[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2517 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2517
To amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act to authorize
appropriations, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 24, 2007
Mr. Lampson (for himself, Mrs. Biggert, Mr. Chabot, and Mr. Cramer)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Education and Labor
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act to authorize
appropriations, and for other purposes.
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 ``Protecting Our Children Comes First
Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Section 402 of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.
5771) is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 402. FINDINGS.
``The Congress finds that--
``(1) each year thousands of children are abducted or
removed from the control of a parent having legal custody
without such parent's consent, under circumstances which
immediately place the child in grave danger;
``(2) many missing children are at great risk of both
physical harm and sexual exploitation;
``(3) in many cases, parents and local law enforcement
officials have neither the resources nor the expertise to mount
expanded search efforts;
``(4) abducted children are frequently moved from one
locality to another, requiring the cooperation and coordination
of local, State, and Federal law enforcement efforts;
``(5) growing numbers of children are the victims of child
sexual exploitation, increasingly involving the use of new
technology to access the Internet;
``(6) children may be displaced from their parents or legal
guardians as a result of national disasters such as hurricanes
and floods;
``(7) sex offenders pose a threat to children that
increases as more offenders are released into the Nation's
communities each year; and
``(8) The National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children--
``(A) serves as the national resource center and
clearinghouse;
``(B) works in partnership with the Department of
Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
United States Marshals Service, the Department of the
Treasury, the Department of State, the Department of
Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, the Secret Service, and many other
agencies in the effort to find missing children and
prevent child victimization; and
``(C) operates a national and increasingly
worldwide network, linking the Center online with each
of the missing children clearinghouses operated by the
several States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto
Rico, as well as with Scotland Yard in the United
Kingdom, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL
headquarters in Lyon, France, and others, which enable
the Center to transmit images and information regarding
missing and exploited children to law enforcement
across the United States and around the world
instantly.''.
SEC. 3. DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATOR.
Section 404(b) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.
5773(b)) is amended--
(1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:
``(1) In general.--The Administrator shall annually make a
grant to the Center, which shall be used to--
``(A)(i) operate a national 24-hour toll-free
telephone line by which individuals may report
information regarding the location of any missing
child, and request information pertaining to procedures
necessary to reunite such child with such child's legal
custodian; and
``(ii) coordinate the operation of such telephone
line with the operation of the national communications
system referred to in part C of the Runaway and
Homeless Youth Act;
``(B) operate the official national resource center
and information clearinghouse for missing and exploited
children;
``(C) provide to State and local governments,
public and private nonprofit agencies, and individuals,
information regarding--
``(i) free or low-cost legal, restaurant,
lodging, and transportation services that are
available for the benefit of missing and
exploited children and their families; and
``(ii) the existence and nature of programs
being carried out by Federal agencies to assist
missing and exploited children and their
families;
``(D) coordinate public and private programs that
locate, recover, or reunite missing children with their
families;
``(E) disseminate, on a national basis, information
relating to innovative and model programs, services,
and legislation that benefit missing and exploited
children;
``(F) in cooperation with the Department of
Justice, the Department of State, and local law
enforcement, develop and present an annual report on
the actual number of children nationwide who are
reported missing each year, the number of children who
are victims of non-family abductions, the number of
children who are the victims of parental kidnappings,
and the number of children who are recovered each year;
``(G) provide to State and local governments,
public and private nonprofit agencies, and individuals
information to facilitate the lawful use of school
records and birth certificates to identify and locate
missing children;
``(H) provide technical assistance and training to
law enforcement agencies, State and local governments,
elements of the criminal justice system, public and
private nonprofit agencies, and individuals in the
prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment
of cases involving missing and exploited children;
``(I) provide assistance to families and law
enforcement agencies in locating and recovering missing
and exploited children, both nationally and
internationally;
``(J) provide analytical support and technical
assistance to law enforcement agencies through
searching public records databases in locating and
recovering missing and exploited children and helping
to locate and identify abductors;
``(K) provide direct on-site technical assistance
and consultation to law enforcement agencies in child
abduction and exploitation cases;
``(L) provide forensic technical assistance and
consultation to law enforcement and other agencies in
the identification of unidentified deceased children
through facial reconstruction of skeletal remains and
similar techniques;
``(M) track the incidence of attempted child
abductions in order to identify links and patterns, and
provide such information to law enforcement agencies;
``(N) provide assistance to law enforcement
agencies in locating non-compliant sex offenders;
``(O) facilitate the deployment of the National
Emergency Child Locator Center to assist in reuniting
missing children with their families during periods of
national disasters;
``(P) work in conjunction with the Federal Bureau
of Investigation to provide fitness determinations
based on the criminal history of applicants for
volunteer positions in child-serving non-profit
organizations.
``(Q) operate a cyber tipline to provide online
users and electronic service providers an effective
means of reporting Internet-related child sexual
exploitation in the areas of--
``(i) possession, manufacture and
distribution of child pornography;
``(ii) online enticement of children for
sexual acts;
``(iii) child prostitution;
``(iv) sex tourism involving children;
``(v) extrafamilial child sexual
molestation;
``(vi) unsolicited obscene material sent to
a child; and
``(vii) misleading domain names;
and subsequently to transmit such reports, including
relevant images and information, to the appropriate
international, Federal, State or local law enforcement
agency for investigation;
``(R) work with law enforcement, electronic service
providers, electronic payment service providers, and
others on methods to reduce the distribution on the
Internet of images and videos of sexually exploited
children;
``(S) serve as the central repository for child
pornography, related images and evidentiary information
to be provided to law enforcement agencies and
prosecutors in the investigation and prosecution of
child sexual offenses;
``(T) operate the Child Victim Identification
Program in order to assist the efforts of law
enforcement agencies in identifying victims of child
pornography and other sexual crimes;
``(U) mobilize and coordinate financial companies
and Internet services companies to identify and stop
the use of the payment system to support commercial
child pornography;
``(V) develop and disseminate programs and
information for the general public to educate families
and children regarding the prevention of child
abduction and sexual exploitation; and
``(W) develop and disseminate programs and
information to local communities, schools, public
officials, nonprofit organizations and youth-serving
organizations to help parents and children use the
Internet safely and responsibly.'', and
(2) in paragraph (2) by striking ``$20,000,000'' and all
that follows through ``2008'', and inserting ``$50,000,000 for
each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2013''.
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
Section 408(a) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.
5777(a)) is amended by striking ``2007 through 2008'' and inserting
``2008 through 2013''.
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