Today, the House passed H.R. 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The legislation protects our nation’s children by improving sex offender registration and notification programs, enhancing law enforcement resources, preventing child exploitation, stopping child pornography and creating new criminal offense penalties protecting children from the Internet. The Adam Walsh Child Protection Act also authorizes grants and other programs to protect and help our children.

“As lawmakers, it is our job to create effective laws that keep our children away from harm,” said Congressman Michael C. Burgess. “While at times this is almost an impossible task, we have a responsibility to children and parents to diligently undertake this charge. We must not stop until we fulfill this important obligation to the most innocent of society, our children.”

Highlights of H.R. 4472

Improving Sex Offender Registration

· The Amie Zyla Act – expands State sex offender registration and notification programs to include certain juvenile, tribal, military, foreign and other sex offense convictions

· Adopts strict requirements that States register sex offenders, keep information current, and immediately share information with other jurisdictions as to where a sex offender resides, works and is employed

· Adds important information to sex offender registries, mandates collection of DNA from sex offenders, and increases frequency of in-person verification of sex offender information

· Increases the time period for sex offenders to remain on the registry and requires States to maintain an Internet site with sex offender information

· Authorizes the creation of the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website

· Expands public notification requirements for sex offender registration and changes in registration to include law enforcement, each jurisdiction in which a sex offender works, lives or attends school, background check agencies, social service agencies, volunteer organizations and any other entity that request notification

· Authorizes Sex Offender Management Assistance Grants to States and local governments to implement the new sex offender requirement

· Authorizes a pilot program for electronic monitoring of sex offenders

Criminal Enhancements and Law Enforcement Resources to Protect Children

· Creates new Federal felony crime for sex offenders who fail to register or update their registration information, with a possible punishment of 10 years in jail, and a mandatory minimum of five years if the sex offender commits a crime of violence while not registered

· Authorizes United States Marshals Service to apprehend “missing” (unregistered) sex offenders

· Creates new Office within the Justice Department to monitor and track sex offenders and authorizes Project Safe Childhood program

· Prohibits Internet sales of date rape drugs

· Adopts stiff penalties for killing or violent attacks of children – death penalty for murder and mandatory minimum of 25 years for kidnapping or maiming a child, and a mandatory minimum of 10 years for causing serious bodily injury to a child or using a weapon to attack a child

· Establishes tough 30-year mandatory minimum penalties for having sex with a child under 12 or sexually assaulting a child between 13 and 17

· Increases mandatory minimum penalties for coercing or enticing a child to have sex, transporting a child to engage in criminal sexual activity, sexual exploitation of a child, and sex trafficking of children

· Eliminates statute of limitations for sexual offenses against a child

· Adds abuse and neglect of Indian children as a federal criminal offense

· Reforms federal civil commitment laws and authorizes grants to States to implement civil commitment programs to protect against dangerous sex offenders

· Amends immigration laws to make failure to register a deportable offense and bars convicted sex offenders from having family-based petitions approved

Protecting Children from the Internet - The INTERNET Safety Act

· Creates new criminal offense against child exploitation enterprises and punishes members of enterprise with mandatory minimum of 20 years incarceration

· Adopts a 10-year consecutive mandatory penalty for any sex offender who commits a sexual offense, crime of violence or other specified offense against a child

· Creates new criminal penalty for embedding words or images in source code of a website to deceive children into viewing obscene material

· Authorizes additional prosecutors and computer forensics to prosecute child exploitation and child sex abuse cases

· Enacts Masha’s Law to expand civil remedies for sexual offenses against children

Preventing Child Exploitation and Stopping Child Pornography

· Improves record-keeping requirements and inspection regimes to any person or entity that produces pornography to ensure that children are not used or exploited in such depictions

· Authorizes civil and criminal asset forfeiture in child exploitation and obscenity cases

· Prohibits the production of obscene materials as well as the transportation, distribution and sale

Grants and Other Programs to Protect and Help Children

· Authorizes grants to combat sexual abuse of children, crime prevention campaign, fingerprinting of children, and assistance in prosecution of sexual crime cases using DNA evidence

· Authorizes grants for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, and children’s online safety awareness and safety programs

· Creates national registry of substantiated cases of child abuse

· Directs GAO to study use of drivers’ license registration process as an additional sex offender registration requirement.