On the recordJuly 31, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, enacted in 2006, is landmark legislation intended to keep our communities--and most importantly our children--safe from sex offenders and other dangerous predators. This bipartisan bill strengthened sex offender registry requirements and enforcement, extended Federal registry requirements to Indian tribes, and authorized funding for several programs intended to address and deter child exploitation. The centerpiece of the Adam Walsh Act is the national Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, or SORNA. SORNA's goal is to create a seamless national sex offender registry to assist law enforcement efforts to detect and track offenders. SORNA provides minimum standards for State sex offender registries and created the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website, which allows law enforcement officials and the general public to search for sex offenders nationwide from just one Web site. H.R. 3796, the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 2012, reauthorizes two key programs from the original Adam Walsh Act--grants to the States and other jurisdictions to implement the Adam Walsh Act sex offender registry requirements, and funding for U.S. Marshals to locate and apprehend sex offenders who violate registration requirements.…





