[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 136 (Thursday, August 16, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5694-S5695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Hatch, Ms. 
        Klobuchar, and Mr. Portman):
  S. 3354. A bill to amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bill to update 
and extend the Missing Children's Assistance Act. Senators Feinstein, 
Hatch, Klobuchar, and Portman have joined as original cosponsors, and I 
thank these colleagues for their support. I also want to thank 
Congressman Brett Guthrie and the chairman of the House Education 
Committee, Virginia Foxx, for championing a related companion measure 
in the other chamber.
  The purpose of this bipartisan bill, entitled the Missing Children's 
Assistance Act of 2018, is to ensure the continued availability of 
federal resources for the work of missing children's organizations such 
as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Since its 
inception in 1984, the National Center has served as the official 
national resource center and clearinghouse on missing and exploited 
children. The National Center works in partnership with State child 
protective services agencies to help locate children who go missing 
from foster care. It also works in partnership with families, schools, 
corporate and nonprofit entities, the FBI, the Marshals Service, and 
the Secret Service, as well as other federal state and local entities, 
to prevent child abductions and facilitate the recovery of children who 
may become victims of sex trafficking. Each year, thousands of children 
run away or go missing in the United States, which is why this work is 
so important.
  The names Johnny Gosch, Eugene Martin and Jetseta Gage, for example, 
still bring heartbreak to all Iowans. Johnny Gosch was a 12-year-old 
paperboy delivering newspapers in West Des Moines, Iowa, when he 
disappeared in 1982. Two years later, 13-year-old Eugene Martin 
disappeared in Des Moines, Iowa--also while delivering newspapers. And 
10-year-old Jetseta Gage was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a 
convicted sex offender in rural Johnson County, Iowa in 2005. Theirs 
are not isolated cases. Too many other children across the country have 
had to cope with the physical and emotional trauma of being abducted, 
trafficked or sexually exploited.
  Under the legislation that I have proposed, the Justice Department 
will continue to play an important role in implementing the Missing 
Children's Assistance Act. Through its Office of Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention, the Department will continue to annually award 
grants to the National Center and other nonprofit organizations to 
further their important work of preventing and responding to offenses 
committed against vulnerable children. Extending this authorized 
funding at $40 million annually for five more years, as proposed in 
this bill, will ensure that the Office can continue to support these 
nonprofit organizations in their important efforts in public-private 
partnerships with families, private entities, and federal, state, 
local, and international law enforcement agencies.
  The bipartisan legislation I have sponsored also includes several 
important updates to the Missing Children's Act, which Congress last 
reauthorized in 2013. Some of these reforms already are included in 
another bipartisan bill, known as the Trafficking Victims Protection 
Reauthorization Act, which I sponsored and the Senate passed last year. 
Other changes would help increase public awareness of methods to 
prevent abductions and support the recovery of missing children.
  The activities authorized by the Missing Children's Assistance Act 
will expire on September 30th unless Congress acts quickly to adopt a 
reauthorization measure. As a parent, as a grandparent, I call on my 
colleagues to join me in supporting the prompt passage of this bill.

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