U.S. Representative Ed Royce

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see that this conference report for this crime bill came back to the floor so quickly. Let me say as a cosponsor of this legislation that this bill includes some very important provisions that will help States and will help the Bush administration to continue their efforts to expand and improve the AMBER Alert system.

As we know, last fall the President provided a total of $10 million to develop AMBER training and to develop education programs to upgrade the emergency alert system. As we have witnessed, AMBER Alert has worked to bring children home safely.

I wanted to share one example of where this alert has worked well. That is the case with Nicole Timmons of Riverside, California, in my State. The alert was not only delivered throughout California, but luckily, the neighboring State of Nevada also ran the alert. As a consequence, an alert driver noticed that Nicole matched the description. He thus, within the first few hours, contacted authorities. She was returned safely to her parents.

The point here is that they say three out of every four children who are murdered by their abductors are killed in the first 3 hours. That is why speed is of the essence. That is why a nationwide system is needed to ensure that neighboring States and communities will be able to coordinate when an abductor is traveling with a child to other parts of the country.

We need an organized national effort so abducted children transported across State lines can be returned to their parents, to their families, as 53 have been safely in California and other States that have now adopted the AMBER Alert system.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all of those who have worked to make certain that this legislation becomes law.