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Sen. Reid [D-NV]: Mr. President, first of all, I appreciate very much the statement of the majority leader. I understand that he has other matters, and I will speak to him later about a...

Record Text

Sen. Harry Reid [D-NV]: Mr. President, first of all, I appreciate very much the statement of the majority leader. I understand that he has other matters, and I will speak to him later about a number of other things.

On the issue of sex offender legislation, yesterday, rightfully so, the majority leader sent a letter to Chairmen Specter and Sensenbrenner asking them to bridge their differences and finish the legislation. I commend Senator Frist for making this bill a priority.

I agree that this is important legislation, and it should not be stalled by disagreements over controversial, extraneous matters. Specifically, the leader asked the two chairmen to complete work on the bill by the end of July. That timetable seems perfect for me. The Senate passed its version by unanimous consent on May 4. There should be no further delay. I believe this is an urgent matter.

I remind my colleagues that when the Senate passed this version of the bill 2 months ago, Senator Kennedy--even though he felt very strongly about the hate crime bill--agreed to set that aside. That was a major concession by all of us who favor the hate crimes bill. We made the decision that the sex offender bill should not be delayed by unrelated matters.

Since that time, I am sorry to report that some Members of the House have held up the sex offender bill by trying to add their own pet projects related to the death penalty, habeas corpus, and other matters. They are all important matters, but we have to move forward with this sex crime legislation.

As the majority leader correctly wrote in his letter, "We should not allow extraneous issues to delay this bill."

Why is the sex offender bill so important? Because the safety of children is at stake. The national sex offender registry will make it easier for local law enforcement to track sex offenders and prevent repeat offenses. The bill authorizes much-needed grants to local law enforcement agencies to establish and integrate sex offender registry systems.

Is it going to take another news story about yet another brutal assault and murder of some young child to make it clear that we need to act now? I hope not.

Obviously, there are still issues to work out between the House and Senate. I understand that. I favor, of course, the Senate-passed bill, S. 1086, which I think did a better job of distinguishing among types of offenders. We need to move forward without delays or distractions on unrelated issues.

Finally, if anyone ever doubts that one person can make a difference in our country and our world, one only need to look at John Walsh. Because of the tragic event dealing with his son Adam, we now have a National Center for Missing Children. We have a TV program called "America's Most Wanted," and because of that program, we have gotten scores of felons who have done very bad things. I have never met John Walsh, but a former Governor of Nevada was a good friend of his. He told me years ago about this good man. I applaud John Walsh. It is because of him that we are moving forward on this legislation.

Sen. William Frist [R-TN]: Mr. President, I know the Democratic leader has other statements to make. I think the signal that we are both sending is that this is significant legislation. It will directly impact families all over the United States of America. It is an obvious need. We have made huge progress and, as the Democratic leader said, much of that is to be attributed to John Walsh, his family, because of the tragedy they suffered with the loss of their child.

Again, the Democratic leader and I are joined at the hip pushing this through in the Senate. We, working together, agreed to have a focused bill, a targeted bill, that would accomplish the specific objectives here. And our appeal today is that the House do likewise so we can pass this by July 27.