Angry Dad Pushes For National Amber Alert
March 13 -- Just hours after Elizabeth Smart was found, her father's tears of joy were mixed with sharp words for Congress, which has failed to pass a national Amber Alert law.
An emotional Ed Smart called upon Congress to pass a bill supporting a nationwide alert system today, marking the day his daughter was brought home. The alert would speed information on missing children across the country, right after the incidents occur.
"I am calling on House leadership … to allow the Amber Alert to come to the floor today," Smart told Good Morning America. "Not tomorrow, not next year, not in months, but take some leadership and make today the day that not only Elizabeth was brought home, but the Amber Alert passed for the thousands of children who are out there that do not have this help."
Smart suggested lawmakers were responsible for the deaths of children who would have been found through a national Amber Alert network.
"The blood of those children is on someone's head," he said.
A bipartisan group of senators responded to Smart's call by voicing support for a national Amber Alert program, but House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner said he continued to support such a network only as part of a broader package of child abuse and abduction prevention legislation.
There are 38 statewide Amber plans operating throughout the country. Back in October, in front of a group of parents with missing children, President Bush announced his plan to put federal money and muscle behind Amber Alert systems across the nation. Bush announced that $10 million in federal money for training and equipment to be distributed to communities using the Emergency Alert System to inform residents of kidnappings within hours after they happen.
Congress has since been considering legislation that would create a nationwide Amber Alert program. It passed in the Senate, but has failed to pass in the House and has become bogged down as part of a bigger, more controversial crime bill championed by Sensenbrenner.
