Jennifer Dunn: “quite frankly H.R. 2137 must be enacted immediately. We must not delay one day longer. My struggle to strengthen the…”

“quite frankly H.R. 2137 must be enacted immediately. We must not delay one day longer. My struggle to strengthen the laws to protect victims and communities from sexually violent predators started in the 103d Congress when Senator Gorton and I began work on including Washington State's sexual predator law into the 1994 crime bill. The tragic and highly publicized 1994 rape and murder of 7-year-Megan Kanka in New Jersey, the victim of a released sexual predator, unfortunately became the impetus for including sexual predator language in the 1994 crime bill. With Senator Gorton's help, Mr. Zimmer and I were able to convince conferees to the crime bill to include community notification and registration of sexually violent predators. Since the 1994 crime law enactment, many States have developed tracking programs that require convicted sexual predators to register with the local law enforcement agencies upon release and allow officials to notify local communities of their presence. Now, Mr. Speaker, it is time that we take this good law one step farther before we are shocked once again to hear of a needless death or crime committed by a violent sexual offender. Currently, communities may or may not be aware of a predator in their midst. That is wrong. We must alert the citizens when repeat sexually violent predators are in the area. H.R. 2137 will accomplish that by changing community notification from an option to a requirement.”