[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1220 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1220

To assist law enforcement in their efforts to recover missing children 
  and to strengthen the standards for State sex offender registration 
                               programs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 9, 2005

   Mr. Dodd (for himself, Ms. Collins, and Mr. Leahy) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To assist law enforcement in their efforts to recover missing children 
  and to strengthen the standards for State sex offender registration 
                               programs.

    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 ``Prevention and Recovery of Missing 
Children Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) An improved registration system for sex offenders and 
        others who commit predatory acts against children will provide 
        law enforcement agencies with additional information critical 
        to preventing and promptly resolving such crimes.
            (2) The most recent annual data shows that about 58,000 
        children were abducted by nonfamily members, usually people who 
        are strangers to the children. The most frequent victims were 
        teenage girls. Almost \\1/2\\ of these victims were sexually 
        molested.
            (3) The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, 
        which links more than 16,000 Federal, State, and local law 
        enforcement agencies, is a critical means of cooperation among 
        law enforcement agencies.
            (4) Delays in entering missing children reports into the 
        NCIC database leads to investigative delays when time is 
        critical to ensuring the safe return of missing children, as 
        evidenced by the fact that in 74 percent of abduction homicide 
        cases the child is dead within the first 3 hours and 91 percent 
        are killed within 24 hours.

SEC. 3. MISSING CHILD REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 3702 of the Crime Control Act of 1990 (42 
U.S.C. 5780) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (2) and (3) as paragraphs 
        (3) and (4), respectively;
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
            ``(2) ensure that no law enforcement agency within the 
        State establishes or maintains any policy that requires the 
        removal of a missing person entry from its State law 
        enforcement system or the National Crime Information Center 
        computer network based solely on the age of the person;''; and
            (3) in paragraph (3), as so redesignated, by striking 
        ``immediately'' and inserting ``within 2 hours of receipt''.

SEC. 4. STANDARDS FOR SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION PROGRAMS.

    (a) In General.--Section 170101 of the Violent Crime Control and 
Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14071) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)(A)--
                            (i) by striking clause (i), and inserting 
                        the following:
                            ``(i) inform the person of the duty to 
                        register and obtain the information required 
                        for such registration, including the person's 
                        name, current address, anticipated future 
                        residence, employer name and address, license 
                        plate number and other identifying information 
                        about each vehicle that the person owns, and 
                        student enrollment information;'';
                            (ii) by striking clause (iv) and inserting 
                        the following:
                            ``(iv) obtain fingerprints, a photograph, 
                        and a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sample, 
                        unless they were obtained within the previous 3 
                        months;'';
                            (iii) in clause (v), by striking the period 
                        at the end and inserting the following: ``; 
                        and''; and
                            (iv) by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(vi) for persons who are incarcerated, 
                        perform each of the duties under clauses (i) 
                        through (v) prior to the release of that person 
                        from incarceration.'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2)(A), in the second sentence, by 
                inserting ``registration information for persons 
                intending to move to another State is promptly made 
                available to the registering agency of that State, and 
                that'' after ``State procedures shall also ensure 
                that'';
                    (C) by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the 
                following:
            ``(3) Verification.--For all persons required to register 
        under this section, State procedures shall provide for 
        verification of registry information at least once every 90 
        days.'';
                    (D) by striking paragraph (4) and inserting the 
                following:
            ``(4) Notification of local law enforcement agencies of 
        changes in registry information.--State procedures shall 
        provide that all persons required to register under this 
        section shall report a change of name, address, employer name 
        and address, vehicle information, and student enrollment 
        information to a law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction 
        where the person will reside, not later than 2 business days 
        after such change takes effect.''; and
                    (E) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(8) Current photograph.--State procedures shall provide 
        for local law enforcement to obtain a photograph for all 
        persons required to register under this section--
                    ``(A) at the initial registration of the person; 
                and
                    ``(B) at least once a year from the time of 
                verification of the registry information of that 
                person, throughout the term of registration.
            ``(9) Driver's license or identification card.--State 
        procedures shall require that all persons required to register 
        under this section obtain, at the time of initial registration, 
        a driver's license or identification card from the State 
        Department of Motor Vehicles in the State in which that person 
        resides.''; and
            (2) in subsection (d)--
                    (A) by striking ``A'' and inserting the following:
            ``(1) In general.--A''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) Felony.--States shall designate a failure to comply 
        with the registration and verification requirements of this 
        section as a felony and permit such failure to be grounds for 
        the immediate issuance of an arrest warrant.
            ``(3) Considerations.--States shall consider a failure to 
        comply with the registration and verification requirements of 
        this section as an ongoing offense for the purpose of statutes 
        of limitation, and shall consider a failure to register each 
        item of changed registry information as a separate offense.''.
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