Foley said the legislation is not a knee-jerk reaction to the recent spate of kidnappings and murders of children around the country by repeat sex offenders. Rather, he has been working over the past seven months with John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted," whose own son was kidnapped and murdered, to develop model legislation acceptable to the U.S. Justice Department and children's advocates.

"At least we have the right to know where they are," Walsh said. "Enough is enough."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says there are more than 500,000 registered sex offenders but that 100,000 to 150,000 of those are "missing" in that officials do not know where they currently are. There are currently 8,000 registered sex offenders in Utah, according to the center's data.

Advocates of the legislation say the problem is today's highly mobile society where sex offenders move freely from one state to another where the registration laws differ one to another. And too many of them are disappearing only to be discovered preying on children somewhere else where officials had no idea of the predator's history.

States would have three years to bring their state laws into conformity with the federal legislation. If they did it quicker, they would get bonus payments; if they failed to do it within three years, they would lose federal grant money — something the sponsors hope will get the attention of some states that have been lax about sex-offender registration.

"These are not petty criminals," Foley said. "They prey on children like animals and will continue to do so unless stopped.

"When you violate a child, it is difficult to forgive," he added. "It is impossible to forget."

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com