Maxwell Frost: “by passing this conference report today, Congress can finally end the 6 months of political maneuvering that have…”

“by passing this conference report today, Congress can finally end the 6 months of political maneuvering that have delayed my legislation to help set up a nationwide network of AMBER Alerts. The AMBER plan was named for a young girl, Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in Arlington, Texas, in my congressional district. Make no mistake, this conference report is not perfect. It contains some needlessly controversial provisions dealing with our criminal laws. For that reason, some Members will oppose it. The AMBER Alert Network Act, which I first introduced in the House of Representatives with the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Dunn) last year, should have been law long, long ago. It passed the Senate unanimously twice. The President made clear his support for it, and 230 Democrats and Republicans cosponsored it in the House, a clear majority. But for more than 6 months now, House Republican leaders refused to allow the House to vote on this bipartisan bill to protect America's children. And 2 weeks ago, 218 House Republicans ignored a last minute letter from the family of Elizabeth Smart and voted to support their leadership and block consideration of the stand-alone AMBER bill. Mr. Speaker, it should not have been this hard; but we can now see an end to this matter. We now are about to finally enact this very important legislation. We know the AMBER Alert system works.…”