Dateline: 01/24/03

By a 92 - 0 vote, the U.S. Senate has passed the AMBER Alert Act creating a nationwide system to help locate abducted children.

Passed only one week after being introduced, the AMBER Alert Act will provide $25 million in federal matching funds to states. States deciding to implement AMBER Alert systems will receive funds to pay for electronic highway signs and emergency-alert systems that broadcast or display messages about abducted children.

"Plain and simple: This legislation will help save children’s lives," said Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. "The money in this bill will help states such as Delaware pay for their AMBER Alert programs and it will help states who do not yet have AMBER alerts put them into place."

Specifically, The National AMBER Network Act would:

• Create a national Amber Alert coordinator in the Justice Department who will be responsible for disseminating information about missing children and abductors among states.
  
  
• Allocate $25 million to help states set up or expand Amber Alerts.
  
  
• Direct the Justice Department to establish voluntary standards to improve coordination between states.
  
  
• Provides for the appointment of a national AMBER Alert coordinator and establish grant programs to pay for notification and communications systems.

AMBER Alert funds could also be used to help train local police and emergency-response workers. The AMBER Alert system is named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Texas, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996. But the name is also an acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. Currently, there are over 80 AMBER Alert programs in communities nationwide which have been credited with helping rescue 42 abducted children.

According to the Justice Department, as many as 4,000 children are abducted by strangers every year.

The AMBER Alert initiative is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to air a description of the abducted child and suspected abductor on radio and television. Electronic highway signs can also be used to display pertinent information about the child, abductor or suspected vehicle. The goal of the AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe return of the child.

On January 14, 2003, Delaware became the 34th state in the nation to fully implement the AMBER Alert system, which cost the State about $64,000 to install.

The National AMBER Network Act (S. 121), was introduced in the Senate by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Dianne Fienstein (D-CA), Joe Biden (D-DE) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The bill must now be passed by the House of Representatives before it can become law.

"It is disturbing to see on TV or in the newspapers photo after photo of missing children from every corner of the nation," said Sen. Leahy. "As a father and grandfather, I know that an abducted child is the worst of nightmares. Unfortunately, it appears this nightmare is happening all too often."

"AMBER Alerts work," added Leahy, "and this bill gives a green light to expand AMBER Alerts nationwide. Our nation’s children, parents and grandparents deserve our help to stop the disturbing trend of child abductions."