110 HRES 340 EH: Expressing the sense of the House of U.S. House of Representatives 2007-09-24 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 340 In the House of Representatives, U. S., September 24, 2007 RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives of the importance of providing a voice for the many victims (and families of victims) involved in missing persons cases and unidentified human remains cases.

Whereas there are more than 100,000 active missing person cases on any given day; Whereas every year tens of thousands of people vanish under suspicious circumstances; Whereas there are more than 40,000 sets of human remains held in the property rooms of medical examiners, coroners, and police departments across the country that cannot be identified by conventional means; Whereas of such 40,000 sets of human remains, only six thousand sets of human remains have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and fewer have been entered into other Federal databases such as the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCap) or the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), or the National Missing Persons DNA Database; Whereas many cities and counties continue to bury or cremate unidentified human remains without any attempt to collect DNA and many laboratories are unable to perform timely DNA analysis of human remains, especially when they are old or are degraded; Whereas such victims and their families have been without a voice for far too long: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)is committed to giving victims involved in missing persons cases and unidentified human remains cases a voice; (2)supports that such voice should be heard by— (A)continuing Federal funding for DNA testing and the Combined DNA Index System; (B)supporting greater cooperation between local, State, and Federal law enforcement; (C)providing more comprehensive training and education for the more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies involved in missing persons cases and unidentified human remains cases; (D)providing medical examiners and coroners with greater accessibility into Federal databases to upload and compare evidence so that such victims ultimately may be located and identified and returned to their loved ones where they belong; and (E)working to raise awareness among victim service providers and the general public about the use of DNA and the Combined DNA Index System to identify the unidentified dead; and (3)directs the Clerk of the House of Representatives to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Office for Victims of Crime and the National Institute for Justice in the Department of Justice.

Lorraine C. Miller, Clerk.