Legislation to protect children from sexual predators seeking to travel abroad was cleared today by the major House of Representatives panel that oversees U.S. foreign policy and international bilateral agreements.

    The International Megan’s Law, H.R. 4573, authored by Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), establishes a model framework for international law enforcement notifications when convicted child sex offenders pose a danger to children in a destination country.  The bill is expected to be brought before the full House in the near future.

    “The goals of this legislation do not stop at protecting children overseas from U.S. predators,” said Smith, a senior Republican and human rights leader on the Foreign Affairs Committee. “Sex offenders around the world are now able to cross borders and oceans to carry out their nefarious activity under the cloak of anonymity and disappear before a child is able or willing to reveal the crime.

    “The International Megan’s Law would establish the model needed for the U.S. to persuade other countries to take action to stop child sex tourism originating within their borders and threatening children in the United States and elsewhere. The goal is reciprocal notice,” Smith said.

    Smith said that the new International Megan’s Law will work in conjunction with America’s anti-human trafficking laws, which Smith wrote and steered through Congress in2000, 2003 and 2005.

    As cleared unanimously today by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Smith’s legislation contains several mutually-reinforcing components to protect children from sex predators who may be looking to travel to commit more crimes.

    Committee Chairman Ed Royce of California said he would continue to work to advance the bill in the House.

     “I think all of us here who have worked with Congressman Smith over the years know we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his heartfelt commitment to this issue and I want to thank him for his leadership and a long standing dedication that I think has surpassed what anybody else has ever put in to trying to track and do something about this issue,” Royce said.
 
     The Committee’s Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) spoke at the committee about on Smith’s focus on the anti-trafficking issues and his “hard work” on H.R. 4573.

    “Mr. Smith was of one purpose, wanting to have an effective law to combat child trafficking and was willing to make the necessary compromises to truly receive bipartisan support for this bill so I commend him for his tenacity, his sincerity, and his hard work,” Eliot said.

    At today’s committee mark-up of H.R.4573, Smith noted that the legislation is named for Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old from his district in Hamilton, N.J. who was kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered in 1994. Megan’s assailant was a convicted, repeat sex offender living across the street, unbeknownst to residents in the neighborhood. Due to public outcry in response to the tragedy and to hard work by Megan’s loving parents, Richard and Maureen Kanka, the New Jersey State Legislature passed the original Megan’s Law (NJSA 2C: 7-1 through 7-II) to require public notification of convicted sex offenders living in the community. Smith introduced the International Megan’s Law bill alongside the Kankas in 2008, and has worked for passage ever since.

    Smith singled out the Department of Homeland Security’s Angel Watch program, praising it for alerting countries about the problem of American sex offenders traveling abroad to sexually abuse trafficked children in child sex tourism.

    “Unfortunately, Americans who target children form a significant percentage of sex tourists in some of the most significant destinations for child sex tourism, the largest of which are Mexico and the Philippines,” Smith said. “The law enforcement and media reports continue to role in of Americans on the U.S. sex offender registries who were caught sexually abusing children in East Asia and Central America.  It’s the same horror movie replayed over and over.  We must do more to warn destination countries so that they can, in turn, protect their children from sex tourism.”

    According to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office entitled “Current Situation Results in Thousands of Passports Issued to Registered Sex Offenders” at least 4,500 U.S. passports were issued to registered sex offenders in fiscal year 2008. The GAO emphasized that its numbers were probably understated due to the limitations of the data that it was able to access and analyze.

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