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Washington-AP) -- The House today approved a package of child protection legislation that would create a national Amber Alert child kidnapping notification network and strengthen the nation's child pornography laws.
The House voted 400-to-25 for a compromise crafted by a House-Senate negotiating committee that would institute the national child kidnapping network urged by the family of Elizabeth Smart.
The Smart family, who were reunited with Elizabeth last month after she had been taken from her bedroom in a Salt Lake City suburb months ago, called repeatedly for Congress to pass the legislation.
The bill's fate in the Senate is uncertain. Some Democrats, who support a stand-alone Amber Alert bill, have objected to provisions in the compromise that they say would take away federal judges' discretion in sentencing criminals.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
