[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 89 (Tuesday, May 23, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H4453-H4457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMPROVING SUPPORT FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN ACT OF 2017
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 1808) to amend and improve the Missing Children's Assistance
Act, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1808
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 ``Improving Support for
Missing and Exploited Children Act of 2017''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Section 402 of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42
U.S.C. 5771) is amended--
(1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:
``(1) each year tens of thousands of children run away, or
are abducted or removed, from the control of a parent having
legal custody without such parent's consent, under
circumstances which immediately place the child in grave
danger;'',
(2) by striking paragraphs (4) and (5),
(3) in paragraph (6) by inserting ``, including child sex
trafficking and sextortion'' after ``exploitation'',
(4) in paragraph (8) by adding ``and'' at the end,
(5) by striking paragraph (9),
(6) by amending paragraph (10) to read as follows:
``(10) a key component of such programs is the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children that--
``(A) serves as a nonprofit, national resource center and
clearinghouse to provide assistance to victims, families,
child-serving professionals, and the general public;
``(B) works with the Department of Justice, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service,
the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State, the
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United
States Secret Service, the United States Postal Inspection
Service, other agencies, and nongovernmental organizations in
the effort to find missing children and to prevent child
victimization; and
``(C) coordinates with each of the missing children
clearinghouses operated by the 50 States, the District of
Columbia, Puerto Rico, and international organizations to
transmit images and information regarding missing and
exploited children to law enforcement, nongovernmental
organizations, and corporate partners across the United
States and around the world instantly.'', and
(7) by redesignating paragraphs (6), (7), (8), and (10) as
paragraphs (4), (5), (6), and (7), respectively.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
Section 403 of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42
U.S.C. 5772) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) by striking ``legal custodian'' each place it appears
and inserting ``parent'',
(B) in subparagraph (A) by striking ``custodian's'' and
inserting ``parent's'', and
(C) in subparagraph (C) by striking the period and the end
and inserting a semicolon,
(2) in paragraph (2) by striking ``and'' at the end,
(3) in paragraph (3) by striking the period at the end and
inserting ``; and'', and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
``(4) the term `parent' includes a legal guardian or other
individual standing in loco parentis (such as a grandparent
or stepparent with whom the child lives, or an individual who
is legally responsible for the child's welfare).''.
SEC. 4. DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATOR.
Section 404 of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42
U.S.C. 5773) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in paragraph (3) by striking ``telephone line'' and
inserting ``hotline'', and
(B) in paragraph (6)(E)--
(i) by striking ``telephone line'' and inserting
``hotline'',
(ii) by striking ``(b)(1)(A) and'' and inserting
``(b)(1)(A),'', and
(iii) by inserting ``, and the number and types of reports
to the tipline established under subsection (b)(1)(K)(i)''
before the semicolon at the end,
(2) in subsection (b)(1)--
(A) in subparagraph (A)--
(i) by striking ``telephone line'' each place it appears
and inserting ``hotline'', and
(ii) by striking ``legal custodian'' and inserting
``parent'',
(B) in subparagraph (C)--
(i) in clause (i)--
(I) by striking ``restaurant'' and inserting ``food'', and
(II) by striking ``and'' at the end,
(ii) in clause (ii) by adding ``and'' at the end, and
(iii) by adding at the end the following:
``(iii) innovative and model programs, services, and
legislation that benefit missing and exploited children;'',
(C) by striking subparagraphs (E), (F), and (G),
(D) by amending subparagraph (H) to read as follows:
``(H) provide technical assistance and training to
families, law enforcement agencies, State and local
governments, elements of the criminal justice system,
nongovernmental agencies, local educational agencies, and the
general public--
``(i) in the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and
treatment of cases involving missing and exploited children;
``(ii) to respond to foster children missing from the State
child welfare system in coordination with child welfare
agencies and courts handling juvenile justice and dependency
matters; and
``(iii) in the identification, location, and recovery of
victims of, and children at risk for, child sex
trafficking;'',
(E) by amending subparagraphs (I), (J), and (K) to read as
follows:
``(I) provide assistance to families, law enforcement
agencies, State and local governments, nongovernmental
agencies, child-serving professionals, and other individuals
involved in the location and recovery of missing and abducted
children, both nationally, and in cooperation with the
Department of State, internationally;
``(J) provide support and technical assistance to child-
serving professionals involved in helping to recover missing
and exploited children by
[[Page H4454]]
searching public records databases to help in the
identification, location, and recovery of such children, and
help in the location and identification of potential
abductors and offenders;
``(K) provide forensic and direct on-site technical
assistance and consultation to families, law enforcement
agencies, child-serving professionals, and nongovernmental
organizations in child abduction and exploitation cases,
including facial reconstruction of skeletal remains and
similar techniques to assist in the identification of
unidentified deceased children;''.
(F) by striking subparagraphs (L) and (M),
(G) by amending subparagraph (N) to read as follows:
``(N) provide training, technical assistance, and
information to nongovernmental organizations relating to non-
compliant sex offenders and to law enforcement agencies in
identifying and locating such individuals;'',
(H) by striking subparagraph (P),
(I) by amending subparagraph (Q) to read as follows:
``(Q) work with families, law enforcement agencies,
electronic service providers, electronic payment service
providers, technology companies, nongovernmental
organizations, and others on methods to reduce the existence
and distribution of online images and videos of sexually
exploited children--
``(i) by operating a tipline to provide to individuals and
electronic service providers an effective means of reporting
Internet-related and other instances of child sexual
exploitation in the areas of--
``(I) possession, manufacture, and distribution of child
pornography;
``(II) online enticement of children for sexual acts;
``(III) child sex trafficking;
``(IV) sex tourism involving children;
``(V) extra familial child sexual molestation;
``(VI) unsolicited obscene material sent to a child;
``(VII) misleading domain names; and
``(VIII) misleading words or digital images on the
Internet;
and subsequently to make such reports available to the
appropriate law enforcement agency for its review and
potential investigation;
``(ii) by operating a child victim identification program
to assist law enforcement agencies in identifying victims of
child pornography and other sexual crimes to support the
recovery of children from sexually exploitative situations;
and
``(iii) by utilizing emerging technologies to provide
additional outreach and educational materials to parents and
families;'',
(J) by striking subparagraph (R),
(K) by amending subparagraphs (S) and (T) to read as
follows:
``(S) develop and disseminate programs and information to
families, child-serving professionals, law enforcement
agencies, State and local governments, nongovernmental
organizations, schools, local educational agencies, child-
serving organizations, and the general public on--
``(i) the prevention of child abduction and sexual
exploitation;
``(ii) Internet safety, including tips for social media and
cyberbullying; and
``(iii) sexting and sextortion; and
``(T) provide technical assistance and training to local
educational agencies, schools, State and local law
enforcement agencies, individuals, and other nongovernmental
organizations that assist with finding missing and abducted
children in identifying and recovering such children.'', and
(L) by redesignating subparagraphs (H), (I), (J), (K), (N),
(O), (Q), (S), (T), (U), and (V) as subparagraphs (E) through
(O), respectively.
SEC. 5. GRANTS.
Section 405 of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42
U.S.C. 5775) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in paragraph (7) by striking ``(as defined in section
403(1)(A))'', and
(B) in paragraph (8)--
(i) by striking ``legal custodians'' and inserting
``parents'', and
(ii) by striking ``custodians' '' and inserting ``parents'
'', and
(2) in subsection (b)(1)(A) by striking ``legal
custodians'' and inserting ``parents''.
SEC. 6. REPORTING.
The Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5771 et
seq.) is amended--
(1) by redesignating sections 407 and 408 as section 408
and 409, respectively, and
(2) by inserting after section 406 the following:
``SEC. 407. REPORTING.
``(a) Required Reporting.--As a condition of receiving
funds under section 404(b), the grant recipient shall, based
solely on reports received by the grantee and not involving
any data collection by the grantee other than those reports,
annually provide to the Administrator and make available to
the general public, as appropriate--
``(1) the number of children nationwide who are reported to
the grantee as missing;
``(2) the number of children nationwide who are reported to
the grantee as victims of non-family abductions;
``(3) the number of children nationwide who are reported to
the grantee as victims of family abductions; and
``(4) the number of missing children recovered nationwide
whose recovery was reported to the grantee.
``(b) Incidence of Attempted Child Abductions.--As a
condition of receiving funds under section 404(b), the grant
recipient shall--
``(1) track the incidence of attempted child abductions in
order to identify links and patterns;
``(2) provide such information to law enforcement agencies;
and
``(3) make such information available to the general
public, as appropriate.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie) and the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr.
Courtney) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.
General Leave
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on H.R. 1808.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1808, the Improving Support
for Missing and Exploited Children Act of 2017.
Mr. Speaker, as a father, I cannot imagine the horror moms and dads
in this country experience when they discover one of their children has
been taken, abused, or exploited. Sadly, that is a nightmare for
hundreds of thousands of parents in this country. Last year alone,
there were more than 465,000 reports of missing children, and those are
just the cases that were reported.
The well-being of America's children has long been a national
priority. In 1984, Congress established the Missing and Exploited
Children's Program to help coordinate State and local efforts to
recover children who are missing and better protect and support kids
who are victims of abuse and exploitation. As part of that program, we
provide a grant that is used to support the work of the National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children, known as NCMEC.
For more than 30 years, NCMEC has worked to provide help to people
across the country, partnering with parents, law enforcement,
nonprofits, and other public and private entities in an effort to
recover, protect, and support missing and exploited children and their
families. We are here today to ensure this supportive work continues.
H.R. 1808 updates and streamlines the Missing Children's Assistance
Act, making positive changes that will enable us to strengthen our
efforts. This includes reforms that encourage and increase public
awareness of new and innovative ways to recover and protect missing and
exploited children.
The bill better protects the growing number of children who go
missing from State care or are victims of sex trafficking, while also
providing transparency surrounding recovery and prevention efforts. In
recent years, some of the advances in technology have, unfortunately,
made it easier for kids to be victimized and exploited. H.R. 1808
ensures the law aimed at recovering and protecting exploited children
is able to effectively identify and locate today's abductors and
criminal offenders, many of whom are turning to more modern techniques
to commit their disturbing crimes.
The Improving Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act of 2017
delivers important reforms that will provide the tools needed to
effectively serve vulnerable youth, help bring perpetrators to justice,
and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly. I urge my colleagues
to support H.R. 1808.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in strong support of H.R. 1808 to amend and improve the
Missing Children's Assistance Act.
Mr. Speaker, again, it is an honor to stand with my friend, Mr.
Guthrie, in bipartisan support of this legislation which, again, makes
some important changes to the existing law for the Center for Missing &
Exploited Children, as my friend said, a program which was created in
1984. Sadly, it has not finished its mission.
Again, the FBI reports every year there are about 460,000 reports of
missing children, and despite the best efforts of programs which NCMEC
has operated over the many years, which include hotlines and public
information campaigns, again, this is still a scourge which afflicts
many families all across the country in Republican, Democratic, rural,
suburban, and urban areas.
Again, this bill will basically update and modernize the language of
the act
[[Page H4455]]
to recognize that there are new forms of threats and risks to minor
children, such as human trafficking and online predators.
{time} 1415
So it does three essential things:
Number one, it incorporates new terminology to align the law with
these new threats, which I mentioned above, and strengthens protections
for children at risk.
Number two, it clarifies that NCMEC is a nonprofit entity, which is
an issue that has been ensnared in the courts. And, again, Congress'
passage and enactment of this bill will clarify this critical issue.
And, lastly, it clarifies that NCMEC is a resource that provides
technical assistance not just to law enforcement, but to families,
community groups, schools, and the public at large.
Mr. Speaker, this last aspect of the bill is critically important.
Last year, Congress passed Public Law 114-184, which President Obama
signed into law, the Recovering Missing Children's Act. It was a
measure which I cosponsored with Mr. Paulsen from Minnesota.
This bill actually gave State and local police another tool in terms
of recovering missing children. Incredibly, the Tax Code prevented
State and local law enforcement from getting access to tax returns from
adults who actually had abducted children.
So, incredibly, those adults were claiming these children, who were
in their illegal custody, as a tax credit and a tax exemption, but
State and local officials were barred by privacy provisions in the IRS
code from actually accessing that information. So, on the one hand, you
had one arm of government out looking for children and you had another
arm of government who knew exactly where they were based on the tax
returns which were filed.
Again, NCMEC is in the process of trying to disseminate this new
tool, which an audit of the IRS demonstrated that there are roughly
2,000 tax returns a year where adult individuals are actually claiming
children as a tax deduction, obviously, with their residence and
identity included.
So, again, that is just another example of why we need to update and
modernize the law.
I would just indicate on a personal level, my wife, Audrey, is a
pediatric nurse practitioner. She works at the Children's Medical
Center in Hartford, Connecticut. She is involved in a specialty clinic
that helps children of sex abuse and human trafficking. She said that
NCMEC is a frequent flier in their office. In the really important work
that she and her colleagues do, they constantly use NCMEC as a way of
trying to assist law enforcement in terms of helping children who are
in these situations of human trafficking and who have been victims of
online use of images, which is about as low a depraved activity that is
out there right now. So, again, the work of this center, I can attest
to from a personal level, is extremely important.
This legislation will update, modernize, and give tools to make sure
that all of the good guys out there--the local State police and the
folks in the healthcare sector--can really do everything they can to
help families in this really terrible, horrific situation.
So, again, I applaud my colleague from Kentucky for his great work,
as well as Chairwoman Foxx and Ranking Member Scott for bringing this
legislation forward. It passed unanimously in committee.
Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge all of my colleagues in the House to
support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I echo my support, and I enjoy working with
my friend, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney).
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Walberg), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment,
Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the opportunity
to speak on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1808, the Improving Support
for Missing and Exploited Children Act of 2017.
For more than 30 years, the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children, or NCMEC, has operated a unique public-private partnership in
order to build a national response to crimes affecting those we cherish
most: our children.
I am grateful that the bill maintains language that I supported,
which grants NCMEC the authority to provide technical assistance to law
enforcement agencies and first responders in identifying and recovering
victims of child sex trafficking.
During the committee's hearing in March, we heard from NCMEC's
director on how their ability to provide technical assistance has
allowed them to work in tandem with law enforcement to recover numerous
child sex trafficking victims.
Mr. Speaker, we all look forward to the day when no children are ever
taken and abused, and this bill helps ensure NCMEC has the tools to get
us one step closer to that goal.
I appreciate the bipartisan effort on this, and I urge all my
colleagues to support this important legislation.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), a city which has been really
challenged with this issue. I know she has been doing great work and
has very powerful thoughts and arguments to make today regarding this
legislation.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding me this
time, and I am pleased to support this bipartisan bill, the Improving
Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act.
I support it because it does exactly what its title says. It fills
the gaps in our prior legislation on missing and exploited children. We
need to look at such legislation very often because of what we are
learning about missing and exploited children.
There are many parts of this bill I support, but I particularly
support a provision that we didn't have nearly as much knowledge of
during the passage of the last bill: to improve the protection of
children in State care. These are often foster children or children
without parents. These are the children who may be most susceptible to
trafficking and other exploitation.
I certainly would appreciate the efforts of the committee in making
sure that provisions of my bill that, I believe, got to you too late,
are included in the final House and Senate bill because they are
entirely consistent with the bill on the floor today. They come from
recent experience of the District of Columbia.
The D.C. police began to do something, which I urge all of you to do,
and that is to use social media to let people know when there are
missing children. It unnerved residents of the District of Columbia
until they recognized that the city didn't have any more missing
children than any other jurisdiction. Still, I support what the
District did in using social media. Still, we simply don't know enough.
My provisions would have the government collect subsets of data that
it does not collect today. For example, we found in the District that
there were more missing girls of color than boys. We ought to have
known that from national statistics. You don't know it because there
are no national statistics on the subsets of children.
My bill would collect and publish demographic characteristics that
simply are not published today on race, gender, sexual orientation, and
gender identity. If you think of those categories, you will understand
why these may be the children in particular need of protection.
In addition, there is no current comprehensive count of missing
children in the United States. So, we need more work on this bill. We
need to break down to these subsets so that jurisdictions, like my own,
will know where to focus when we are focusing on missing children.
Again, I am pleased that the District turned out not to have any more
missing children than the average jurisdiction, but I am also pleased
that it got a rise out of people who never would have paid attention to
this issue until the police department decided to go on social media.
We want to make sure that we cover all of our children and that we do
what this bill does.
What are the gaps? Where do we need to fill in?
Mr. Speaker, this is the first bill on missing children in a number
of years. We must make sure no children are left behind.
[[Page H4456]]
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Roe), the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee,
and a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R.
1808, the Improving Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act,
which improves the Missing Children's Assistance Act.
Mr. Speaker, this Thursday is National Missing Children's Day. I
can't imagine the pain and suffering that occurs when a child goes
missing. I am a proud cosponsor of this legislation, and I am proud of
the Committee on Education and the Workforce for its work on this
important issue.
This legislation strengthens existing efforts to help recover missing
children and prevents more children from being victims of abuse and
exploitation.
This bill also includes a provision to incorporate developing
technologies related to the reporting of child exploitation. This
provision was a result of an idea shared by a constituent of mine,
Michael Reed. His wife was a victim of abuse as a child, and he has
devoted his life to making sure other children have a voice and the
ability to report the abuse that they are experiencing. I am committed
to ensuring that Congress is working to protect these children.
Mr. Speaker, I thank both sides of the aisle on the Education and the
Workforce Committee, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support
this bill.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), the ranking member of the
Education and the Workforce Committee, and a strong proponent of this
legislation.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1808, the Improving Support
for Missing and Exploited Children Act. This bill will strengthen
recovery and prevention efforts of missing and exploited children by
renewing and updating support for the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children, or NCMEC.
The terror experienced by parents of a missing child is unfathomable.
Both the child and the parents experience pain, trauma, fear, and
uncertainty. This is why affected families need the full support of law
enforcement, schools, businesses, and other entities that may be able
to assist in locating and recovering missing or exploited children.
In 2013, Congress reauthorized the Missing Children's Assistance Act
and updated the role of NCMEC. The organization was required, at that
time, to coordinate with the Interagency Council on Homelessness in
order to address the high number of sex trafficking victims who were
homeless youth.
Now, in 2017, Congress is including several additional improvements.
As this bill heads to the Senate, I will work with my colleagues in
both Chambers to improve the reporting of characteristics of children
trafficked as it relates to the Office of Juvenile Justice's triennial
incidence of missing children study.
Mr. Speaker, despite the best efforts of NCMEC, more than 10,000
children go missing each year, and scores of children are forced into
sexual exploitation and trafficking. I am hopeful that the enactment of
these initiatives will assist in the efforts to end exploitation and
trafficking. I am also hopeful that Congress will empower the work of
NCMEC by appropriate funding in fiscal year 2018 and above.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Mitchell), my friend and a member of the Education and
the Workforce Committee.
Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Improving
Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act.
My wife and I have six children. Our youngest is just 7 years old. We
would do anything to protect them. I can't even imagine the pain of
having a child go missing, or to learn that they have been hurt or
abused in any manner.
Tragically, this is a reality for far too many children and too many
families in America. Last year, there were more than 465,000 reports of
missing children in the United States. To put that number in
perspective, about 700,000 people live in Michigan's 10th Congressional
District, my home.
Even one child going missing or being abused is too many. We must
recognize the seriousness of this problem and we must do everything we
can to protect our children.
This important bill will assist NCMEC in locating missing children
and in identifying abductors. It will help prevent children from
becoming the victims of exploitation online and increase awareness
about how to recover missing children.
Mr. Speaker, today we come together to support America's children. I
am proud to be a sponsor of this legislation, and I urge my colleagues
to support it.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from
North Carolina (Ms. Adams), an outstanding member of the Education and
the Workforce Committee.
Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.
I proudly stand today in support of H.R. 1808, the Improving Support
for Missing and Exploited Children Act.
This bipartisan legislation reflects both Democrats' and Republicans'
desire to protect and care for our greatest resource: our children.
In my home State of North Carolina, the trafficking of young women
has become an epidemic. There were 181 human trafficking cases reported
in North Carolina in 2016, and Charlotte was home to more of them than
anywhere else.
{time} 1430
That figure gave us the dishonor of being ranked among the top 10
States in the Nation in the number of trafficking reports, and that
doesn't even account for those children who have not yet been
identified as victims of this shameful practice.
In North Carolina, lawmakers have sponsored efforts to establish
pilot programs to help victims and train law enforcement to recognize
the signs of trafficking. It is time Congress does its part and passes
H.R. 1808 to support States in their efforts.
This bill would improve efforts by both law enforcement and the
general public to combat trafficking, and it would enhance the
identification and location of missing children and their abductors.
It would protect children from being victims to online predators and
keep a promise that was made 33 years ago, when Congress first passed
the Missing Children's Assistance Act and we vowed to assist the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in protecting and
recovering our missing and vulnerable youth.
I am a parent, I am a grandparent, Mr. Speaker, and I am a concerned
member of my community; and my district and my State have been torn
apart by human trafficking.
This is an opportunity for us to come together as Americans and
support an initiative that could save lives. I urge my colleagues to
pass H.R. 1808 and prove that we can all put politics aside when it
comes to protecting our children.
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), the distinguished chairwoman of the
Education and the Workforce Committee.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Guthrie, for his
great work on handling this bill today and on the bill itself.
No child should live in fear, Mr. Speaker, and yet every year
hundreds of thousands of children across the country are abducted,
abused, or exploited. The safety of America's children has long been a
national priority. That is why I stand here today in strong support of
H.R. 1808, the Improving Support for Missing and Exploited Children
Act.
In 1984, Congress passed the Missing Children's Assistance Act and
established a grant to enhance our country's efforts to find missing
children and prevent child exploitation. For more than 30 years, the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, also known as NCMEC,
has used the grant to coordinate a national response to crises and
crimes affecting America's most vulnerable children.
Through unique public-private partnerships, NCMEC works with
families,
[[Page H4457]]
law enforcement, schools, community leaders, and nonprofits in its
efforts to find children who are missing and protect youth who are
victims of sexual exploitation.
The reforms in the Improving Support for Missing and Exploited
Children Act will ensure the vital work of recovering and supporting
vulnerable youth is able to continue, reuniting more families with
their loved ones and helping victims receive the support they
desperately need. This is a bill that delivers the reforms needed to
save lives.
I am also proud to say it is a bill with strong bipartisan support.
At the opening of NCMEC, former President Ronald Reagan said:
``No single sector of our Nation can solve the problem of missing and
exploited children alone. But by working together, pooling our
resources, and building on our strengths, we can accomplish great
things.''
``Together we can turn the tide on these hateful crimes. . . .''
Together we can turn the tide. The work our colleagues,
Representatives Guthrie and Courtney, have done to get this important
bill to the House floor demonstrates the type of collaboration
President Reagan spoke of on that day at the opening of the NCMEC. And
the Improving Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act isn't the
only bill we have been able to reach across the aisle on and deliver
reforms that will help vulnerable youth.
Working together, we are also advancing positive bipartisan solutions
in H.R. 1809, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2017. This bill aims
at assisting a different kind of vulnerable youth, ensuring kids who
find themselves in the juvenile justice system have an opportunity to
turn their lives around and achieve success.
Every child deserves an opportunity to make a change for the better,
if that child has made a mistake. By working together to develop the
Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2017, my colleagues, Representatives
Lewis and Scott, have put forward a bill that will help ensure at-risk
youth are afforded an opportunity to do just that.
Both of these bills renew the commitment we have made to help and
protect our Nation's most vulnerable children. All of these reforms
will make a real difference in the lives of countless children, young
adults, parents, and families across the country. I am proud of the
bipartisan work we have been able to accomplish.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. GUTHRIE. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.
Ms. FOXX. I want to thank Representative Scott, as well as
Representatives Lewis, Guthrie, and Courtney for their leadership on
these issues. I urge our fellow colleagues to support the Improving
Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen), a good friend of mine who, in
his work on the Ways and Means Committee, has been focused on and
dedicated to this issue.
Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his work on this
on a bipartisan basis with Mr. Courtney.
I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1808, the Improving Support
for Missing and Exploited Children Act. This important initiative, it
builds on the bipartisan work we have already accomplished to combat
sex trafficking and child exploitation.
Since its creation in 1984, the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children has worked tirelessly to protect children from being
exploited, to reunite missing children with their families, and to
provide resources and training to our law enforcement community to help
assist in this effort.
This legislation today will assist the Center in strengthening its
prevention and its recovery programs. One of those programs is the
CyberTipline which, since being launched in 1998, has received 12.7
million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. It is programs
like this, Mr. Speaker, that go a long way to helping us save lives and
put an end to sexual exploitation and trafficking of children.
I encourage all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In summary, we have heard again a very broad-based bipartisan chorus
of voices in support of this legislation. Again, like in committee,
hopefully, all of us will stand together to support this really
important update to making sure that families get all the help, and law
enforcement get all the help, that they need to eliminate the scourge
of this problem.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I had the opportunity to visit the Center, and the building that I
got to go visit was full of men and women who show up every day, who do
exceptional work dealing with the disturbing issues, and so my hat is
off to them. They deal with stuff that is just unimaginable to most of
us, and they do it in a way that is dignified and in a way that is well
worthy of the effort that we are giving them to give more transparency
and empower them to help more.
I really appreciate working with my friend, Mr. Courtney. H.R. 1808
is a bipartisan proposal, and I urge my colleagues to support the
Improving Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act of 2017.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1808, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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