S. 2174 

One Hundred Sixteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Friday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty 

An Act 

To the extent provided in advance in appropriations Act, the Attorney General 

is authorized to use funds appropriated for the operationalization, maintenance, 

and expansion of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) 

for the purpose of carrying out this Act. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Missing Persons and Unidentified 

Remains Act of 2019’’. 

SEC. 2. USE OF GRANT FUNDS. 

(a) JENNIFER’S LAW.—Jennifer’s Law (34 U.S.C. 40501 et seq.) 

is amended— 

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

the following: 

‘‘SEC. 202. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 

‘‘(1) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—The Attorney General may 

award grants to eligible entities described in paragraph (2) 

to enable the eligible entities to improve the transportation, 

processing, identification, and reporting of missing persons and 

unidentified remains, including migrants. 

‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—Eligible entities described in this 

paragraph are the following: 

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

‘‘(B) Accredited, publicly funded, Combined DNA Index 

System (commonly known as ‘CODIS’) forensic laboratories, 

which demonstrate the grant funds will be used for DNA 

typing and uploading biological family DNA reference samples, including samples from foreign nationals, into CODIS, 

subject to the protocols for inclusion of such forensic DNA 

profiles into CODIS, and the privacy protections required 

under section 203(c). 

‘‘(C) Medical examiners offices. 

‘‘(D) Accredited, publicly funded toxicology laboratories. 

‘‘(E) Accredited, publicly funded crime laboratories. 

‘‘(F) Publicly funded university forensic anthropology 

laboratories. 

‘‘(G) Nonprofit organizations that have working collaborative agreements with State and county forensic offices, 

including medical examiners, coroners, and justices of the 

peace, for entry of data into CODIS or the National Missing 
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and Unidentified Persons System (commonly known as 

‘NamUs’), or both.’’; 

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

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

‘‘an entity described in section 202’’; 

(B) in subsection (b)— 

(i) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 

striking ‘‘State’’ and inserting ‘‘applicant’’; 

(ii) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 

following: 

‘‘(1) report to the National Crime Information Center and, 

when possible, to law enforcement authorities throughout the 

applicant’s jurisdiction regarding every deceased unidentified 

person, regardless of age, found in the applicant’s jurisdiction;’’; 

(iii) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 

end; 

(iv) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at 

the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

(v) by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘(5) collect and report information to the National Missing 

and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) regarding missing 

persons and unidentified remains.’’; and 

(C) by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘(c) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR BIOLOGICAL FAMILY REFERENCE

SAMPLES.— 

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any suspected biological family DNA 

reference samples received from citizens of the United States 

or foreign nationals and uploaded into the Combined DNA 

Index System (commonly referred to as ‘CODIS’) by an accredited, publicly funded CODIS forensic laboratory awarded a 

grant under this section may be used only for identifying 

missing persons and unidentified remains. 

‘‘(2) LIMITATION ON USE.—Any biological family DNA reference samples from citizens of the United States or foreign 

nationals entered into CODIS for purposes of identifying 

missing persons and unidentified remains may not be disclosed 

to a Federal or State law enforcement agency for law enforcement purposes.’’; and 

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

the following: 

‘‘SEC. 205. USE OF FUNDS. 

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

use such funds to— 

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

2017 for the transportation, processing, identification, and 

reporting of missing persons and unidentified remains, 

including migrants; 

‘‘(2) establish and expand programs developed to improve 

the reporting of unidentified persons in accordance with the 

assurances provided in the application submitted pursuant to 

section 203(b); 

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

technicians, fingerprint examiners, forensic odontologists, and 

forensic anthropologists, needed to support such identification 

programs; and 
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‘‘(4) procure and maintain state of the art multi-modal, 

multi-purpose forensic and DNA-typing and analytical equipment.’’. 

(b) KRISTEN’S ACT.—Section 102 of Kristen’s Act (34 U.S.C. 

40504 note) is amended to read as follows: 

‘‘SEC. 102. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDING. 

‘‘To the extent provided in advance in appropriations Acts, 

the Attorney General is authorized to use funds appropriated for 

the operationalization, maintenance, and expansion of the National 

Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for the purpose 

of carrying out this Act’’. 

SEC. 3. RESCUE BEACONS. 

Section 411(o) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 

211(o)) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘(3) RESCUE BEACONS.—Beginning in fiscal year 2019, in 

carrying out subsection (c)(8), the Commissioner shall purchase, 

deploy, and maintain not more than 170 self-powering, 9–1– 

1 cellular relay rescue beacons along the southern border of 

the United States at locations determined appropriate by the 

Commissioner to mitigate migrant deaths.’’. 

SEC. 4. REPORTING ON NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM (NAMUS) PROGRAM. 

Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this 

act, and every year thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit 

a report to the appropriate committees of Congress regarding— 

(1) the number of unidentified person cases processed; 

(2) CODIS associations and identifications; 

(3) the number of anthropology cases processed; 

(4) the number of suspected border crossing cases and 

associations made; 

(5) the number of trials supported with expert testimony; 

(6) the number of students trained and professions of those 

students; and 

(7) the turnaround time and backlog. 

SEC. 5. OTHER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 

(a) UNIDENTIFIED REMAINS.— (1) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 1 year after 

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

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

submit a report to the appropriate committees of Congress 

regarding all unidentified remains discovered, during the 

reporting period, on or near the border between the United 

States and Mexico, including— 

(A) for each deceased person— 

(i) the cause and manner of death, if known; 

(ii) the sex, age (at time of death), and country 

of origin (if such information is determinable); and 

(iii) the location of each unidentified remain; 

(B) the total number of deceased people whose 

unidentified remains were discovered by U.S. Customs and 

Border Protection during the reporting period; 

(C) to the extent such information is available to U.S. 

Customs and Border Protection, the total number of 
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deceased people whose unidentified remains were discovered by Federal, State, local or Tribal law enforcement 

officers, military personnel, or medical examiners offices; 

(D) the efforts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

to engage with nongovernmental organizations, institutions 

of higher education, medical examiners and coroners, and 

law enforcement agencies— 

(i) to identify and map the locations at which 

migrant deaths occur; and 

(ii) to count the number of deaths that occur at 

such locations; and 

(E) a detailed description of U.S. Customs and Border 

Protection’s Missing Migrant Program, including how the 

program helps mitigate migrant deaths while maintaining 

border security. 

(2) PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.—Not later than 30 days after each 

report required under paragraph (1) is submitted, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall publish 

on the website of the agency the information described in 

subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (1) during each 

reporting period. 

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

of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Commissioner 

of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall submit a report to 

the appropriate committees of Congress regarding the use of rescue 

beacons along the border between the United States and Mexico, 

including, for the reporting period— 

(1) the number of rescue beacons in each border patrol 

sector; 

(2) the specific location of each rescue beacon; 

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

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

in each rescue beacon activation (if such information is determinable); and 

(5) an assessment, in consultation with local stakeholders, 

including elected officials, nongovernmental organizations, and 

landowners, of necessary additional rescue beacons and recommendations for locations for deployment to reduce migrant 

deaths. 

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

required under subsection (a) is submitted to the appropriate 

committees of Congress, the Comptroller General of the United 

States shall submit a report to the same committees that 

describes— 

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

records border-crossing death data; 

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

Protection border-crossing death data collection methodology 

across its sectors; 

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

statistical analysis on trends in the numbers, locations, causes, 

and characteristics of border-crossing deaths compare to other 

sources of data on these deaths, including border county medical 

examiners and coroners and the Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention; 
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(4) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection measures 

the effectiveness of its programs to mitigate migrant deaths; 

and 

(5) the extent to which U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

engages Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments, foreign 

diplomatic and consular posts, and nongovernmental organizations— 

(A) to accurately identify deceased individuals; 

(B) to resolve cases involving unidentified remains; 

(C) to resolve cases involving unidentified persons; and 

(D) to share information on missing persons and 

unidentified remains, specifically with the National Missing 

and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.