II

Calendar No. 383

105TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2073

To authorize appropriations for the National Center for Missing and Exploited

Children.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 13, 1998

Mr. HATCH (for himself, Mr. DEWINE, and Mr. ABRAHAM) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the

Judiciary

MAY 21, 1998

Reported by Mr. HATCH, with an amendment

[Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in italic]

A BILL

To authorize appropriations for the National Center for

Missing and Exploited Children.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 Congress makes the following findings:
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1 (1) For 14 years, the National Center for Miss2 ing and Exploited Children (referred to in this sec3 tion as the ‘‘Center’’) has—

4 (A) served as the national resource center

5 and clearinghouse congressionally mandated

6 under the provisions of the Missing Children’s

7 Assistance Act of 1984; and

8 (B) worked in partnership with the De9 partment of Justice, the Federal Bureau of In10 vestigation, the Department of the Treasury,

11 the Department of State, and many other agen12 cies in the effort to find missing children and

13 prevent child victimization.

14 (2) Congress has given the Center, which is a

15 private non-profit corporation, unique powers and

16 resources, such as having access to the National

17 Crime Information Center of the Federal Bureau of

18 Investigation, and the National Law Enforcement

19 Telecommunications System.

20 (3) Since 1987, the Center has operated the

21 National Child Pornography Tipline, in conjunction

22 with the United States Customs Service and the

23 United States Postal Inspection Service and, begin24 ning this year, the Center established a new
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1 CyberTipline on child exploitation, thus becoming

2 ‘‘the 911 for the Internet’’.

3 (4) In light of statistics that time is of the es4 sence in cases of child abduction, the Director of the

5 Federal Bureau of Investigation in February of

6 1997 created a new NCIC child abduction (‘‘CA’’)

7 flag to provide the Center immediate notification in

8 the most serious cases, resulting in 642 ‘‘CA’’ notifi9 cations to the Center and helping the Center to have

10 its highest recovery rate in history.

11 (5) The Center has established a national and

12 increasingly worldwide network, linking the Center

13 online with each of the missing children clearing14 houses operated by the 50 States, the District of Co15 lumbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as with Scotland

16 Yard in the United Kingdom, the Royal Canadian

17 Mounted Police, INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon,

18 France, and others, which has enabled the Center to

19 transmit images and information regarding missing

20 children to law enforcement across the United States

21 and around the world instantly.

22 (6) From its inception in 1984 through March

23 31, 1998, the Center has—
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1 (A) handled 1,203,974 calls through its

2 24-hour toll-free hotline (1-800-THE-LOST)

3 and currently averages 700 calls per day;

4 (B) trained 146,284 law enforcement,

5 criminal and juvenile justice, and healthcare

6 professionals in child sexual exploitation and

7 missing child case detection, identification, in8 vestigation, and prevention;

9 (C) disseminated 15,491,344 free publica10 tions to citizens and professionals; and

11 (D) worked with law enforcement on the

12 cases of 59,481 missing children, resulting in

13 the recovery of 40,180 children.

14 (7) The demand for the services of the Center

15 is growing dramatically, as evidenced by the fact

16 that in 1997, the Center handled 129,100 calls, an

17 all-time record, and by the fact that its new Internet

18 website (www.missingkids.com) receives 1,500,000

19 ‘‘hits’’ every day, and is linked with hundreds of

20 other websites to provide real-time images of break21 ing cases of missing children, helping to cause such

22 results as a police officer in Puerto Rico searching

23 the Center’s website and working with the Center to

24 identify and recover a child abducted as an infant
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1 from her home in San Diego, California, 7 years

2 earlier.

3 (8) In 1997, the Center provided policy training

4 to 256 police chiefs and sheriffs from 50 States and

5 Guam at its new Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement

6 Training Center.

7 (9) The programs of the Center have had a re8 markable impact, such as in the fight against infant

9 abductions in partnership with the healthcare indus10 try, during which the Center has performed 668 on11 site hospital walk-throughs and inspections, and

12 trained 45,065 hospital administrators, nurses, and

13 security personnel, and thereby helped to reduce in14 fant abductions in the United States by 82 percent.

15 (10) The Center is now playing a leading sig16 nificant role in international child abduction cases,

17 serving as a representative of the Department of

18 State at cases under The Hague Convention, and

19 successfully resolving the cases of 343 international

20 child abductions, and providing greater support to

21 parents in the United States.

22 (11) The Center is a model of public/private

23 partnership, raising private sector funds to match

24 congressional appropriations and receiving extensive

25 private in-kind support, including advanced tech-
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1 nology provided by the computer industry such as

2 imaging technology used to age the photographs of

3 long-term missing children and to reconstruct facial

4 images of unidentified deceased children.

5 (12) The Center was 1 of only 10 of 300 major

6 national charities given an A+ grade in 1997 by the

7 American Institute of Philanthropy.

8 (13) In light of its impressive history, the Cen9 ter has been redesignated as the Nation’s missing

10 children clearinghouse and resource center once

11 every 3 years through a competitive selection process

12 conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and De13 linquency Prevention of the Department of Justice,

14 and has received grants from that Office to conduct

15 the crucial purposes of the Center.

16 (14) An official congressional authorization will

17 increase the level of scrutiny and oversight by Con18 gress and continue the Center’s long partnership

19 with the Department of Justice and the Office of

20 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the

21 Department of Justice.

22 (15) The exemplary record of performance and

23 success of the Center, as exemplified by the fact that

24 the Center’s recovery rate has climbed from 62 to 91

25 percent, justifies action by Congress to formally rec-
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1 ognize the National Center for Missing and Ex2 ploited Children as the Nation’s official missing and

3 exploited children’s center, and to authorize a line4 item appropriation for the National Center for Miss5 ing and Exploited Children in the Federal budget.

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED

7 CHILDREN.

8 (a) GRANTS.—The Administrator of the Office of Ju9 venile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the Depart10 ment of Justice shall annually make a grant to the Na11 tional Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which

12 shall be used to—

13 (1) operate the official national resource center

14 and information clearinghouse for missing and ex15 ploited children;

16 (2) provide to State and local governments,

17 public and private nonprofit agencies, and individ18 uals, information regarding—

19 (A) free or low-cost legal, restaurant, lodg20 ing, and transportation services that are avail21 able for the benefit of missing and exploited

22 children and their families; and

23 (B) the existence and nature of programs

24 being carried out by Federal agencies to assist
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1 missing and exploited children and their fami2 lies;

3 (3) coordinate public and private programs that

4 locate, recover, or reunite missing children with their

5 families;

6 (4) disseminate, on a national basis, informa7 tion relating to innovative and model programs,

8 services, and legislation that benefit missing and ex9 ploited children;

10 (5) provide technical assistance and training to

11 law enforcement agencies, State, and local govern12 ments, elements of the criminal justice system, pub13 lic and private nonprofit agencies, and individuals in

14 the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treat15 ment of cases involving missing and exploited chil16 dren; and

17 (6) provide assistance to families and law en18 forcement agencies in locating and recovering miss19 ing and exploited children, both nationally and inter20 nationally.

21 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

22 authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator to

23 carry out this section, $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years

24 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003.

Calendar No. 383

105TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2073

A BILL

Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

To authorize appropriations for the National

MAY 21, 1998

Reported by Mr. HATCH with an amendment