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CNN Live Today

Group of Senators Proposing Amber Alert System be Implemented Nationwide

Aired September 03, 2002 - 10:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A group of senators is proposing that the Amber Alert system which has recently aided in the recovery of several missing children, be implemented nationwide.
Our congressional correspondent Kate Snow is on Capital Hill, her regular perch.

Kate, good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Daryn.

This afternoon, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Republican, along with Senators Diane Feinstein and Hillary Clinton, two Democrats, are going to be introducing this bill. The Amber Alert, obviously, a very popular program, getting a lot of attention of late, and the lawmakers are anxious to jump onto this now and make it a nationwide program.

Right now, there are only 16 states currently that have statewide Amber Alert programs in place. Ten more states have some part their state covered by Amber Alert, but not the whole state.

New York, the latest state to announce in addition to the 16, they will join in with the statewide program. Governor Pataki announcing yesterday that a pilot program set up in February will go statewide. They are going to have more than 500 message boards, electronic signs, set up on New York's highways. Under the bill that Congress is now considering, those kind of signs, electronic signs where they post information about missing kids would at least partly be paid for by federal monies, through the Department of Transportation. I am told they are talking about grants to the states to be provided, and they will not pay for everything at the federal level, but they will give money for training and equipment as well.

It wouldn't be mandatory that states would have to have am Amber Alert program, but something that they could do voluntarily. Also the federal government not interested in providing criteria for when an Amber had to be issued. They would leave that up to the local authorities.

But the bill would call for the Department of Justice to have an office that would essentially oversee all of these programs, so that, Daryn, if there is an incident where somebody crosses state lines from Oklahoma say into Texas, they could coordinate those two states' programs from here in Washington. Tomorrow, Senator Feinstein is going to lead a subcommittee hearing in the Senate on this issue on the amber alert bill that she and others are introducing today. At that hearing, we expect to see the mother of that little girl, Nichole Timmons, the 10-year-old who was taken a couple of weeks back from Riverside, California. Her mother will appear at that hearing. They are hoping, Daryn, they can really get all this wrapped up very quickly. They can pass bills through the Congress, in time to have the president sign a bill by October 2nd, when he is holding a missing and exploited children seminar or conference at the White House.

KAGAN: Kate, let me ask you a big picture schedule question here. Of course, the amber alert important. You've got funding bills, you've got Iraq. You've got homeland defense, and you have not that much time, because all those on folks on Capitol Hill want to get out of dodge so they can go campaign for re-election.

SNOW: Yes, it's a very good question, and how will they get all of this done? Everyone around here is saying they do not think everything will be done between now and the say the next six weeks before they go out and start campaigning. They will probably have come back for what they call lame duck session, but this is the one of those bills that as I mention, so popular, where we may see a scenario we are able to push it through, because there is not all that much -- although there is some disagreement with it, not a lot, so they may be able to push through quickly -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Kate Snow, on Capitol Hill. Kate, thanks so much.

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