National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Commends Senate and House Conferees

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Wednesday, 9 April 2003

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) expressed its thanks to the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate conferees on agreeing to the language included in the conference report of the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003. NCMEC also expressed its hope that both houses of Congress would move swiftly to approve the report and enact these important provisions into law.

"Children throughout the United States will be safer because these key leaders of the House and Senate were able to come together and reach consensus on so many vital issues," said Robbie Callaway, Chairman of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

"NCMEC is particularly pleased that the Conferees finalized language for a true national implementation of the AMBER Alert," said Ernie Allen, President and Chief Executive Officer of NCMEC. Allen added, "this legislation ensures that AMBER Plans become a resource for every state and every community, and that they are implemented in a consistent, meaningful manner." The conferees provided funding for notification systems along highways for alerts, as well as funding grants so that states may implement new technologies to improve AMBER Alert communications. Such monies will benefit not just abducted children but every member of the community when an emergency develops, whether weather-related, terrorism, or any other.

NCMEC also applauded important changes in attacking the insidious, expanding problem of child pornography. NCMEC also thanked Congressional leaders for allowing the U.S. Secret Service to provide forensic and investigative support to NCMEC to assist in efforts to find missing children.

Finally, NCMEC commended Congress for taking a tough, serious look at the problem of sex offenders against children and how they are handled by the criminal justice system. Important provisions like changes in the term of supervision for released sex offenders, eliminating the statute of limitations for child abductions and sex crimes, mandating minimum prison sentences for those who kidnap children, punishing those who participate in child sex tourism, and other important changes will strengthen society's ability to cope with these serious crimes and keep children safe.

NCMEC, a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC 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