On July 25, the House approved, by voice vote, the Senate amendments to H.R. 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The House approved the measure on March 8 (see The Source, 3/10/06); the Senate approved it on July 20 (see The Source, 7/21/06). The President signed the bill into law on July 27 (P.L. 109-248).
The Senate amended the bill to remove anti-gang and court security provisions that were included in the House version of the bill. The Senate also renamed the bill to reflect John and Reve Walsh’s commitment to fighting crimes against children following the abduction and murder of their son Adam, 25 years ago.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) said, “I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. This Act will greatly improve the national program to register and monitor child predators…I am especially pleased that the Act includes all of the major provisions of the Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde Act, which I introduced in July of 2005. This Act creates grants for state and local governments to implement electronic monitoring programs of child sex offenders, using GPS technology and other electronic methods to track sexual predators upon their release from prison…Today there are nearly 550,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, approximately one offender for every 200 children under 18 years old. As the numbers grow, it’s becoming almost impossible for law enforcement to track these offenders. Electronic monitoring cannot replace law enforcement officers monitoring convicted sex predators, but it will provide officials with the tools they need to protect our children and grant parents much deserved peace of mind.”
Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY) said, “Our nation loses four children a day to abuse and neglect. Our government owes it to these children to provide our law enforcement and child protective service communities with a deep, ready, and effective arsenal that they can utilize to protect the most vulnerable element of our society…This legislation puts a ‘go-to’ federal resource in place to help local jurisdictions identify and track those with a history of child abuse anywhere in this country. Now our state and local child protection services will be able to access this valuable tool to weed out predators and help them fight child abuse and neglect across state lines. It is a commonsense child protection measure. It was passed by the House twice, and I am very happy to see it included in this conference report before us today. With the establishment of the Federal Child Abuse and Neglect Registry, local and state child advocacy services will have a full picture of the individual who would have children placed in their care, abuse them, and then try to escape; and our nation’s most vulnerable children will now be protected.”
