[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5573 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5573

To establish within the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and 
                    Murdered Black Women and Girls.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 19, 2023

    Ms. Omar (for herself, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. 
Crockett, Ms. Norton, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. 
Jacobs, Ms. Pressley, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Williams of 
 Georgia, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Vargas, Ms. Adams, Mr. Carter of 
   Louisiana, Mr. Torres of New York, Mr. Cleaver, Ms. McCollum, Ms. 
  Kamlager-Dove, Mr. Lynch, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mrs. Beatty, Mrs. 
  Dingell, Mr. Lieu, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Carson, Ms. Sewell, Ms. Ocasio-
     Cortez, Mr. Payne, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mr. Espaillat, Mrs. 
 Cherfilus-McCormick, Ms. Bush, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Blunt Rochester, 
 Ms. Craig, Ms. Strickland, Ms. Brown, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Evans, 
  Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Frost, Ms. Waters, Ms. McClellan, Ms. Escobar, Mr. 
 David Scott of Georgia, Mr. Mfume, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Bishop 
of Georgia, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Meeks, Mr. Neguse, 
    Mr. Ivey, Mr. Veasey, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Jackson of 
Illinois, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, and Mr. Clyburn) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish within the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and 
                    Murdered Black Women and Girls.

    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 ``Britanny Clardy Missing and Murdered 
Black Women and Girls Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Black women and girls are uniquely vulnerable and too 
        easily erased from public discussions about missing and 
        murdered people.
            (2) According to the National Crime Information Center, in 
        2020, of the 268,884 girls and women reported missing, 90,333, 
        or nearly 34 percent, were Black, while Black girls and women 
        make up only 15 percent of the female population in the United 
        States.
            (3) Nationally, cases involving Black girls and women stay 
        open four times longer than other cases on average, as reported 
        by Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
            (4) Nationally, Black women have the highest rates of death 
        due to homicide among women (4.4. per 100,000 compared to 1.5 
        per 100,000 for White women) and statistically shown these 
        murders are most often committed by an intimate partner or 
        someone the victim knows.
            (5) Understanding the roots of how and why Black women and 
        girls are not as well protected from violence as White women 
        and girls requires attention to both historical and present-day 
        manifestations of interlocking systems of oppression, such as 
        racism and sexism.
            (6) Effective research regarding the racial inequities 
        surrounding violence against women and girls should--
                    (A) involve local, relevant community engaged 
                research expertise in the area;
                    (B) seek to center community members as essential 
                experts through interviews and focus groups with Black 
                women and girls who have lived experience within the 
                topic;
                    (C) include the use of mixed methods approaches to 
                evaluate, monitor, and communicate data with the 
                broader impacted communities; and
                    (D) include a long-term evaluation plan to assess 
                the impact of the data collection efforts and involve 
                data specialists or consultants equipped to build 
                tracking and reporting infrastructure.
            (7) That considering all the facts above, the existing 
        Federal resources dedicated to combatting violence against 
        women and girls is not enough to address this problem and 
        additional resources must be targeted directly to protecting, 
        supporting and providing justice to Black women and girl in the 
        United States.

SEC. 3. OFFICE FOR MISSING AND MURDERED BLACK WOMEN AND GIRLS.

    (a) Establishment.--There is established within the Department of 
Justice an Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls 
(hereinafter referred to as the ``Office''), which shall be headed by a 
Director appointed by the Attorney General.
    (b) Personnel and Funds.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall provide to the 
Office such personnel and funds as necessary to establish and operate 
the Office as a component of the Department.
    (c) Duties of Office.--The Director of the Office shall--
            (1) serve as the legal and policy advisor to the Attorney 
        General to ensure justice for missing and murdered Black women 
        and girls;
            (2) develop recommendations for policies to address 
        injustice in the criminal justice system's response to cases of 
        missing and murdered Black women and girls;
            (3) establish a national advisory commission of Black women 
        and girls who have experienced violence, abduction, or 
        trafficking, and family members who have lost a loved one to 
        this violence;
            (4) coordinate with the relevant Federal agencies, the 
        national advisory commission established in paragraph (3), 
        State, local, and Tribal agencies, and local family services 
        agencies to--
                    (A) collect data on missing person and homicide 
                cases involving Black women and girls, including the 
                total number of cases, the rate at which the cases are 
                solved, the length of time the cases remain open, and a 
                comparison to similar cases involving different 
                demographic groups;
                    (B) collect data on Amber Alerts, including the 
                total number of Amber Alerts issued, the total number 
                of Amber Alerts that involve Black girls, and the 
                outcome of cases involving Amber Alerts disaggregated 
                by the child's race and sex;
                    (C) collect data on reports of missing Black girls, 
                including the number classified as voluntary runaways, 
                and a comparison to similar cases involving different 
                demographic groups; and
                    (D) conduct case reviews and report on the results 
                of such reviews for cases involving missing and 
                murdered Black women and girls, including--
                            (i) cold cases for missing Black women and 
                        girls; and
                            (ii) death investigation review for cases 
                        of Black women and girls ruled as suicide or 
                        overdose under suspicious circumstances.
            (5) develop tools and processes to evaluate the 
        implementation and impact of the efforts of the Office;
            (6) facilitate technical assistance for State, local, and 
        Tribal law enforcement agencies during active cases involving 
        missing and murdered Black women and girls; and
            (7) create and maintain a centralized data repository and 
        public dashboard for the tracking of missing and Murdered Black 
        women and girls.
    (d) Report Required.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than the first January 15th 
        after the date of enactment of this Act, and biennially 
        thereafter, the Director of the Office, in coordination with 
        the relevant Federal agencies and State, local, and Tribal 
        agencies, shall submit a report to the covered committees on 
        missing and murdered Black women and girls, including--
                    (A) an analysis and assessment of any data 
                collected in subsection (c)(4);
                    (B) an analysis and assessment on the intersection 
                between cases involving missing and murdered Black 
                women and girls and labor trafficking and sex 
                trafficking;
                    (C) any findings derived from the case reviews 
                conducted under subsection (c)(4)(D);
                    (D) an analysis of any case review conducted 
                relating to the prosecution and sentencing for cases 
                where a perpetrator committed a violent or exploitative 
                crime against a Black woman or girl;
                    (E) reviews sentencing guidelines for crimes 
                related to missing and murdered Black women and girls; 
                and
                    (F) recommendations for policies to address to the 
                criminal justice system's response to cases of missing 
                and murdered Black women and girls, including--
                            (i) the intersection between cases 
                        involving missing and murdered Black women and 
                        girls and labor trafficking and sex 
                        trafficking; and
                            (ii) analyze and assess the intersection 
                        between cases involving murdered Black women 
                        and girls and domestic violence, including 
                        prior instances of domestic violence within the 
                        family or relationship, whether an offender had 
                        prior convictions for domestic assault or 
                        related offenses, and whether the offender used 
                        a firearm in the murder or any prior instances 
                        of domestic assault.
            (2) Covered committees defined.--In this subsection, the 
        term ``covered committees'' means the Committee on the 
        Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House 
        of Representatives and the Committee on the Judiciary and the 
        Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 
        Senate.

SEC. 4. GRANTS TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS TO PROVIDE CERTAIN 
              SERVICES.

    (a) Grant Program Established.--Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office shall 
establish a grant program to provide grants to community-based 
organizations that provide services designed to prevent or end the 
targeting of Black women or girls or provide assistance to victims of 
offenses that targeted Black women or girls.
    (b) Grant Award.--Community-based organizations awarded a grant 
under this section shall use the amount awarded under the grant program 
to--
            (1) provide culturally appropriate services designed to 
        reduce or prevent crimes that target Black women or girls;
            (2) provide culturally appropriate training related to the 
        handling of situations and crimes targeting of Black women and 
        girls, including training for law enforcement officers, county 
        attorneys, city attorneys, judges, and other criminal justice 
        partners; and
            (3) provide victim services or survivorship support to 
        Black women and girls who are victims of crimes or other 
        offenses or to the family members of missing and murdered Black 
        women and girls.
                                 <all>