House Panel presenting Amber Alert bill to full house

Not long after being criticized by Elizabeth Smart's father (3/14 RBR Daily Epaper #52), House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) pushed the nationwide Amber Alert legislation to the full House in an 18-2 vote, replete with the other child protection measures unlikely to win Senate passage - - including mandatory sentences for sex offenders.

Although Ed Smart and others have urged the House to pass the popular "Amber Alert" legislation by itself, Sensenbrenner and other House Republicans say the bill's child protection measures are as important as the notification legislation if not more so.

"I think prevention is much more important than notification, as important that is," said Sensenbrenner as his Judiciary Committee sent the bill to the House.

The Smart family called on Sensenbrenner to let the national notification bill move on without the rest of his package last week. "His unwillingness to let the Amber Alert pass on its own is hurting children," Smart said.

Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family last week, nine months after being kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City.

Sensenbrenner said the Amber Alert bill alone will not do anything DOJ isn't already doing: "If the Senate's Amber Alert bill were enacted into law today, nothing would change."