I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8772 

To expand the grants authorized under Jennifer’s Law and Kristen’s Act 

to include processing of unidentified remains, resolving missing persons 

cases, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 18, 2020 

Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas (for himself and Mr. HURD of Texas) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and 

in addition to the Committee on Homeland Security, for a period to be 

subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 

of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To expand the grants authorized under Jennifer’s Law and 

Kristen’s Act to include processing of unidentified remains, resolving missing persons cases, 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 ‘‘Missing Persons and 

5 Unidentified Remains Act of 2020’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. USE OF GRANT FUNDS. 

2 (a) JENNIFER’S LAW.—Jennifer’s Law (34 U.S.C. 

3 40501 et seq.) is amended— 

4 (1) by striking section 202 (34 U.S.C. 40501) 

5 and inserting the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 202. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 

8 ‘‘(1) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—The Attorney 

9 General may award grants to eligible entities de10 scribed in paragraph (2) to enable the eligible enti11 ties to improve the transportation, processing, iden12 tification, and reporting of missing persons and un13 identified remains, including migrants. 

14 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—Eligible entities de15 scribed in this paragraph are the following: 

16 ‘‘(A) States and units of local government. 

17 ‘‘(B) Accredited, publicly funded, Com18 bined DNA Index System (commonly known as 

19 ‘CODIS’) forensic laboratories, which dem20 onstrate the grant funds will be used for DNA 

21 typing and uploading biological family DNA 

22 reference samples, including samples from for23 eign nationals, into CODIS, subject to the pro24 tocols for inclusion of such forensic DNA pro25 files into CODIS, and the privacy protections 

26 required under section 203(c). 


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1 ‘‘(C) Medical examiners offices. 

2 ‘‘(D) Accredited, publicly funded toxicology 

3 laboratories. 

4 ‘‘(E) Accredited, publicly funded crime lab5 oratories. 

6 ‘‘(F) Publicly funded university forensic 

7 anthropology laboratories. 

8 ‘‘(G) Nonprofit organizations that have 

9 working collaborative agreements with State 

10 and county forensic offices, including medical 

11 examiners, coroners, and justices of the peace, 

12 for entry of data into CODIS or the National 

13 Missing and Unidentified Persons System (com14 monly known as ‘NamUs’), or both.’’; 

15 (2) in section 203 (34 U.S.C. 40502)— 

16 (A) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘a State’’ 

17 and inserting ‘‘an entity described in section 

18 202’’; 

19 (B) in subsection (b)— 

20 (i) in the matter preceding paragraph 

21 (1), by striking ‘‘State’’ and inserting ‘‘ap22 plicant’’; 

23 (ii) by striking paragraph (1) and in24 serting the following: 


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1 ‘‘(1) report to the National Crime Information 

2 Center and, when possible, to law enforcement au3 thorities throughout the applicant’s jurisdiction re4 garding every deceased unidentified person, regard5 less of age, found in the applicant’s jurisdiction;’’; 

6 (iii) in paragraph (3), by striking 

7 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

8 (iv) in paragraph (4), by striking the 

9 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 

10 and 

11 (v) by adding at the end the following: 

12 ‘‘(5) collect and report information to the Na13 tional Missing and Unidentified Persons System 

14 (NamUs) regarding missing persons and unidenti15 fied remains.’’; and 

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

17 ‘‘(c) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR BIOLOGICAL FAM18 ILY REFERENCE SAMPLES.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any suspected biological 

20 family DNA reference samples received from citizens 

21 of the United States or foreign nationals and 

22 uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System 

23 (commonly referred to as ‘CODIS’) by an accredited, 

24 publicly funded CODIS forensic laboratory awarded 

25 a grant under this section may be used only for 


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1 identifying missing persons and unidentified re2 mains. 

3 ‘‘(2) LIMITATION ON USE.—Any biological fam4 ily DNA reference samples from citizens of the 

5 United States or foreign nationals entered into 

6 CODIS for purposes of identifying missing persons 

7 and unidentified remains may not be disclosed to a 

8 Federal or State law enforcement agency for law en9 forcement purposes.’’; and 

10 (3) by striking section 204 (34 U.S.C. 40503) 

11 and inserting the following: 

12 ‘‘SEC. 205. USE OF FUNDS. 

13 ‘‘An applicant receiving a grant award under this title 

14 may use such funds to— 

15 ‘‘(1) pay for the costs incurred during or after 

16 fiscal year 2017 for the transportation, processing, 

17 identification, and reporting of missing persons and 

18 unidentified remains, including migrants; 

19 ‘‘(2) establish and expand programs developed 

20 to improve the reporting of unidentified persons in 

21 accordance with the assurances provided in the ap22 plication submitted pursuant to section 203(b); 

23 ‘‘(3) hire and maintain additional DNA case 

24 analysts and technicians, fingerprint examiners, foVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:50 Nov 28, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8772.IH H8772

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1 rensic odontologists, and forensic anthropologists, 

2 needed to support such identification programs; and 

3 ‘‘(4) procure and maintain state of the art 

4 multi-modal, multi-purpose forensic and DNA-typing 

5 and analytical equipment.’’. 

6 (b) KRISTEN’S ACT.—Section 3 of Kristen’s Act (34 

7 U.S.C. 40504 note) is amended to read as follows: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDING. 

9 ‘‘The Attorney General is authorized to use funds 

10 otherwise appropriated for the operationalization, mainte11 nance, and expansion of the National Missing and Uniden12 tified Persons System (NamUs) for the purpose of car13 rying out this Act.’’. 

14 SEC. 3. RESCUE BEACONS. 

15 Section 411(o) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 

16 (6 U.S.C. 211(o)) is amended by adding at the end the 

17 following: 

18 ‘‘(3) RESCUE BEACONS.—Beginning in fiscal 

19 year 2019, in carrying out subsection (c)(8), the 

20 Commissioner shall purchase, deploy, and maintain 

21 not more than 170 self-powering, 9–1–1 cellular 

22 relay rescue beacons along the southern border of 

23 the United States at locations determined appro24 priate by the Commissioner to mitigate migrant 

25 deaths.’’. 


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1 SEC. 4. REPORTING ON NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTI2 FIED PERSONS SYSTEM (NAMUS) PROGRAM. 

3 Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 

4 of this act, and every year thereafter, the Attorney Gen5 eral shall submit a report to the appropriate committees 

6 of Congress regarding— 

7 (1) the number of unidentified person cases 

8 processed; 

9 (2) CODIS associations and identifications; 

10 (3) the number of anthropology cases processed; 

11 (4) the number of suspected border crossing 

12 cases and associations made; 

13 (5) the number of trials supported with expert 

14 testimony; 

15 (6) the number of students trained and profes16 sions of those students; and 

17 (7) the turnaround time and backlog. 

18 SEC. 5. OTHER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 

19 (a) UNIDENTIFIED REMAINS.— 

20 (1) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 

21 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and 

22 annually thereafter, the Commissioner of U.S. Cus23 toms and Border Protection shall submit a report to 

24 the appropriate committees of Congress regarding 

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1 porting period, on or near the border between the 

2 United States and Mexico, including— 

3 (A) for each deceased person— 

4 (i) the cause and manner of death, if 

5 known; 

6 (ii) the sex, age (at time of death), 

7 and country of origin (if such information 

8 is determinable); and 

9 (iii) the location of each unidentified 

10 remain; 

11 (B) the total number of deceased people 

12 whose unidentified remains were discovered by 

13 U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the 

14 reporting period; 

15 (C) to the extent such information is avail16 able to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 

17 the total number of deceased people whose un18 identified remains were discovered by Federal, 

19 State, local or Tribal law enforcement officers, 

20 military personnel, or medical examiners offices; 

21 (D) the efforts of U.S. Customs and Bor22 der Protection to engage with nongovernmental 

23 organizations, institutions of higher education, 

24 medical examiners and coroners, and law en25 forcement agencies— 


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1 (i) to identify and map the locations 

2 at which migrant deaths occur; and 

3 (ii) to count the number of deaths 

4 that occur at such locations; and 

5 (E) a detailed description of U.S. Customs 

6 and Border Protection’s Missing Migrant Pro7 gram, including how the program helps mitigate 

8 migrant deaths while maintaining border secu9 rity. 

10 (2) PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.—Not later than 30 

11 days after each report required under paragraph (1) 

12 is submitted, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and 

13 Border Protection shall publish on the website of the 

14 agency the information described in subparagraphs 

15 (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (1) during each re16 porting period. 

17 (b) RESCUE BEACONS.—Not later than 1 year after 

18 the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 

19 the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

20 shall submit a report to the appropriate committees of 

21 Congress regarding the use of rescue beacons along the 

22 border between the United States and Mexico, including, 

23 for the reporting period— 

24 (1) the number of rescue beacons in each bor25 der patrol sector; 


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1 (2) the specific location of each rescue beacon; 

2 (3) the frequency with which each rescue bea3 con was activated by a person in distress; 

4 (4) a description of the nature of the distress 

5 that resulted in each rescue beacon activation (if 

6 such information is determinable); and 

7 (5) an assessment, in consultation with local 

8 stakeholders, including elected officials, nongovern9 mental organizations, and landowners, of necessary 

10 additional rescue beacons and recommendations for 

11 locations for deployment to reduce migrant deaths. 

12 (c) GAO REPORT.—Not later than 6 months after 

13 the report required under subsection (a) is submitted to 

14 the appropriate committees of Congress, the Comptroller 

15 General of the United States shall submit a report to the 

16 same committees that describes— 

17 (1) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

18 collects and records border-crossing death data; 

19 (2) the differences (if any) in U.S. Customs and 

20 Border Protection border-crossing death data collec21 tion methodology across its sectors; 

22 (3) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s 

23 data and statistical analysis on trends in the num24 bers, locations, causes, and characteristics of border25 crossing deaths compare to other sources of data on 


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1 these deaths, including border county medical exam2 iners and coroners and the Centers for Disease Con3 trol and Prevention; 

4 (4) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

5 measures the effectiveness of its programs to miti6 gate migrant deaths; and 

7 (5) the extent to which U.S. Customs and Bor8 der Protection engages Federal, State, local, and 

9 Tribal governments, foreign diplomatic and consular 

10 posts, and nongovernmental organizations— 

11 (A) to accurately identify deceased individ12 uals; 

13 (B) to resolve cases involving unidentified 

14 remains; 

15 (C) to resolve cases involving unidentified 

16 persons; and 

17 (D) to share information on missing per18 sons and unidentified remains, specifically with 

19 the National Missing and Unidentified Persons 

20 System (NamUs). 

Æ 


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