Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of H.R. 3092, the Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2013. This bill will be named after former Congressman E. Clay Shaw, from my State of Florida, who was a defender of children's rights and who recently passed away. Since its inception in 1984, the Missing Children's Assistance Act has helped identify and recover millions of missing and exploited children across our Nation. Now that it is due to expire at the end of this month, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reauthorize this critical legislation that protects society's most vulnerable citizens--our precious children. We have made progress. We now have the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the AMBER Alert, but we still have so much work to do. There are still too many tragic cases of children being abducted, raped, sexually abused, and murdered. As a parent, a grandparent, an elementary schoolteacher, and a school principal, I was deeply shaken when a beautiful 4-year-old girl, who was in the custody of the foster care system, went missing in my own community. She was missing for 2 years before anyone even knew it. She has never been found. Rilya Wilson's disappearance exposed many of the shortcomings of the Department of Children and Families in my home State of Florida. One of the most troubling aspects of Rilya's case was the fact that Rilya had been withdrawn from preschool.…”