[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1599 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1599

       To establish a Missing and Exploited Children Task Force.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             October 28 (legislative day, October 13), 1993

Mr. DeConcini (for himself, Mr. D'Amato, and Mr. Hatch) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
       To establish a Missing and Exploited Children Task Force.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Missing and Exploited Children Task 
Force Act of 1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the victimization of children in our Nation has reached 
        epidemic proportions; recent Department of Justice figures show 
        that--
                    (A) 4,600 children were abducted by non-family 
                members;
                    (B) two-thirds of the abductions of children by 
                non-family members involve sexual assault;
                    (C) more than 354,000 children were abducted by 
                family members; and
                    (D) 451,000 children ran away;
            (2) while some local law enforcement officials have been 
        successful in the investigation and resolution of such crimes, 
        most local agencies lack the personnel and resources necessary 
        to give this problem the full attention it requires;
            (3) a majority of the Nation's 17,000 police departments 
        have 10 or fewer officers; and
            (4) locating missing children requires a coordinated law 
        enforcement effort; supplementing local law enforcement 
        agencies with a team of assigned active Federal agents will 
        allow Federal agents to pool their resources and expertise in 
        order to assist local agents in the investigation of the 
        Nation's most difficult cases involving missing children.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to establish a task force comprised of 
law enforcement officers from pertinent Federal agencies to work with 
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (referred to as 
the ``Center'') and coordinate the provision of Federal law enforcement 
resources to assist State and local authorities in investigating the 
most difficult cases of missing and exploited children.

SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF TASK FORCE.

    Title IV of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 
1974 (42 U.S.C. 5771 et seq.) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating sections 407 and 408 as sections 408 
        and 409, respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after section 406 the following new 
        section:

                              ``task force

    ``Sec. 407. (a) Establishment.--There is established a Missing and 
Exploited Children's Task Force (referred to as the ``Task Force'').
    ``(b) Membership.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Task Force shall include at least 2 
        members from each of--
                    ``(A) the Federal Bureau of Investigation;
                    ``(B) the Secret Service;
                    ``(C) the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms;
                    ``(D) the United States Customs Service;
                    ``(E) the Postal Inspection Service;
                    ``(F) the United States Marshals Service; and
                    ``(G) the Drug Enforcement Administration.
            ``(2) Chief.--A representative of the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation (in addition to the members of the Task Force 
        selected under paragraph (1)(A)) shall act as chief of the Task 
        Force.
            ``(3) Selection.--(A) The Director of the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation shall select the chief of the Task Force.
            ``(B) The heads of the agencies described in paragraph (1) 
        shall submit to the chief of the Task Force a list of at least 
        5 prospective Task Force members, and the chief shall select 2, 
        or such greater number as may be agreeable to an agency head, 
        as Task Force members.
            ``(4) Professional qualifications.--The members of the Task 
        Force shall be law enforcement personnel selected for their 
        expertise that would enable them to assist in the investigation 
        of cases of missing and exploited children.
            ``(5) Status.--A member of the Task Force shall remain an 
        employee of his or her respective agency for all purposes 
        (including the purpose of performance review), and his or her 
        service on the Task Force shall be without interruption or loss 
        of civil service privilege or status and shall be on a 
        nonreimbursable basis.
            ``(6) Period of service.--(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), 
        a member shall serve on the Task Force for a period of 1 year, 
        and may be selected to a renewal of service for 1 additional 
        year.
            ``(B) The chief of the Task Force may at any time request 
        the head of an agency described in paragraph (1) to submit a 
        list of 5 prospective Task Force members to replace a member of 
        the Task Force, for the purpose of maintaining a Task Force 
        membership that will be able to meet the demands of its 
        caseload.
    ``(c) Support.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Administrator of the General 
        Services Administration, in coordination with the heads of the 
        agencies described in subsection (b)(1), shall provide the Task 
        Force office space and administrative and support services, 
        such office space to be in close proximity to the office of the 
        Center, so as to enable the Task Force to coordinate its 
        activities with that of the Center on a day-to-day basis.
            ``(2) Legal guidance.--The Attorney General shall assign a 
        United States Attorney to provide legal guidance, as needed, to 
        members of the Task Force.
    ``(d) Purpose.--
            ``(1) In general.--(A) The purpose of the Task Force shall 
        be to make available the combined resources and expertise of 
        the agencies described in paragraph (1) to assist State and 
        local governments in the most difficult missing and exploited 
        child cases nationwide, as identified by the chief of the Task 
        Force from time to time, in consultation with the Center, and 
        as many additional cases as resources permit, including the 
        provision of assistance to State and local investigators on 
        location in the field.
            ``(B) Technical assistance.--The role of the Task Force in 
        any investigation shall be to provide advice and technical 
        assistance and to make available the resources of the agencies 
        described in subsection (b)(1); the Task Force shall not take a 
        leadership role in any such investigation.
    ``(e) Training.--Members of the Task Force shall receive a course 
of training, provided by the Center, in matters relating to cases of 
missing and exploited children.
    ``(f) Cross-Designation of Task Force Members.--The Attorney 
General shall cross-designate the members of the Task Force with 
jurisdiction to enforce Federal law related to child abduction to the 
extent necessary to accomplish the purposes of this section.''.

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