Child Abduction Prevention Act

H.R. 1104, the Child Abduction Prevention Act, was designed to strengthen federal laws and law enforcement tools used to prevent and prosecute crimes against children. The bill sought to create a national AMBER Alert coordinator to standardize emergency responses to child abductions and provided grants to states to improve highway notification systems. Additionally, it proposed "Suzanne’s Law," which required law enforcement to report all missing persons under age 21 to national databases without a waiting period, and "Code Adam," which established specific safety protocols for missing children in federal buildings.

For citizens, the bill aimed to increase public safety by imposing stricter sentencing guidelines and mandatory life imprisonment for repeat sex offenders involving minors. It also expanded the ability of law enforcement to use wiretaps in abduction cases and eliminated the statute of limitations for certain crimes against children, ensuring that suspects could be prosecuted regardless of how much time had passed since the offense. While this specific bill was "laid on the table," its core provisions were largely incorporated into the PROTECT Act, which was signed into law in April 2003.