Nick Lampson: “today I rise to again urge my colleagues, if they are not already members, to join the Congressional Missing and…”

“today I rise to again urge my colleagues, if they are not already members, to join the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus. In 1997, a little girl named Laura Kate Smither was abducted while jogging near her home in my congressional district. She was later found murdered. We have seen many of those stories, unfortunately too many of them lately. The pain that I saw and the terror that I saw my community go through, as well as the way they came together to search for this little girl, inspired me to want to do something to prevent this kind of loss in the future. I came to Congress with a lot of ideas and issues on my mind, but soon realized the importance of one that was not being adequately addressed; and so I founded the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus to serve as a loud and unified voice for children all over the world. We have seen lots of stories recently on CNN and in our newspapers, elsewhere, during the summer. It is not that there are more but that we are becoming aware. I urge my colleagues to join this congressional caucus and to help us continue to fight child abduction and exploitation.”