[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1915 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1915

      To provide grants to the States to improve the reporting of 
                   unidentified and missing persons.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 25, 1999

 Mr. Lazio (for himself, Mr. King, Mr. Lampson, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Foley, 
   Mr. Lantos, Mr. Clement, Mr. Farr of California, Mr. Hastings of 
   Florida, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Etheridge, Mrs. Mink of Hawaii, Mr. 
English, Mr. Luther, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Ramstad, Mr. Armey, 
and Mr. DeLay) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To provide grants to the States to improve the reporting of 
                   unidentified and missing persons.

    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 ``Jennifer's Law''.

SEC. 2. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

    The Attorney General is authorized to provide grant awards to 
States to enable States to improve the reporting of unidentified and 
missing persons.

SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY.

    (a) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant award under 
this Act, a State shall submit an application at such time and in such 
form as the Attorney General may reasonably require.
    (b) Contents.--Each such application shall include assurances that 
the State shall, to the greatest extent possible--
            (1) report to the National Crime Information Center and 
        when possible, to law enforcement authorities throughout the 
        State regarding every deceased unidentified person, regardless 
        of age, found in the State's jurisdiction;
            (2) enter a complete profile of such unidentified person in 
        compliance with the guidelines established by the Department of 
        Justice for the National Crime Information Center Missing and 
        Unidentified Persons File, including dental records, x-rays, 
        and fingerprints, if available;
            (3) enter the National Crime Information Center number or 
        other appropriate number assigned to the unidentified person on 
        the death certificate of each such unidentified person; and
            (4) retain all such records pertaining to unidentified 
        persons until a person is identified.

SEC. 4. USES OF FUNDS.

    A State that receives a grant award under this Act may use such 
funds received to establish or expand programs developed to improve the 
reporting of unidentified persons in accordance with the assurances 
provided in the application submitted pursuant to section 3(b).

SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act 
$2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2000, 2001, and 2002.
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