[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 209 (Thursday, December 21, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8265-S8267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 1864. Mr. McCONNELL (for Mr. Grassley (for himself, Ms. Klobuchar,
Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Schumer)) proposed an amendment to the bill H.R.
195, to amend title 44, United States Code, to restrict the
distribution of free printed copies of the Federal Register to Members
of Congress and other officers and employees of the United States, and
for other purposes; as follows:
At the end, add the following:
TITLE II--KEVIN AND AVONTE'S LAW OF 2017
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ``Kevin and Avonte's Law of
2017''.
Subtitle A--Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program
Reauthorization
SEC. 211. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Missing Americans Alert
Program Act of 2017''.
SEC. 212. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE MISSING ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
PATIENT ALERT PROGRAM.
(a) Amendments.--Section 240001 of the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621) is
amended--
(1) in the section header, by striking ``alzheimer's
disease patient'' and inserting ``americans'';
(2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
``(a) Grant Program To Reduce Injury and Death of Missing
Americans With Dementia and Developmental Disabilities.--
Subject to the availability of appropriations to carry out
this section, the Attorney General, through the Bureau of
Justice Assistance and in consultation with the Secretary of
Health and Human Services--
``(1) shall award competitive grants to health care
agencies, State and local law enforcement agencies, or public
safety agencies and nonprofit organizations to assist such
entities in planning, designing, establishing, or operating
locally based, proactive programs to prevent wandering and
locate missing individuals with forms of dementia, such as
Alzheimer's Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as
autism, who, due to their condition, wander from safe
environments, including programs that--
``(A) provide prevention and response information,
including online training resources, and referrals to
families or guardians of such individuals who, due to their
condition, wander from a safe environment;
``(B) provide education and training, including online
training resources, to first responders, school personnel,
clinicians, and the public in order to--
``(i) increase the safety and reduce the incidence of
wandering of persons, who, due to their dementia or
developmental disabilities, may wander from safe
environments;
``(ii) facilitate the rescue and recovery of individuals
who, due to their dementia or developmental disabilities,
wander from safe environments; and
``(iii) recognize and respond to and appropriately interact
with endangered missing individuals with dementia or
developmental disabilities who, due to their condition,
wander from safe environments;
``(C) provide prevention and response training and
emergency protocols for school administrators, staff, and
families or guardians of individuals with dementia, such as
Alzheimer's Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as
autism, to help reduce the risk of wandering by such
individuals; and
``(D) develop, operate, or enhance a notification or
communications systems for alerts, advisories, or
dissemination of other information for the recovery of
missing individuals with forms of dementia, such as
Alzheimer's Disease, or with developmental disabilities, such
as autism; and
``(2) shall award grants to health care agencies, State and
local law enforcement agencies, or public safety agencies to
assist such agencies in designing, establishing, and
operating locative tracking technology programs for
individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's
Disease, or children with developmental disabilities, such as
autism, who have wandered from safe environments.'';
(3) in subsection (b)--
(A) by inserting ``competitive'' after ``to receive a'';
(B) by inserting ``agency or'' before ``organization'' each
place it appears; and
(C) by adding at the end the following: ``The Attorney
General shall periodically solicit applications for grants
under this section by publishing a request for applications
in the Federal Register and by posting such a request on the
website of the Department of Justice.''; and
(4) by striking subsections (c) and (d) and inserting the
following:
``(c) Preference.--In awarding grants under subsection
(a)(1), the Attorney General shall give preference to law
enforcement or public safety agencies that partner with
nonprofit organizations that appropriately use person-
centered plans minimizing restrictive interventions and that
have a direct link to individuals, and families of
individuals, with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's
Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as autism.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section
$2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2022.
``(e) Grant Accountability.--All grants awarded by the
Attorney General under this section shall be subject to the
following accountability provisions:
``(1) Audit requirement.--
``(A) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term `unresolved
audit finding' means a finding in the final audit report of
the Inspector General of the Department of Justice that the
audited grantee has utilized grant funds for an unauthorized
expenditure or otherwise unallowable cost that is not closed
or resolved within 12 months from the date when the final
audit report is issued.
``(B) Audits.--Beginning in the first fiscal year beginning
after the date of enactment of this subsection, and in each
fiscal year thereafter, the Inspector General of the
Department of Justice shall conduct audits of recipients of
grants under this section to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse
of funds by grantees. The Inspector General shall determine
the appropriate number of grantees to be audited each year.
``(C) Mandatory exclusion.--A recipient of grant funds
under this section that is found to have an unresolved audit
finding shall not be eligible to receive grant funds under
this section during the first 2 fiscal years beginning after
the end of the 12-month period described in subparagraph (A).
``(D) Priority.--In awarding grants under this section, the
Attorney General shall give priority to eligible applicants
that did not have an unresolved audit finding during the 3
fiscal years before submitting an application for a grant
under this section.
``(E) Reimbursement.--If an entity is awarded grant funds
under this section during the 2-fiscal-year period during
which the entity is barred from receiving grants under
subparagraph (C), the Attorney General shall--
``(i) deposit an amount equal to the amount of the grant
funds that were improperly awarded to the grantee into the
General Fund of the Treasury; and
``(ii) seek to recoup the costs of the repayment to the
fund from the grant recipient that was erroneously awarded
grant funds.
``(2) Nonprofit organization requirements.--
``(A) Definition of nonprofit organization.--For purposes
of this paragraph and the grant programs under this section,
the term `nonprofit organization' means an organization that
is described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 and is exempt from taxation under section 501(a)
of such Code.
``(B) Prohibition.--The Attorney General may not award a
grant under this section to a nonprofit organization that
holds money in offshore accounts for the purpose of avoiding
paying the tax described in section 511(a) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986.
``(C) Disclosure.--Each nonprofit organization that is
awarded a grant under this section and uses the procedures
prescribed in regulations to create a rebuttable presumption
of reasonableness for the compensation of its officers,
directors, trustees, and key employees, shall disclose to the
Attorney General, in the application for the grant, the
process for determining such compensation, including the
independent persons involved
[[Page S8266]]
in reviewing and approving such compensation, the
comparability data used, and contemporaneous substantiation
of the deliberation and decision. Upon request, the Attorney
General shall make the information disclosed under this
subparagraph available for public inspection.
``(3) Conference expenditures.--
``(A) Limitation.--No amounts made available to the
Department of Justice under this section may be used by the
Attorney General, or by any individual or entity awarded
discretionary funds through a cooperative agreement under
this section, to host or support any expenditure for
conferences that uses more than $20,000 in funds made
available by the Department of Justice, unless the head of
the relevant agency or department, provides prior written
authorization that the funds may be expended to host the
conference.
``(B) Written approval.--Written approval under
subparagraph (A) shall include a written estimate of all
costs associated with the conference, including the cost of
all food, beverages, audio-visual equipment, honoraria for
speakers, and entertainment.
``(C) Report.--The Deputy Attorney General shall submit an
annual report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives on all conference expenditures approved under
this paragraph.
``(4) Annual certification.--Beginning in the first fiscal
year beginning after the date of enactment of this
subsection, the Attorney General shall submit, to the
Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on the
Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives, an annual certification--
``(A) indicating whether--
``(i) all audits issued by the Office of the Inspector
General under paragraph (1) have been completed and reviewed
by the appropriate Assistant Attorney General or Director;
``(ii) all mandatory exclusions required under paragraph
(1)(C) have been issued; and
``(iii) all reimbursements required under paragraph (1)(E)
have been made; and
``(B) that includes a list of any grant recipients excluded
under paragraph (1) from the previous year.
``(f) Preventing Duplicative Grants.--
``(1) In general.--Before the Attorney General awards a
grant to an applicant under this section, the Attorney
General shall compare potential grant awards with other
grants awarded by the Attorney General to determine if grant
awards are or have been awarded for a similar purpose.
``(2) Report.--If the Attorney General awards grants to the
same applicant for a similar purpose the Attorney General
shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives a report that includes--
``(A) a list of all such grants awarded, including the
total dollar amount of any such grants awarded; and
``(B) the reason the Attorney General awarded multiple
grants to the same applicant for a similar purpose.''.
(b) Annual Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date
of enactment of this Act and every year thereafter, the
Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the
Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate
and the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives a report on
the Missing Americans Alert Program, as amended by subsection
(a), which shall address--
(1) the number of individuals who benefitted from the
Missing Americans Alert Program, including information such
as the number of individuals with reduced unsafe wandering,
the number of people who were trained through the program,
and the estimated number of people who were impacted by the
program;
(2) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement
or public safety agencies that applied for funding under the
Missing Americans Alert Program;
(3) the number of State, local, and tribal local law
enforcement or public safety agencies that received funding
under the Missing Americans Alert Program, including--
(A) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement
or public safety agencies that used such funding for
training; and
(B) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement
or public safety agencies that used such funding for
designing, establishing, or operating locative tracking
technology;
(4) the companies, including the location (city and State)
of the headquarters and local offices of each company, for
which their locative tracking technology was used by State,
local, and tribal law enforcement or public safety agencies;
(5) the nonprofit organizations, including the location
(city and State) of the headquarters and local offices of
each organization, that State, local, and tribal law
enforcement or public safety agencies partnered with and the
result of each partnership;
(6) the number of missing children with autism or another
developmental disability with wandering tendencies or adults
with Alzheimer's being served by the program who went missing
and the result of the search for each such individual; and
(7) any recommendations for improving the Missing Americans
Alert Program.
(c) Table of Contents.--The table of contents in section 2
of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
is amended by striking the item relating to section 240001
and inserting the following:
``Sec. 240001. Missing Americans Alert Program.''.
Subtitle B--Education and Outreach
SEC. 231. ACTIVITIES BY THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND
EXPLOITED CHILDREN.
Section 404(b)(1)(H) of the Missing Children's Assistance
Act (34 U.S.C. 11293(b)(1)(H)) is amended by inserting ``,
including cases involving children with developmental
disabilities such as autism'' before the semicolon.
Subtitle C--Privacy Protections
SEC. 241. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Child.--The term ``child'' means an individual who is
less than 18 years of age.
(2) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian tribe'' has the
meaning given that term in section 4(e) of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C.
5304(e)).
(3) Law enforcement agency.--The term ``law enforcement
agency'' means an agency of a State, unit of local
government, or Indian tribe that is authorized by law or by a
government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention,
detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of
criminal law.
(4) Non-invasive and non-permanent.--The term ``non-
invasive and non-permanent'' means, with regard to any
technology or device, that the procedure to install the
technology or device does not create an external or internal
marker or implant a device, such as a microchip, or other
trackable items.
(5) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the 50 States,
the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
(6) Unit of local government.--The term ``unit of local
government'' means a county, municipality, town, township,
village, parish, borough, or other unit of general government
below the State level.
SEC. 242. STANDARDS AND BEST PRACTICES FOR USE OF NON-
INVASIVE AND NON-PERMANENT TRACKING DEVICES.
(a) Establishment.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General, in consultation
with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and leading
research, advocacy, self-advocacy, and service organizations,
shall establish standards and best practices relating to the
use of non-invasive and non-permanent tracking technology,
where a guardian or parent has determined that a non-invasive
and non-permanent tracking device is the least restrictive
alternative, to locate individuals as described in subsection
(a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621), as added by this
title.
(2) Requirements.--In establishing the standards and best
practices required under paragraph (1), the Attorney General
shall--
(A) determine--
(i) the criteria used to determine which individuals would
benefit from the use of a tracking device;
(ii) the criteria used to determine who should have direct
access to the tracking system; and
(iii) which non-invasive and non-permanent types of
tracking devices can be used in compliance with the standards
and best practices; and
(B) establish standards and best practices the Attorney
General determines are necessary to the administration of a
tracking system, including procedures to--
(i) safeguard the privacy of the data used by the tracking
device such that--
(I) access to the data is restricted to law enforcement and
health agencies determined necessary by the Attorney General;
and
(II) collection, use, and retention of the data is solely
for the purpose of preventing injury to or death of the
individual wearing the tracking device;
(ii) establish criteria to determine whether use of the
tracking device is the least restrictive alternative in order
to prevent risk of injury or death before issuing the
tracking device, including the previous consideration of less
restrictive alternatives;
(iii) provide training for law enforcement agencies to
recognize signs of abuse during interactions with applicants
for tracking devices;
(iv) protect the civil rights and liberties of the
individuals who use tracking devices, including their rights
under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States;
(v) establish a complaint and investigation process to
address--
(I) incidents of noncompliance by recipients of grants
under subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C.
12621), as added by this title, with the best practices
established by the Attorney General or other applicable law;
and
(II) use of a tracking device over the objection of an
individual; and
(vi) determine the role that State agencies should have in
the administration of a tracking system.
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(3) Effective date.--The standards and best practices
established pursuant to paragraph (1) shall take effect 90
days after publication of such standards and practices by the
Attorney General.
(b) Required Compliance.--
(1) In general.--Each entity that receives a grant under
subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621), as
added by this title, shall comply with any standards and best
practices relating to the use of tracking devices established
by the Attorney General in accordance with subsection (a).
(2) Determination of compliance.--The Attorney General, in
consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
shall determine whether an entity that receives a grant under
subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621), as
added by this title, acts in compliance with the standards
and best practices described in paragraph (1).
(c) Applicability of Standards and Best Practices.--The
standards and best practices established by the Attorney
General under subsection (a) shall apply only to the grant
programs authorized under subsection (a)(2) of section 240001
of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
(34 U.S.C. 12621), as added by this title.
(d) Limitations on Program.--
(1) Data storage.--Any tracking data provided by tracking
devices issued under this program may not be used by a
Federal entity to create a database.
(2) Voluntary participation.--Nothing in this title may be
construed to require that a parent or guardian use a tracking
device to monitor the location of a child or adult under that
parent or guardian's supervision if the parent or guardian
does not believe that the use of such device is necessary or
in the interest of the child or adult under supervision.
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