For Immediate Release

September 5, 2002

Washington, DC - Congressman Gene Green today cosponsored a bill that will establish nationwide coordination for the AMBER alert communications network, also known as the AMBER Plan,  and help states currently without the Amber plan to implement it.  The bill is being introduced by Democratic Caucus Chair Martin Frost (D- Dallas, TX) and Jennifer Dunn (R-WA).

 

“The AMBER Plan has been a huge success in Houston in alerting the community to missing children,” said Green.  “I am proud to cosponsor this bill so that the entire nation can work together to find missing children and hopefully deter would-be kidnappers.”

 

The AMBER Plan in Houston has helped to safely find at least ten children since December 2000.  Rep. Green, along with the mayors, the sheriff, police chiefs, Texas Department of Transportation and our local broadcasting community, worked for more than a year before the plan was successfully implemented.

 

“I worked to establish the AMBER Plan in Houston starting back in 1999 and look forward to working to make this a comprehensive national alert system dedicated to the protection of our children,” added Green.  “I  have been in contact with the local media outlets, including radio station KTRH, which is the designated emergency response center, and I commend them on the great job they have done.”

 

The Frost-Dunn AMBER Alert Act establishes a Coordinator at the Department of Justice to facilitate implementing state and local AMBER Plans and direct regional coordination between AMBER Alerts. It also provides grants to update technology, such as electronic road signs, to help spread alerts, and makes available funding for Alert-related education, training and law enforcement programs and equipment.

 

The original AMBER Alert was created by North Texas law enforcement and broadcasters in 1997 after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted in Arlington, Texas, and murdered.