[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6728 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6728

To protect Native children and promote public safety in Indian country.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 6, 2018

  Mr. O'Halleran (for himself and Mr. Cole) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in 
 addition to the Committees on Education and the Workforce, and Energy 
    and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To protect Native children and promote public safety in Indian country.

    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 ``Native Youth and Tribal Officer 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) Native women face some of the highest levels of 
        violence of any group;
            (2) more than half of American Indian and Alaska Native 
        women have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner 
        in their lifetimes, and 90 percent of these women have 
        experienced that violence at the hands of a non-Indian intimate 
        partner;
            (3) Indian tribes report that children are usually involved 
        in domestic violence and dating violence incidents that occur 
        on Indian lands, either as witnesses or as victims themselves;
            (4) American Indian children and Alaska Native children 
        experience post-traumatic stress disorder (referred to in this 
        Act as ``PTSD'') at much higher rates than non-Indian children;
            (5) American Indian children and Alaska Native children 
        experience PTSD at a rate of 22 percent, which is the same rate 
        at which Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans experience PTSD;
            (6) children in Indian country should be protected from 
        violence;
            (7) violence against children and crime associated with 
        dating violence and domestic violence increase the number of 
        instances of trauma in tribal communities, which--
                    (A) affects health outcomes;
                    (B) reduces educational attainment;
                    (C) hinders economic growth; and
                    (D) undermines public safety;
            (8) the Uniform Crime Report of the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation shows that police officers, including tribal 
        police officers, are assaulted when responding to disturbance 
        calls more often than under any other circumstances;
            (9) Congress established the Indian Law and Order 
        Commission to advise the Federal Government on how to improve 
        criminal justice in Indian country;
            (10) the Indian Law and Order Commission issued a report 
        entitled ``A Roadmap for Making Native America Safer'', which 
        recommends the restoration of the inherent authority of tribal 
        courts; and
            (11) tribal communities should be able to protect 
        themselves from dating violence, domestic violence, and child 
        violence, and from violence committed against members of the 
        tribal justice system.

SEC. 3. PROTECTION OF NATIVE CHILDREN AND TRIBAL COMMUNITIES.

    Section 204 of Public Law 90-284 (25 U.S.C. 1304) is amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``domestic 
        violence'' and inserting ``domestic violence, child violence, 
        and violence against law enforcement officers'';
            (2) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``means 
                violence'' and inserting ``means covered conduct'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) by striking ``means violence'' and 
                        inserting ``means covered conduct''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``where the violence 
                        occurs'' and inserting ``where the covered 
                        conduct occurs'';
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ``domestic 
                violence'' and inserting ``tribal'';
                    (D) in paragraph (6)--
                            (i) in the paragraph heading, by striking 
                        ``domestic violence'' and inserting ``tribal''; 
                        and
                            (ii) by striking ``domestic violence'' and 
                        inserting ``tribal'';
                    (E) by redesignating paragraphs (6) and (7) as 
                paragraphs (12) and (13), respectively;
                    (F) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (5) as 
                paragraphs (6) through (10), respectively;
                    (G) by inserting before paragraph (6) (as 
                redesignated by subparagraph (F)) the following:
            ``(1) Caregiver.--The term `caregiver' means--
                    ``(A) the parent, guardian, or legal custodian of 
                the child;
                    ``(B) the spouse or intimate partner of a parent, 
                guardian, or legal custodian of the child;
                    ``(C) any relative of the child, including a 
                parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, stepparent, 
                brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half-brother, 
                or half-sister;
                    ``(D) a person who resides or has resided regularly 
                or intermittently in the same dwelling as the child;
                    ``(E) a person who provides or has provided care 
                for the child in or out of the home of the child;
                    ``(F) any person who exercises or has exercised 
                temporary or permanent control over the child; or
                    ``(G) any person who temporarily or permanently 
                supervises or has supervised the child.
            ``(2) Child.--The term `child' means a person who has not 
        attained the lesser of--
                    ``(A) the age of 18; or
                    ``(B) except in the case of sexual abuse, the age 
                specified by the child protection law of the 
                participating tribe that has jurisdiction over the 
                Indian country where the child resides.
            ``(3) Child violence.--The term `child violence' means 
        covered conduct committed against a child by a caregiver of the 
        child.
            ``(4) Covered conduct.--The term `covered conduct' means 
        conduct that--
                    ``(A) involves the use, attempted use, or 
                threatened use of physical force against the person or 
                property of another; and
                    ``(B) violates the criminal law of the Indian tribe 
                that has jurisdiction over the Indian country where the 
                conduct occurs.
            ``(5) Covered individual.--The term `covered individual' 
        means an officer or employee of an Indian tribe, or an 
        individual authorized to act for or on behalf of an Indian 
        tribe or serving an Indian tribe, who is--
                    ``(A) authorized under law to--
                            ``(i) engage in or supervise the 
                        prevention, detection, investigation, arrest, 
                        pretrial detention, prosecution, or 
                        adjudication of an offense or the sentencing, 
                        including the probation, parole, incarceration, 
                        or rehabilitation, of an individual; or
                            ``(ii) serve as a probation or pretrial 
                        services officer; and
                    ``(B) carrying out an activity described in 
                paragraph (11)(C).''; and
                    (H) by inserting after paragraph (10) (as 
                redesignated by subparagraph (F)) the following:
            ``(11) Related conduct.--The term `related conduct' means a 
        violation of the criminal law of an Indian tribe that is 
        committed--
                    ``(A) against a covered individual;
                    ``(B) by a person--
                            ``(i) who is subject to special tribal 
                        criminal jurisdiction; and
                            ``(ii) has committed criminal conduct that 
                        falls into one or more of the categories 
                        described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of 
                        subsection (c); and
                    ``(C) in the course of resisting or interfering 
                with the prevention, detection, investigation, arrest, 
                pretrial detention, prosecution, adjudication, or 
                sentencing, including the probation, parole, 
                incarceration, or rehabilitation, of that person 
                relating to that criminal conduct.'';
            (3) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) by striking ``domestic violence'' each place it 
                appears and inserting ``tribal''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (4)(B)(iii), in the matter 
                preceding subclause (I), by striking ``, or dating 
                partner'' and inserting ``, dating partner, or 
                caregiver'';
            (4) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 
                striking ``domestic violence'' and inserting 
                ``tribal'';
                    (B) in paragraph (1)--
                            (i) in the paragraph heading, by striking 
                        ``and dating violence'' and inserting ``, 
                        dating violence, and child violence''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``or dating violence'' and 
                        inserting ``, dating violence, or child 
                        violence''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Related conduct.--An act of related conduct that 
        occurs in the Indian country of the participating tribe.'';
            (5) in subsection (d), by striking ``domestic violence'' 
        each place it appears and inserting ``tribal'';
            (6) in subsection (f)--
                    (A) by striking ``special domestic violence'' each 
                place it appears and inserting ``special tribal'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``prosecutes'' 
                and all that follows through the semicolon at the end 
                and inserting the following: ``prosecutes--
                    ``(A) a crime of domestic violence;
                    ``(B) a crime of dating violence;
                    ``(C) a crime of child violence;
                    ``(D) a criminal violation of a protection order; 
                or
                    ``(E) a crime of related conduct;''; and
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``child 
                violence, related conduct,'' after ``dating 
                violence,''; and
            (7) in subsection (h), by striking ``2014 through 2018'' 
        and inserting ``2018 through 2022''.

SEC. 4. INCREASED INTERAGENCY COORDINATION.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services (referred to in this section as the 
``Secretaries'') shall coordinate with the Attorney General to ensure, 
to the maximum extent practicable, that Federal programs to support 
tribal justice systems and to support provision of victim services for 
Indians are working effectively together to serve the needs of Indian 
tribes and Indians (as such terms are defined in section 4 of the 
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 
5304)).
    (b) Coordination of Federal Indian Facilities With National 
Domestic Violence Hotline Grantees.--The Secretaries shall ensure that 
information for contacting any toll-free telephone hotline operated by 
recipients of a grant authorized by section 313 of the Family Violence 
Protective Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10413), is posted and readily 
visible in each publicly accessible Federal facility utilized by--
            (1) the Indian Health Services;
            (2) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; or
            (3) the Bureau of Indian Education.
    (c) Coordination on Training Federal Indian Program Employees To 
Recognize and Respond to Domestic Violence.--The Secretaries (acting 
through the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, the Director of the 
Bureau of Indian Education, and the Director of the Indian Health 
Service) shall coordinate with the Director of the Office on Violence 
Against Women of the Department of Justice and the Associate 
Commissioner for the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Department 
of Health and Human Services to ensure that training materials on 
recognizing and responding to domestic violence are available to tribal 
and Federal employees of--
            (1) the Indian Health Services;
            (2) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and
            (3) the Bureau of Indian Education.

SEC. 5. REPORT.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of the Interior (acting through the 
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs) and the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services (acting through the Director of the Indian Health 
Service) shall jointly submit a report to--
            (1) the Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate; and
            (2) the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of 
        Representatives.
    (b) Contents of the Report.--The report required under subsection 
(a) shall include a description of the degree of effectiveness of--
            (1) Federal programs that are intended to build the 
        capacity of criminal justice systems of Indian tribes to 
        investigate and prosecute offenses relating to dating violence, 
        domestic violence, child violence, and related conduct (as 
        defined in section 204 of Public Law 90-284 (25 U.S.C. 1304), 
        as amended by section 3(2));
            (2) the required coordination activities required under 
        section 4, including compliance with the posting of domestic 
        violence victim service access information required under 
        section 4(b); and
            (3) the interagency employee training material development 
        required under section 4(c).
    (c) Timing.--The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services shall submit the report required under 
subsection (a) by not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of 
this Act.
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