[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 87 (Thursday, June 10, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S4844]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REQUEST FOR CONSULTATION

  Mr. COBURN. I ask unanimous consent that my letter to Senator 
McConnell dated June 9, 2010, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                  U.S. Senate,

                                     Washington, DC, June 9, 2010.
     Hon. Mitch McConnell,
     Senate Minority Leader,
     U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator McConnell: I am requesting that I be consulted 
     before the Senate enters into any unanimous-consent 
     agreements or time limitations regarding S. 3019/H.R. 3695, 
     Billy's Law.
       I support the goals of this legislation and believe that 
     information regarding missing persons and unidentified 
     remains should be accurate and properly maintained. However, 
     I believe that we can and must do so in a fiscally 
     responsible manner. My concerns are included in, but not 
     limited to, those outlined in this letter.
       While this bill is well-intentioned, it costs the American 
     people over $64 million. This legislation has received no 
     process in the Senate Judiciary Committee, as it was only 
     recently introduced on February 23, 2010. As a member of the 
     Judiciary Committee, I believe, prior to floor consideration, 
     legislation under the committee's jurisdiction should be 
     processed in regular order. Appropriate hearings and debate 
     in committee markup are essential to all legislation, 
     especially legislation like Billy's Law, which spends 
     significant federal dollars, authorizes new programs and 
     requires the sharing of personally identifiable information 
     between government databases.
       Although additional resources may be necessary, we should 
     act responsibly by reviewing current operations, evaluating 
     their effectiveness, and then determining the best strategy 
     for addressing the areas with the most need. That cannot be 
     accomplished with constant use of the hotline process. The 
     Congressional Research Service estimates that 94% of all 
     measures passed by the Senate do not receive a roll call 
     vote. The hotline process is even more detrimental to 
     transparency and oversight when legislation, like Billy's 
     Law, is hotlined without going through regular committee 
     order.
       Moreover, it is irresponsible for Congress to jeopardize 
     the future standard of living of our children by borrowing 
     from future generations. The U.S. national debt is now $13 
     trillion. That means over $42,000 in debt for each man, woman 
     and child in the United States. A year ago, the national debt 
     was $11.2 trillion. Despite pledges to control spending, 
     Washington adds $4.6 billion to the national debt every 
     single day--that is $3.2 million every single minute.
       In addition to the above, there are several specific 
     problems with this legislation. First, Billy's Law seeks to 
     authorize the National Missing and Unidentified Persons 
     System (NamUs), an online repository for information about 
     missing persons and unidentified remains. However, this 
     database has been in operation, without Congressional 
     authorization, since 2007. Before we seek to condone an 
     existing program by providing a Congressional authorization, 
     we should perform rigorous oversight of NamUs to determine 
     whether there is existing waste, fraud and abuse or ways to 
     increase its efficiency. Without the opportunity to conduct 
     hearings and committee markup, it is impossible to 
     effectively examine and evaluate the current operation of 
     NamUs.
       Second, merely to maintain NamUs, Billy's Law authorizes 
     $2.4 million per year for fiscal years 2011 through 2016, 
     totaling $14.4 million, without corresponding offsets. This 
     authorization exceeds the yearly sum of $1.3 million the 
     Department of Justice indicates is necessary to maintain the 
     database. Furthermore, according to the Congressional 
     Research Service, Congress already provides funding for NamUs 
     via the National Institute of Justice and the Community 
     Oriented Policing Service. I am concerned that this bill will 
     enable NamUs to double dip into multiple sources of funding 
     for the same purposes.
       Third, the bill requires the National Crime Information 
     Center (NCIC) database and NamUs to share information on 
     missing persons and unidentified remains. While the bill 
     requires the Attorney General and Director of the Federal 
     Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to establish rules on 
     confidentiality of this information, I remain concerned about 
     the protection of this personally identifiable information.
       NamUs is accessible not only by law enforcement, but also 
     the public. NamUs is comprised of two smaller databases--the 
     Missing Persons Database and the Unidentified Remains 
     Database. While the Unidentified Remains Database does not 
     allow the public to enter information and restricts certain 
     information from being accessed by the public, the Missing 
     Persons Database allows both the public and law enforcement 
     to submit information about missing persons. There is no way 
     to guarantee the consistency and accuracy of publicly entered 
     information. The ability of NamUs and NCIC to share 
     information via this legislation magnifies these concerns.
       Fourth, the bill also establishes an Incentive Grants 
     Program to provide law enforcement, coroners, medical 
     examiners and other authorized agencies with grants to 
     facilitate reporting information to both NCIC and NamUs. 
     These grants can be used for very broad purposes, including 
     hiring, contracting and ``other purposes consistent with the 
     goals of this section.'' I believe that state and local law 
     enforcement and other state or locally-run agencies should 
     bear the burden of reporting state and local information. If 
     these databases are, in fact, effective and further the 
     investigations carried out by state and local law 
     enforcement, they should be willing to prioritize funding in 
     their own budgets to utilize the databases accordingly.
       Furthermore, the task of investigating missing person and 
     unidentified remains cases often falls primarily on state and 
     local law enforcement. As a result, the federal government 
     should not bear the entire cost for either the Incentive 
     Grants Program or the operation of the NamUs database. For 
     the Incentive Grants Program, the bill authorizes $10 million 
     per year for fiscal years 2011 through 2015, totaling $50 
     million that is not offset by reductions in real spending 
     elsewhere in the federal budget. In addition, there is no 
     limit on the amount that the Attorney General may award for 
     each grant. Rather, the Attorney General has the discretion 
     to determine how much each grantee receives.
       In addition to offsets for federal spending on these 
     programs, I believe all funding in this legislation should be 
     borne at least equally between the states and the federal 
     government. It is clear that state and local law enforcement 
     will be utilizing NamUs often. In fact, the Incentive Grants 
     Program authorized in this bill is specifically to help state 
     and local entities ``facilitate the process of reporting 
     information regarding missing persons and unidentified 
     remains to the NCIC database and NamUs databases. . . .''
       While there is no question that law enforcement should 
     endeavor to quickly locate missing persons and return them to 
     their families, the federal government is already making 
     efforts to facilitate this process. Congress should, like 
     many American individuals and companies do with their own 
     resources, evaluate current programs, determine any needs 
     that may exist and prioritize those needs for funding by 
     cutting from the federal budget programs fraught with waste, 
     fraud, abuse and duplication.
           Sincerely,
                                              Tom A. Coburn, M.D.,
     United States Senator.

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