Kay Bailey Hutchison: “in response to the number of repeat crimes that are committed by convicted sex offenders, Senator Gramm and I are…”

“in response to the number of repeat crimes that are committed by convicted sex offenders, Senator Gramm and I are offering legislation to require all such individuals to register with the FBI. Society needs to know where these predators are at all times. Individual States are creating registries of convicted sex offenders and devising other measures to address the problem--my home state of Texas has moved forward aggressively on this front. Unfortunately, for my State and others, there is a continuing worry despite such progress: individuals convicted of 1,000 cases of child molestation scheduled to be released in Texas this year alone. Currently, 47 States have registry laws which apply to sex offenders, but these track such felons only within the individual State. There is no national registry. There is no formal network for law enforcement agencies to communicate with each other about know sexual predators. As a result, a convicted rapist or child molester released in Texas can move to, say, Vermont--which has no registry law--and disappear from law enforcement records. This ability to move from one State to the next unmonitored has provided tens of thousands of sex offenders with the opportunity to commit yet more deviant acts. The legislation Senator Gramm and I are introducing would close this immense loophole by creating a national computer registry to track convicted sex offenders.”