Foley's testimony on Sex Offender Registration and Notification act:

[The Straight Story]

THE HONORABLE MARK FOLEY
TESTIMONY BEFORE THE HOUSE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME, TERRORISM AND
HOMELAND SECURITY
HEARING ON H.R. 2423, THE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION AND NOTIFICATION ACT
JUNE 9, 2005



Chairman Coble,

On behalf of Congressman Bud Cramer and the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, I want to thank you for holding this important hearing today and for giving me the opportunity to testify on H.R. 2423, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Mr. Chairman, we have all heard their names. Jessica Lunsford, Jetseta Gage, Sarah Lunde, Megan Kanka, Jacob Wetterling, just to name a few. All beautiful children carrying with them the hopes and dreams of every young child in this country. All taken away from their parents and their futures – killed – by sex offenders.

The numbers are shocking. There are currently over 500,000 registered sex offenders in the United States – with 24,000 of them living in North Carolina and Virginia alone. Of that, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, we are missing between 100,000 to 150,000 of these predators.

What may be even more surprising to you is that there is a 200,000 person difference between all of the state registries and the federal National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR).

There are many reasons we have not been able to keep track of these dangerous predators, but I will just highlight what I believe are the top three for you today.

First, uniform registration information is not being collected. While most states have some form of registry, they are not usually the ones collecting the registration information. Instead, that responsibility falls on local communities who use their own, specialized criteria and then pass along that info to the states. What results is a registry with inaccurate or conflicting information.

Second, is that current law does not take into account the increasingly transient nature of these predators or the development of newer technologies that can be used to track them.

Third, is that most states are not completely complying with the law because the “carrot and stick” approach we developed in the original law does not apply. In practice, states are supposed to be eligible for funds for any costs associated with implementing the law. However, we never funded the program. In addition, the penalty assigned to states for not complying – a 10% reduction in JAG funding – no longer applies because of the way we changed the formula last year.

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act was designed to address these and dozen other problems facing the current system. This bill is a thoughtful, pragmatic approach modeled on current law. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to recent events. We have spent over eight months working on this comprehensive bill with the National Center Missing and Exploited Children, the Justice Department and other federal agencies.

The legislation, which has been introduced in the Senate by senators Hatch and Biden, builds on the assumption that everyone – the federal government, the states and the average citizen -- has a role to play in keeping track of sex offenders.

The first thing we did when we began to draft H.R. 2423 was to “clean up” Wetterling. We examined what the law was designed to do, kept its intent, tightened up the language and then placed it into neater categories. Unlike current law, this bill clearly lays out what the federal government, the states and sex offenders must do after a conviction triggering registration.

We then went through and added 25 common sense provisions that would further strengthen the way we track these pedophiles. Some of those provisions include: requiring the states, not localities, to collect sex offender registration information; requiring sex offenders to register before they leave custody; incorporating tribal lands under the law; requiring sex offenders to update their registrations more quickly than is now required; requiring states to have multi-field, searchable database and require states to make that information available to other states; requiring at least semi-annual registrations; requiring annual updates of the offenders photos and fingerprints; and increasing the registration duration period.

Sex offenders are not petty criminals. They prey on our children like animals and will continue to do it unless stopped. We need to change the way we track these pedophiles.

Mr. Chairman, it has often been noted that a society can be judged on how it best treats it children. We have a moral responsibility to do everything in our power to protect our kids from these animals. This bill will turn the tables and make prey out of these predators. Failing to act on this measure is just playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives.

I think John Walsh said it best when he said: “I truly believe that in our state of Florida -- who really does a pretty good job of trying to track these lowlifes -- that Sarah Lundy and Jessica Lunsford might be alive today if this bill was passed a year ago”

I look forward to working with you and Chairman Sensenbrenner on moving this bill as quickly as possible. I look forward to answering any of your questions.

Thank you.



http://judiciary.house.gov/HearingTestimony.aspx?ID=285

[cboy4]

1. The "Honorable" Mark Foley....

:wtf:


I'm running out of places in my house to vomit. Serious.

[Spazito]

2. Well, seeing as you are one of the animals, Mr. Foley...

I hope you get all you deserve along with the rest of the House republicans that aided and abetted you:

"Mr. Chairman, it has often been noted that a society can be judged on how it best treats it children. We have a moral responsibility to do everything in our power to protect our kids from these animals. This bill will turn the tables and make prey out of these predators. Failing to act on this measure is just playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives."

[Erika]

3. Foley is a sick guy

aided by the GOP by their silence for many years.

[troubleinwinter]

4. "...will continue to do it unless stopped."

"Sex offenders are not petty criminals. They prey on our children like animals and will continue to do it unless stopped."