I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5573 

To establish within the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and 

Murdered Black Women and Girls. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 

Ms. OMAR (for herself, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. CROCKETT, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, 

Ms. JACOBS, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. 

WILLIAMS of Georgia, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. 

ADAMS, Mr. CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. 

CLEAVER, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. 

KELLY of Illinois, Mrs. BEATTY, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. LIEU, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. CARSON, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. 

CASTOR of Florida, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. 

BUSH, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Ms. CRAIG, Ms. 

STRICKLAND, Ms. BROWN, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. EVANS, Mrs. 

HAYES, Mr. FROST, Ms. WATERS, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. 

DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. MFUME, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Mr. 

BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Mr. MEEKS, 

Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. IVEY, Mr. VEASEY, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. 

JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, and Mr. CLYBURN) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 

Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish within the Department of Justice an Office 

for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls. 

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


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Britanny Clardy Miss3 ing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) Black women and girls are uniquely vulner7 able and too easily erased from public discussions 

8 about missing and murdered people. 

9 (2) According to the National Crime Informa10 tion Center, in 2020, of the 268,884 girls and 

11 women reported missing, 90,333, or nearly 34 per12 cent, were Black, while Black girls and women make 

13 up only 15 percent of the female population in the 

14 United States. 

15 (3) Nationally, cases involving Black girls and 

16 women stay open four times longer than other cases 

17 on average, as reported by Convention on the Elimi18 nation of Racial Discrimination. 

19 (4) Nationally, Black women have the highest 

20 rates of death due to homicide among women (4.4. 

21 per 100,000 compared to 1.5 per 100,000 for White 

22 women) and statistically shown these murders are 

23 most often committed by an intimate partner or 

24 someone the victim knows. 

25 (5) Understanding the roots of how and why 

26 Black women and girls are not as well protected 


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1 from violence as White women and girls requires at2 tention to both historical and present-day manifesta3 tions of interlocking systems of oppression, such as 

4 racism and sexism. 

5 (6) Effective research regarding the racial in6 equities surrounding violence against women and 

7 girls should— 

8 (A) involve local, relevant community en9 gaged research expertise in the area; 

10 (B) seek to center community members as 

11 essential experts through interviews and focus 

12 groups with Black women and girls who have 

13 lived experience within the topic; 

14 (C) include the use of mixed methods ap15 proaches to evaluate, monitor, and communicate 

16 data with the broader impacted communities; 

17 and 

18 (D) include a long-term evaluation plan to 

19 assess the impact of the data collection efforts 

20 and involve data specialists or consultants 

21 equipped to build tracking and reporting infra22 structure. 

23 (7) That considering all the facts above, the ex24 isting Federal resources dedicated to combatting vio25 lence against women and girls is not enough to adVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:33 Sep 21, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573

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1 dress this problem and additional resources must be 

2 targeted directly to protecting, supporting and pro3 viding justice to Black women and girl in the United 

4 States. 

5 SEC. 3. OFFICE FOR MISSING AND MURDERED BLACK 

6 WOMEN AND GIRLS. 

7 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 

8 the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and Mur9 dered Black Women and Girls (hereinafter referred to as 

10 the ‘‘Office’’), which shall be headed by a Director ap11 pointed by the Attorney General. 

12 (b) PERSONNEL AND FUNDS.—Not later than 90 

13 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attor14 ney General shall provide to the Office such personnel and 

15 funds as necessary to establish and operate the Office as 

16 a component of the Department. 

17 (c) DUTIES OF OFFICE.—The Director of the Office 

18 shall— 

19 (1) serve as the legal and policy advisor to the 

20 Attorney General to ensure justice for missing and 

21 murdered Black women and girls; 

22 (2) develop recommendations for policies to ad23 dress injustice in the criminal justice system’s re24 sponse to cases of missing and murdered Black 

25 women and girls; 


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1 (3) establish a national advisory commission of 

2 Black women and girls who have experienced vio3 lence, abduction, or trafficking, and family members 

4 who have lost a loved one to this violence; 

5 (4) coordinate with the relevant Federal agen6 cies, the national advisory commission established in 

7 paragraph (3), State, local, and Tribal agencies, and 

8 local family services agencies to— 

9 (A) collect data on missing person and 

10 homicide cases involving Black women and 

11 girls, including the total number of cases, the 

12 rate at which the cases are solved, the length of 

13 time the cases remain open, and a comparison 

14 to similar cases involving different demographic 

15 groups; 

16 (B) collect data on Amber Alerts, including 

17 the total number of Amber Alerts issued, the 

18 total number of Amber Alerts that involve 

19 Black girls, and the outcome of cases involving 

20 Amber Alerts disaggregated by the child’s race 

21 and sex; 

22 (C) collect data on reports of missing 

23 Black girls, including the number classified as 

24 voluntary runaways, and a comparison to simiVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:33 Sep 21, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573

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1 lar cases involving different demographic 

2 groups; and 

3 (D) conduct case reviews and report on the 

4 results of such reviews for cases involving miss5 ing and murdered Black women and girls, in6 cluding— 

7 (i) cold cases for missing Black 

8 women and girls; and 

9 (ii) death investigation review for 

10 cases of Black women and girls ruled as 

11 suicide or overdose under suspicious cir12 cumstances. 

13 (5) develop tools and processes to evaluate the 

14 implementation and impact of the efforts of the Of15 fice; 

16 (6) facilitate technical assistance for State, 

17 local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies during 

18 active cases involving missing and murdered Black 

19 women and girls; and 

20 (7) create and maintain a centralized data re21 pository and public dashboard for the tracking of 

22 missing and Murdered Black women and girls. 

23 (d) REPORT REQUIRED.— 

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the first Jan25 uary 15th after the date of enactment of this Act, 


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1 and biennially thereafter, the Director of the Office, 

2 in coordination with the relevant Federal agencies 

3 and State, local, and Tribal agencies, shall submit a 

4 report to the covered committees on missing and 

5 murdered Black women and girls, including— 

6 (A) an analysis and assessment of any 

7 data collected in subsection (c)(4); 

8 (B) an analysis and assessment on the 

9 intersection between cases involving missing 

10 and murdered Black women and girls and labor 

11 trafficking and sex trafficking; 

12 (C) any findings derived from the case re13 views conducted under subsection (c)(4)(D); 

14 (D) an analysis of any case review con15 ducted relating to the prosecution and sen16 tencing for cases where a perpetrator com17 mitted a violent or exploitative crime against a 

18 Black woman or girl; 

19 (E) reviews sentencing guidelines for 

20 crimes related to missing and murdered Black 

21 women and girls; and 

22 (F) recommendations for policies to ad23 dress to the criminal justice system’s response 

24 to cases of missing and murdered Black women 

25 and girls, including— 


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1 (i) the intersection between cases in2 volving missing and murdered Black 

3 women and girls and labor trafficking and 

4 sex trafficking; and 

5 (ii) analyze and assess the intersection 

6 between cases involving murdered Black 

7 women and girls and domestic violence, in8 cluding prior instances of domestic violence 

9 within the family or relationship, whether 

10 an offender had prior convictions for do11 mestic assault or related offenses, and 

12 whether the offender used a firearm in the 

13 murder or any prior instances of domestic 

14 assault. 

15 (2) COVERED COMMITTEES DEFINED.—In this 

16 subsection, the term ‘‘covered committees’’ means 

17 the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee 

18 on Homeland Security of the House of Representa19 tives and the Committee on the Judiciary and the 

20 Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 

21 Affairs of the Senate. 

22 SEC. 4. GRANTS TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS 

23 TO PROVIDE CERTAIN SERVICES. 

24 (a) GRANT PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.—Not later than 

25 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 


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1 Director of the Office shall establish a grant program to 

2 provide grants to community-based organizations that 

3 provide services designed to prevent or end the targeting 

4 of Black women or girls or provide assistance to victims 

5 of offenses that targeted Black women or girls. 

6 (b) GRANT AWARD.—Community-based organiza7 tions awarded a grant under this section shall use the 

8 amount awarded under the grant program to— 

9 (1) provide culturally appropriate services de10 signed to reduce or prevent crimes that target Black 

11 women or girls; 

12 (2) provide culturally appropriate training re13 lated to the handling of situations and crimes tar14 geting of Black women and girls, including training 

15 for law enforcement officers, county attorneys, city 

16 attorneys, judges, and other criminal justice part17 ners; and 

18 (3) provide victim services or survivorship sup19 port to Black women and girls who are victims of 

20 crimes or other offenses or to the family members of 

21 missing and murdered Black women and girls. 

Æ 


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