| |
 |
| May 4th, 2006 |
|
Media Contact(s): Peter Carr (202) 224-9854,
Jared Whitley (202) 224-0134 |
|
Printable Version |
|
|
SENATE PASSES HATCH SEX OFFENDER BILL
|
| |
Washington – The U.S. Senate today passed by unanimous consent the “Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act” (S. 1086), sponsored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). This is the first piece of national legislation specifically designed to protect children from sexual predators.
“Sex offenders represent a clear and present danger to our nation’s most precious natural resource: our children,” Hatch said. “Those who break such a sacred trust and harm our children, no matter who they are, where they are from, or where they commit their crime, will have obligations under this law to make their whereabouts known or subject themselves to jail time.”
Once approved, Hatch’s bill will create a national database and require convicted sex offenders to register their whereabouts every month in person. Failure to comply would be a felony. Existing sex-offender sites are managed from state to state, and do not correspond with each other. Under current law, convicts are required to register usually only once per year, by mail, and failure to comply is only a misdemeanor. The bill also authorizes funding for tracking devices on sex offenders.
“Sexual predators are monsters, and many use the Internet to hunt our children,” Hatch said. “It is high time we started using the web to hunt the sex offenders.”
The Hatch legislation had broad support, with 40 co-sponsors from both parties, including strong support from Senators Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Joe Biden (D-Del.), and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). The House version of the bill was authored by Representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and enjoyed strong support from Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), Robert “Bud” Cramer (D-Ala.), and Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.).
The legislation has also had prominent support from Utahns Ed Smart and his daughter Elizabeth, whose kidnapping by an alleged sex offender in 2002 and rescue nine months later captured national attention. John Walsh, host of “America’s Most Wanted,” and Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, vigorously supported the Hatch legislation.
Today Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said on the Senate floor, “[Hatch has] been fighting for this legislation for such a long time…because of his persistence, again, thousands of young kids will be safer in the future.”
Now the bill returns to the House for approval, which is expected, as the measure was already passed as part of an omnibus crime package. Hatch considers this a gift to the children of America, coming several weeks before National Missing Children’s Day on May 25.
“I am confident that our counterparts in the House of Representatives will move quickly to get this bill to President Bush’s desk,” Hatch said. “This is bad day for sex offenders, and a good day for America’s children.”
|
| |
| ### |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
