Steny Hoyer: “The bill that the gentleman refers to is a bill that has just been marked up this week, even before, thank goodness, Mr.…”

“The bill that the gentleman refers to is a bill that has just been marked up this week, even before, thank goodness, Mr. Smart's daughter was returned to him, and was on its way to full committee to be marked up later on next week. Because of the situation, the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary feels very strongly that they can expedite the matter, actually hold an unusual markup before Members return, and hopefully have this bill on the floor on Wednesday. There are a lot of provisions in this bill that help. And I might also point out to the gentleman that the Justice Department is running an Amber Alert System in 38 States. They are up and going. There are over 80 systems, Amber Alerts, operating as we speak. So it is not a situation where there will not be coverage of Amber Alerts out there. But I think this legislation is important to get at these criminals that are kidnapping these children, to help the police departments find them quicker and easier and be able to put them away, away from our children, along with codifying what the Justice Department is already doing.”