II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1599

To establish a Missing and Exploited Children Task Force.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 28 (legislative day, OCTOBER 13), 1993

Mr. DECONCINI (for himself, Mr. D’AMATO, and Mr. HATCH) introduced the

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the

Judiciary

A BILL

To establish a Missing and Exploited Children Task Force.

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 and Exploited

5 Children Task Force Act of 1993’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—

8 (1) the victimization of children in our Nation

9 has reached epidemic proportions; recent Depart10 ment of Justice figures show that—
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1 (A) 4,600 children were abducted by non2 family members;

3 (B) two-thirds of the abductions of chil4 dren by non-family members involve sexual as5 sault;

6 (C) more than 354,000 children were ab7 ducted by family members; and

8 (D) 451,000 children ran away;

9 (2) while some local law enforcement officials

10 have been successful in the investigation and resolu11 tion of such crimes, most local agencies lack the per12 sonnel and resources necessary to give this problem

13 the full attention it requires;

14 (3) a majority of the Nation’s 17,000 police de15 partments have 10 or fewer officers; and

16 (4) locating missing children requires a coordi17 nated law enforcement effort; supplementing local

18 law enforcement agencies with a team of assigned

19 active Federal agents will allow Federal agents to

20 pool their resources and expertise in order to assist

21 local agents in the investigation of the Nation’s most

22 difficult cases involving missing children.

23 SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

24 The purpose of this Act is to establish a task force

25 comprised of law enforcement officers from pertinent Fed-
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1 eral agencies to work with the National Center for Missing

2 and Exploited Children (referred to as the ‘‘Center’’) and

3 coordinate the provision of Federal law enforcement re4 sources to assist State and local authorities in investigat5 ing the most difficult cases of missing and exploited

6 children.

7 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF TASK FORCE.

8 Title IV of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Pre9 vention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5771 et seq.) is amend10 ed—

11 (1) by redesignating sections 407 and 408 as

12 sections 408 and 409, respectively; and

13 (2) by inserting after section 406 the following

14 new section:

15 ‘‘TASK FORCE

16 ‘‘SEC. 407. (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is estab17 lished a Missing and Exploited Children’s Task Force (re18 ferred to as the ‘‘Task Force’’).

19 ‘‘(b) MEMBERSHIP.—

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Task Force shall in21 clude at least 2 members from each of—

22 ‘‘(A) the Federal Bureau of Investigation;

23 ‘‘(B) the Secret Service;

24 ‘‘(C) the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and

25 Firearms;

26 ‘‘(D) the United States Customs Service;
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1 ‘‘(E) the Postal Inspection Service;

2 ‘‘(F) the United States Marshals Service;

3 and

4 ‘‘(G) the Drug Enforcement Administra5 tion.

6 ‘‘(2) CHIEF.—A representative of the Federal

7 Bureau of Investigation (in addition to the members

8 of the Task Force selected under paragraph (1)(A))

9 shall act as chief of the Task Force.

10 ‘‘(3) SELECTION.—(A) The Director of the

11 Federal Bureau of Investigation shall select the chief

12 of the Task Force.

13 ‘‘(B) The heads of the agencies described in

14 paragraph (1) shall submit to the chief of the Task

15 Force a list of at least 5 prospective Task Force

16 members, and the chief shall select 2, or such great17 er number as may be agreeable to an agency head,

18 as Task Force members.

19 ‘‘(4) PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS.—The

20 members of the Task Force shall be law enforcement

21 personnel selected for their expertise that would en22 able them to assist in the investigation of cases of

23 missing and exploited children.

24 ‘‘(5) STATUS.—A member of the Task Force

25 shall remain an employee of his or her respective
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1 agency for all purposes (including the purpose of

2 performance review), and his or her service on the

3 Task Force shall be without interruption or loss of

4 civil service privilege or status and shall be on a

5 nonreimbursable basis.

6 ‘‘(6) PERIOD OF SERVICE.—(A) Subject to sub7 paragraph (B), a member shall serve on the Task

8 Force for a period of 1 year, and may be selected

9 to a renewal of service for 1 additional year.

10 ‘‘(B) The chief of the Task Force may at any

11 time request the head of an agency described in

12 paragraph (1) to submit a list of 5 prospective Task

13 Force members to replace a member of the Task

14 Force, for the purpose of maintaining a Task Force

15 membership that will be able to meet the demands

16 of its caseload.

17 ‘‘(c) SUPPORT.—

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of the

19 General Services Administration, in coordination

20 with the heads of the agencies described in sub21 section (b)(1), shall provide the Task Force office

22 space and administrative and support services, such

23 office space to be in close proximity to the office of

24 the Center, so as to enable the Task Force to coordi-
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1 nate its activities with that of the Center on a day2 to-day basis.

3 ‘‘(2) LEGAL GUIDANCE.—The Attorney General

4 shall assign a United States Attorney to provide

5 legal guidance, as needed, to members of the Task

6 Force.

7 ‘‘(d) PURPOSE.—

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—(A) The purpose of the

9 Task Force shall be to make available the combined

10 resources and expertise of the agencies described in

11 paragraph (1) to assist State and local governments

12 in the most difficult missing and exploited child

13 cases nationwide, as identified by the chief of the

14 Task Force from time to time, in consultation with

15 the Center, and as many additional cases as re16 sources permit, including the provision of assistance

17 to State and local investigators on location in the

18 field.

19 ‘‘(B) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The role of the

20 Task Force in any investigation shall be to provide

21 advice and technical assistance and to make avail22 able the resources of the agencies described in sub23 section (b)(1); the Task Force shall not take a lead24 ership role in any such investigation.
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1 ‘‘(e) TRAINING.—Members of the Task Force shall

2 receive a course of training, provided by the Center, in

3 matters relating to cases of missing and exploited children.

4 ‘‘(f) CROSS-DESIGNATION OF TASK FORCE MEM5 BERS.—The Attorney General shall cross-designate the

6 members of the Task Force with jurisdiction to enforce

7 Federal law related to child abduction to the extent nec8 essary to accomplish the purposes of this section.’’.

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