prudent, bipartisan bill that
would assist States in their ongoing efforts to protect children through
tighter monitoring of known sex offenders. It was a good bill, and it passed
the full Senate in May of this year by unanimous consent.
Now, extensive bipartisan discussions with the
House have produced a revised version of the bill, which the Senate is voting
on today. The new bill is better in a few ways than the Senate-passed bill that
we produced and also, regrettably, takes some steps backward. While this new
bill is not the bill I would have written, I intend to support it and expect
that it will pass.
As a former prosecutor, and as a father and
grandfather, I know that there is no higher duty than to protect our society's
children, to take every step possible to prevent them from coming to harm, and
to punish those who attempt to or succeed in harming them. We have never
debated whether children should be protected. Of course they should. The only
debate is about how they should be protected, and how best to deploy and
utilize limited resources to deter and punish those who would prey on them.
Over the last 30 years, I have worked closely
with others to write and enact legislation aimed specifically at protecting children
and assisting victims. In the last Congress, Senator Hatch and I joined to introduce the
PROTECT Act, which provided prosecutors and law enforcement with tools
necessary to combat child pornography and human trafficking. The final
legislation passed by Congress included a number of provisions that I had
either authored or supported, such as the National AMBER Alert Network Act; the
Protecting Our Children First Act, which reauthorized funding for the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children; and legislation to amend the
Violence Against Women Act to provide transitional housing assistance grants
for child victims of domestic violence.
In addition, I am pleased that the Senate has
acted on other legislation for children and crime victims that I have
sponsored. These include the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations
Authorization Act, which among other things included important grant funds for
the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and established the Violence Against Women Office in the Justice Department. In 2004, the
President signed into law the Justice For All Act, a
package of criminal justice reforms that, among other things, authorized funds
to reduce rape kit backlogs and enumerated crime victims' rights.
I am glad that this new consensus legislation
to protect children honors the efforts of John and Revé
Walsh, who have worked so hard to ensure that other families would not
experience the tragedy that befell their family. It has been my privilege to
work for many years with the Walshes and with the
I am also glad that members of both parties in
both bodies ultimately agreed with me and with the distinguished Senate
Republican and Democratic leaders that we should prioritize finishing and
passing legislation to protect children from sexual predators, without tying
this crucial legislation to other more difficult issues. The Senate has passed
court security legislation, for which I was a principal cosponsor, as part of
S. 2766, and we have been working to settle differences between our legislation
and the other body's court security proposals. Court security legislation
should pass this year, but it would not have been right to endanger either the
court security bills or this crucial child protection legislation by tying them
together.
Gang legislation is on a separate track
entirely. It is just getting started in the Senate. Passing legislation to
protect children from sexual predators has been my first priority. Seeking simultaneously
to resolve extensive differences over provisions in the gang bill and other
crime legislation could have caused us to miss this chance. It is commendable
that, in the end, both bodies chose to focus on passing sex offender
legislation and not to jeopardize this by tying this bill to more controversial
measures.
The gang bill is just now before the Judiciary
Committee, which is the appropriate place to start work on a complex and
important piece of criminal justice legislation. It is a new and very different
version of this bill. It will be important to hold a hearing on this bill to
listen to the Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers who are
combating gang violence on a regular basis, and from the organizations that are
working to keep kids out of gangs. Gang violence is a disturbing and difficult
menace in our communities, and as we craft solutions to help address these
issues we should strive to get it right. We have done the right thing by
finalizing this important child protection legislation first, before turning to
that and other difficult tasks.
When S. 1086 was first introduced in May 2005,
serious concerns were raised by members of the Judiciary Committee, State
attorneys general, the Department of Justice, and others. Through an
impressive, bipartisan effort these concerns were largely addressed. I
appreciate that Senators, and now House Members, of both parties took these
concerns to heart and revised this bill in ways that will increase the
protection of children from the most dangerous sex offenders, while not
overwhelming the States with requirements that could hinder their own efforts.
I believe that this new bill takes a few unfortunate steps back from the well
thought out Senate version, but it still achieves many of the crucial goals we
identified. The resulting bill ensures that each State will have an effective
sex offender registry and that all States will share registry information--all
of which will help keep our children safer.
I am glad that this bill addresses my concerns
and that of many others of both parties in the Senate in giving significant
discretion to the States in the handling of juvenile
offenders. Juvenile
justice has always been a province of the States, and State legislatures,
prosecutors, and judges have developed significant expertise in distinguishing
which juvenile offenders represent a continuing threat to society and which
juveniles, with appropriate treatment and monitoring, can turn
[Page: S8027]
themselves around and become
contributing members of society.
This bill correctly allows the States, in many
cases, to use their expertise--and they know more about these issues than we do
here in
This bill takes a good if small first step
toward what should be one of our most important priorities in keeping our
children safe from sex offenders: treatment. While the most dangerous sex
offenders may be predisposed to re-offend and should be treated accordingly,
many studies have shown that people who commit less serious sex offenses often,
with appropriate treatment, do not present a significant risk of recidivism and
can become responsible members of society. One of the best ways to protect our
children is to help as many low-risk offenders as possible turn their lives
around, so that our scant law enforcement resources can be focused on those
dangerous offenders who are a demonstrable threat to our children. In addition
to the Bureau of Prisons Program included in S. 1086, the current bill includes
a new program directed specifically to the treatment of juvenile sex offenders,
who have been proven to be especially responsive to treatment. This is a
welcome addition to the bill, and one we should build on in the future.
I want to direct the attention of my
colleagues to title V of the bill, which makes substantial amendments to
section 2257 of title 18. By way of background, Congress passed the original
version of section 2257 in 1988, as a means to help ensure that minors were not
being exploited by the adult, hard-core pornography industry in violation of
the child exploitation laws. In 1989, the District Court for the
The House bill proposed an expansion of
section 2257 beyond what was held unconstitutional before the 1990 amendments,
and beyond the pornography industry and those who exploit children. The
proposed expansion of section 2257 gave rise to legitimate concerns, expressed
by groups as far-ranging as the Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture
Association of America, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the
American Library Association, and the American Conservative Union, that its
record-keeping and labeling requirements, and associated criminal liability,
might now affect an array of mainstream, legitimate, and
first-amendment-protected activities and industries. These industries are
leaders in protecting children employed in their industries and are far removed
from the problem that the legislation purportedly sought to address. Subjecting
them to the burdens of a recordkeeping and labeling statute intended for the
pornography industry would create substantial burdens of compliance without any
added benefit in the wholly legitimate and vital cause of actually safeguarding
the security and welfare of children.
Because the focus of these requirements is
adult pornography and the protection of children, not mainstream visual
depictions and activities that do not threaten children, the new bill includes
provisions intended to limit the reach of these requirements to those who are
actually exploiting children. Most notably, section 2257A(h)
enables law-abiding, legitimate businesses, which create and commercially
distribute materials that are not, and do not appear to be, child pornography,
to certify to the Attorney General that, pursuant to existing laws, labor
agreements, or industry standards, they regularly and in the normal course of business
collect the name, date of birth, and address of performers employed by them.
This recognizes that such legitimate, law-abiding industries in fact routinely
collect the information necessary to demonstrate their compliance with the
child protection laws and that for this reason they were never intended to be
the focus of this more extensive recordkeeping and labeling statute. Businesses
that so certify and thus exhibit their good faith can avoid some of the more
onerous requirements, and associated criminal liability, rightfully placed on
others whose compliance is more likely to further the interest of protecting
children.
By way of illustration, the motion picture
industry currently operates under a panoply of laws,
both civil and criminal, as well as regulations and labor agreements governing
the employment of children in any production. They check work permits, require
parents or guardians to be present at all times during production, and in some
cases even obtain court approval for the employment of the children in films
and television shows. It is fair to say that the film and television industries
are a leader among industries in safeguarding the interests of children in the
workplace. Yet in the absence of the certification provision in section 2257A(h), these studios would be subjected to the same
extensive recordkeeping and labeling requirements as a hard-core pornographer
is under this bill, as would a host of other legitimate entities throughout the
distribution chain for mainstream motion pictures and television shows.
The focus of the underlying statute should
remain on helping apprehend child predators and not on legitimate businesses
that have no role in harming children. Under section 2257A(h),
motion picture companies that certify to the Department of Justice that they
collect the name, date of birth, and address of all the performers employed by
them, for purposes of compliance with existing laws, such as filling out an I-9
form or W-4s for tax purposes, or pursuant to labor agreements or their normal
business practices, will not be subject to the more burdensome requirements of
this statute. Establishing this regime will have the additional benefit of
allowing the Department of Justice to focus their limited resources in areas where
they should be focused--pursuing those who harm
children. This
provision has been in effect for 18 years and yet has not been used. It is my
hope that the Department of Justice, having obtained the amendments they
sought, will begin to enforce the law and focus on those who harm children, and
not on those legitimate businesses that do not.
Other exemptions in the bill exclude from the
recordkeeping requirements and annual certification regime providers of
Internet access, telecommunications, and online search tools, as well as online
hosting, storage, and transmission services, so long as the provider does not
select or alter the content. It is ironic that the broadest exemptions are
granted to the providers of various types of Internet and telecommunications
services, even though the advent of the Internet is cited in the original
version of this bill as greatly increasing the ease of transporting,
distributing, receiving, and advertising child pornography in interstate
commerce. Notwithstanding these exemptions, nothing in this bill can or should
be construed to impair the enforcement of any other Federal criminal statute or
to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property against these
entities.
Regrettably, the core, bipartisan bill to
strengthen State sex offender registration programs was joined in both the
House and the Senate to unrelated provisions aimed at creating additional
mandatory minimum sentences. I agree with the U.S. Judicial Conference and the
vast majority of Federal judges and practitioners that harsh, inflexible
mandatory sentencing laws are a recipe for injustice. In its letter dated
[Page: S8028]
Mandatory sentences also tie prosecutors'
hands in these cases where it is most important that they have the discretion
to plea bargain, especially considering how difficult it can be to prepare
children emotionally and psychologically to testify against their abusers.
When addressing this issue in committee last
year, Senators from both sides of the aisle agreed to limit the imposition of
new mandatory minimum sentences to the most serious and violent crimes against
children, rather than to myriad lesser crimes as was originally proposed. The
new bill backslides from this agreement to an unfortunate extent. If we are
going to establish mandatory minimum sentences, we should at least proceed in a
thoughtful and coherent way, with some understanding of the range of offense
conduct that may be covered and the sorts of sentences that are being imposed
under current law. Instead, we simply pluck ever-higher numbers out of thin
air. Congress greatly increased the penalties for most sex offenses just 3
years ago, in the PROTECT Act. Nothing has changed since then to warrant this
new round of arbitrary sentence inflation.
Another controversial measure included in the
House-passed bill was a proposal to strip Federal courts of jurisdiction to
review constitutional errors in sentencing that a State court has deemed
harmless. The Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed this jurisdiction-stripping
provision last year, during its consideration of the so-called Streamlined
Procedures Act, S. 1088. That bill--and this provision in particular--was
strongly opposed by a broad coalition of organizations, including the United
States Judicial Conference. Following hearings, the committee specifically
rejected this provision by adopting a substitute amendment that stripped it out
in its entirety; the substitute then died in committee without further action.
To include such an extraneous and deeply flawed provision in the current bill
would have been wrong, and it is a credit to this bill that it has been removed.
Another area of concern is a provision that
was also included in the Senate's comprehensive immigration bill. The provision
prohibits the approval of a visa application for the relative of a
The bill gives the Secretary of DHS discretion
to assess these applications on a case-by-case basis and waive the denial, and
I hope this will turn out to be more than just an empty gesture. Given that
this bill greatly expands the crimes sufficient to deny an application, I urge
the Secretary to give thoughtful consideration to each case in which a waiver
is sought. In a case of a citizen who is on the path to rehabilitation or whose
crime was relatively minor, denial of a family
member's support would serve no rational purpose and would undermine the goals
of family unity. I hope the Secretary will actively use this waiver authority
to limit the broad reach of this provision to those cases where a citizen or
legal resident genuinely poses a threat to a family member seeking entry.
This legislation requires the Secretary of
Health and Human Services to create a national registry of substantiated cases
of child abuse and neglect which would, when fully implemented over time, serve
the purpose of enabling child protective service agencies to identify an
adult's past child maltreatment history in other States, without having to
check every individual State child protective service central registry.
Improving the ability of child protective service agencies to collect
information on prior cases of child maltreatment by a named adult is a worthy
objective. However, to rush into the creation of such a national registry,
without deliberate consideration and evaluation first of the wide variation in
how State child abuse and neglect data on substantiated cases identifies the
perpetrator of the abuse or neglect and the specifics of their
maltreatment--what the bill calls the nature of the substantiated case--would
be reckless.
For that reason, the legislation also mandates
the
process rights of
children and families alike. Caution is advised in moving forward on this
matter in order to develop an information system which is both fair and
reliable.
The legislation also requires the
Significantly, the legislation does not
provide any new financial or technical assistance to States to improve or
standardize their child protective services substantiated case recordkeeping
systems, or to support States in the added burden of preparing for, and
transferring data to, a new national registry. Not all States maintain the same
registry information. Some States do not record registry entries by name of
perpetrator but rather by name of child; some States no longer maintain registries
at all. Most tribes, which are included in the legislation, maintain no
registries at all. Without this important additional technical and financial
assistance to the States, the quality of the information collected would likely
be uneven and at times unreliable. This is a serious deficiency in the
legislative mandate for the creation of a national registry of child abuse and
neglect cases, one that I hope will be corrected through a targeted
appropriation that focuses on helping State child protective service agencies
upgrade their central registries or comparable systems of case-specific data.
I am pleased that the bill includes my
proposal to authorize grants to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America and the
National Crime Prevention Council. Big Brothers and Big Sisters provides
valuable mentoring services to young people across the country, and supporting
their mission is a valuable investment that will reap measurable rewards. The
National Crime Prevention Council helps communities across the country
understand and address the causes of crime. Grants to this organization help
communities become active in crime prevention at the grassroots level, and
encouraging their continued efforts is something we should all strongly
support.
I am also pleased that the sponsors of this
bill agreed to incorporate S. 2155, popularly known as Masha's
Law. This legislation, named after a Russian orphan who was sexually exploited
by her adoptive father, will increase the civil statutory damages available to
victims of child exploitation. It will also ensure that victims of child
pornography whose images remain in circulation after they have turned 18 can
still recover when those images are downloaded.
I am also pleased that the bill includes
authorization of $12 million for grants to the Rape, Abuse & Incest
National Network, known as RAINN, for operation of its National Sexual Assault
Hotline and for the other important work RAINN does to assist victims of sexual
assault and to help prevent and prosecute sexual assault. I want to
congratulate RAINN for recently logging the one-millionth call to its 24-hour
telephone hotline.
[Page: S8029]
RAINN, in helping a million crime victims,
has not only made their lives better, but has also contributed greatly to the
decrease in sexual violence in this country. I am honored that RAINN's founder and president, Scott Berkowitz, thanked me
in connection with this important milestone for having supported the
establishment of the National Sexual Assault Hotline.
Finally, I want to thank the Vermont Attorney
General's Office and other concerned
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I will seek
recognition in a moment, but for the time being, I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to
call the roll.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous
consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I support the
pending legislation to pass the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of
2006. This legislation is named for Adam Walsh, a child who was abducted and
murdered. Adam's father, John Walsh, has diligently pursued efforts to save
other children from the fate which befell Adam by working to enact Federal
legislation which will establish a national registry for sex offenders.
The
Statistics show that sex offenders prey most
often on juveniles; that two-thirds of the sex offenders currently in State
prisons are there because they have victimized a child. Compared with other
criminals, sex offenders are four times more likely to be rearrested for a sex
crime. It is estimated that some 500,000 children are sexually abused each
year. According to Department of Justice statistics, child molesters have been
known to re-offend as late as 20 years after their release from prisons.
There are currently State laws which require
registration of sex offenders, but unfortunately they have proved to be
relatively ineffective,
which requires the
Federal Government to act on the national level.
I first met John Walsh after the disappearance
of his son, Adam, some 25 years ago, when I was chairman of the Subcommittee on
Juvenile Justice, a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. At that
time, in conjunction with Senator Paula Hawkins of
In the intervening 25 years, John Walsh has
undertaken a national crusade. He has been instrumental in advocating and
persuading both the House and the Senate to move ahead with this legislation.
He has had very strong support from the leadership of Senator Hatch, the former chairman of the
Judiciary Committee. Senator Hatch
has promoted this legislation, has initiated meetings, organized a meeting with
John Walsh in the last several days in the Office of the majority leader where
we organized plans to get this bill enacted so that it will be ready for
signing by the President on July 27th, which is the anniversary of the
abduction of Adam Walsh.
It has been a prodigious job to get this bill
cleared on both sides, not having anything added on to it, and many efforts were
made so that it would be enacted in time to mark the anniversary of the
abduction of Adam Walsh. For that timetable, Senator Hatch deserves a great deal of credit.
As is well known, Senator Hatch chaired the Senate Judiciary
Committee for many years. His leadership is still a very key factor, especially
on this legislation.
I compliment my colleague, Senator
A special note of commendation is due to
Senator Santorum for his work
on two important components of the bill: First, on Project Safe Childhood and
second, on the Safe Schools Act. These provisions and others will help stop sex
offenders such as Brian McCutchen, who was sentenced
last year to 35 to 70 years in a
I know from my work as district attorney of
We are taking a very important step forward. I
thank and commend John Walsh for his leadership and again thank and commend
Senator Hatch for his
leadership in the Senate on this important issue. I thank Chairman Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, for his cooperation and coordination, and also to
the staffs.
I will single out especially Michael O'Neill,
who is chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, as far as I know,
other than the few remarks I will make right now, I think Senator Frist is
the only speaker remaining on our sex offender bill.
I would feel bad if I did not mention a number
of the staff people who have helped us on this bill. My own staffer, Ken
Valentine, who is a Secret Service agent, has been serving as a detailee in my office and has really carried the mail on
this like few members of the Senate staff I have ever known.
Tom Jipping, on my
staff; Dave Turk, on Senator Biden's staff, had a great deal to do with this, as
well. Bradley Schreiber, with Mr. Foley's
staff; Mike O'Neill, of Senator Specter's
staff; Mike Miners, Senator Specter's
chief counsel, crime counsel; Todd Braunstein, with
Senator Specter; Matt McPhillips, with Senator Specter;
Julie Katzman, with Senator Leahy; Bruce Cohen, Senator Leahy's chief of staff on the Judiciary
Committee; Noah Bookbinder, with Senator Leahy;
Christine Leonard, with Senator Kennedy.
Senator Kennedy has played a
significant role here. He was willing to withdraw the hate crimes bill so that
this bill would pass readily through both bodies. I am very grateful to him.
Reed O'Connor of Senator Cornyn's staff; Nicole Gustafson
of Senator Grassley's staff;
Sharon Beth Kristal, Senator DeWine's staff; Gabriel Adler, of
Senator Dorgan's staff; Joe Matal, from Senator Kyl's staff;
Avery Mann, from America's Most Wanted, who
played a significant role here; Bradley Hayes, from Senator Sessions' staff; Lara Flint, from
Senator Feingold's staff;
Cindy Hayden, from Senator Sessions'
staff; Allen Hicks, of course, from Senator Frist's staff; and Brandi White,
from Senator Frist's
staff.
[Page: S8030]
Of course, I would like to mention Michelle Laxalt, who took a great personal interest in this bill and
from the outside helped us a great deal. We want to thank the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children, especially Ernie Allen, John Libonati, Robbie Callaway, and Carolyn Atwell-Davis, who
has carried so many balls for us here, and Manus Cooney, who used to be chief
of staff under me on the Judiciary Committee.
And then I would like to pay respect to just
some of the victims who really helped with this bill: Elizabeth and Ed and Lois
Smart; Linda Walker, the mother of Dru Sjodin; Mark Lunsford; Erin Runnion;
Marc Klass; Polly Franks, Patty Wetterling;
and last but not least--really, really, we can never thank them enough, John
and Reve Walsh.
So with that, Mr. President, I yield the
floor.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate is about
to take an important step to improve the safety of our Nation's children. Very
shortly, we will pass the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, also
known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. I am proud to be a
cosponsor of this significant legislation.
The Senate passed an earlier version of this
bill by unanimous consent on May 4, nearly 2 months ago. Since then, Senators Specter and Leahy have conducted bipartisan negotiations with the
House, which had passed a different version.
Today, I am pleased to say that negotiations
have resulted in a strong bill that will soon pass both Chambers and become
law. I appreciate the willingness of all Members to put aside unrelated
controversial issues so that we could focus on the core purpose of this
bill--protecting children.
Next Thursday, the 27th of July, is the 25th
anniversary of the abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. Since then,
the work of Adam's father, John Walsh, demonstrates that a single person can
make a difference in our country and our world.
Following the tragic event involving their
son, John and Reve Walsh founded the
The legislation establishes a national sex
offender registry which will make it easier for local law enforcement to track
sex offenders and prevent repeat offenses. The bill also authorizes much needed
grants to help local law enforcement agencies establish and integrate sex
offender registry systems.
My home State of
Donna Coleman, past president of the
Children's Advocacy Alliance based in
Not all States have been as vigilant as
A number of Senators have been leaders in this
legislative effort. In addition to Chairman Specter
and Ranking Member Leahy, I
appreciate the hard work of Senators Biden, Dorgan, Hatch, Kennedy,
and others. I thank the majority leader for making this bill a priority. I hope
the House will follow suit and send this bill to the President for his
signature without delay.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allen). The majority leader is
recognized.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, 25 years ago this
month, Reve Walsh took her 6-year-old son Adam
shopping with her. They were looking for lamps at a local department store--a
short mile from their home--when Adam was abducted. Sixteen days later, Adam's
body was positively identified. To date, no one has been indicted for this
horrific crime.
As parents, John and Reve
Walsh's worst nightmare had become a reality. As a father of three sons, I
cannot imagine what pain this caused the Walsh family.
Through their tears and grief, John and Reve Walsh transformed the tragedy of Adam's death into a
lifelong commitment--a commitment to protect children from abduction, abuse,
and exploitation.
John and Reve have
been on the forefront of most major child protection legislation passed by this
Congress over the last 25 years: the Missing Children's Act of 1982; the
Missing Children's Assistance Act of 1984, which founded the fantastic National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children; the Protect Act of 2003, which
established a nationwide Amber Alert network to coordinate rapid emergency
responses to missing child alerts--and, most recently, the Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which is before us today.
This important legislation establishes a
national sex offender registry, publicly available and searchable by ZIP Code;
creates a national abuse registry; toughens penalties for crimes against
children; and cracks down on the growing crisis of Internet predators and child
pornography.
John's and Reve's
tireless dedication is an inspiration to parents of child victims and millions
of American families. I am proud to have worked with John and the
I thank John Walsh, Ernie Allen, president of
the
In March, John came by my office to talk about
the importance of a national sex offender registry. He told me that this was the
most important piece of legislation he had seen in over two decades of
advocating for children's issues.
I promised John then that I would make passing
this critical piece of legislation a priority. And I am proud to tell John--to
tell our Nation's children, parents, and law enforcement--that the
The Adam Walsh bill--so named to honor the
upcoming 25th anniversary of his death and the memory of other child victims
and their families--has many components designed to protect our Nation's
children.
First, the bill establishes a national sex
offender registry. Currently, there are more than 550,000 registered sex
offenders in the
Loopholes in the current system allow some
sexual predators to evade law enforcement, placing our children at risk. While
many States, including my own home State of
The registry will make it easier for law
enforcement to act on a tip, to identify and intercept offenders before they
can strike again, before they can repeat their crimes and victimize more
children.
The national registry will be publicly accessible
via the Internet and searchable by ZIP Code. This empowers parents. It gives
them the tools they need to learn whether a neighbor down the street has a
history of sexual violence so they can protect their children from harm.
Further, the bill increases the penalty for
failure to register from a misdemeanor to a felony. It enhances registration
requirements, by mandating that offenders register more often and in person,
rather than by mail.
By strengthening these requirements, we are
sending a message loudly and clearly to sex offenders: If you don't register,
we will find you, and you will go to jail.
The bill also toughens penalties for violent
crimes against children, including sex trafficking of children, coercion
[Page: S8031]
or enticement of child
prostitution, and sexual abuse.
Another aspect of this bill is the creation of
a child abuse registry. I want to thank Senators Kyl and Enzi for their hard work in helping to
get this provision included in the bill.
This legislation was recommended by Childhelp, a
children's advocacy
organization with whom my wife Karyn and many of our
Senate spouses are proud to be associated.
Every day, four children die as a result of
child abuse, and every day Childhelp is on the
frontlines working to prevent child abuse and treat victims of such abuse. They
explained to me that while many States have child abuse registries, this
information is not shared with other States.
This is especially problematic with child
abusers. They often relocate when questions are raised by a teacher, a
neighbor, or a doctor about whether a child is being abused.
By creating a national child abuse registry,
we will tear down the information barrier and enable Child Protective Services
professionals in different States to share information critical to child abuse
investigations.
The final component of this bill addresses the
sexual exploitation of children over the Internet--and the growing crisis of
child pornography, an estimated $20 billion a year industry.
The Internet has become the anonymous gateway
for child predators to make contact with children, to win their confidence, and
to victimize them.
Current data show that of the 24 million child
Internet users, 1 in 5 has received unwanted sexual solicitations online--1 in
5. And as a recent ``Dateline NBC'' series called ``To Catch A
Predator'' vividly demonstrated, many of these cyber-stalkers are more than
eager to trap their young online victims in a real-world nightmare.
The bill provides additional resources to
combat this growing problem by adding 200 new Federal prosecutors to prosecute
crimes involving the sexual exploitation of minors; by creating 10 new Internet
Crimes Against Children Task Forces, which bring local, State, and Federal law
enforcement together to collaborate in solving these crimes; by adding 45 new
forensics examiners to accelerate processing of online evidence of child
exploitation; and by providing grants for programs to educate children and
parents on Internet safety.
We must continue to do more to protect our
children. American families should not have to live in fear of child predators
lurking in the shadows of our neighborhoods or enticing our children online.
I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of
the aisle for their efforts, for giving life to this critical piece of
legislation. This is clearly a bipartisan, bicameral bill that has overwhelming
support. I am pleased we were able to unite, Democrats and Republicans, in this
body and, indeed, House with Senate.
In the Senate, I especially want to recognize
my colleague, Senator Hatch,
for his tireless efforts on this bill--the champion, the leader, the one with
the bold vision, without whom simply this would not have
happened.
I want to thank Chairman Specter and Senators SANTORUM, KYL,
and DEWINE, for all their hard work on bringing this legislation to
fruition.
Also, I want to thank Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Boehner and Chairman Sensenbrenner and Congressman Foley for their commitment to this
issue.
I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for
this Adam Walsh bill, and look forward to a future that is safer for our
children.
Mr. President, I do not believe there are any
further speakers on the bill; therefore, I yield back all time and ask
unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to third reading and a vote on
H.R. 4472, with all of the provisions of the agreement remaining in place. I
ask unanimous consent, after passage, that the title amendment be read and
agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The question is on the engrossment of the
amendment and third reading of the bill
The amendment was ordered to be engrossed and
the bill to be read a third time.
The bill was read the third time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The bill having been read the third time, the question is,
Shall the bill pass?
The bill (H.R. 4472), as amended, was passed.
Mr. HATCH. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. FRIST. I move to lay that motion on the
table.
The motion to lay on
the table was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The clerk will please read the amendment to the title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as
follows:
Amend the title to read as follows: ``To protect children from sexual exploitation and violent
crime, to prevent child abuse and child pornography, to promote Internet
safety, and to honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other child crime victims.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
Without objection, the amendment to the title is agreed to.
The amendment (No. 4687) was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
The Senator from
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous
consent to speak as in morning business for 5 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
END