I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2517 

To amend the Missing Children’s Assistance Act to authorize appropriations, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 24, 2007 

Mr. LAMPSON (for himself, Mrs. BIGGERT, Mr. CHABOT, and Mr. CRAMER) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To amend the Missing Children’s Assistance Act to authorize 

appropriations, 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Our Chil5 dren Comes First Act of 2007’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Section 402 of the Missing Children’s Assistance Act 

8 (42 U.S.C. 5771) is amended to read as follows: 

9 ‘‘SEC. 402. FINDINGS. 

10 ‘‘The Congress finds that— 


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1 ‘‘(1) each year thousands of children are ab2 ducted or removed from the control of a parent hav3 ing legal custody without such parent’s consent, 

4 under circumstances which immediately place the 

5 child in grave danger; 

6 ‘‘(2) many missing children are at great risk of 

7 both physical harm and sexual exploitation; 

8 ‘‘(3) in many cases, parents and local law en9 forcement officials have neither the resources nor 

10 the expertise to mount expanded search efforts; 

11 ‘‘(4) abducted children are frequently moved 

12 from one locality to another, requiring the coopera13 tion and coordination of local, State, and Federal 

14 law enforcement efforts; 

15 ‘‘(5) growing numbers of children are the vic16 tims of child sexual exploitation, increasingly involv17 ing the use of new technology to access the Internet; 

18 ‘‘(6) children may be displaced from their par19 ents or legal guardians as a result of national disas20 ters such as hurricanes and floods; 

21 ‘‘(7) sex offenders pose a threat to children that 

22 increases as more offenders are released into the 

23 Nation’s communities each year; and 

24 ‘‘(8) The National Center for Missing and Ex25 ploited Children— 


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1 ‘‘(A) serves as the national resource center 

2 and clearinghouse; 

3 ‘‘(B) works in partnership with the De4 partment of Justice, the Federal Bureau of In5 vestigation, the United States Marshals Service, 

6 the Department of the Treasury, the Depart7 ment of State, the Department of Homeland 

8 Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs 

9 Enforcement, the Secret Service, and many 

10 other agencies in the effort to find missing chil11 dren and prevent child victimization; and 

12 ‘‘(C) operates a national and increasingly 

13 worldwide network, linking the Center online 

14 with each of the missing children clearinghouses 

15 operated by the several States, the District of 

16 Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as with 

17 Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom, the 

18 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL 

19 headquarters in Lyon, France, and others, 

20 which enable the Center to transmit images and 

21 information regarding missing and exploited 

22 children to law enforcement across the United 

23 States and around the world instantly.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATOR. 

2 Section 404(b) of the Missing Children’s Assistance 

3 Act (42 U.S.C. 5773(b)) is amended— 

4 (1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as fol5 lows: 

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall 

7 annually make a grant to the Center, which shall be 

8 used to— 

9 ‘‘(A)(i) operate a national 24-hour toll-free 

10 telephone line by which individuals may report 

11 information regarding the location of any miss12 ing child, and request information pertaining to 

13 procedures necessary to reunite such child with 

14 such child’s legal custodian; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) coordinate the operation of such tele16 phone line with the operation of the national 

17 communications system referred to in part C of 

18 the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act; 

19 ‘‘(B) operate the official national resource 

20 center and information clearinghouse for miss21 ing and exploited children; 

22 ‘‘(C) provide to State and local govern23 ments, public and private nonprofit agencies, 

24 and individuals, information regarding— 

25 ‘‘(i) free or low-cost legal, restaurant, 

26 lodging, and transportation services that 


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1 are available for the benefit of missing and 

2 exploited children and their families; and 

3 ‘‘(ii) the existence and nature of pro4 grams being carried out by Federal agen5 cies to assist missing and exploited chil6 dren and their families; 

7 ‘‘(D) coordinate public and private pro8 grams that locate, recover, or reunite missing 

9 children with their families; 

10 ‘‘(E) disseminate, on a national basis, in11 formation relating to innovative and model pro12 grams, services, and legislation that benefit 

13 missing and exploited children; 

14 ‘‘(F) in cooperation with the Department 

15 of Justice, the Department of State, and local 

16 law enforcement, develop and present an annual 

17 report on the actual number of children nation18 wide who are reported missing each year, the 

19 number of children who are victims of non-fam20 ily abductions, the number of children who are 

21 the victims of parental kidnappings, and the 

22 number of children who are recovered each 

23 year; 

24 ‘‘(G) provide to State and local govern25 ments, public and private nonprofit agencies, 


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1 and individuals information to facilitate the 

2 lawful use of school records and birth certifi3 cates to identify and locate missing children; 

4 ‘‘(H) provide technical assistance and 

5 training to law enforcement agencies, State and 

6 local governments, elements of the criminal jus7 tice system, public and private nonprofit agen8 cies, and individuals in the prevention, inves9 tigation, prosecution, and treatment of cases in10 volving missing and exploited children; 

11 ‘‘(I) provide assistance to families and law 

12 enforcement agencies in locating and recovering 

13 missing and exploited children, both nationally 

14 and internationally; 

15 ‘‘(J) provide analytical support and tech16 nical assistance to law enforcement agencies 

17 through searching public records databases in 

18 locating and recovering missing and exploited 

19 children and helping to locate and identify ab20 ductors; 

21 ‘‘(K) provide direct on-site technical assist22 ance and consultation to law enforcement agen23 cies in child abduction and exploitation cases; 

24 ‘‘(L) provide forensic technical assistance 

25 and consultation to law enforcement and other 


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1 agencies in the identification of unidentified de2 ceased children through facial reconstruction of 

3 skeletal remains and similar techniques; 

4 ‘‘(M) track the incidence of attempted 

5 child abductions in order to identify links and 

6 patterns, and provide such information to law 

7 enforcement agencies; 

8 ‘‘(N) provide assistance to law enforcement 

9 agencies in locating non-compliant sex offend10 ers; 

11 ‘‘(O) facilitate the deployment of the Na12 tional Emergency Child Locator Center to as13 sist in reuniting missing children with their 

14 families during periods of national disasters; 

15 ‘‘(P) work in conjunction with the Federal 

16 Bureau of Investigation to provide fitness deter17 minations based on the criminal history of ap18 plicants for volunteer positions in child-serving 

19 non-profit organizations. 

20 ‘‘(Q) operate a cyber tipline to provide on21 line users and electronic service providers an ef22 fective means of reporting Internet-related child 

23 sexual exploitation in the areas of— 

24 ‘‘(i) possession, manufacture and dis25 tribution of child pornography; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) online enticement of children for 

2 sexual acts; 

3 ‘‘(iii) child prostitution; 

4 ‘‘(iv) sex tourism involving children; 

5 ‘‘(v) extrafamilial child sexual moles6 tation; 

7 ‘‘(vi) unsolicited obscene material sent 

8 to a child; and 

9 ‘‘(vii) misleading domain names; 

10 and subsequently to transmit such reports, in11 cluding relevant images and information, to the 

12 appropriate international, Federal, State or 

13 local law enforcement agency for investigation; 

14 ‘‘(R) work with law enforcement, electronic 

15 service providers, electronic payment service 

16 providers, and others on methods to reduce the 

17 distribution on the Internet of images and vid18 eos of sexually exploited children; 

19 ‘‘(S) serve as the central repository for 

20 child pornography, related images and evi21 dentiary information to be provided to law en22 forcement agencies and prosecutors in the in23 vestigation and prosecution of child sexual of24 fenses; 


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1 ‘‘(T) operate the Child Victim Identifica2 tion Program in order to assist the efforts of 

3 law enforcement agencies in identifying victims 

4 of child pornography and other sexual crimes; 

5 ‘‘(U) mobilize and coordinate financial 

6 companies and Internet services companies to 

7 identify and stop the use of the payment system 

8 to support commercial child pornography; 

9 ‘‘(V) develop and disseminate programs 

10 and information for the general public to edu11 cate families and children regarding the preven12 tion of child abduction and sexual exploitation; 

13 and 

14 ‘‘(W) develop and disseminate programs 

15 and information to local communities, schools, 

16 public officials, nonprofit organizations and 

17 youth-serving organizations to help parents and 

18 children use the Internet safely and respon19 sibly.’’, and 

20 (2) in paragraph (2) by striking ‘‘$20,000,000’’ 

21 and all that follows through ‘‘2008’’, and inserting 

22 ‘‘$50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2008 

23 through 2013’’. 


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1 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 Section 408(a) of the Missing Children’s Assistance 

3 Act (42 U.S.C. 5777(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘2007 

4 through 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘2008 through 2013’’. 

Æ 


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