For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 27, 2003

Statement by the President

As we take steps abroad to make the world a safer place for all, there are important steps we can take at home to make America a safer place for children.

I commend the House for acting today on legislation that will help expand, enhance, and coordinate the successful Amber Alert system across our nation. I look forward to legislation reaching my desk as quickly as possible so that I may sign it into law.

The prevention and investigation of child abductions will always be a top priority in my administration. That is why my administration began taking steps last year to expand and improve the Amber Alert system, including allocating existing federal resources to this effort and appointing a federal coordinator within the Department of Justice.

Protecting our children is a shared priority for the American people and federal, state and local authorities. We must use every resource possible to find and safely return missing children to their families and their homes, just as we will continue to use every tool within the law to vigorously prosecute and severely punish those who would do our children harm.

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