Senate Democrats have been sitting on a bill for more than a year that helps law enforcement quickly track down violent sex offenders. In March of 2011, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions introduced the Finding Fugitive Sex Offenders Act in order to give the Marshals Service the tools it needed to track down sex offenders. Session's legislation had bipartisan support, 21 cosponsors and was tacked onto the bipartisan Child Protection Act. Yesterday, the legislation finally passed.
“I am pleased to see my proposal finally pass, and grateful to Senators Cornyn and Blumenthal for including it in the Child Protection Act. I introduced the Finding Fugitive Sex Offenders Act in order to help the U.S. Marshals Service track down sex offenders who fail to register as required by law and attempt to evade detection. Speed is critical in child abduction cases. These investigations are often fast-moving, and I believe this law will prove to be a useful tool to help law enforcement find missing children. Many other investigative agencies already have this authority, but curiously it is not available in these critical situations. Now the Marshals Service can more easily track these offenders in real time across multiple jurisdictions and hopefully stop future crimes before they occur," Sessions said in a statement.
Why does this matter? For two reasons. First, Obama Democrats and the Obama administration have a habit of going soft on violent sex offenders, specifically sex offenders targeting children. The second being that the administration and Democrats in general accused Republicans all year of waging a war on women, but didn't adopt this legislation until after the election.