A bill creating a national Amber Alert system could be signed today by President George W. Bush.
Congress approved the bill Thursday as House members passed the bill 400-25 hours before the Senate approved it on a 98-0 vote.
The bill is named after Amber Hagerman, 9, of Arlington who was kidnapped from her home and later found murdered.
The legislation creates a national system to find kidnapped children.
It includes tougher penalties for child kidnappers, molesters and pornographers. It also gives money to states and local communities for equipment and training on the network.
This is good news, I’m pretty sure. I haven’t read the details, and the devil is in the details. Here in the DFW area, when a kid is reported abducted, the TV’s have a scroll across the bottom and the highway info signs all display the lookout information. Now, I don’t want to see abducted kid from Washington state within 10 minutes of their disappearance (until we finally get those Star Trek transporter gadgets), but I like the emphasis on proactively looking for these kids.
Sign it, Mr. President.
via nbci5.com
This bill also includes the “RAVE” act, an anti-drug act which penalizes the promoter, owner of the arena or club, and other businesses where drug use happens, regardless of whether the use of drugs was promoted or banned by the business. This act was included without any hearings, despite broad-based opposition and the failure of the act last year, when it was introduced directly. Instead, it was inserted in the “Amber Act” in the joint comittee hearing to reconsile the House and Senate version of the bill, despite the fact that it has nothing to do with the primary purpose of the act (child protection and recovery of kidnapped children).
This bill is obnoxious and should be revised and resubmitted rather than signed. Or is this the future of the Republican congress: if you can’t pass a bill, sneak it into a popular act in the joint comittee?
I don’t know much about the RAVE act, except that it holds club owners responsible for drug use in their businesses (it’s different from bartenders in that it’s drugs not sold by the establishment).
Really too bad it was pushed so hard by Sen. Biden (D-DE). And, as for your parting comment, I’m sure the Democrat controlled congress never stooped to this level.