118 HRES 1597 IH: Recognizing the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on its 40th anniversary. U.S. House of Representatives 2024-11-26 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV118th CONGRESS2d SessionH. RES. 1597IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESNovember 26, 2024Mr. Biggs submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the WorkforceRESOLUTIONRecognizing the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on its 40th anniversary.

Whereas 40 years ago John and Revé Walsh, along with other advocates for children, founded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, whose mission is to serve as the leading nonprofit organization in the United States to help locate missing children and combat child sexual exploitation;Whereas John and Revé Walsh’s son Adam was tragically murdered following an unconscionable abduction, leading them to a lifetime of advocacy on behalf of missing and exploited children;Whereas, as a result of the tireless advocacy of the Walshes and countless others, in 1984, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was established to serve as the clearinghouse for information relating to missing and exploited children in the United States and as a resource for parents, children, and law enforcement;Whereas, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Missing Children’s Assistance Act (34 U.S.C. 11291 et seq.), establishing a national resource center and clearinghouse for missing children, a role that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was designated to fulfill;Whereas the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, in coordination with Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies, provides a critical response to help in locating missing children, responds to reports of child sexual exploitation, and distributes posters of missing children to the public;Whereas, over the last 40 years, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of over 448,000 children and has received 200,000,000 reports relating to suspected child sexual exploitation;Whereas, since its founding, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has received more than 5,600,000 calls to its 24-hour call center;Whereas, following an increase in reports relating to the online sexual exploitation of children, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children established its CyberTipline, which provides an online mechanism for members of the public and electronic service providers to report incidents of suspected online sexual exploitation;Whereas, since its inception in 1998, the CyberTipline has received 200,000,000 reports of child sexual exploitation, which the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reviews and makes available to international, Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, for their review and handling;Whereas, in 2023, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children launched its Take It Down tool, a groundbreaking program that helps victims of online child sexual exploitation remove from the internet nude or sexually explicit photos and videos taken of them while under the age of 18;Whereas, with the passage of the Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023 (Public Law 118–65; 138 Stat. 1439), on June 17, 2024, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was reauthorized to perform 16 programs of work, including—(1)helping to locate and recover missing children; (2)responding to reports of child sexual exploitation and working to identify children depicted in sexually abusive imagery; (3)conducting analytical services, including on child sex trafficking cases; (4)offering community safety education for child-serving professionals; and (5)providing family crisis and mental health assistance; andWhereas, for over 40 years, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has been essential to combating the sexual exploitation of children in the United States and has served as a critical resource to children, parents, and law enforcement: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives—(1)recognizes the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on the 40th anniversary of its founding;(2)commends the tremendous work that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children undertakes to assist and protect children in the United States;(3)supports the continued mission of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization; and(4)respectfully requests that the Clerk of the House transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.