117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5230 

AN ACT 

To increase accessibility to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, to facilitate data sharing between 

such system and the National Crime Information Center 

database of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as ‘‘Billy’s Law’’ or the ‘‘Help 

3 Find the Missing Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF THE NATIONAL MISSING AND 

5 UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General, shall main7 tain the ‘‘National Missing and Unidentified Persons Sys8 tem’’ or ‘‘NamUs’’, consistent with the following: 

9 (1) The NamUs shall be a national information 

10 clearinghouse and resource center for missing, un11 identified, and unclaimed person cases across the 

12 United States administered by the National Institute 

13 of Justice and managed through an agreement with 

14 an eligible entity. 

15 (2) The NamUs shall coordinate or provide— 

16 (A) online database technology which 

17 serves as a national information clearinghouse 

18 to help expedite case associations and resolu19 tions; 

20 (B) various free-of-charge forensic services 

21 to aid in the identification of missing persons 

22 and unidentified remains; 

23 (C) investigative support for criminal jus24 tice efforts to help missing and unidentified 

25 person case resolutions; 
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1 (D) technical assistance for family mem2 bers of missing persons; 

3 (E) assistance and training by coordi4 nating State and local service providers in order 

5 to support individuals and families impacted by 

6 the loss or disappearance of a loved one; and 

7 (F) training and outreach from NamUs 

8 subject matter experts, including assistance 

9 with planning and facilitating Missing Person 

10 Day events across the country. 

11 (b) PERMISSIBLE USE OF FUNDS.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—The permissible use of funds 

13 awarded under this section for the implementation 

14 and maintenance of the agreement created in sub15 paragraph (a)(1) include the use of funds— 

16 (A) to hire additional personnel to provide 

17 case support and perform other core NamUs 

18 functions; 

19 (B) to develop new technologies to facili20 tate timely data entry into the relevant data 

21 bases; 

22 (C) to conduct contracting activities rel23 evant to core NamUs services; 

24 (D) to provide forensic analyses to support 

25 the identification of missing and unidentified 
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1 persons, to include, but not limited to DNA 

2 typing, forensic odontology, fingerprint exam3 ination, and forensic anthropology; 

4 (E) to train State, local, and Tribal law 

5 enforcement personnel and forensic medicine 

6 service providers to use NamUs resources and 

7 best practices for the investigation of missing 

8 and unidentified person cases; 

9 (F) to assist States in providing informa10 tion to the NCIC database, the NamUs data11 base, or any future database system for miss12 ing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases; 

13 (G) to report to law enforcement authori14 ties in the jurisdiction in which the remains 

15 were found information on every deceased, un16 identified person, regardless of age; 

17 (H) to participate in Missing Person Days 

18 and other events to directly support family 

19 members of the missing with NamUs case en20 tries and DNA collections; 

21 (I) to provide assistance and training by 

22 coordinating State and local service providers in 

23 order to support individuals and families; 

24 (J) to conduct data analytics and research 

25 projects for the purpose of enhancing knowl-
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1 edge, best practices, and training related to 

2 missing and unidentified person cases, as well 

3 as developing NamUs system enhancements; 

4 (K) to create and maintain a secure, on5 line, nationwide critical incident response tool 

6 for professionals that will connect law enforce7 ment, medico-legal and emergency management 

8 professionals, as well as victims and families 

9 during a critical incident; and 

10 (L) for other purposes consistent with the 

11 goals of this section. 

12 (c) AMENDMENTS TO THE CRIME CONTROL ACT OF

13 1990 TO REQUIRE REPORTS OF MISSING CHILDREN TO

14 NAMUS.— 

15 (1) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—Section 

16 3701(a) of the Crime Control Act of 1990 (34 

17 U.S.C. 41307(a)) is amended by striking the period 

18 and inserting the following: ‘‘and, consistent with 

19 section 3 (including rules promulgated pursuant to 

20 section 3(c)) of the Help Find the Missing Act, shall 

21 also report such case, either directly or through au22 thorization described in such section to transmit, 

23 enter, or share information on such case, to the 

24 NamUs databases.’’. 
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1 (2) STATE REQUIREMENTS.—Section 3702 of 

2 the Crime Control Act of 1990 (34 U.S.C. 41308) 

3 is amended— 

4 (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘or the 

5 National Crime Information Center computer 

6 database’’ and inserting ‘‘, the National Crime 

7 Information Center computer database, or the 

8 NamUs databases’’; 

9 (B) in the matter following paragraph (3), 

10 by striking ‘‘and the National Crime Informa11 tion Center computer networks’’ and inserting 

12 ‘‘, the National Crime Information Center com13 puter networks, and the NamUs databases’’; 

14 and 

15 (C) in paragraph (4)— 

16 (i) in the matter preceding subpara17 graph (A), by inserting ‘‘or the NamUs 

18 databases’’ after ‘‘National Crime Informa19 tion Center’’; and 

20 (ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

21 ‘‘and National Crime Information Center 

22 computer networks’’ and inserting ‘‘, Na23 tional Crime Information Center computer 

24 networks, and the NamUs databases’’. 
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1 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 

2 by this subsection shall apply with respect to reports 

3 made before, on, or after the date of enactment of 

4 this Act. 

5 SEC. 3. INFORMATION SHARING. 

6 (a) ACCESS TO NCIC.—Not later than 1 year after 

7 the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General 

8 shall, in accordance with this section, provide access to 

9 the NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Files 

10 to the National Institute of Justice or its designee admin11 istering the NamUs program as a grantee or contractor, 

12 for the purpose of reviewing missing and unidentified per13 son records in NCIC for case validation and NamUs data 

14 reconciliation. 

15 (b) ELECTRONIC DATA SHARING.—Not later than 6 

16 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attor17 ney General shall, in accordance with this section, have 

18 completed an assessment of the NCIC and NamUs system 

19 architectures and governing statutes, policies, and proce20 dures and provide a proposed plan for the secure and auto21 matic data transmission of missing and unidentified per22 son records that are reported to and entered into the 

23 NCIC database, with the following criteria, to be electroni24 cally transmitted to the NamUs system. 
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1 (1) Missing Person cases with an MNP (Miss2 ing Person) code of CA (Child Abduction) or AA 

3 (Amber Alert) within 72 hours of entry into NCIC; 

4 (2) Missing Person cases with an MNP code 

5 EME (Endangered) or EMI (Involuntary) within 30 

6 days of entry into NCIC; 

7 (3) All other Missing Person cases that have 

8 been active (non-cancelled) in NCIC for 180 days; 

9 (4) Unidentified person cases that have been 

10 active (non-cancelled) in NCIC for 60 days; 

11 (5) Once case data are transmitted to NamUs, 

12 cases are marked as such within NCIC, and any up13 dates to such cases will be transmitted to NamUs 

14 within 24 hours. 

15 (c) RULES ON CONFIDENTIALITY.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

17 the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney Gen18 eral, in consultation with the Director of the FBI, 

19 shall promulgate rules pursuant to notice and com20 ment that specify the information the Attorney Gen21 eral may allow NamUs to access from the NCIC 

22 Missing Person and Unidentified Person files or be 

23 transmitted from the NCIC database to the NamUs 

24 databases for purposes of this Act. Such rules 

25 shall— 
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1 (A) provide for the protection of confiden2 tial, private, and law enforcement sensitive in3 formation contained in the NCIC Missing Per4 son and Unidentified Person files; and 

5 (B) specify the circumstances in which ac6 cess to portions of information in the Missing 

7 Person and Unidentified Person files may be 

8 withheld from the NamUs databases. 

9 SEC. 4. REPORT ON BEST PRACTICES. 

10 Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 

11 of this Act, the Attorney General shall issue a report to 

12 offices of forensic medicine service providers, and Federal, 

13 State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies describ14 ing the best practices for the collection, reporting, and 

15 analysis of data and information on missing persons and 

16 unidentified human remains. Such best practices shall— 

17 (1) provide an overview of the NCIC database 

18 and NamUs databases; 

19 (2) describe how local law enforcement agen20 cies, and offices of forensic medicine service pro21 viders should access and use the NCIC database and 

22 NamUs databases; 

23 (3) describe the appropriate and inappropriate 

24 uses of the NCIC database and NamUs databases; 

25 and 
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1 (4) describe the standards and protocols for the 

2 collection, reporting, and analysis of data and infor3 mation on missing persons and unidentified human 

4 remains. 

5 SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

7 date of the enactment of this Act and biennially thereafter, 

8 the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on 

9 the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the 

10 Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate a report de11 scribing the status of the NCIC database and NamUs 

12 databases. 

13 (b) CONTENTS.—The report required by subsection 

14 (a) shall describe, to the extent available, information on 

15 the process of information sharing between the NCIC 

16 database and NamUs databases. 

17 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

18 In this Act: 

19 (1) AUTHORIZED AGENCY.—The term ‘‘author20 ized agency’’ means a Government agency with an 

21 originating agency identification (ORI) number and 

22 that is a criminal justice agency, as defined in sec23 tion 20.3 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations. 

24 (2) FBI.—The term ‘‘FBI’’ means the Federal 

25 Bureau of Investigation. 
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1 (3) FORENSIC MEDICINE SERVICE PROVIDER.— 

2 The term ‘‘forensic medicine service provider’’ means 

3 a State or unit of local government forensic medicine 

4 service provider having not fewer than 1 part-time 

5 or full-time employed forensic pathologist, or foren6 sic pathologist under contract, who conducts 

7 medicolegal death investigations, including examina8 tions of human remains, and who provides reports or 

9 opinion testimony with respect to such activity in 

10 courts of law within the United States. 

11 (4) FORENSIC SCIENCE SERVICE PROVIDER.— 

12 The term ‘‘forensic science service provider’’ means 

13 a State or unit of local government agency having 

14 not fewer than 1 full-time analyst who examines 

15 physical evidence in criminal or investigative matters 

16 and provides reports or opinion testimony with re17 spect to such evidence in courts in the United 

18 States. 

19 (5) NAMUS DATABASES.—The term ‘‘NamUs 

20 databases’’ means the National Missing and Uniden21 tified Persons System Missing Persons database and 

22 National Missing and Unidentified Persons System 

23 Unidentified Decedents database maintained by the 

24 National Institute of Justice of the Department of 

25 Justice, which serves as a clearinghouse and re-
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1 source center for missing, unidentified, and un2 claimed person cases. 

3 (6) NCIC DATABASE.—The term ‘‘NCIC data4 base’’ means the National Crime Information Center 

5 Missing Person File and National Crime Informa6 tion Center Unidentified Person File of the National 

7 Crime Information Center database of the FBI, es8 tablished pursuant to section 534 of title 28, United 

9 States Code. 

10 (7) QUALIFYING LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY

11 DEFINED.—The term ‘‘qualifying law enforcement 

12 agency’’ means a State, local, or Tribal law enforce13 ment agency. 

14 (8) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any 

15 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 

16 the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Is17 lands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Common18 wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 

Passed the Senate December 8, 2022. 

Attest: 

Secretary. 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5230 

AN ACT 

To increase accessibility to the National Missing 

purposes. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and for other tional Crime Information Center database of the data sharing between such system and the Naand Unidentified Persons System, to facilitate