Leahy Honored For His Newly Enacted
Landmark Child Protection Laws
And For His Long Record Of Countering Child Abuse

WASHINGTON (Wed., May 21) -- A month after they enacted a package of bills called “the most far-reaching legislation to date to protect children,” U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) Tuesday night were honored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for their longstanding commitment to defending children against abuse. 

NCMEC and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children gave the two lawmakers their Congressional Leadership Award in a ceremony Tuesday night in the nation’s capital.   

Hatch and Leahy – the Republican and Democratic leaders, respectively, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees federal law enforcement programs and agencies – this year worked together on two landmark pieces of legislation to help protect children’s welfare: the National AMBER Alert Network Act, and the Hatch-Leahy Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act.  Hatch currently chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Leahy is the panel’s ranking Democratic member.

The AMBER Alert Network Act will help states establish AMBER Alert Plans so that the program can be expanded nationwide.  In the past month since the bill became law, the number of children safely recovered through AMBER Alerts has jumped from 53 to 69.  The Hatch-Leahy PROTECT Act helps prosecutors target child abuse and virtual child pornography on the Internet.  Other provisions of the package authored by Leahy include key elements of NCMEC’s expanded charter, reauthorizing the Center through 2005; the Center’s Cyper-Tipline – a program that more easily allows people to report child sex crimes and exploitation on the Internet; Leahy’s provisions creating the first federal shield law for child victims to protect their identities in the courtroom; Leahy’s initiative to lend NCMEC the Secret Service’s forensic investigative capabilities; and a new Leahy program to help victims of domestic violence or abuse find transitional housing.

The PROTECT Act package was signed into law on April 30, achieving what NCMEC President and CEO Ernie Allen hails as “the most far- reaching legislation to date to protect America’s children.”

“These bills will harness technology to help us find and protect children,” said Leahy.  He praised NCMEC for its “tireless, timely and effective” advocacy for children.  

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