Congressional Record—Senate S8012
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S8012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE July 20, 2006 the changes we made, the permanence Specter Talent Voinovich Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I thank of correction to injustice. Stabenow Thomas Warner my colleagues for granting unanimous Stevens Thune Wyden So I am very pleased that in just a Sununu Vitter consent to pass the most comprehen- sive child crimes and protection bill in few minutes, we will act as a body to NOT VOTING—2 reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. We our Nation’s history—H.R. 4472, the owe it to the memories of those who Crapo Enzi Adam Walsh Child Protection and fought before us—and we owe it to our The bill (H.R. 9) was passed. Safety Act of 2006. future, a future when equality is a re- Mr. FRIST. I move to reconsider the This bill started in the House of Rep- ality in our hearts and minds and not vote. resentatives by a courageous and ambi- just the law—to reauthorize the Voting Mr. REID. I move to lay that motion tious Congressman from Florida, MARK Rights Act. on the table. FOLEY. MARK is with us in the Senate I hope my colleagues will join me in The motion to lay on the table was Chamber today, and I want to thank voting for this critical legislation be- agreed to. him, again, for getting this ball rolling cause in the 41 years since it became f and for fighting like a champion on be- law, we have seen tremendous progress, ORDER OF BUSINESS half of our children. I appreciate his te- and now it is time to ensure that the nacity and enthusiasm—we would not progress continues, that we protect the Mr. FRIST. For the information of be here without his devotion and hard civil liberties of each and every Amer- our colleagues, the Democratic leader work. ican. and I have been in discussion. Let me I also thank Senator BIDEN, who Mr. President, I yield back all our briefly outline what the plans for to- joined me in sponsoring the original time. night will be and tomorrow. Most im- Senate version of this bill. Senator portantly for my colleagues, there will Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, is there BIDEN and I have worked together on so be no more rollcall votes tonight or to- still time available on this side? many bills, none more important than morrow. We will probably see a lot of The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time what we are accomplishing today for Members leave the room. has expired. our children. Senators FRIST, SPECTER, We will turn within a couple of min- Mr. LEAHY. The yeas and nays have and REID thank you for making this utes to the Adam Walsh Child Protec- been ordered. bill priority and for getting this bill tion and Safety Act, a very important The PRESIDING OFFICER. The through. bill that we will spend approximately 2 The bill we are about to pass, the question is on the third reading of the hours on tonight. Following that, we Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protec- bill. will have debate on two circuit judges tion Act, represents a collaboration be- The bill (H.R. 9) was ordered to a and two district judges. We will be vot- tween the House and Senate to include third reading and was read the third ing on the Adam Walsh Child Protec- the strong provisions of S. 1086, the Sex time. tion and Safety Act tonight by voice Offender Registration and Notification The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill vote and all four of those judges by Act, and H.R. 4472, The Child Safety having been read the third time, the voice tonight. Act. It creates a National Sex Offender question is, Shall the bill pass? On this We will be in tomorrow. We will have Registry with uniform standards for question, the yeas and nays have been no rollcall votes tomorrow. I will have the registration of sex offenders, in- ordered. The clerk will call the roll. an announcement later tonight or pos- cluding a lifetime registration require- The assistant legislative clerk called sibly tomorrow on what the schedule ment for the most serious offenders. the roll. will be on Monday in terms of votes on This is critical to sew together the Mr. MCCONNELL. The following Sen- Monday, if we will have a vote or not. patch-work quilt of 50 different State ators were necessarily absent: the Sen- Debate tomorrow will be, in all likeli- attempts to identity and keep track of ator from Idaho (Mr. CRAPO) and the hood, on the Child Custody Protection sex offenders. Senator from Wyoming (Mr. ENZI). Act, plus we will have a period of The Adam Walsh Act establishes Further, if present and voting, the morning business for other matters. strong Federal penalties for sex offend- Senator from Idaho (Mr. CRAPO) would With that, we will be able to turn to ers who fail to register, or fail to up- have voted ‘‘yea.’’ the Adam Walsh Child Protection and date their information, including up to The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Safety Act which we will be passing in 10 years in prison for non-compliance. CORNYN). Are there any other Senators about 2 hours. The Adam Walsh Act imposes tough in the Chamber desiring to vote? f penalties for the most serious crimes The result was announced—yeas 98, against children, including a 30 year nays 0, as follows: CHILDREN’S SAFETY AND VIO- mandatory penalty for raping a child [Rollcall Vote No. 212 Leg.] LENT CRIME REDUCTION ACT OF and no less than 10 years in prison for 2006 YEAS—98 a sex trafficking offense. In fact, this Akaka DeMint Leahy The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- bill creates a series of assured pen- Alexander DeWine Levin ate will now proceed to the consider- alties for crimes of violence against Allard Dodd Lieberman ation of H.R. 4472, which the clerk will children, including penalties for mur- Allen Dole Lincoln Baucus Domenici Lott report. der, kidnapping, maiming, and using a Bayh Dorgan Lugar The assistant legislative clerk read dangerous weapon against a child. And Bennett Durbin Martinez as follows: the bill allows for the death penalty in Biden Ensign McCain the most serious cases of child abuse, Bingaman Feingold McConnell A bill (H.R. 4472) to protect children, to se- Bond Feinstein Menendez cure the safety of judges, prosecutors, law including the murder of a child in sex- Boxer Frist Mikulski enforcement officers, and their family mem- ual exploitation and kidnapping of- Brownback Graham Murkowski bers, to reduce and prevent gang violence, fenses. Bunning Grassley Murray and for other purposes. Burns Gregg Nelson (FL) The bottom line here is that sex of- Burr Hagel Nelson (NE) AMENDMENT NO. 4686 fenders have run rampant in this coun- Byrd Harkin Obama (Purpose: In the Nature of a substitute) try and now Congress and the people Cantwell Hatch Pryor The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. are ready to respond with legislation Carper Hutchison Reed Chafee Inhofe Reid CORNYN). Under the previous order, the that will curtail the ability of sex of- Chambliss Inouye Roberts Hatch amendment at the desk is agreed fenders to operate freely. It is our hope Clinton Isakson Rockefeller to. that programs like NBC Dateline’s ‘‘To Coburn Jeffords Salazar Cochran Johnson Santorum The amendment (No. 4686) was agreed Catch a Predator’’ series will no longer Coleman Kennedy Sarbanes to, as follows: have enough material to fill an hour or Collins Kerry Schumer (The amendment is printed in today’s even a minute. Now, it seems, they can Conrad Kohl Sessions RECORD under ‘‘Text of Amendments″) go to any city in this country and Cornyn Kyl Shelby Craig Landrieu Smith The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- catch dozens of predators willing to go Dayton Lautenberg Snowe ator from Utah is recognized. on-line to hunt children. VerDate Aug 31 2005 04:03 Jul 21, 2006 Jkt 049060 PO 00000 Frm 00064 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G20JY6.100 S20JYPT1 ccoleman on PROD1PC71 with SENATE July 20, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S8013 Laws regarding registration for sex gether for a long time. It is hard for me more than legislation, this is more offenders have not been consistent to believe we have been here as long as than passing this piece of legislation. from State to State now all States will we have. I have actually been here a This is the stuff of which your life’s lock arms and present a unified front couple years longer than he has. We work is viewed as being worthwhile. in the battle to protect children. Web have our differences in philosophy. We I remember Jerry Brown, when he sites that have been weak in the past, have never had any differences person- used to be the Governor of California, due to weak laws and haphazard updat- ally. We have never had any differences once said when he was cutting pay—I ing and based on inaccurate informa- in terms of our relationship. am not making a judgment of whether tion, will now be accurate, updated and The two things I am proudest of that he should have or should not have— useful for finding sex offenders. we have both done is we have both— when cutting the pay of State employ- There are more than a half-million and I say this somewhat self-serving, I ees, he made a statement only Jerry registered sex offenders in the United acknowledge—we both always hired Brown could make, 20 years ago: Well, States.