Briefs

Brown-Waite supports sex offender bill

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite joined a fellow Florida congressman and a Utah senator on Wednesday to propose a bill that would tighten federal sex offender laws.

Brown-Waite, R-Crystal River, has introduced a similar proposal of her own after convicted sex offender John Couey was accused of abducting and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Similar to Brown-Waite's proposal, the latest bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, and Sen. Orrin Hatch would require sex offenders to wear tracking devices, would penalize states that don't comply with the proposed federal mandates, and would reward those that quickly comply within the bill's three-year time line. The Foley bill would, among other measures, create a federal sex offender DNA database, make sex offender laws enforceable in "federally recognized tribal lands" and require convicted sex offenders to register before being released from prison.

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