The U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed an amendment by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., closing a loophole that has allowed convicted military sex offenders to avoid having their names placed on public registries.
“My amendment is, quite honestly, a fix to the problem and will help authorities and the public better track sex offenders in our communities,” Burr said on the Senate floor.
Currently, military sex offenders are only required to self-report to a state government after they are released from a military correctional facility, or after they’re sentenced if they’re not required to serve time.
Burr’s measure would require the Department of Defense to provide the information to a national law enforcement database and the publicly searchable Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender website, named for a 22-year-old Minnesota woman who was killed by a registered sexual offender.
In the civilian justice system, sex offenders are registered in their state before they’re released, Burr said.
Burr’s amendment passed the Senate 98-0. It was attached to a bill to fight human trafficking that the Senate passed 99-0 on Wednesday. The House of Representatives would have to approve it before it could become law.
“In our own state of North Carolina, we’ve seen the devastating effects of this loophole,” Burr said in a statement after the vote. “Nationally, too many known sex offenders have successfully gamed the system, which has enabled them to commit heinous crimes again. Closing this gap standardizes reporting for all sex offenders, regardless of whether they are military or civilian, so that no convicted offender can evade law enforcement and target new victims.”
Burr earlier said a Department of Defense inspector general report last August found that since the department can’t register military sex offenders with the national registry, they’re able to “evade sex offender registration requirements.”
“The Department of Defense tried to correct the problem by working with state authorities and the U.S. Marshals Service, but under-reporting continues today,” he said.
The North Carolina Republican referred in his floor speech to a Scripps News investigation and report in January that found that hundreds of convicted military sex offenders don’t appear on public and law enforcement registries.
“My amendment costs taxpayers nothing and it’s a common sense solution to a real problem that exists,” Burr said.
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