Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, we have all heard accounts of innocent children being victimized and abused by predators. Today I will introduce legislation to extend two of the key programs that Congress established under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. With today's legislation, I hope to send a strong message to all Americans about Congress' continued commitment to keeping our Nation's children safe.

Many of us here in the Senate worked very hard on the original version of the Adam Walsh Act, which is named for a six year-old who was tragically murdered in 1981. President George W. Bush signed that legislation on the 25th anniversary of Adam Walsh's abduction from a Florida shopping mall. I am pleased that Senators Hatch, Schumer, and Feinstein--who cosponsored the Senate version of that legislation when it was first introduced in the 109th Congress--have joined me as original cosponsors of today's legislation.

John Walsh, the father of Adam Walsh, worked closely with us on the development of the 2006 Adam Walsh Act, and we worked with him on the development of today's legislation as well. Reauthorization of the Adam Walsh Act is a priority for him and has the support of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The Adam Walsh Act was enacted in response to multiple, notorious cases involving children who had been targeted by adult criminals, many of them repeat sex offenders. Its passage became a national priority after Congress discovered that criminals were taking advantage of gaps and loopholes in some States' laws to circumvent sex offender registration requirements--with tragic results for some of the nation's children.

Who can forget Jetseta Gage--a beautiful 10-year-old girl from Cedar Rapids, Iowa who was sexually assaulted and murdered by a registered sex offender in 2005? As a cosponsor of the Senate version of the Adam Walsh Act, I championed the inclusion in the 2006 law of language imposing mandatory minimum penalties for those who murder, kidnap, or inflict serious bodily harm to children like Jetseta.

Of course, the centerpiece of the Adam Walsh Act is the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, or SORNA. SORNA divides sex offenders into three categories, or tiers, depending on the seriousness of their crimes. It encourages States to set minimum criteria for the registration of sex offenders in each tier, with the aim of discouraging ``forum shopping'' by offenders who prey on children.

The Adam Walsh Act also established several programs that are key to its successful implementation. One such program, known as SOMA, or the Sex Offender Management Assistance Program, makes federal grant resources available to states to offset the costs of Walsh Act implementation. Today's legislation would extend the authorization for that program, which expired 8 years ago.

The federal government, through the U.S. Marshals Service, also supports States and localities in tracking down sex offenders who fail to register or re-register. Those fugitive apprehension activities were authorized under the 2006 Adam Walsh Act, and today's legislation would extend the authorization for those U.S. Marshals Service activities at $60 million annually for each of the next 2 years.

Nothing can bring back Adam Walsh, Jetseta Gage, Dru Sjodin, Megan Kanka, or the other innocents for whom the Adam Walsh Act was passed. But it is important that we continue to not only honor their memories but also protect America's future children from harm by extending the key programs that were authorized under the original Adam Walsh Act. The authorization for these programs expired at least 7 years ago.

According to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are about a hundred thousand people convicted of sexual violence offenses in state prisons, and hundreds of thousands more who currently reside in neighborhoods across the United States. As a father of five and the grandfather of 9, I believe we should continue to make sex offender registration and notification a priority.

Mr. President, July 27 of this year will mark the 35th anniversary of Adam Walsh's abduction. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of this important legislation before that date elapses. ______

By Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mr. Grassley, and Mr. Tillis):

S. 2614. A bill to amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program, and to promote initiatives that will reduce the risk of injury and death relating to the wandering characteristics of some children with autism; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today Senators Schumer, Tillis and I will introduce legislation to help America's families locate missing loved ones who have Alzheimer's disease, autism or related conditions that may cause them to wander. Our bill would extend existing programs designed to assist in locating Alzheimer's disease and dementia patients. It also adds new support for people with autism.

We have named the legislation in honor of two boys with autism who perished because their condition caused them to wander. One of these children, nine-year-old Kevin Curtis Wills, slipped into Iowa's Raccoon River near a park and tragically drowned in 2008. The other, 14-year- old Avonte Oquendo, wandered away from his school and drowned in New York City's East River several years ago.

Theirs are not isolated cases. We have all read or heard the heartbreaking stories of families frantically trying to locate a missing loved one whose condition caused him or her to wander off.

We have also seen benefits of notification systems to locate missing children and bring relief to families through community assistance. Our bill will use similar concepts and other technology to help locate people with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia as well as children with autism spectrum disorders who may be prone to wander away from their families or caregivers.

My home State of Iowa has the fifth highest Alzheimer's death rate in America, according to the Alzheimer's Association. As further noted by the Alzheimer's Association, which we consulted on this bill's development, as many as one in three seniors will die with a form of dementia. About 63,000 Iowans are living with Alzheimer's disease.

In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released information on the incidence of autism in this country. The CDC identified 1 in 68 children as having autism spectrum disorders. Experts tell us that, in Iowa alone, about 8,000 individuals have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, and we worked closely with the Autism Society of Iowa on the development of this bill.

Because police often are the first people to respond when a child goes missing, the bill also will make resources available to equip first responders and other community officials with the training necessary to better prevent and respond to these cases. With better information sharing, communities can play a central role in reuniting these children with their families.

Finally, the bill will ensure that grants from the U.S. Department of Justice also can be used by state and local law enforcement agencies and nonprofits for education and training programs to proactively prevent and locate missing individuals with these conditions. The grants will facilitate the development of training and emergency protocols for school personnel, supply first responders with additional information and resources, and make local tracking technology programs available for individuals who may wander from safety because of their condition. Grant funding may also be used to establish or enhance notification and communications systems for the recovery of missing children with autism.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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