II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2070 

To amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 

to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program, 

and to promote initiatives that will reduce the risk of injury and death 

relating to the wandering characteristics of some children with autism. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 2, 2017 

Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. TILLIS, Mr. SCHUMER, and 

Mr. DURBIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement 

Act of 1994, to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program, and to promote initiatives 

that will reduce the risk of injury and death relating 

to the wandering characteristics of some children with 

autism. 

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 ‘‘Kevin and Avonte’s 

5 Law of 2017’’. 


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1 TITLE I—MISSING ALZHEIMER’S 

2 DISEASE PATIENT ALERT 

3 PROGRAM REAUTHORIZA4 TION 

5 SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 

6 This title may be cited as the ‘‘Missing Americans 

7 Alert Program Act of 2017’’. 

8 SEC. 102. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE MISSING ALZ9 HEIMER’S DISEASE PATIENT ALERT PRO10 GRAM. 

11 (a) AMENDMENTS.—Section 240001 of the Violent 

12 Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 

13 U.S.C. 12621) is amended— 

14 (1) in the section header, by striking ‘‘ALZ15 HEIMER’S DISEASE PATIENT’’ and inserting 

16 ‘‘AMERICANS’’; 

17 (2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 

18 following: 

19 ‘‘(a) GRANT PROGRAM TO REDUCE INJURY AND

20 DEATH OF MISSING AMERICANS WITH DEMENTIA AND

21 DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.—Subject to the avail22 ability of appropriations to carry out this section, the At23 torney General, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance 

24 and in consultation with the Secretary of Health and 

25 Human Services— 


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1 ‘‘(1) shall award competitive grants to health 

2 care agencies, State and local law enforcement agen3 cies, or public safety agencies and nonprofit organi4 zations to assist such entities in planning, designing, 

5 establishing, or operating locally based, proactive 

6 programs to prevent wandering and locate missing 

7 individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alz8 heimer’s Disease, or developmental disabilities, such 

9 as autism, who, due to their condition, wander from 

10 safe environments, including programs that— 

11 ‘‘(A) provide prevention and response in12 formation, including online training resources, 

13 and referrals to families or guardians of such 

14 individuals who, due to their condition, wander 

15 from a safe environment; 

16 ‘‘(B) provide education and training, in17 cluding online training resources, to first re18 sponders, school personnel, clinicians, and the 

19 public in order to— 

20 ‘‘(i) increase the safety and reduce the 

21 incidence of wandering of persons, who, 

22 due to their dementia or developmental 

23 disabilities, may wander from safe environ24 ments; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) facilitate the rescue and recovery 

2 of individuals who, due to their dementia 

3 or developmental disabilities, wander from 

4 safe environments; and 

5 ‘‘(iii) recognize and respond to and 

6 appropriately interact with endangered 

7 missing individuals with dementia or devel8 opmental disabilities who, due to their con9 dition, wander from safe environments; 

10 ‘‘(C) provide prevention and response 

11 training and emergency protocols for school ad12 ministrators, staff, and families or guardians of 

13 individuals with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s 

14 Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as 

15 autism, to help reduce the risk of wandering by 

16 such individuals; and 

17 ‘‘(D) develop, operate, or enhance a notifi18 cation or communications systems for alerts, 

19 advisories, or dissemination of other informa20 tion for the recovery of missing individuals with 

21 forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, 

22 or with developmental disabilities, such as au23 tism; and 

24 ‘‘(2) shall award grants to health care agencies, 

25 State and local law enforcement agencies, or public 


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1 safety agencies to assist such agencies in designing, 

2 establishing, and operating locative tracking tech3 nology programs for individuals with forms of de4 mentia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, or children 

5 with developmental disabilities, such as autism, who 

6 have wandered from safe environments.’’; 

7 (3) in subsection (b)— 

8 (A) by inserting ‘‘competitive’’ after ‘‘to re9 ceive a’’; 

10 (B) by inserting ‘‘agency or’’ before ‘‘orga11 nization’’ each place it appears; and 

12 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘The Attorney General shall periodically solicit 

14 applications for grants under this section by 

15 publishing a request for applications in the 

16 Federal Register and by posting such a request 

17 on the website of the Department of Justice.’’; 

18 and 

19 (4) by striking subsections (c) and (d) and in20 serting the following: 

21 ‘‘(c) PREFERENCE.—In awarding grants under sub22 section (a)(1), the Attorney General shall give preference 

23 to law enforcement or public safety agencies that partner 

24 with nonprofit organizations that appropriately use per25 son-centered plans minimizing restrictive interventions 


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1 and that have a direct link to individuals, and families of 

2 individuals, with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s 

3 Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as autism. 

4 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

5 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

6 $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2022. 

7 ‘‘(e) GRANT ACCOUNTABILITY.—All grants awarded 

8 by the Attorney General under this section shall be subject 

9 to the following accountability provisions: 

10 ‘‘(1) AUDIT REQUIREMENT.— 

11 ‘‘(A) DEFINITION.—In this paragraph, the 

12 term ‘unresolved audit finding’ means a finding 

13 in the final audit report of the Inspector Gen14 eral of the Department of Justice that the au15 dited grantee has utilized grant funds for an 

16 unauthorized expenditure or otherwise unallow17 able cost that is not closed or resolved within 

18 12 months from the date when the final audit 

19 report is issued. 

20 ‘‘(B) AUDITS.—Beginning in the first fis21 cal year beginning after the date of enactment 

22 of this subsection, and in each fiscal year there23 after, the Inspector General of the Department 

24 of Justice shall conduct audits of recipients of 

25 grants under this section to prevent waste, 


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1 fraud, and abuse of funds by grantees. The In2 spector General shall determine the appropriate 

3 number of grantees to be audited each year. 

4 ‘‘(C) MANDATORY EXCLUSION.—A recipi5 ent of grant funds under this section that is 

6 found to have an unresolved audit finding shall 

7 not be eligible to receive grant funds under this 

8 section during the first 2 fiscal years beginning 

9 after the end of the 12-month period described 

10 in subparagraph (A). 

11 ‘‘(D) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants 

12 under this section, the Attorney General shall 

13 give priority to eligible applicants that did not 

14 have an unresolved audit finding during the 3 

15 fiscal years before submitting an application for 

16 a grant under this section. 

17 ‘‘(E) REIMBURSEMENT.—If an entity is 

18 awarded grant funds under this section during 

19 the 2-fiscal-year period during which the entity 

20 is barred from receiving grants under subpara21 graph (C), the Attorney General shall— 

22 ‘‘(i) deposit an amount equal to the 

23 amount of the grant funds that were im24 properly awarded to the grantee into the 

25 General Fund of the Treasury; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) seek to recoup the costs of the 

2 repayment to the fund from the grant re3 cipient that was erroneously awarded grant 

4 funds. 

5 ‘‘(2) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION REQUIRE6 MENTS.— 

7 ‘‘(A) DEFINITION OF NONPROFIT ORGANI8 ZATION.—For purposes of this paragraph and 

9 the grant programs under this part, the term 

10 ‘nonprofit organization’ means an organization 

11 that is described in section 501(c)(3) of the In12 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 and is exempt 

13 from taxation under section 501(a) of such 

14 Code. 

15 ‘‘(B) PROHIBITION.—The Attorney Gen16 eral may not award a grant under this part to 

17 a nonprofit organization that holds money in 

18 offshore accounts for the purpose of avoiding 

19 paying the tax described in section 511(a) of 

20 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 

21 ‘‘(C) DISCLOSURE.—Each nonprofit orga22 nization that is awarded a grant under this sec23 tion and uses the procedures prescribed in regu24 lations to create a rebuttable presumption of 

25 reasonableness for the compensation of its offiVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:15 Nov 04, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2070.IS S2070

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1 cers, directors, trustees, and key employees, 

2 shall disclose to the Attorney General, in the 

3 application for the grant, the process for deter4 mining such compensation, including the inde5 pendent persons involved in reviewing and ap6 proving such compensation, the comparability 

7 data used, and contemporaneous substantiation 

8 of the deliberation and decision. Upon request, 

9 the Attorney General shall make the informa10 tion disclosed under this subparagraph available 

11 for public inspection. 

12 ‘‘(3) CONFERENCE EXPENDITURES.— 

13 ‘‘(A) LIMITATION.—No amounts made 

14 available to the Department of Justice under 

15 this section may be used by the Attorney Gen16 eral, or by any individual or entity awarded dis17 cretionary funds through a cooperative agree18 ment under this section, to host or support any 

19 expenditure for conferences that uses more than 

20 $20,000 in funds made available by the Depart21 ment of Justice, unless the head of the relevant 

22 agency or department, provides prior written 

23 authorization that the funds may be expended 

24 to host the conference. 


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1 ‘‘(B) WRITTEN APPROVAL.—Written ap2 proval under subparagraph (A) shall include a 

3 written estimate of all costs associated with the 

4 conference, including the cost of all food, bev5 erages, audio-visual equipment, honoraria for 

6 speakers, and entertainment. 

7 ‘‘(C) REPORT.—The Deputy Attorney Gen8 eral shall submit an annual report to the Com9 mittee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the 

10 Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 

11 Representatives on all conference expenditures 

12 approved under this paragraph. 

13 ‘‘(4) ANNUAL CERTIFICATION.—Beginning in 

14 the first fiscal year beginning after the date of en15 actment of this subsection, the Attorney General 

16 shall submit, to the Committee on the Judiciary and 

17 the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and 

18 the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee 

19 on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, 

20 an annual certification— 

21 ‘‘(A) indicating whether— 

22 ‘‘(i) all audits issued by the Office of 

23 the Inspector General under paragraph (1) 

24 have been completed and reviewed by the 


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1 appropriate Assistant Attorney General or 

2 Director; 

3 ‘‘(ii) all mandatory exclusions required 

4 under paragraph (1)(C) have been issued; 

5 and 

6 ‘‘(iii) all reimbursements required 

7 under paragraph (1)(E) have been made; 

8 and 

9 ‘‘(B) that includes a list of any grant re10 cipients excluded under paragraph (1) from the 

11 previous year. 

12 ‘‘(f) PREVENTING DUPLICATIVE GRANTS.— 

13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Before the Attorney Gen14 eral awards a grant to an applicant under this sec15 tion, the Attorney General shall compare potential 

16 grant awards with other grants awarded by the At17 torney General to determine if grant awards are or 

18 have been awarded for a similar purpose. 

19 ‘‘(2) REPORT.—If the Attorney General awards 

20 grants to the same applicant for a similar purpose 

21 the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee 

22 on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee 

23 on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a 

24 report that includes— 


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1 ‘‘(A) a list of all such grants awarded, in2 cluding the total dollar amount of any such 

3 grants awarded; and 

4 ‘‘(B) the reason the Attorney General 

5 awarded multiple grants to the same applicant 

6 for a similar purpose.’’. 

7 (b) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after 

8 the date of enactment of this Act and every year there9 after, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee 

10 on the Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of 

11 the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary and the 

12 Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representa13 tives a report on the Missing Americans Alert Program, 

14 as amended by subsection (a), which shall address— 

15 (1) the number of individuals who benefitted 

16 from the Missing Americans Alert Program, includ17 ing information such as the number of individuals 

18 with reduced unsafe wandering, the number of peo19 ple who were trained through the program, and the 

20 estimated number of people who were impacted by 

21 the program; 

22 (2) the number of State, local, and tribal law 

23 enforcement or public safety agencies that applied 

24 for funding under the Missing Americans Alert Pro25 gram; 


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1 (3) the number of State, local, and tribal local 

2 law enforcement or public safety agencies that re3 ceived funding under the Missing Americans Alert 

4 Program, including— 

5 (A) the number of State, local, and tribal 

6 law enforcement or public safety agencies that 

7 used such funding for training; and 

8 (B) the number of State, local, and tribal 

9 law enforcement or public safety agencies that 

10 used such funding for designing, establishing, 

11 or operating locative tracking technology; 

12 (4) the companies, including the location (city 

13 and State) of the headquarters and local offices of 

14 each company, for which their locative tracking tech15 nology was used by State, local, and tribal law en16 forcement or public safety agencies; 

17 (5) the nonprofit organizations, including the 

18 location (city and State) of the headquarters and 

19 local offices of each organization, that State, local, 

20 and tribal law enforcement or public safety agencies 

21 partnered with and the result of each partnership; 

22 (6) the number of missing children with autism 

23 or another developmental disability with wandering 

24 tendencies or adults with Alzheimer’s being served 


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1 by the program who went missing and the result of 

2 the search for each such individual; and 

3 (7) any recommendations for improving the 

4 Missing Americans Alert Program. 

5 (c) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents in 

6 section 2 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforce7 ment Act of 1994 is amended by striking the item relating 

8 to section 240001 and inserting the following: 

‘‘Sec. 240001. Missing Americans Alert Program.’’. 

9 TITLE II—EDUCATION AND 

10 OUTREACH 

11 SEC. 201. ACTIVITIES BY THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISS12 ING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN. 

13 Section 404(b)(1)(H) of the Missing Children’s As14 sistance Act (34 U.S.C. 11293(b)(1)(H)) is amended by 

15 inserting ‘‘, including cases involving children with devel16 opmental disabilities such as autism’’ before the semi17 colon. 

18 TITLE III—PRIVACY 

19 PROTECTIONS 

20 SEC. 301. DEFINITIONS. 

21 In this title: 

22 (1) CHILD.—The term ‘‘child’’ means an indi23 vidual who is less than 18 years of age. 

24 (2) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian tribe’’ 

25 has the meaning given that term in section 4(e) of 


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1 the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assist2 ance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304(e)). 

3 (3) LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY.—The term 

4 ‘‘law enforcement agency’’ means an agency of a 

5 State, unit of local government, or Indian tribe that 

6 is authorized by law or by a government agency to 

7 engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, in8 vestigation, or prosecution of any violation of crimi9 nal law. 

10 (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 

11 the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com12 monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 

13 Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Common14 wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 

15 (5) UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term 

16 ‘‘unit of local government’’ means a county, munici17 pality, town, township, village, parish, borough, or 

18 other unit of general government below the State 

19 level. 

20 (6) NON-INVASIVE AND NON-PERMANENT.—The 

21 term ‘‘non-invasive and non-permanent’’ means, with 

22 regard to any technology or device, that the proce23 dure to install the technology or device does not cre24 ate an external or internal marker or implant a de25 vice, such as a microchip, or other trackable items. 


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1 SEC. 302. STANDARDS AND BEST PRACTICES FOR USE OF 

2 NON-INVASIVE AND NON-PERMANENT TRACK3 ING DEVICES. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 

6 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney 

7 General, in consultation with the Secretary of 

8 Health and Human Services and leading research, 

9 advocacy, self-advocacy, and service organizations, 

10 shall establish standards and best practices relating 

11 to the use of non-invasive and non-permanent track12 ing technology, where a guardian or parent has de13 termined that a non-invasive and non-permanent 

14 tracking device is the least restrictive alternative, to 

15 locate individuals as described in subsection (a)(2) of 

16 section 240001 of the Violent Crime Control and 

17 Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621), 

18 as added by this Act. 

19 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—In establishing the 

20 standards and best practices required under para21 graph (1), the Attorney General shall— 

22 (A) determine— 

23 (i) the criteria used to determine 

24 which individuals would benefit from the 

25 use of a tracking device; 


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1 (ii) the criteria used to determine who 

2 should have direct access to the tracking 

3 system; and 

4 (iii) which non-invasive and non-per5 manent types of tracking devices can be 

6 used in compliance with the standards and 

7 best practices; and 

8 (B) establish standards and best practices 

9 the Attorney General determines are necessary 

10 to the administration of a tracking system, in11 cluding procedures to— 

12 (i) safeguard the privacy of the data 

13 used by the tracking device such that— 

14 (I) access to the data is re15 stricted to law enforcement and health 

16 agencies determined necessary by the 

17 Attorney General; and 

18 (II) collection, use, and retention 

19 of the data is solely for the purpose of 

20 preventing injury or death to the indi21 vidual wearing the tracking device; 

22 (ii) establish criteria to determine 

23 whether use of the tracking device is the 

24 least restrictive alternative in order to pre25 vent risk of injury or death before issuing 


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1 the tracking device, including the previous 

2 consideration of less restrictive alter3 natives; 

4 (iii) provide training for law enforce5 ment agencies to recognize signs of abuse 

6 during interactions with applicants for 

7 tracking devices; 

8 (iv) protect the civil rights and lib9 erties of the individuals who use tracking 

10 devices, including their rights under the 

11 Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of 

12 the United States; 

13 (v) establish a complaint and inves14 tigation process to address— 

15 (I) incidents of noncompliance by 

16 recipients of grants under subsection 

17 (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Vio18 lent Crime Control and Law Enforce19 ment Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621), 

20 as added by this Act, with the best 

21 practices established by the Attorney 

22 General or other applicable law; and 

23 (II) use of a tracking device over 

24 the objection of an individual; and 


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1 (vi) determine the role that State 

2 agencies should have in the administration 

3 of a tracking system. 

4 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The standards and best 

5 practices established pursuant to paragraph (1) shall 

6 take effect 90 days after publication of such stand7 ards and practices by the Attorney General. 

8 (b) REQUIRED COMPLIANCE.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each entity that receives a 

10 grant under subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of 

11 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement 

12 Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621), as added by this 

13 Act, shall comply with any standards and best prac14 tices relating to the use of tracking devices estab15 lished by the Attorney General in accordance with 

16 subsection (a). 

17 (2) DETERMINATION OF COMPLIANCE.—The 

18 Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary 

19 of Health and Human Services, shall determine 

20 whether an entity that receives a grant under sub21 section (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent 

22 Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 

23 (34 U.S.C. 12621), as added by this Act, acts in 

24 compliance with the requirement described in para25 graph (1). 


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1 (c) APPLICABILITY OF STANDARDS AND BEST PRAC2 TICES.—The standards and best practices established by 

3 the Attorney General under subsection (a) shall apply only 

4 to the grant programs authorized under subsection (a)(2) 

5 of section 240001 of the Violent Crime Control and Law 

6 Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12621), as added 

7 by this Act. 

8 (d) LIMITATIONS ON PROGRAM.— 

9 (1) DATA STORAGE.—Any tracking data pro10 vided by tracking devices issued under this program 

11 may not be used by a Federal entity to create a 

12 database. 

13 (2) VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION.—Nothing in 

14 this Act may be construed to require that a parent 

15 or guardian use a tracking device to monitor the lo16 cation of a child or adult under that parent or 

17 guardian’s supervision if the parent or guardian 

18 does not believe that the use of such device is nec19 essary or in the interest of the child or adult under 

20 supervision. 

Æ 


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