James Oberstar: “A ``no'' vote, Mr. Speaker, on the previous question will allow the House to vote on both the bill reported by the…”

“A ``no'' vote, Mr. Speaker, on the previous question will allow the House to vote on both the bill reported by the committee and the clean AMBER Alert bill passed by the Senate which can then go immediately to the President for his signature. I have heard the claim that the amendment on AMBER Alert developed by our Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure shows that there are, quote, serious flaws in the AMBER Alert provision in the Senate bill. That is simply not the case. I support our committee's amendment, but I believe the original provision is workable and could be the basis for prompt implementation of AMBER Alert as it has been initiated by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The original AMBER Alert provision in the House and Senate bills authorized the Secretary of Transportation to make grants to develop a program in general terms. The amendment our committee adopted made two changes: First, it described the concepts of the program and the purposes for which grants would be made in very specific terms to track the criteria included in the DOT announcement of its AMBER Alert grants issued February 12 of this year. Secondly, the amendment changed the Federal share. These are good changes, a good provision in the amendment, but I also believe that if the original language is adopted, DOT could go ahead with the program announced on February 12 because the specific criteria for DOT's program fall within the general criteria of the Senate bill.”