HR1940 has died with the swearing-in of the 113th Congress in January 2013

 

UPDATE on HR 1940, the "International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act of 2011"

 

It was approved by a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 27, 2012. It still needs
to be approved by the Full Committee. The bill has also been referred to several other House committees,
which haven't yet taken action. Since Foreign Affairs is the primary committee, if it acts on HR 1940 it is
expected that the other committees would stand aside in order to allow it to come to the floor. The 112th
Congress, 2011-2012, ends this year, so we have about six months to get this bill enacted into law.

 

As of June 8, 2012 it has 24 cosponsors:

 

Rep. Frank Wolf [R-VA10]
Rep. Allen West [R-FL22] (joined Jun 02, 2011)
Rep. Susan Davis [D-CA53] (joined Jun 15, 2011)
Rep. Frank LoBiondo [R-NJ2] (joined Jun 15, 2011)
Rep. Gary Miller [R-CA42] (joined Jun 15, 2011)
Rep. James “Jim” Moran [D-VA8] (joined Jun 15, 2011)
Rep. Ken Calvert [R-CA44] (joined Jun 23, 2011)
Rep. John Sarbanes [D-MD3] (joined Jun 23, 2011)
Rep. Grace Napolitano [D-CA38] (joined Jul 08, 2011)
Rep. Jon Runyan [R-NJ3] (joined Jul 08, 2011)
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D-NY22] (joined Jul 29, 2011)
Rep. Leonard Lance [R-NJ7] (joined Jul 29, 2011)
Rep. Jeff Miller [R-FL1] (joined Jul 29, 2011)
Rep. David Rivera [R-FL25] (joined Jul 29, 2011)
Rep. Steven Rothman [D-NJ9] (joined Jul 29, 2011)
Rep. James Sensenbrenner [R-WI5] (joined Jul 29, 2011)
Rep. Steve Cohen [D-TN9] (joined Sep 26, 2011)
Rep. Peter DeFazio [D-OR4] (joined Sep 26, 2011)
Rep. Renee Ellmers [R-NC2] (joined Sep 26, 2011)
Rep. Thaddeus “Thad” McCotter [R-MI11] (joined Nov 18, 2011)
Rep. Gwen Moore [D-WI4] (joined Nov 18, 2011)
Rep. Adam Smith [D-WA9] (joined Nov 18, 2011)
Rep. William “Bill” Pascrell [D-NJ8] (joined May 09, 2012)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler [R-MO4] (joined Jun 05, 2012)

 

Check the list to see if your representative is a cosponsor. If not, ask your representative to cosponsor HR
1940. If your representative is a cosponsor, pass on this information to people you know who live outside of
your congressional district and whose representative has not yet cosponsored HR 1940. Ask them to ask their
representative to cosponsor HR 1940.

 

Since there is no Senate companion measure, the House would have to act in order for the Senate to take it up.
However, if some Senator were to introduce a similar bill in that chamber, then the Senate could act regardless
of what the House did. Introduce your Senator to HR 1940 and ask him/her to consider introducing a mirror bill
in the Senate.