[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 340 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 340

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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 26, 2007

    Mr. Chabot (for himself, Mr. Lampson, Mr. Poe, and Mr. Ramstad) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                            on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               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
    Resolved,  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.
                                 <all>