28
March
HOUSE APPROVES ‘AMBER ALERT’ BILL (But added measures put its fate in doubt)
Newsday/Elaine S. Povich
A day after the miraculous safe return of Elizabeth Smart, several lawmakers joined Ed Smart,the Utah teenager’s father, in urging quick passage of a federal Amber Alert bill, which wouldallocate $25 million to implement the program that broadcasts information on highway signs,electronic message boards and radio and TV stations in the crucial first hours after a child iskidnapped. The bill, named after Amber Hagerman, a Texas girl who was kidnapped and murdered in1996, was passed unanimously in the Senate in September, but stalled after the House attached it