Letter to Jerry Morgan,Chairman Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies and Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member - Warner Urges Funding for Ashanti Alert

Letter

Dear Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Shaheen:

As you prepare the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 appropriations, we write to respectfully request that you work to ensure the implementation of the Ashanti Alert Act is fully funded in FY 2020.

On December 31, 2018, President Trump signed into law the Ashanti Alert Act of 2018 (Pub L. 115-401). The Ashanti Alert Act requires the Department of Justice to establish a national communications network, named the Ashanti Alert, to assist regional and local search efforts for certain missing adults. Under the new law, the Attorney General must designate a national coordinator to work with states to establish Ashanti Alert systems and to develop voluntary guidelines that states (as well as territories) should use in creating their networks. Last Congress, the Senate and House of Representatives secured strong bipartisan support for the legislation and it passed both chambers by a near-unanimous margin.

This law was borne out of the tragic death of Ashanti Billie, a 19-year-old who was abducted in Norfolk, Virginia and whose body was discovered 11 days after she was first reported missing. Because Ashanti was too old for an Amber Alert to be issued and no similar network for adults existed at the time, her parents, family, and friends struggled to get word out of her disappearance in a timely fashion.

Thus, it is imperative that the Ashanti Alert Act receives sufficient funding in order to advance its goals of transforming the lives and safety of Americans. Fully funding this program ensures that the Department of Justice, law enforcement agencies, and relevant entities and stakeholders have the necessary resources to make the Ashanti Alert network as helpful and effective as possible.

We hope that the Subcommittee will demonstrate strong support for the Ashanti Alert Act for FY 2020.

Source