Joe Cunningham: “God bless the gentleman from Florida (Mr. McCollum) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for this effort. The…”

“God bless the gentleman from Florida (Mr. McCollum) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for this effort. The loss of a child, or even the abuse of a child, I think is the most lifelong, hurtful, terrible event that can happen to a family. Sexual predators or drunk drivers, a gunshot wound at school, the loss of a child. Just think about what the families go through. I would like to also mention, we have named too many laws after dead children. I think of Megan Kanka and Polly Klaas and Jon Benet Ramsey. I want my colleagues to know where all of this started. The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Deal) who was a Democrat when I first got here and the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Dunn) worked on Megan's Law. There were absolutely Members in this body that opposed it. And the gentlewoman from Washington and the gentleman from Georgia got together and dragged me as a wingman to Speaker Foley at the time and demanded that we be able to pass this on the floor. It then went to the President of the United States and he signed this bill. That is where it started. A good idea took off. And recently, Megan's Law underwent some changes. For example, if a person is a student or in the military and changes States, then they were not required to register as a sexual predator. So the changes adopted recently by the House have been a good thing.”