Bill Nelson: “the Congress will soon pass important legislation that will better protect children around the country from those who…”

“the Congress will soon pass important legislation that will better protect children around the country from those who seek them harm. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, H.R. 4472, named after the son of John and Reve Walsh who was killed in Florida almost 25 years ago, is the toughest and most comprehensive sex offender bill in recent years. This legislation includes a number of changes to safeguard children, including tougher sentences for crimes committed against children, a publicly accessible national database of sex offenders, and a Federal requirement for convicted sex offenders to register their locations with law enforcement officials. The bill also includes a provision, which I authored, to track released sex offenders. Sadly, events of the recent past highlight the need for us to know the location of convicted sexual offenders if they are released back into our communities. In my State of Florida, two young girls, Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde, were both murdered by convicted sex offenders within weeks of each other in 2005. Jessica Lunsford of Homosassa, FL, was a 9-year-old girl who was abducted from her home, raped, and then buried alive by a convicted sex offender who lived 150 feet from her home. Law enforcement had lost track of him and they did not know that he worked at the school that Jessica attended, despite his being a registered sex offender.…”