A Florida program that helps find missing people got one step closer to expanding its nationwide reach this week after a bill alloting it $5 million passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Ron Klein, a Boca Raton Democrat, authored the bipartisan proposal that would help support A Child is Missing, a Fort Lauderdale nonprofit that sends out emergency phone calls to nearby neighborhoods after the disappearance of a child, a disabled adult or an elderly person.

The bill passed the House on Tuesday 417-5 but has not yet gone to the Senate.

``A child being taken unlawfully or abducted is a parent's worst nightmare,'' said Klein. ``This is a great way to use modern technology to help recover children.''

The organization, started in 1997, works with law enforcement agencies to fill the gap before an AMBER alert is issued.

When a serious abduction takes place, the Department of Justice sends out an AMBER Alert notifying safety officials and emergency broadcasters. But certain conditions, such as an imminent threat of injury, must be met.

Not so for the Florida program. As soon as police inform the group a person is missing, the organization blasts an emergency phone call.

These quick moves ``can be the difference from finding a child or not,'' Klein said.

Sen. Robert Menendez,D-N.J., author of the act's companion bill in the Senate, has yet to schedule a day for a Senate vote, said Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi.

The bill was introduced in the House in 2007 and passed then as well. But in 2008, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma held the bill, preventing a Senate vote.

``If you're going to fund a new program like this for $5 million, you need to cut $5 million elsewhere,'' said Coburn spokesman Don Tetro.

The nonprofit gets most of its money from earmarks in federal bills but needs more, said Sherry Friedlander, founder of the nonprofit.

``We need a big chunk to get the job done,'' she said.

The money, from the Department of Justice, would pay for regional centers to increase awareness of the program and train police how to use it.