On December 11, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved, by voice vote, H.R. 4573, the International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking. The House approved the measure on May 20 (see The Source, 5/23/14).
Sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the bill would establish the Angel Watch Center, which would receive, maintain, and archive travel information by child-sex offenders. The center would review its processes annually to ensure consistent procedures and would establish a method to receive complaints from child-sex offenders affected by notifications from destination countries.
The legislation would authorize the center to engage in ongoing consultations with nongovernment organizations that have experience addressing child-sex tourism and foreign governments interested in creating an international sex offender travel notification system.
