FARGO - Lawmakers should stop worrying about the civil rights of sex offenders and pass a bill that would increase penalties and provide money to help monitor them, Rep. Earl Pomeroy says.

The "Children's Safety Act of 2005" was introduced in the House earlier this month, the day before Joseph Duncan, a registered sex offender from Fargo, was arrested on charges of kidnapping two children from an Idaho home where three people were killed.

"The bottom line is, we are all alarmed and appalled at the risk to our children posed by sexual predators," Pomeroy, D-N.D., said at a press conference Monday. "This has been brought absolutely to the fore by the arrest of Mr. Duncan and the circumstances surrounding that tragic case."

Duncan, 42, was arrested after he was spotted in a restaurant with an 8-year-old girl who had been missing since May 16. Police recovered the body of her 9-year-old brother in Montana. Their mother, their older brother, and their mother's boyfriend were beaten to death.

Duncan's last known address was an apartment in north Fargo.

"Fargo's on the national map right now in a very bad way because Joseph Duncan made the decision to move to our community five years ago," Fargo Police Chief Chris Magnus said. "What's scary and particularly frustrating to me is that our community already has more notification and monitoring … than a great majority of cities and towns around the country."

The bill before the House is an expanded version of a Senate proposal that would create a national data base of sex offenders. That proposal, named "Dru's Law," after slain University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, would be included in the House bill.

Authorities said Sjodin was killed after she was abducted from a Grand Forks shopping mall. A convicted sex offender, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. of Crookston, Minn., has been charged in federal court with kidnapping resulting in her death.

"Sex offenders are no respecters of state boundaries," said Birch Burdick, the Cass County state's attorney. "A change in the national laws will help set a standard that can be applied across the country."

Funding for the bill will be determined later, Pomeroy said.

"Anybody who has been listening to their constituents over this July 4 recess is coming back with one clear message: Keep our children safe," Pomeroy said.

Similar legislation was held up in a House subcommittee last year after some lawmakers complained about possible civil liberties violations, Pomeroy said.

"Unfortunately there were a few who believed this was being unfair to sex offenders," he said.

The bill would require a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for anyone who engages in a sexual act with a child under 12. It would call for a sentence of 30 years to life - or the death penalty - for offenders whose actions results in the death of the victim.

Offenders who fail to meet registration requirements would face between 5 years and 20 years in prison.

The country has about 550,000 sex offenders, including about 100,000 whose whereabouts are unknown, Pomeroy said.

"Unfortunately the statistics, upon further investigation, only increase the sense of alarm that one feels," he said.