Bush signs new Amber Alert legislation

WASHINGTON -- News of missing children will speed to the public over radio, TV and electronic highway signs in more states under the Amber Alert legislation, signed Wednesday by President Bush.\nAlready operating in 41 states, such networks quickly distribute information about kidnapped children and their abductors.\n"It is important to expand the Amber Alert systems so police and sheriff departments gain thousands or even millions of allies in the search for missing children," Bush said at a bill signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.\n"Every person who would think of abducting a child can know that a wide net will be cast," Bush said. "They may be found by a police cruiser or by the car right next to them on a highway. These criminals can know that any driver they pass could be the one that spots them and brings them to justice."\nWatching Bush sign the measure, which also includes stiffer federal penalties for crimes against children and gives prosecutors new tools to fight child pornography, was a tearful experience for the mother of the bill's namesake, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was kidnapped in 1996 and never came home.\nIt was a happier day for 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart, a girl from Salt Lake City who was making her first public appearance since being found in March, nine months after she was kidnapped at knife point from her bedroom. Smart smiled shyly and offered no words.\nHer parents, Ed and Lois Smart, fought hard for the legislation, which provides matching grants to states and communities for equipment and training to expand alert systems across America.\nTears rolled down the face of Amber's mother, Donna Norris, as Bush spoke of signing the legislation in memory of her daughter.\n"It's bittersweet," said Ms. Norris, who wore a button with the face of her daughter, who was abducted in Arlington, Texas, and later was found murdered. "It's a chance to save other children's lives and I'm proud of it."\nAfter the ceremony, Ms. Norris hugged Elizabeth Smart, who stood between her parents, her blond hair pulled back with a white bow. Two people have been charged in her kidnapping.\nAt the urging of Republicans in Congress, the new law strengthens federal criminal penalties for child pornographers, sexual abusers and kidnappers.\nDemocrats argued that restricting federal judges' ability to reduce sentences for such crimes against children should have been more thoroughly debated, but the bill passed with broad bipartisan support: 400-25 in the House and 98-0 in the Senate.\nSen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, said the legislation included needed provisions to protect children. But he protested the inclusion of the new sentencing guidelines.\n"These provisions may do serious harm to the basic structure of the sentencing guideline system and ... seriously impair the ability of courts to impose just and responsible sentences," he said.