[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2174 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.2174

                     One Hundred Sixteenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

           Begun and held at the City of Washington on Friday,
            the third day of January, two thousand and twenty


                                 An Act


 
 To the extent provided in advance in appropriations Act, the Attorney 
        General is authorized to use funds appropriated for the 
 operationalization, maintenance, and expansion of the National Missing 
and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for the purpose of carrying out 
                                this Act.

    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 ``Missing Persons and Unidentified 
Remains Act of 2019''.
SEC. 2. USE OF GRANT FUNDS.
    (a) Jennifer's Law.--Jennifer's Law (34 U.S.C. 40501 et seq.) is 
amended--
        (1) by striking section 202 (34 U.S.C. 40501) and inserting the 
    following:
    ``SEC. 202. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.
    ``(a) In General.--
        ``(1) Grants authorized.--The Attorney General may award grants 
    to eligible entities described in paragraph (2) to enable the 
    eligible entities to improve the transportation, processing, 
    identification, and reporting of missing persons and unidentified 
    remains, including migrants.
        ``(2) Eligible entities.--Eligible entities described in this 
    paragraph are the following:
            ``(A) States and units of local government.
            ``(B) Accredited, publicly funded, Combined DNA Index 
        System (commonly known as `CODIS') forensic laboratories, which 
        demonstrate the grant funds will be used for DNA typing and 
        uploading biological family DNA reference samples, including 
        samples from foreign nationals, into CODIS, subject to the 
        protocols for inclusion of such forensic DNA profiles into 
        CODIS, and the privacy protections required under section 
        203(c).
            ``(C) Medical examiners offices.
            ``(D) Accredited, publicly funded toxicology laboratories.
            ``(E) Accredited, publicly funded crime laboratories.
            ``(F) Publicly funded university forensic anthropology 
        laboratories.
            ``(G) Nonprofit organizations that have working 
        collaborative agreements with State and county forensic 
        offices, including medical examiners, coroners, and justices of 
        the peace, for entry of data into CODIS or the National Missing 
        and Unidentified Persons System (commonly known as `NamUs'), or 
        both.'';
        (2) in section 203 (34 U.S.C. 40502)--
            (A) in subsection (a), by striking ``a State'' and 
        inserting ``an entity described in section 202'';
            (B) in subsection (b)--
                (i) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking 
            ``State'' and inserting ``applicant'';
                (ii) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 
            following:
        ``(1) report to the National Crime Information Center and, when 
    possible, to law enforcement authorities throughout the applicant's 
    jurisdiction regarding every deceased unidentified person, 
    regardless of age, found in the applicant's jurisdiction;'';
                (iii) in paragraph (3), by striking ``and'' at the end;
                (iv) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at the 
            end and inserting ``; and''; and
                (v) by adding at the end the following:
        ``(5) collect and report information to the National Missing 
    and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) regarding missing persons 
    and unidentified remains.''; and
            (C) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c) Privacy Protections for Biological Family Reference 
Samples.--
        ``(1) In general.--Any suspected biological family DNA 
    reference samples received from citizens of the United States or 
    foreign nationals and uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System 
    (commonly referred to as `CODIS') by an accredited, publicly funded 
    CODIS forensic laboratory awarded a grant under this section may be 
    used only for identifying missing persons and unidentified remains.
        ``(2) Limitation on use.--Any biological family DNA reference 
    samples from citizens of the United States or foreign nationals 
    entered into CODIS for purposes of identifying missing persons and 
    unidentified remains may not be disclosed to a Federal or State law 
    enforcement agency for law enforcement purposes.''; and
        (3) by striking section 204 (34 U.S.C. 40503) and inserting the 
    following:
    ``SEC. 205. USE OF FUNDS.
    ``An applicant receiving a grant award under this title may use 
such funds to--
        ``(1) pay for the costs incurred during or after fiscal year 
    2017 for the transportation, processing, identification, and 
    reporting of missing persons and unidentified remains, including 
    migrants;
        ``(2) establish and expand programs developed to improve the 
    reporting of unidentified persons in accordance with the assurances 
    provided in the application submitted pursuant to section 203(b);
        ``(3) hire and maintain additional DNA case analysts and 
    technicians, fingerprint examiners, forensic odontologists, and 
    forensic anthropologists, needed to support such identification 
    programs; and
        ``(4) procure and maintain state of the art multi-modal, multi-
    purpose forensic and DNA-typing and analytical equipment.''.
    (b) Kristen's Act.--Section 102 of Kristen's Act (34 U.S.C. 40504 
note) is amended to read as follows:
    ``SEC. 102. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDING.
    ``To the extent provided in advance in appropriations Acts, the 
Attorney General is authorized to use funds appropriated for the 
operationalization, maintenance, and expansion of the National Missing 
and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for the purpose of carrying out 
this Act''.
SEC. 3. RESCUE BEACONS.
    Section 411(o) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 
211(o)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
        ``(3) Rescue beacons.--Beginning in fiscal year 2019, in 
    carrying out subsection (c)(8), the Commissioner shall purchase, 
    deploy, and maintain not more than 170 self-powering, 9-1-1 
    cellular relay rescue beacons along the southern border of the 
    United States at locations determined appropriate by the 
    Commissioner to mitigate migrant deaths.''.
SEC. 4. REPORTING ON NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM 
(NAMUS) PROGRAM.
    Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this act, 
and every year thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit a report 
to the appropriate committees of Congress regarding--
        (1) the number of unidentified person cases processed;
        (2) CODIS associations and identifications;
        (3) the number of anthropology cases processed;
        (4) the number of suspected border crossing cases and 
    associations made;
        (5) the number of trials supported with expert testimony;
        (6) the number of students trained and professions of those 
    students; and
        (7) the turnaround time and backlog.
SEC. 5. OTHER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.
    (a) Unidentified Remains.--
        (1) Reporting requirement.--Not later than 1 year after the 
    date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the 
    Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall submit a 
    report to the appropriate committees of Congress regarding all 
    unidentified remains discovered, during the reporting period, on or 
    near the border between the United States and Mexico, including--
            (A) for each deceased person--
                (i) the cause and manner of death, if known;
                (ii) the sex, age (at time of death), and country of 
            origin (if such information is determinable); and
                (iii) the location of each unidentified remain;
            (B) the total number of deceased people whose unidentified 
        remains were discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
        during the reporting period;
            (C) to the extent such information is available to U.S. 
        Customs and Border Protection, the total number of deceased 
        people whose unidentified remains were discovered by Federal, 
        State, local or Tribal law enforcement officers, military 
        personnel, or medical examiners offices;
            (D) the efforts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to 
        engage with nongovernmental organizations, institutions of 
        higher education, medical examiners and coroners, and law 
        enforcement agencies--
                (i) to identify and map the locations at which migrant 
            deaths occur; and
                (ii) to count the number of deaths that occur at such 
            locations; and
            (E) a detailed description of U.S. Customs and Border 
        Protection's Missing Migrant Program, including how the program 
        helps mitigate migrant deaths while maintaining border 
        security.
        (2) Public disclosure.--Not later than 30 days after each 
    report required under paragraph (1) is submitted, the Commissioner 
    of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall publish on the website 
    of the agency the information described in subparagraphs (A), (B), 
    and (C) of paragraph (1) during each reporting period.
    (b) Rescue Beacons.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Commissioner of 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall submit a report to the 
appropriate committees of Congress regarding the use of rescue beacons 
along the border between the United States and Mexico, including, for 
the reporting period--
        (1) the number of rescue beacons in each border patrol sector;
        (2) the specific location of each rescue beacon;
        (3) the frequency with which each rescue beacon was activated 
    by a person in distress;
        (4) a description of the nature of the distress that resulted 
    in each rescue beacon activation (if such information is 
    determinable); and
        (5) an assessment, in consultation with local stakeholders, 
    including elected officials, nongovernmental organizations, and 
    landowners, of necessary additional rescue beacons and 
    recommendations for locations for deployment to reduce migrant 
    deaths.
    (c) GAO Report.--Not later than 6 months after the report required 
under subsection (a) is submitted to the appropriate committees of 
Congress, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit a 
report to the same committees that describes--
        (1) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection collects and records 
    border-crossing death data;
        (2) the differences (if any) in U.S. Customs and Border 
    Protection border-crossing death data collection methodology across 
    its sectors;
        (3) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection's data and 
    statistical analysis on trends in the numbers, locations, causes, 
    and characteristics of border-crossing deaths compare to other 
    sources of data on these deaths, including border county medical 
    examiners and coroners and the Centers for Disease Control and 
    Prevention;
        (4) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection measures the 
    effectiveness of its programs to mitigate migrant deaths; and
        (5) the extent to which U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
    engages Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments, foreign 
    diplomatic and consular posts, and nongovernmental organizations--
            (A) to accurately identify deceased individuals;
            (B) to resolve cases involving unidentified remains;
            (C) to resolve cases involving unidentified persons; and
            (D) to share information on missing persons and 
        unidentified remains, specifically with the National Missing 
        and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.