[Senate Report 115-411]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 715
115th Congress } { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 115-411
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TO DIRECT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO REVIEW, REVISE, AND DEVELOP LAW
ENFORCEMENT AND JUSTICE PROTOCOLS APPROPRIATE TO ADDRESS MISSING AND
MURDERED INDIANS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
_______
December 4, 2018.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Hoeven, from the Committee on Indian Affairs,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 1942]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Indian Affairs, to which was referred the
bill (S. 1942) to direct the Attorney General to review,
revise, and develop law enforcement and justice protocols
appropriate to address missing and murdered Indians, and for
other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably
thereon, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute and
recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.
PURPOSE
This bill is intended to improve law enforcement response
to address missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska
Natives by (1) improving tribal access to federal criminal
databases, (2) improving data collection on cases of missing
and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives for reports to
Congress, and (3) directing the Attorney General to review,
revise, and develop law enforcement and justice guidelines with
local level input.
BACKGROUND
The bill, S. 1942, is named for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind
from North Dakota. On August 19, 2017, Savanna, a pregnant 22-
year-old member of the Spirit Lake Tribe, disappeared from her
home near Fargo, North Dakota. Eight days later, Savanna's body
was found wrapped in plastic in the Red River. While Savanna's
tragic death became widespread news, many other Native women
and men go missing or are murdered each year, very few of those
cases are resolved.
In 2016, the National Congress of American Indians passed a
resolution, Addressing Crisis of Missing and Murdered Native
Women, which called for the creation of law enforcement and
justice protocols appropriate to the disappearance of Native
women and girls. These recommendations included addressing
inter-jurisdictional issues and improving coordination of
efforts between Federal departments, Indian tribes, and States.
NEED FOR LEGISLATION
Data is limited on the number of missing Native women in
the United States. Recent data from the Department of Justice
shows that violence against American Indians and Alaska Natives
is higher than other racial and ethnic categories. According to
that data, more than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native
women and men have experienced violence in their lifetime. Some
tribal communities find that Native women experience murder
rates ten times higher than the national average. Native women
are also two times more likely than other groups to experience
rape or sexual assault and two and a half times more likely
than others to experience violent crimes in their lifetimes.
Increased coordination and communication among Federal, State,
Tribal, and local law enforcement agencies--including medical
examiner and coroner offices--will positively impact the
response to cases of missing and murdered American Indians and
Alaska Natives.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
On October 5, 2017, Senator Heitkamp introduced S. 1942, a
bill to direct the Attorney General to review, revise, and
develop law enforcement and justice protocols appropriate to
address missing and murdered Indians, and for other purposes.
This bill, S. 1942, is also known as the Savanna's Act. The
original cosponsors include Senators Franken, Heinrich,
Merkley, Tester, and Warren.
On October 25, 2017, the Committee held a legislative
hearing on the bill. Senators Cortez Masto, Wyden, and
Murkowski joined as cosponsors prior to the Committee's
legislative hearing. At this hearing, The Honorable R. Trent
Shores, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma,
U.S. Department of Justice, testified in support of the goals
of S. 1942. The Honorable Dave Flute, Chairman, Sissteon
Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation and Ms. Carmen
O'Leary, Director, Native Women's Society of the Great Plains,
both testified in support of S. 1942.
On November 14, 2018, the Committee held a duly called
business meeting to consider S. 1942. Senators Collins,
Klobuchar, Tillis, Smith, Cantwell, Schatz, and Udall joined S.
1942 as cosponsors before the Committee convened the business
meeting. Senator Heitkamp submitted a timely amendment in the
nature of a substitute for consideration. At the business
meeting, the Committee passed both amendment and bill, as
amended, by voice vote. After the Committee ordered, with
amendment, reported favorably, Senator Murray joined as a co-
sponsor on November 15, 2018.
On November 29, 2017, Representative Torres introduced the
House companion bill (H.R. 4485) to S. 1942 with seven original
cosponsors, including Representatives Cole, Grijalva, Hanabusa,
Jayapal, Khanna, Moore, and Radewagen. The bill, H.R. 4485, was
referred to the House of Representatives Committees on
Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security
and Investigations, and on Natural Resources Subcommittee on
Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs. No further action
has been taken on H.R. 4485. Between the dates of December 1,
2017 to November 29, 2018, Representatives Evans, Dingell,
O'Halleran, Kind, McCollum, Norton, Clark, Pallone, Demings,
Pocan, Lujan, Poliquin, Pingree, Lujan Grisham, Gallego,
DeLauro, and Velazquez have joined as cosponsors to H.R. 4485.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS FOR S. 1942, AS AMENDED
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as ``Savanna's Act''.
Sec. 2. Findings and purposes
This section provides several statistics on violence
against and the disappearance of Native men and women.
Sec. 3. Definitions
The term ``databases'' means the National Crime
Information Center database; the Combined DNA Index System; the
Next Generation Identification System; and other relevant
datasets such as those under the Violent Criminal Apprehension
Program and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons
System.
The term ``Indian'' means a member of an Indian
Tribe.
The term ``Indian country'' has the meaning given
the term in section 1151 of title 18, United States Code.
The term ``Indian lands'' has the same meaning
given the term in section 4302 of title 25, United States Code.
The term ``Indian Tribe'' has the meaning given
the term in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
The term ``law enforcement agency'' means a
Tribal, Federal, State, or local law enforcement agency.
Sec. 4. Improving tribal access to databases
This section requires the Department of Justice to provide
training to law enforcement agencies on the importance of and
how to record tribal enrollment information or affiliation of a
victim in relevant databases. It also requires the Attorney
General to consult with tribes on how to further improve these
databases and tribal access to them.
This section also amends the Violence Against Women and
Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA) to
include the topic of homicide and improving access to local,
regional, State, and Federal crime information databases and
criminal justice information systems in the annual
consultations mandated under VAWA.
It also calls for the Attorney General to raise awareness
about the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System,
including conducting specific outreach to Indian tribes.
Sec. 5. Guidelines for responding to cases of missing and murdered
Indians
This section requires United States attorneys with
jurisdiction to prosecute crimes in Indian Country to develop
guidelines to respond to cases of missing and murdered Indians
during the VAWA-mandated annual consultations on sexual
violence with Indian tribes and Federal partners. Each United
States attorney should use these consultations to work with
stakeholders in his or her own region to develop guidelines on
inter-law enforcement agency coordination; missing person
response best practices; improving access to culturally
appropriate victim services; and, missing persons data
collection, reporting, and analysis.
This section provides affirmative preference for Department
of Justice grants that help implement the guidelines or assist
in addressing the issue of missing and murdered Indians
generally to incentivize Tribal, State, and local law
enforcement agencies to incorporate these guidelines into their
existing regime of protocols.
The Attorney General will provide Indian Tribes and law
enforcement agencies with training and technical assistance
relating to implementation of the guidelines developed under
this section and any additional locally specific guidelines
developed to respond to cases of missing and murdered Indians.
Sec. 6. Annual reporting requirements
This section requires the Department of Justice to include
known statistics on missing and murdered Indians in the United
States in its annual Indian Country Investigations and
Prosecutions report to Congress. The Department of Justice
should base these statistics on relevant data submitted by all
Tribal, State, and local law enforcement agencies. The report
will also include recommendations on how to improve data
collection on missing and murdered Indians.
To incentivize Tribal, State, and local law enforcement
agencies to submit this data, they shall be given preference
for all Department of Justice discretionary grants that would
aid in the implementation of the guidelines under Section 5 or
help them address the issue of missing and murdered Indians.
The section also calls for gender information to be
included in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual
statistics on missing and unidentified persons published on its
public website.
COST BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS
The following cost estimate, as provided by the
Congressional Budget Office, dated November 28, 2018, was
prepared for S. 1942:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, November 28, 2018.
Hon. John Hoeven,
Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1942, Savanna's Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Robert Reese.
Sincerely,
Keith Hall,
Director.
Enclosure.
S. 1942--Savanna's Act
Summary: S. 1942 would direct the Department of Justice
(DOJ) to provide training on recording tribal affiliation in
federal databases and to create guidelines for law enforcement
and criminal investigations in Indian Country, or all Indian
reservations under the jurisdiction of the United States
government.
CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $15
million over the 2019-2023 period. Such spending would be
subject to appropriation.
Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO
estimates that enacting S. 1942 would not increase net direct
spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive
10-year periods beginning in 2029.
S. 1942 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA).
Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated
budgetary effect of S. 1942 is shown in the following table.
The costs of the legislation fall within budget function 750
(administration of justice).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--
--------------------------------------------------
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2019-2023
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INCREASES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION
Estimated Authorization Level................................ 10 4 1 * * 15
Estimated Outlays............................................ 9 4 1 * * 15
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* = between zero and $500,000.
Basis of estimate: For this estimate, CBO assumes that S.
1942 will be enacted near the end of 2018 and that the
necessary amounts will be appropriated each year beginning in
2019. Estimated outlays are based on historical spending for
similar programs.
S. 1942 would require DOJ to provide training to law
enforcement agencies on how to properly record tribal
enrollment information of crime victims into federal databases.
DOJ also would need to consult the Department of the Interior
and Indian tribes on how to improve tribal access to and the
usefulness of such databases.
The bill also would direct the United States Attorneys to
develop guidelines for state and local law enforcement agencies
on how best to respond to cases of missing and murdered
Indians. DOJ would then be required to annually review and
report on the compliance of such law enforcement agencies with
those guidelines.
Using information from DOJ, CBO expects that visits to law
enforcement agencies around the country for additional outreach
and training required under S. 1942 would create substantial
personnel and travel costs. Furthermore, CBO expects DOJ would
need to contract with outside law enforcement experts to assist
the U.S. Attorneys in creating the proposed law enforcement
guidelines. CBO estimates that implementing those provisions
would cost $15 million over the 2019-2023 period, assuming
appropriation of the necessary amounts.
Pay-As-You-Go considerations: None.
Increase in long-term direct spending and deficits: CBO
estimates that enacting S. 1942 would not increase net direct
spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive
10-year periods beginning in 2029.
Mandates: S. 1942 contains no intergovernmental or private-
sector mandates as defined in UMRA.
Estimate prepared by: Federal Costs: Robert Reese,
Mandates: Rachel Austin.
Estimate reviewed by: Kim P. Cawley, Chief, Natural and
Physical Resources Cost Estimates Unit; H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
REGULATORY AND PAPERWORK IMPACT STATEMENT
Paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the
Senate requires each report accompanying a bill to evaluate the
regulatory and paperwork impact that would be incurred in
carrying out the bill. The Committee believes that S. 1942 will
have minimal impact on regulatory or paperwork requirements.
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
The Committee has received no communications from the
Executive Branch regarding S. 1942.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
On February 8, 2017, the Committee unanimously approved a
motion by Chairman Hoeven to waive subsection 12 of rule XXVI
of the Standing Rules of the Senate. In the opinion of the
Committee, it is necessary to dispense with this rule to
expedite the business of the Senate.
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