[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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