Clarkstown, NY - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey today joined with Rockland County District Attorney Michael Bongiorno, Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack, and Clarkstown Police Chief Peter Noonan to call on the Congress to approve critical legislation that would make the national sex offender database available to parents and all concerned citizens.

Last Thursday, the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Database Act of 2005 or Dru's Law was passed by the U.S. Senate and now awaits approval by the House of Representatives. At the press conference today, Senator Clinton and Congresswoman Lowey, backed by Rockland County Officials, called on the House of Representatives to pass the bill and on the President to sign it when it reaches his desk.

“Parents - and all concerned citizens - should have the ability to access information to see if a convicted sex offender is living in their neighborhood or near other places where their children spend time,” Senator Clinton said. “I am pleased that my Senate colleagues took the critical step of approving this legislation that would enable the public to easily find out if a sex offender is living nearby and give them access to the same nationwide database that law enforcement has. I call on my colleagues in the House to do the same.”

“This bill is an important step toward taking action to protect our communities before sexual offenders are living in our neighborhoods, not after they have committed more tragic crimes. Because of high recidivism rates, Congress can and must do more to ensure that offenders who could strike again are not roaming our streets,” said Congresswoman Nita Lowey.

The main purpose of Dru's Law is to make the National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) publicly available via the Internet. The NSOR is a nationwide database of sex offenders, created by the Clinton Administration, for use by law enforcement. Once on the Internet, the database will allow users to easily identify sexual predators from across the nation. Use of a national sex offender database would also help prevent existing problems which occur because sex offender registration and notification requirements differ widely from state to state. Under the NSOR, even if a predator has recently moved from one state to another, but failed to register in his new state, his name and photo still would appear in the national database and parents would be able to identify him.

Dru's Law was named after a young college student from North Dakota who was abducted by a registered sex offender in nearby Minnesota. Tragically, because Minnesota and North Dakota did not share a database, Dru and her family had no way of knowing about the threat residing nearby.

Dru's Law requires registry information to include the offender's name, address, date of birth, physical description, and photograph, the nature and date of commission of the offense, and the date on which the person is released from prison or placed on parole, supervised release, or probation. Under Dru's Law, states are also required to intensively monitor any sexually violent predator or anyone judged to be at high risk for re-committing any sexually violent offense or criminal offense against a minor who has been unconditionally released for not less than one year.

Senator Clinton is a co-sponsor of the legislation in the Senate and Congresswoman Lowey is a co-sponsor of the bill in the House.

Senator Clinton is also a co-sponsor of S. 1086, a more comprehensive bill aimed at cracking down on sexual predators. S. 1086 contains Dru's law as one of its provisions. It also provides for Global Positioning System tracking devices on all violent sexual predators, establishes a new, federally maintained sex offender DNA database to be used by law enforcement and prosecutors, and makes failing to register as a sex offender a deportable offense.

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