Dick Zimmer, a three-term Republican congressman from New Jersey, who sponsored the landmark legislation known as Megan’s Law, requiring states to disclose where convicted sex offenders are living, died on Dec. 30, 2025, at a nursing care facility in Flemington, NJ. He was 81.

First elected to the House of Representatives in 1990, Mr. Zimmer sponsored Megan’s Law after the 1994 rape and murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka in Hamilton Township, NJ. Her family had been unaware that her killer, a twice-convicted sex offender, had recently moved in across the street.

The bill was based on similar legislation adopted in New Jersey and in other states. It was passed unanimously by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.