S. 5230 

One Hundred Seventeenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty two 

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. 

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 ‘‘Billy’s Law’’ or the ‘‘Help Find 

the Missing Act’’. 

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF THE NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM. 

(a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General, shall maintain the 

‘‘National Missing and Unidentified Persons System’’ or ‘‘NamUs’’, 

consistent with the following: 

(1) The NamUs shall be a national information clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and 

unclaimed person cases across the United States administered 

by the National Institute of Justice and managed through an 

agreement with an eligible entity. 

(2) The NamUs shall coordinate or provide— 

(A) online database technology which serves as a 

national information clearinghouse to help expedite case 

associations and resolutions; 

(B) various free-of-charge forensic services to aid in 

the identification of missing persons and unidentified 

remains; 

(C) investigative support for criminal justice efforts 

to help missing and unidentified person case resolutions; 

(D) technical assistance for family members of missing 

persons; 

(E) assistance and training by coordinating State and 

local service providers in order to support individuals and 

families impacted by the loss or disappearance of a loved 

one; and 

(F) training and outreach from NamUs subject matter 

experts, including assistance with planning and facilitating 

Missing Person Day events across the country. 

(b) PERMISSIBLE USE OF FUNDS.— 

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

under this section for the implementation and maintenance 

of the agreement created in subparagraph (a)(1) include the 

use of funds— 
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(A) to hire additional personnel to provide case support 

and perform other core NamUs functions; 

(B) to develop new technologies to facilitate timely 

data entry into the relevant data bases; 

(C) to conduct contracting activities relevant to core 

NamUs services; 

(D) to provide forensic analyses to support the identification of missing and unidentified persons, to include, 

but not limited to DNA typing, forensic odontology, fingerprint examination, and forensic anthropology; 

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

personnel and forensic medicine service providers to use 

NamUs resources and best practices for the investigation 

of missing and unidentified person cases; 

(F) to assist States in providing information to the 

NCIC database, the NamUs database, or any future database system for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases; 

(G) to report to law enforcement authorities in the 

jurisdiction in which the remains were found information 

on every deceased, unidentified person, regardless of age; 

(H) to participate in Missing Person Days and other 

events to directly support family members of the missing 

with NamUs case entries and DNA collections; 

(I) to provide assistance and training by coordinating 

State and local service providers in order to support individuals and families; 

(J) to conduct data analytics and research projects 

for the purpose of enhancing knowledge, best practices, 

and training related to missing and unidentified person 

cases, as well as developing NamUs system enhancements; 

(K) to create and maintain a secure, online, nationwide 

critical incident response tool for professionals that will 

connect law enforcement, medico-legal and emergency 

management professionals, as well as victims and families 

during a critical incident; and 

(L) for other purposes consistent with the goals of 

this section. 

(c) AMENDMENTS TO THE CRIME CONTROL ACT OF 1990 TO

REQUIRE REPORTS OF MISSING CHILDREN TO NAMUS.— (1) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—Section 3701(a) of the Crime 

Control Act of 1990 (34 U.S.C. 41307(a)) is amended by striking 

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

section 3 (including rules promulgated pursuant to section 3(c)) 

of the Help Find the Missing Act, shall also report such case, 

either directly or through authorization described in such section to transmit, enter, or share information on such case, 

to the NamUs databases.’’. 

(2) STATE REQUIREMENTS.—Section 3702 of the Crime Control Act of 1990 (34 U.S.C. 41308) is amended— 

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

Information Center computer database’’ and inserting ‘‘, 

the National Crime Information Center computer database, 

or the NamUs databases’’; 

(B) in the matter following paragraph (3), by striking 

‘‘and the National Crime Information Center computer networks’’ and inserting ‘‘, the National Crime Information 
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Center computer networks, and the NamUs databases’’; 

and 

(C) in paragraph (4)— 

(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by 

inserting ‘‘or the NamUs databases’’ after ‘‘National 

Crime Information Center’’; and 

(ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘and National 

Crime Information Center computer networks’’ and 

inserting ‘‘, National Crime Information Center computer networks, and the NamUs databases’’. 

(3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this subsection shall apply with respect to reports made before, on, 

or after the date of enactment of this Act. 

SEC. 3. INFORMATION SHARING. 

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

of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall, in accordance 

with this section, provide access to the NCIC Missing Person and 

Unidentified Person Files to the National Institute of Justice or 

its designee administering the NamUs program as a grantee or 

contractor, for the purpose of reviewing missing and unidentified 

person records in NCIC for case validation and NamUs data reconciliation. 

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

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

in accordance with this section, have completed an assessment 

of the NCIC and NamUs system architectures and governing statutes, policies, and procedures and provide a proposed plan for 

the secure and automatic data transmission of missing and 

unidentified person records that are reported to and entered into 

the NCIC database, with the following criteria, to be electronically 

transmitted to the NamUs system. 

(1) Missing Person cases with an MNP (Missing Person) 

code of CA (Child Abduction) or AA (Amber Alert) within 72 

hours of entry into NCIC; 

(2) Missing Person cases with an MNP code EME (Endangered) or EMI (Involuntary) within 30 days of entry into NCIC; 

(3) All other Missing Person cases that have been active 

(non-cancelled) in NCIC for 180 days; 

(4) Unidentified person cases that have been active (noncancelled) in NCIC for 60 days; 

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

marked as such within NCIC, and any updates to such cases 

will be transmitted to NamUs within 24 hours. 

(c) RULES ON CONFIDENTIALITY.— (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the date 

of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General, in consultation 

with the Director of the FBI, shall promulgate rules pursuant 

to notice and comment that specify the information the Attorney 

General may allow NamUs to access from the NCIC Missing 

Person and Unidentified Person files or be transmitted from 

the NCIC database to the NamUs databases for purposes of 

this Act. Such rules shall— 

(A) provide for the protection of confidential, private, 

and law enforcement sensitive information contained in 

the NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person files; 

and 
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(B) specify the circumstances in which access to portions of information in the Missing Person and Unidentified 

Person files may be withheld from the NamUs databases. 

SEC. 4. REPORT ON BEST PRACTICES. 

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

Act, the Attorney General shall issue a report to offices of forensic 

medicine service providers, and Federal, State, local, and Tribal 

law enforcement agencies describing the best practices for the collection, reporting, and analysis of data and information on missing 

persons and unidentified human remains. Such best practices 

shall— 

(1) provide an overview of the NCIC database and NamUs 

databases; 

(2) describe how local law enforcement agencies, and offices 

of forensic medicine service providers should access and use 

the NCIC database and NamUs databases; 

(3) describe the appropriate and inappropriate uses of the 

NCIC database and NamUs databases; and 

(4) describe the standards and protocols for the collection, 

reporting, and analysis of data and information on missing 

persons and unidentified human remains. 

SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

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

enactment of this Act and biennially thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House 

of Representatives and the Committee on the Judiciary of the 

Senate a report describing the status of the NCIC database and 

NamUs databases. 

(b) CONTENTS.—The report required by subsection (a) shall 

describe, to the extent available, information on the process of 

information sharing between the NCIC database and NamUs databases. 

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

In this Act: 

(1) AUTHORIZED AGENCY.—The term ‘‘authorized agency’’ 

means a Government agency with an originating agency identification (ORI) number and that is a criminal justice agency, 

as defined in section 20.3 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations. 

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

Investigation. 

(3) FORENSIC MEDICINE SERVICE PROVIDER.—The term 

‘‘forensic medicine service provider’’ means a State or unit 

of local government forensic medicine service provider having 

not fewer than 1 part-time or full-time employed forensic 

pathologist, or forensic pathologist under contract, who conducts 

medicolegal death investigations, including examinations of 

human remains, and who provides reports or opinion testimony 

with respect to such activity in courts of law within the United 

States. 

(4) FORENSIC SCIENCE SERVICE PROVIDER.—The term 

‘‘forensic science service provider’’ means a State or unit of 

local government agency having not fewer than 1 full-time 
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analyst who examines physical evidence in criminal or investigative matters and provides reports or opinion testimony with 

respect to such evidence in courts in the United States. 

(5) NAMUS DATABASES.—The term ‘‘NamUs databases’’ 

means the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System 

Missing Persons database and National Missing and Unidentified Persons System Unidentified Decedents database maintained by the National Institute of Justice of the Department 

of Justice, which serves as a clearinghouse and resource center 

for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases. 

(6) NCIC DATABASE.—The term ‘‘NCIC database’’ means 

the National Crime Information Center Missing Person File 

and National Crime Information Center Unidentified Person 

File of the National Crime Information Center database of 

the FBI, established pursuant to section 534 of title 28, United 

States Code. 

(7) QUALIFYING LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY DEFINED.—The 

term ‘‘qualifying law enforcement agency’’ means a State, local, 

or Tribal law enforcement agency. 

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

United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 

of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, 

and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.