Update: A commenter below opined Biden wasn't responsible for the Amber Alert bill. Well, yes he was.I covered it at the time in 2003 here and here.
The real name of the Amber Alert bill is the Missing Broadcast Emergency Response Alert bill. It was part of the PROTECT Act. Because Biden wanted yet another drug bill passed, the Rave Act, and no one was going for it, he sneakily tacked it onto the Amber Alert portion of the Protect Act to get it passed. -- no hearings or anything.
The Amber Alert Bill "galvanizes entire communities to assist law enforcement
in the time-sensitive search for and safe return of child victims." 40 National and state broadcast systems report abductions instantly upon receiving notification. 1 4 1 Information including any descriptions of the abductor
and victim, vehicle model and license plate number, and any other indicators are roadcasted.A national coordinator was appointed and
substantial funds were provided to monitor and support AMBER Alert systems. Information including any descriptions of the abductor
and victim, vehicle model and license plate number, and any other indicators are broadcasted. A national coordinator was appointed and substantial funds were provided to monitor and support AMBER Alert systems.
The Protect Act established high mandatory minimum sentences for those committing crimes against children. It eliminated the statute of limitations for prosecuting these crimes. Judges were extremely upset. Their already limited discretion in sentencing was effectively decimated. Some quit the bench over it.
Biden's sneaky move:
The correlation between baby-snatching perverts and pacifier-slinging music promoters is tenuous at best, but on April 10, the House and Senate approved a revived version of last year’s failed “RAVE Act” as part of the “Amber Alert” anti-child-abduction bill. The new law, the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, was quietly folded into the measure by Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE).
Here's the shorter version of what happened. No one wanted the Rave bull but Biden and a few others. The Protect act, of which the Amber Alert bill was a section, was passed by both houses with differences, meaning it had to go to conference. At the conference, Biden sneaked the Amber Alert bill onto the Rave bill, knowing no one would vote against the Amber Alert Bill. Since it was done at conference, only 14 members of Congress got to vote.
The Amber Alert bill passed one week after being introduced in the Senate:
"Plain and simple: This legislation will help save children’s lives," said Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. "The money in this bill will help states such as Delaware pay for their AMBER Alert programs and it will help states who do not yet have AMBER alerts put them into place."
The final “Amber” bill was then sent to every Member of Congress for a final straight-up or straight-down vote. Even those that opposed the RAVE Act had to vote for the final “Amber” bill because they wanted to enact the provisions preventing child abductions.
The amber alerts that come on TV here are not chirons that run at the bottom of the screen. The are loud noises that a voice describing the missing child (usually tens of miles away) and blacks out the audio of the show you are watching. You can't tape it to watch later because the Amber Alert will also be recorded.
