National Center For Missing & Exploited Children Praises Senators Efforts To Keep Children Safe

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Wednesday, 2 April 2003

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) praised a group of United States senators for launching the first-ever Senate Caucus on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children.

"As co-chairmen, Senators Mike DeWine, Blanche Lincoln and Richard Shelby are to be commended for bringing the issue of child safety to this distinguished body. These Senators have been true champions on children's safety," said Ernie Allen, President of NCMEC. "In addition to the co-chairmen, I am pleased to recognize the support of the Caucus's founding members including Christopher Dodd, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Joseph Biden, Charles Schumer, George Voinovich, Lamar Alexander, Mark Pryor,Patrick Leahy, and Charles Grassley. While we have made great strides as a nation to protect our most vulnerable citizens, efforts to prevent crimes against children continue to grow. Much work still remains to be done on this issue. We support the efforts of these senators in their ongoing leadership in Congress to protect children and reduce crimes against them," he added.

The Senate Caucus will work with the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children founded in 1997 by Congressman Nick Lampson. There are approximately 130 members of the House of Representatives in the Congressional Caucus.

NCMEC, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Va., was established in 1984 as a public-private partnership to help find missing children and combat child sexual exploitation. It has assisted local law-enforcement agencies on more than 87,000 missing child cases, helping to reunite more than 71,000 children with their families. Today, the organization reports a 94 percent recovery rate. For more information about NCMEC, call 1-800-THE-LOST.

For more information, or to contact National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, see their website at: www.missingkids.org