Nick Lampson: “I will digress again from my stories about Ludwig Koons, whom we desperately want returned from Italy to the United…”

“I will digress again from my stories about Ludwig Koons, whom we desperately want returned from Italy to the United States where he is being held illegally, to talk about one of the scariest situations that a parent can experience when they are out shopping, perhaps they turn around and their child is not with them. In many cases they return in a matter of moments, but sometimes it can seem like an eternity. What if that son or daughter cannot be found? Or do stores have a system in place that can help protect their child from harm? The answer is yes. The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) and I are joining together to urge Members to support a resolution to encourage retailers across the Nation to adopt a special child safety alert program known as Code Adam. Code Adam works. Since 1994, it has been a powerful preventive tool against child abductions and lost children in more than 25,000 stores, making it the largest child safety program in the Nation. Code Adam is a special alert issued through the store's public address system when a customer reports a missing child. The measure was established in 1994 and named in the memory of 6-year-old Adam Walsh whose abduction from a Florida shopping mall and murder in 1981 brought the horror of child abduction to national attention. We owe it to the kids of America to do everything that we can to ensure their safety. Join us in supporting this important resolution. Bring our children home.”