Washington, DC -- Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) today urged the House of Representatives to approve legislation that would create a nationwide AMBER Alert network. The following is Senator Feinstein's statement:

"Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting in the Democratic Cloakroom when I learned that 15-year old Elizabeth Smart had been found alive. This seemed miraculous - I think we all had feared the worst. But in this time when there is so much anxiety in the world, this is a piece of good news that we as a nation badly needed. And my most profound good wishes go to the Smart family.

Through your tenacity and your perseverance, you kept Elizabeth's beautiful face in the news - and this is what finally brought her home safe. Elizabeth was found after television stations had broadcast a sketch of her abductor, Brian David Mitchell, and area residents called in tips to the police.

This was not an official Amber Alert, but Elizabeth's recovery underscores the power of television to help bring kids home to their families. Indeed, this incident underscores the pressing need to implement the AMBER Alert system on a nationwide basis.

The AMBER Alert system, more than any other single law enforcement tool, can result in an abducted child being brought home safely. We know it works, and we know that it is a program that should be nationwide.

The Senate approved legislation that Senator Hutchison and I introduced to create this nationwide network in the last congress, but the House failed to act before the end of the session. The Senate approved the legislation a second time on January 21, 2003 -- but once again the legislation has been held up in the House of Representatives.

It is past time for the House to approve this legislation, and I would urge all Americans to contact members of the House Judiciary committee to move the Hutchinson-Feinstein AMBER Alert bill. Simply put, passing this legislation will help save kids lives.

To date, AMBER Alert systems have been implemented in 39 states and 49 local and regional jurisdictions. This is up from 16 states and 32 local and regional jurisdictions just last August. And the Alerts issued in these jurisdictions have been extremely successful.

AMBER Alerts, in fact, have resulted in the return of 49 abducted children across the country.

These are 49 families who didn't have to suffer the pain of losing a loved-one. 49 families who didn't have to live through the trauma of burying a child. This is why our legislation is so important.

The first hours after a child is taken are critical. If the child is not found in those first few hours, chances increase dramatically that he or she will disappear forever. And this is the power of the AMBER Alert system. An Alert can be issued within minutes of an abduction - disseminating key information of the crime to the community at large.

Since the State of California first adopted AMBER alerts just nine months ago, AMBER Alerts have been issued 23 times. Twenty-seven children involved in these cases have been rescued or found safe. You can't argue with results like that.

Only Lindsey Ryan, for whom an Alert was issued on March 6, has not been found. The Hutchinson-Feinstein legislation has three key components:

• First, it would authorize $20 million to the Department of Transportation and $5 million to the Department of Justice for the development of AMBER Alert systems in States where they do not exist.



• Second, this bill would build upon the President's Executive Order, signed on October 2, 2002, by authorizing a national coordinator for AMBER Alerts within the Department of Justice. This is crucial to coordinating region-wide Alerts, when abductors flee across State lines.



• And third, to reduce the number of false alerts, the bill would provide a framework for the Department of Justice to establish minimum standards for the regional coordination of AMBER alerts.

Under this legislation, a nationwide network of AMBER Alerts will be put in place. It will extend a network of AMBER Alerts to every corner of the nation, increasing the odds that an abducted child will return safely to his or her family. And it will deter potential abductors from taking a child in the first place.

This will provide an effective and tested way to help keep America's children safe. I urge my colleagues in the House to take up and approve this legislation as soon as possible."

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