II

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

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:

5 (1) For 14 years, the National Center for Miss6 ing and Exploited Children (referred to in this sec7 tion as the ‘‘Center’’) has—

8 (A) served as the national resource center

9 and clearinghouse congressionally mandated
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1 under the provisions of the Missing Children’s

2 Assistance Act of 1984; and

3 (B) worked in partnership with the De4 partment of Justice, the Federal Bureau of In5 vestigation, the Department of the Treasury,

6 the Department of State, and many other agen7 cies in the effort to find missing children and

8 prevent child victimization.

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

10 private non-profit corporation, unique powers and

11 resources, such as having access to the National

12 Crime Information Center of the Federal Bureau of

13 Investigation, and the National Law Enforcement

14 Telecommunications System.

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

16 National Child Pornography Tipline, in conjunction

17 with the United States Customs Service and the

18 United States Postal Inspection Service and, begin19 ning this year, the Center established a new

20 CyberTipline on child exploitation, thus becoming

21 ‘‘the 911 for the Internet’’.

22 (4) In light of statistics that time is of the es23 sence in cases of child abduction, the Director of the

24 Federal Bureau of Investigation in February of

25 1997 created a new NCIC child abduction (‘‘CA’’)
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1 flag to provide the Center immediate notification in

2 the most serious cases, resulting in 642 ‘‘CA’’ notifi3 cations to the Center and helping the Center to have

4 its highest recovery rate in history.

5 (5) The Center has established a national and

6 increasingly worldwide network, linking the Center

7 online with each of the missing children clearing8 houses operated by the 50 States, the District of Co9 lumbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as with Scotland

10 Yard in the United Kingdom, the Royal Canadian

11 Mounted Police, INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon,

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

13 transmit images and information regarding missing

14 children to law enforcement across the United States

15 and around the world instantly.

16 (6) From its inception in 1984 through March

17 31, 1998, the Center has—

18 (A) handled 1,203,974 calls through its

19 24-hour toll-free hotline (1-800-THE-LOST)

20 and currently averages 700 calls per day;

21 (B) trained 146,284 law enforcement,

22 criminal and juvenile justice, and healthcare

23 professionals in child sexual exploitation and

24 missing child case detection, identification, in25 vestigation, and prevention;
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1 (C) disseminated 15,491,344 free publica2 tions to citizens and professionals; and

3 (D) worked with law enforcement on the

4 cases of 59,481 missing children, resulting in

5 the recovery of 40,180 children.

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

7 is growing dramatically, as evidenced by the fact

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

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

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

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

12 other websites to provide real-time images of break13 ing cases of missing children, helping to cause such

14 results as a police officer in Puerto Rico searching

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

16 identify and recover a child abducted as an infant

17 from her home in San Diego, California, 7 years

18 earlier.

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

20 to 256 police chiefs and sheriffs from 50 States and

21 Guam at its new Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement

22 Training Center.

23 (9) The programs of the Center have had a re24 markable impact, such as in the fight against infant

25 abductions in partnership with the healthcare indus-
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1 try, during which the Center has performed 668 on2 site hospital walk-throughs and inspections, and

3 trained 45,065 hospital administrators, nurses, and

4 security personnel, and thereby helped to reduce in5 fant abductions in the United States by 82 percent.

6 (10) The Center is now playing a leading role

7 in international child abduction cases, serving as a

8 representative of the Department of State at cases

9 under The Hague Convention, and successfully re10 solving the cases of 343 international child abduc11 tions, and providing greater support to parents in

12 the United States.

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

14 partnership, raising private sector funds to match

15 congressional appropriations and receiving extensive

16 private in-kind support, including advanced tech17 nology provided by the computer industry such as

18 imaging technology used to age the photographs of

19 long-term missing children and to reconstruct facial

20 images of unidentified deceased children.

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

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

23 American Institute of Philanthropy.

24 (13) In light of its impressive history, the Cen25 ter has been redesignated as the Nation’s missing
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1 children clearinghouse and resource center once

2 every 3 years through a competitive selection process

3 conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and De4 linquency Prevention of the Department of Justice,

5 and has received grants from that Office to conduct

6 the crucial purposes of the Center.

7 (14) An official congressional authorization will

8 increase the level of scrutiny and oversight by Con9 gress and continue the Center’s long partnership

10 with the Department of Justice and the Office of

11 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the

12 Department of Justice.

13 (15) The exemplary record of performance and

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

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

16 percent, justifies action by Congress to formally rec17 ognize the National Center for Missing and Ex18 ploited Children as the Nation’s official missing and

19 exploited children’s center, and to authorize a line20 item appropriation for the National Center for Miss21 ing and Exploited Children in the Federal budget.

22 SEC. 2. NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED

23 CHILDREN.

24 (a) GRANTS.—The Administrator of the Office of Ju25 venile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the Depart-
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1 ment of Justice shall annually make a grant to the Na2 tional Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which

3 shall be used to—

4 (1) operate the official national resource center

5 and information clearinghouse for missing and ex6 ploited children;

7 (2) provide to State and local governments,

8 public and private nonprofit agencies, and individ9 uals, information regarding—

10 (A) free or low-cost legal, restaurant, lodg11 ing, and transportation services that are avail12 able for the benefit of missing and exploited

13 children and their families; and

14 (B) the existence and nature of programs

15 being carried out by Federal agencies to assist

16 missing and exploited children and their fami17 lies;

18 (3) coordinate public and private programs that

19 locate, recover, or reunite missing children with their

20 families;

21 (4) disseminate, on a national basis, informa22 tion relating to innovative and model programs,

23 services, and legislation that benefit missing and ex24 ploited children;
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1 (5) provide technical assistance and training to

2 law enforcement agencies, State, and local govern3 ments, elements of the criminal justice system, pub4 lic and private nonprofit agencies, and individuals in

5 the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treat6 ment of cases involving missing and exploited chil7 dren; and

8 (6) provide assistance to families and law en9 forcement agencies in locating and recovering miss10 ing and exploited children, both nationally and inter11 nationally.

12 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

13 authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator to

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

15 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003.

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