115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1808 

AN ACT 

To amend and improve the Missing Children’s Assistance 

Act, 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 the ‘‘Improving Support for 

3 Missing and Exploited Children Act of 2017’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Section 402 of the Missing Children’s Assistance Act 

6 (42 U.S.C. 5771) is amended— 

7 (1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as fol8 lows: 

9 ‘‘(1) each year tens of thousands of children 

10 run away, or are abducted or removed, from the con11 trol of a parent having legal custody without such 

12 parent’s consent, under circumstances which imme13 diately place the child in grave danger;’’; 

14 (2) by striking paragraphs (4) and (5); 

15 (3) in paragraph (6) by inserting ‘‘, including 

16 child sex trafficking and sextortion’’ after ‘‘exploi17 tation’’; 

18 (4) in paragraph (8) by adding ‘‘and’’ at the 

19 end; 

20 (5) by striking paragraph (9); 

21 (6) by amending paragraph (10) to read as fol22 lows: 

23 ‘‘(10) a key component of such programs is the 

24 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 

25 that— 
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1 ‘‘(A) serves as a nonprofit, national re2 source center and clearinghouse to provide as3 sistance to victims, families, child-serving pro4 fessionals, and the general public; 

5 ‘‘(B) works with the Department of Jus6 tice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the 

7 United States Marshals Service, the Depart8 ment of the Treasury, the Department of State, 

9 the United States Immigration and Customs 

10 Enforcement, the United States Secret Service, 

11 the United States Postal Inspection Service, 

12 other agencies, and nongovernmental organiza13 tions in the effort to find missing children and 

14 to prevent child victimization; and 

15 ‘‘(C) coordinates with each of the missing 

16 children clearinghouses operated by the 50 

17 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 

18 and international organizations to transmit im19 ages and information regarding missing and ex20 ploited children to law enforcement, nongovern21 mental organizations, and corporate partners 

22 across the United States and around the world 

23 instantly.’’; and 
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1 (7) by redesignating paragraphs (6), (7), (8), 

2 and (10) as paragraphs (4), (5), (6), and (7), re3 spectively. 

4 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

5 Section 403 of the Missing Children’s Assistance Act 

6 (42 U.S.C. 5772) is amended— 

7 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

8 (A) by striking ‘‘legal custodian’’ each 

9 place it appears and inserting ‘‘parent’’; 

10 (B) in subparagraph (A) by striking 

11 ‘‘custodian’s’’ and inserting ‘‘parent’s’’; and 

12 (C) in subparagraph (C) by striking the 

13 period and the end and inserting a semicolon; 

14 (2) in paragraph (2) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 

15 end; 

16 (3) in paragraph (3) by striking the period at 

17 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

18 (4) by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘(4) the term ‘parent’ includes a legal guardian 

20 or other individual standing in loco parentis (such as 

21 a grandparent or stepparent with whom the child 

22 lives, or an individual who is legally responsible for 

23 the child’s welfare).’’. 
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1 SEC. 4. DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATOR. 

2 Section 404 of the Missing Children’s Assistance Act 

3 (42 U.S.C. 5773) is amended— 

4 (1) in subsection (a)— 

5 (A) in paragraph (3) by striking ‘‘tele6 phone line’’ and inserting ‘‘hotline’’; and 

7 (B) in paragraph (6)(E)— 

8 (i) by striking ‘‘telephone line’’ and 

9 inserting ‘‘hotline’’; 

10 (ii) by striking ‘‘(b)(1)(A) and’’ and 

11 inserting ‘‘(b)(1)(A),’’; and 

12 (iii) by inserting ‘‘, and the number 

13 and types of reports to the tipline estab14 lished under subsection (b)(1)(K)(i)’’ be15 fore the semicolon at the end; 

16 (2) in subsection (b)(1)— 

17 (A) in subparagraph (A)— 

18 (i) by striking ‘‘telephone line’’ each 

19 place it appears and inserting ‘‘hotline’’; 

20 and 

21 (ii) by striking ‘‘legal custodian’’ and 

22 inserting ‘‘parent’’; 

23 (B) in subparagraph (C)— 

24 (i) in clause (i)— 

25 (I) by striking ‘‘restaurant’’ and 

26 inserting ‘‘food’’; and 
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1 (II) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

2 (ii) in clause (ii) by adding ‘‘and’’ at 

3 the end; and 

4 (iii) by adding at the end the fol5 lowing: 

6 ‘‘(iii) innovative and model programs, 

7 services, and legislation that benefit miss8 ing and exploited children;’’; 

9 (C) by striking subparagraphs (E), (F), 

10 and (G); 

11 (D) by amending subparagraph (H) to 

12 read as follows: 

13 ‘‘(H) provide technical assistance and 

14 training to families, law enforcement agencies, 

15 State and local governments, elements of the 

16 criminal justice system, nongovernmental agen17 cies, local educational agencies, and the general 

18 public— 

19 ‘‘(i) in the prevention, investigation, 

20 prosecution, and treatment of cases involv21 ing missing and exploited children; 

22 ‘‘(ii) to respond to foster children 

23 missing from the State child welfare sys24 tem in coordination with child welfare 
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1 agencies and courts handling juvenile jus2 tice and dependency matters; and 

3 ‘‘(iii) in the identification, location, 

4 and recovery of victims of, and children at 

5 risk for, child sex trafficking;’’; 

6 (E) by amending subparagraphs (I), (J), 

7 and (K) to read as follows: 

8 ‘‘(I) provide assistance to families, law en9 forcement agencies, State and local govern10 ments, nongovernmental agencies, child-serving 

11 professionals, and other individuals involved in 

12 the location and recovery of missing and ab13 ducted children, both nationally, and in co14 operation with the Department of State, inter15 nationally; 

16 ‘‘(J) provide support and technical assist17 ance to child-serving professionals involved in 

18 helping to recover missing and exploited chil19 dren by searching public records databases to 

20 help in the identification, location, and recovery 

21 of such children, and help in the location and 

22 identification of potential abductors and offend23 ers; 

24 ‘‘(K) provide forensic and direct on-site 

25 technical assistance and consultation to fami-
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1 lies, law enforcement agencies, child-serving 

2 professionals, and nongovernmental organiza3 tions in child abduction and exploitation cases, 

4 including facial reconstruction of skeletal re5 mains and similar techniques to assist in the 

6 identification of unidentified deceased chil7 dren;’’; 

8 (F) by striking subparagraphs (L) and 

9 (M); 

10 (G) by amending subparagraph (N) to 

11 read as follows: 

12 ‘‘(N) provide training, technical assistance, 

13 and information to nongovernmental organiza14 tions relating to non-compliant sex offenders 

15 and to law enforcement agencies in identifying 

16 and locating such individuals;’’; 

17 (H) by striking subparagraph (P); 

18 (I) by amending subparagraph (Q) to read 

19 as follows: 

20 ‘‘(Q) work with families, law enforcement 

21 agencies, electronic service providers, electronic 

22 payment service providers, technology compa23 nies, nongovernmental organizations, and others 

24 on methods to reduce the existence and dis-
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1 tribution of online images and videos of sexually 

2 exploited children— 

3 ‘‘(i) by operating a tipline to provide 

4 to individuals and electronic service pro5 viders an effective means of reporting 

6 Internet-related and other instances of 

7 child sexual exploitation in the areas of— 

8 ‘‘(I) possession, manufacture, 

9 and distribution of child pornography; 

10 ‘‘(II) online enticement of chil11 dren for sexual acts; 

12 ‘‘(III) child sex trafficking; 

13 ‘‘(IV) sex tourism involving chil14 dren; 

15 ‘‘(V) extra familial child sexual 

16 molestation; 

17 ‘‘(VI) unsolicited obscene mate18 rial sent to a child; 

19 ‘‘(VII) misleading domain names; 

20 and 

21 ‘‘(VIII) misleading words or dig22 ital images on the Internet; 

23 and subsequently to make such reports 

24 available to the appropriate law enforce-
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1 ment agency for its review and potential 

2 investigation; 

3 ‘‘(ii) by operating a child victim iden4 tification program to assist law enforce5 ment agencies in identifying victims of 

6 child pornography and other sexual crimes 

7 to support the recovery of children from 

8 sexually exploitative situations; and 

9 ‘‘(iii) by utilizing emerging tech10 nologies to provide additional outreach and 

11 educational materials to parents and fami12 lies;’’; 

13 (J) by striking subparagraph (R); 

14 (K) by amending subparagraphs (S) and 

15 (T) to read as follows: 

16 ‘‘(S) develop and disseminate programs 

17 and information to families, child-serving pro18 fessionals, law enforcement agencies, State and 

19 local governments, nongovernmental organiza20 tions, schools, local educational agencies, child21 serving organizations, and the general public 

22 on— 

23 ‘‘(i) the prevention of child abduction 

24 and sexual exploitation; 
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1 ‘‘(ii) Internet safety, including tips for 

2 social media and cyberbullying; and 

3 ‘‘(iii) sexting and sextortion; and 

4 ‘‘(T) provide technical assistance and 

5 training to local educational agencies, schools, 

6 State and local law enforcement agencies, indi7 viduals, and other nongovernmental organiza8 tions that assist with finding missing and ab9 ducted children in identifying and recovering 

10 such children.’’; and 

11 (L) by redesignating subparagraphs (H), 

12 (I), (J), (K), (N), (O), (Q), (S), (T), (U), and 

13 (V) as subparagraphs (E) through (O), respec14 tively. 

15 SEC. 5. GRANTS. 

16 Section 405 of the Missing Children’s Assistance Act 

17 (42 U.S.C. 5775) is amended— 

18 (1) in subsection (a)— 

19 (A) in paragraph (7) by striking ‘‘(as de20 fined in section 403(1)(A))’’; and 

21 (B) in paragraph (8)— 

22 (i) by striking ‘‘legal custodians’’ and 

23 inserting ‘‘parents’’; and 

24 (ii) by striking ‘‘custodians’ ’’ and in25 serting ‘‘parents’ ’’; and 
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1 (2) in subsection (b)(1)(A) by striking ‘‘legal 

2 custodians’’ and inserting ‘‘parents’’. 

3 SEC. 6. REPORTING. 

4 The Missing Children’s Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 

5 5771 et seq.) is amended— 

6 (1) by redesignating sections 407 and 408 as 

7 section 408 and 409, respectively; and 

8 (2) by inserting after section 406 the following: 

9 ‘‘SEC. 407. REPORTING. 

10 ‘‘(a) REQUIRED REPORTING.—As a condition of re11 ceiving funds under section 404(b), the grant recipient 

12 shall, based solely on reports received by the grantee and 

13 not involving any data collection by the grantee other than 

14 those reports, annually provide to the Administrator and 

15 make available to the general public, as appropriate— 

16 ‘‘(1) the number of children nationwide who are 

17 reported to the grantee as missing; 

18 ‘‘(2) the number of children nationwide who are 

19 reported to the grantee as victims of non-family ab20 ductions; 

21 ‘‘(3) the number of children nationwide who are 

22 reported to the grantee as victims of family abduc23 tions; and 
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1 ‘‘(4) the number of missing children recovered 

2 nationwide whose recovery was reported to the 

3 grantee. 

4 ‘‘(b) INCIDENCE OF ATTEMPTED CHILD ABDUC5 TIONS.—As a condition of receiving funds under section 

6 404(b), the grant recipient shall— 

7 ‘‘(1) track the incidence of attempted child ab8 ductions in order to identify links and patterns; 

9 ‘‘(2) provide such information to law enforce10 ment agencies; and 

11 ‘‘(3) make such information available to the 

12 general public, as appropriate.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives May 23, 2017. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 
115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1808 

AN ACT 

To amend and improve the Missing Children’s 

Assistance Act, and for other purposes.