Could bill have helped Destiny?

Ed Smart and his kidnapped-but-rescued daughter, Elizabeth, wondered aloud in Washington Wednesday if a bill they long sought — which the Senate is poised to pass today — might have helped prevent the disappearance of Utah girl Destiny Norton.

"In the case of Destiny, we don't know whether a sex offender took her or what happened," Ed Smart said during a break in lobbying for a bill by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, designed to get tougher on such offenders and better track them.

"But keeping better track of sex offenders will help make them a little more responsible," he said. "I don't want to see any family go through the absolute nightmare and pain that we went through and that Destiny's parents are going through now."

Destiny, 5, has been missing from her Salt Lake home since Sunday.

Hatch hopes the Senate will pass today the "Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act," just a week before the 25th anniversary of the abduction and murder of young Walsh (son of John Walsh, host of television's "America's Most Wanted"). He hopes that President Bush can sign it into law on the actual 25th anniversary on July 27.

"Pedophiles use the Web to hunt our children. Now we will start using the Web to hunt down sexual predators," Hatch told the Senate on Wednesday as the Smarts watched — and were introduced by Hatch.

Ed Smart has helped push for that bill for a year and a half. "We have no clue where 150,000 of the nation's 500,000 sex offenders are," he said, which makes current Web sites that supposedly list whereabouts incomplete and of limited use. Failure to report whereabouts is currently only a misdemeanor in most states.

"The bill will create stiffer penalties if they don't register — up to 10 years in jail," and make failure to register and notify of changes a felony, Smart said. "Basically, they have to report changes within three days about where they are living, employed or are going to school."

Hatch told the Senate the bill would create "a searchable national Web site that interacts with state sites. Citizens in every state will be able to inform themselves about predators in their communities with accurate information."

Also, Hatch said, the bill "provides money to put tracking devices on high-risk sex offenders who are released from jail. If we convict these monsters, we can't lose track of them."