I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6828 

To establish within the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and 

Murdered Black Women and Girls. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 14, 2023 

Ms. OMAR (for herself, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. CROCKETT, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, 

Ms. JACOBS, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. 

WILLIAMS of Georgia, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. 

ADAMS, Mr. CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. 

CLEAVER, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. 

KELLY of Illinois, Mrs. BEATTY, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. LIEU, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. CARSON, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. 

CASTOR of Florida, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. 

BUSH, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Ms. CRAIG, Ms. 

STRICKLAND, Ms. BROWN, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. EVANS, Mrs. 

HAYES, Mr. FROST, Ms. WATERS, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. 

DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. MFUME, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Mr. 

BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Mr. MEEKS, 

Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. IVEY, Mr. VEASEY, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. 

JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. 

DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. CASAR, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. DAVIS of 

North Carolina, Mrs. MCBATH, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mrs. SYKES, 

Mr. PHILLIPS, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. ALLRED, Ms. UNDERWOOD, Ms. PORTER, Mr. COHEN, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. MCGARVEY, Ms. SA ́NCHEZ, Ms. 

DEAN of Pennsylvania, Ms. STANSBURY, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. CARAVEO, 

Ms. KUSTER, and Ms. CHU) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish within the Department of Justice an Office 

for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls. 


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•HR 6828 IH

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 ‘‘Brittany Clardy Miss5 ing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Black women and girls are uniquely vulner9 able and too easily erased from public discussions 

10 about missing and murdered people. 

11 (2) According to the National Crime Informa12 tion Center, in 2020, of the 268,884 girls and 

13 women reported missing, 90,333, or nearly 34 per14 cent, were Black, while Black girls and women make 

15 up only 15 percent of the female population in the 

16 United States. 

17 (3) Nationally, cases involving Black girls and 

18 women stay open four times longer than other cases 

19 on average, as reported by Convention on the Elimi20 nation of Racial Discrimination. 

21 (4) Nationally, Black women have the highest 

22 rates of death due to homicide among women (4.4. 

23 per 100,000 compared to 1.5 per 100,000 for White 

24 women) and statistically shown these murders are 


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•HR 6828 IH

1 most often committed by an intimate partner or 

2 someone the victim knows. 

3 (5) Understanding the roots of how and why 

4 Black women and girls are not as well protected 

5 from violence as White women and girls requires at6 tention to both historical and present-day manifesta7 tions of interlocking systems of oppression, such as 

8 racism and sexism. 

9 (6) Effective research regarding the racial in10 equities surrounding violence against women and 

11 girls should— 

12 (A) involve local, relevant community en13 gaged research expertise in the area; 

14 (B) seek to center community members as 

15 essential experts through interviews and focus 

16 groups with Black women and girls who have 

17 lived experience within the topic; 

18 (C) include the use of mixed methods ap19 proaches to evaluate, monitor, and communicate 

20 data with the broader impacted communities; 

21 and 

22 (D) include a long-term evaluation plan to 

23 assess the impact of the data collection efforts 

24 and involve data specialists or consultants 


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1 equipped to build tracking and reporting infra2 structure. 

3 (7) That considering all the facts above, the ex4 isting Federal resources dedicated to combatting vio5 lence against women and girls is not enough to ad6 dress this problem and additional resources must be 

7 targeted directly to protecting, supporting and pro8 viding justice to Black women and girls in the 

9 United States. 

10 SEC. 3. OFFICE FOR MISSING AND MURDERED BLACK 

11 WOMEN AND GIRLS. 

12 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 

13 the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and Mur14 dered Black Women and Girls (hereinafter referred to as 

15 the ‘‘Office’’), which shall be headed by a Director ap16 pointed by the Attorney General. 

17 (b) PERSONNEL AND FUNDS.—Not later than 90 

18 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attor19 ney General shall provide to the Office such personnel and 

20 funds as necessary to establish and operate the Office as 

21 a component of the Department. 

22 (c) DUTIES OF OFFICE.—The Director of the Office 

23 shall— 


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1 (1) serve as the legal and policy advisor to the 

2 Attorney General to ensure justice for missing and 

3 murdered Black women and girls; 

4 (2) develop recommendations for policies to ad5 dress injustice in the criminal justice system’s re6 sponse to cases of missing and murdered Black 

7 women and girls; 

8 (3) establish a national advisory commission of 

9 Black women and girls who have experienced vio10 lence, abduction, or trafficking, and family members 

11 who have lost a loved one to this violence; 

12 (4) coordinate with the relevant Federal agen13 cies, the national advisory commission established in 

14 paragraph (3), State, local, and Tribal agencies, and 

15 local family services agencies to— 

16 (A) collect data on missing person and 

17 homicide cases involving Black women and 

18 girls, including the total number of cases, the 

19 rate at which the cases are solved, the length of 

20 time the cases remain open, and a comparison 

21 to similar cases involving different demographic 

22 groups; 

23 (B) collect data on Amber Alerts, including 

24 the total number of Amber Alerts issued, the 

25 total number of Amber Alerts that involve 


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1 Black girls, and the outcome of cases involving 

2 Amber Alerts disaggregated by the child’s race 

3 and sex; 

4 (C) collect data on reports of missing 

5 Black girls, including the number classified as 

6 voluntary runaways, and a comparison to simi7 lar cases involving different demographic 

8 groups; and 

9 (D) conduct case reviews and report on the 

10 results of such reviews for cases involving miss11 ing and murdered Black women and girls, in12 cluding— 

13 (i) cold cases for missing Black 

14 women and girls; and 

15 (ii) death investigation review for 

16 cases of Black women and girls ruled as 

17 suicide or overdose under suspicious cir18 cumstances; 

19 (5) develop tools and processes to evaluate the 

20 implementation and impact of the efforts of the Of21 fice; 

22 (6) facilitate technical assistance for State, 

23 local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies during 

24 active cases involving missing and murdered Black 

25 women and girls; and 


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1 (7) create and maintain a centralized data re2 pository and public dashboard for the tracking of 

3 missing and murdered Black women and girls. 

4 (d) REPORT REQUIRED.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the first Jan6 uary 15th after the date of enactment of this Act, 

7 and biennially thereafter, the Director of the Office, 

8 in coordination with the relevant Federal agencies 

9 and State, local, and Tribal agencies, shall submit a 

10 report to the covered committees on missing and 

11 murdered Black women and girls, including— 

12 (A) an analysis and assessment of any 

13 data collected in subsection (c)(4); 

14 (B) an analysis and assessment on the 

15 intersection between cases involving missing 

16 and murdered Black women and girls and labor 

17 trafficking and sex trafficking; 

18 (C) any findings derived from the case re19 views conducted under subsection (c)(4)(D); 

20 (D) an analysis of any case review con21 ducted relating to the prosecution and sen22 tencing for cases where a perpetrator com23 mitted a violent or exploitative crime against a 

24 Black woman or girl; 


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1 (E) reviews sentencing guidelines for 

2 crimes related to missing and murdered Black 

3 women and girls; and 

4 (F) recommendations for policies to ad5 dress to the criminal justice system’s response 

6 to cases of missing and murdered Black women 

7 and girls, including— 

8 (i) the intersection between cases in9 volving missing and murdered Black 

10 women and girls and labor trafficking and 

11 sex trafficking; and 

12 (ii) analyze and assess the intersection 

13 between cases involving murdered Black 

14 women and girls and domestic violence, in15 cluding prior instances of domestic violence 

16 within the family or relationship, whether 

17 an offender had prior convictions for do18 mestic assault or related offenses, and 

19 whether the offender used a firearm in the 

20 murder or any prior instances of domestic 

21 assault. 

22 (2) COVERED COMMITTEES DEFINED.—In this 

23 subsection, the term ‘‘covered committees’’ means 

24 the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee 

25 on Homeland Security of the House of RepresentaVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:52 Jan 03, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6828.IH H6828

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1 tives and the Committee on the Judiciary and the 

2 Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 

3 Affairs of the Senate. 

4 SEC. 4. GRANTS TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS 

5 TO PROVIDE CERTAIN SERVICES. 

6 (a) GRANT PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.—Not later than 

7 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

8 Director of the Office shall establish a grant program to 

9 provide grants to community-based organizations that 

10 provide services designed to prevent or end the targeting 

11 of Black women or girls or provide assistance to victims 

12 of offenses that targeted Black women or girls. 

13 (b) GRANT AWARD.—Community-based organiza14 tions awarded a grant under this section shall use the 

15 amount awarded under the grant program to— 

16 (1) provide culturally appropriate services de17 signed to reduce or prevent crimes that target Black 

18 women or girls; 

19 (2) provide culturally appropriate training re20 lated to the handling of situations and crimes tar21 geting of Black women and girls, including training 

22 for law enforcement officers, county attorneys, city 

23 attorneys, judges, and other criminal justice part24 ners; and 


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1 (3) provide victim services or survivorship sup2 port to Black women and girls who are victims of 

3 crimes or other offenses or to the family members of 

4 missing and murdered Black women and girls. 

Æ 


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