IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 340 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives of the importance 

of providing a voice for the many victims (and families of victims) 

involved in missing persons cases and unidentified human remains cases. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 26, 2007 

Mr. CHABOT (for himself, Mr. LAMPSON, Mr. POE, and Mr. RAMSTAD) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives of 

the importance of providing a voice for the many victims 

(and families of victims) involved in missing persons 

cases and unidentified human remains cases. 

Whereas there are more than 100,000 active missing person 

cases on any given day; 

Whereas every year tens of thousands of people vanish under 

suspicious circumstances; 

Whereas there are more than 40,000 sets of human remains 

held in the property rooms of medical examiners, coroners, and police departments across the country that cannot be identified by conventional means; 


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•HRES 340 IH 

Whereas of such 40,000 sets of human remains, only six 

thousand sets of human remains have been entered into 

the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and 

fewer have been entered into other Federal databases 

such as the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program 

(ViCap) or the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), or the National Missing Persons DNA Database; 

Whereas many cities and counties continue to bury or cremate unidentified human remains without any attempt to 

collect DNA and many laboratories are unable to perform 

timely DNA analysis of human remains, especially when 

they are old or are degraded; 

Whereas such victims and their families have been without a 

voice for far too long: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) is committed to giving victims involved in 

3 missing persons cases and unidentified human re4 mains cases a voice; 

5 (2) supports that such voice should be heard 

6 by— 

7 (A) continuing Federal funding for DNA 

8 testing and the Combined DNA Index System; 

9 (B) supporting greater cooperation be10 tween local, State, and Federal law enforce11 ment; 

12 (C) providing more comprehensive training 

13 and education for the more than 17,000 law enVerDate Aug 31 2005 23:31 Apr 26, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR340.IH HR340

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•HRES 340 IH 

1 forcement agencies involved in missing persons 

2 cases and unidentified human remains cases; 

3 (D) providing medical examiners and coro4 ners with greater accessibility into Federal 

5 databases to upload and compare evidence so 

6 that such victims ultimately may be located and 

7 identified and returned to their loved ones 

8 where they belong; and 

9 (E) working to raise awareness among vic10 tim service providers and the general public 

11 about the use of DNA and the Combined DNA 

12 Index System to identify the unidentified dead; 

13 and 

14 (3) directs the Clerk of the House of Represent15 atives to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution 

16 to the Office for Victims of Crime and the National 

17 Institute for Justice in the Department of Justice. 

Æ 


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