[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5230 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.5230
One Hundred Seventeenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
the third day of January, two thousand and twenty two
An Act
To increase accessibility to the National Missing and Unidentified
Persons System, to facilitate data sharing between such system and the
National Crime Information Center database of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, 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 ``Billy's Law'' or the ``Help Find the
Missing Act''.
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF THE NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS
SYSTEM.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General, shall maintain the
``National Missing and Unidentified Persons System'' or ``NamUs'',
consistent with the following:
(1) The NamUs shall be a national information clearinghouse and
resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person
cases across the United States administered by the National
Institute of Justice and managed through an agreement with an
eligible entity.
(2) The NamUs shall coordinate or provide--
(A) online database technology which serves as a national
information clearinghouse to help expedite case associations
and resolutions;
(B) various free-of-charge forensic services to aid in the
identification of missing persons and unidentified remains;
(C) investigative support for criminal justice efforts to
help missing and unidentified person case resolutions;
(D) technical assistance for family members of missing
persons;
(E) assistance and training by coordinating State and local
service providers in order to support individuals and families
impacted by the loss or disappearance of a loved one; and
(F) training and outreach from NamUs subject matter
experts, including assistance with planning and facilitating
Missing Person Day events across the country.
(b) Permissible Use of Funds.--
(1) In general.--The permissible use of funds awarded under
this section for the implementation and maintenance of the
agreement created in subparagraph (a)(1) include the use of funds--
(A) to hire additional personnel to provide case support
and perform other core NamUs functions;
(B) to develop new technologies to facilitate timely data
entry into the relevant data bases;
(C) to conduct contracting activities relevant to core
NamUs services;
(D) to provide forensic analyses to support the
identification of missing and unidentified persons, to include,
but not limited to DNA typing, forensic odontology, fingerprint
examination, and forensic anthropology;
(E) to train State, local, and Tribal law enforcement
personnel and forensic medicine service providers to use NamUs
resources and best practices for the investigation of missing
and unidentified person cases;
(F) to assist States in providing information to the NCIC
database, the NamUs database, or any future database system for
missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases;
(G) to report to law enforcement authorities in the
jurisdiction in which the remains were found information on
every deceased, unidentified person, regardless of age;
(H) to participate in Missing Person Days and other events
to directly support family members of the missing with NamUs
case entries and DNA collections;
(I) to provide assistance and training by coordinating
State and local service providers in order to support
individuals and families;
(J) to conduct data analytics and research projects for the
purpose of enhancing knowledge, best practices, and training
related to missing and unidentified person cases, as well as
developing NamUs system enhancements;
(K) to create and maintain a secure, online, nationwide
critical incident response tool for professionals that will
connect law enforcement, medico-legal and emergency management
professionals, as well as victims and families during a
critical incident; and
(L) for other purposes consistent with the goals of this
section.
(c) Amendments to the Crime Control Act of 1990 to Require Reports
of Missing Children to NamUs.--
(1) Reporting requirement.--Section 3701(a) of the Crime
Control Act of 1990 (34 U.S.C. 41307(a)) is amended by striking the
period and inserting the following: ``and, consistent with section
3 (including rules promulgated pursuant to section 3(c)) of the
Help Find the Missing Act, shall also report such case, either
directly or through authorization described in such section to
transmit, enter, or share information on such case, to the NamUs
databases.''.
(2) State requirements.--Section 3702 of the Crime Control Act
of 1990 (34 U.S.C. 41308) is amended--
(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ``or the National Crime
Information Center computer database'' and inserting ``, the
National Crime Information Center computer database, or the
NamUs databases'';
(B) in the matter following paragraph (3), by striking
``and the National Crime Information Center computer networks''
and inserting ``, the National Crime Information Center
computer networks, and the NamUs databases''; and
(C) in paragraph (4)--
(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by
inserting ``or the NamUs databases'' after ``National Crime
Information Center''; and
(ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``and National
Crime Information Center computer networks'' and inserting
``, National Crime Information Center computer networks,
and the NamUs databases''.
(3) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection
shall apply with respect to reports made before, on, or after the
date of enactment of this Act.
SEC. 3. INFORMATION SHARING.
(a) Access to NCIC.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall, in accordance with
this section, provide access to the NCIC Missing Person and
Unidentified Person Files to the National Institute of Justice or its
designee administering the NamUs program as a grantee or contractor,
for the purpose of reviewing missing and unidentified person records in
NCIC for case validation and NamUs data reconciliation.
(b) Electronic Data Sharing.--Not later than 6 months after the
date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall, in
accordance with this section, have completed an assessment of the NCIC
and NamUs system architectures and governing statutes, policies, and
procedures and provide a proposed plan for the secure and automatic
data transmission of missing and unidentified person records that are
reported to and entered into the NCIC database, with the following
criteria, to be electronically transmitted to the NamUs system.
(1) Missing Person cases with an MNP (Missing Person) code of
CA (Child Abduction) or AA (Amber Alert) within 72 hours of entry
into NCIC;
(2) Missing Person cases with an MNP code EME (Endangered) or
EMI (Involuntary) within 30 days of entry into NCIC;
(3) All other Missing Person cases that have been active (non-
cancelled) in NCIC for 180 days;
(4) Unidentified person cases that have been active (non-
cancelled) in NCIC for 60 days;
(5) Once case data are transmitted to NamUs, cases are marked
as such within NCIC, and any updates to such cases will be
transmitted to NamUs within 24 hours.
(c) Rules on Confidentiality.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General, in consultation with
the Director of the FBI, shall promulgate rules pursuant to notice
and comment that specify the information the Attorney General may
allow NamUs to access from the NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified
Person files or be transmitted from the NCIC database to the NamUs
databases for purposes of this Act. Such rules shall--
(A) provide for the protection of confidential, private,
and law enforcement sensitive information contained in the NCIC
Missing Person and Unidentified Person files; and
(B) specify the circumstances in which access to portions
of information in the Missing Person and Unidentified Person
files may be withheld from the NamUs databases.
SEC. 4. REPORT ON BEST PRACTICES.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act,
the Attorney General shall issue a report to offices of forensic
medicine service providers, and Federal, State, local, and Tribal law
enforcement agencies describing the best practices for the collection,
reporting, and analysis of data and information on missing persons and
unidentified human remains. Such best practices shall--
(1) provide an overview of the NCIC database and NamUs
databases;
(2) describe how local law enforcement agencies, and offices of
forensic medicine service providers should access and use the NCIC
database and NamUs databases;
(3) describe the appropriate and inappropriate uses of the NCIC
database and NamUs databases; and
(4) describe the standards and protocols for the collection,
reporting, and analysis of data and information on missing persons
and unidentified human remains.
SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the
enactment of this Act and biennially thereafter, the Attorney General
shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate a
report describing the status of the NCIC database and NamUs databases.
(b) Contents.--The report required by subsection (a) shall
describe, to the extent available, information on the process of
information sharing between the NCIC database and NamUs databases.
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Authorized agency.--The term ``authorized agency'' means a
Government agency with an originating agency identification (ORI)
number and that is a criminal justice agency, as defined in section
20.3 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations.
(2) FBI.--The term ``FBI'' means the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
(3) Forensic medicine service provider.--The term ``forensic
medicine service provider'' means a State or unit of local
government forensic medicine service provider having not fewer than
1 part-time or full-time employed forensic pathologist, or forensic
pathologist under contract, who conducts medicolegal death
investigations, including examinations of human remains, and who
provides reports or opinion testimony with respect to such activity
in courts of law within the United States.
(4) Forensic science service provider.--The term ``forensic
science service provider'' means a State or unit of local
government agency having not fewer than 1 full-time analyst who
examines physical evidence in criminal or investigative matters and
provides reports or opinion testimony with respect to such evidence
in courts in the United States.
(5) Namus databases.--The term ``NamUs databases'' means the
National Missing and Unidentified Persons System Missing Persons
database and National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
Unidentified Decedents database maintained by the National
Institute of Justice of the Department of Justice, which serves as
a clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and
unclaimed person cases.
(6) NCIC database.--The term ``NCIC database'' means the
National Crime Information Center Missing Person File and National
Crime Information Center Unidentified Person File of the National
Crime Information Center database of the FBI, established pursuant
to section 534 of title 28, United States Code.
(7) Qualifying law enforcement agency defined.--The term
``qualifying law enforcement agency'' means a State, local, or
Tribal law enforcement agency.
(8) State.--The term ``State'' means any State of the United
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.