I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7218 

To expand the grants authorized under Jennifer’s Law and Kristen’s Act 

to include processing of unidentified remains, resolving missing persons 

cases, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 6, 2018 

Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas (for himself and Mr. HURD) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Homeland Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 

provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To expand the grants authorized under Jennifer’s Law and 

Kristen’s Act to include processing of unidentified remains, resolving missing persons cases, and for other 

purposes. 

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 Persons and 

5 Unidentified Remains Act of 2018’’. 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 7218 IH

1 SEC. 2. USE OF GRANT FUNDS. 

2 (a) JENNIFER’S LAW.—Jennifer’s Law (34 U.S.C. 

3 40501 et seq.) is amended— 

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

5 and inserting the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 202. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 

8 ‘‘(1) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—The Attorney 

9 General may award grants to eligible entities de10 scribed in paragraph (2), with priority given to eligi11 ble entities in southern border States, to enable the 

12 eligible entities to improve the transportation, proc13 essing, identification, and reporting of missing per14 sons and unidentified remains, including migrants. 

15 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—Eligible entities de16 scribed in this paragraph are the following: 

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

18 ‘‘(B) Accredited, government-funded, Com19 bined DNA Index System (commonly known as 

20 ‘CODIS’) forensic laboratories, which dem21 onstrate the grant funds will be used for DNA 

22 typing and uploading biological family DNA 

23 reference samples, including samples from for24 eign nationals, into CODIS, subject to the pro25 tocols for inclusion of such forensic DNA proVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:41 Dec 07, 2018 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7218.IH H7218

pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 7218 IH

1 files into CODIS, and the privacy protections 

2 required under section 203(c). 

3 ‘‘(C) Medical examiners offices. 

4 ‘‘(D) Accredited, publicly funded toxicology 

5 laboratories. 

6 ‘‘(E) Accredited, publicly funded crime lab7 oratories. 

8 ‘‘(F) Publicly funded university forensic 

9 anthropology center laboratories. 

10 ‘‘(G) Nonprofit organizations that have 

11 working collaborative agreements with State 

12 and county forensic offices, including medical 

13 examiners, coroners, and justices of the peace, 

14 for entry of data into CODIS or the National 

15 Missing and Unidentified Persons System (com16 monly known as ‘NamUs’), or both.’’; 

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

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

19 and inserting ‘‘an entity described in section 

20 202’’; 

21 (B) in subsection (b)— 

22 (i) in the matter preceding paragraph 

23 (1), by striking ‘‘State’’ and inserting ‘‘ap24 plicant’’; 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 7218 IH

1 (ii) by striking paragraph (1) and in2 serting the following: 

3 ‘‘(1) report to the National Crime Information 

4 Center and, when possible, to law enforcement au5 thorities throughout the applicant’s jurisdiction re6 garding every deceased unidentified person, regard7 less of age, found in the applicant’s jurisdiction;’’; 

8 (iii) in paragraph (3), by striking 

9 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

10 (iv) in paragraph (4), by striking the 

11 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 

12 and 

13 (v) by adding at the end the following: 

14 ‘‘(5) collect and report information to the Na15 tional Missing and Unidentified Persons System 

16 (NamUs) regarding missing persons and unidenti17 fied remains.’’; and 

18 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘(c) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR BIOLOGICAL FAM20 ILY REFERENCE SAMPLES.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any suspected biological 

22 family DNA reference samples received from citizens 

23 of the United States or foreign nationals and 

24 uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System 

25 (commonly referred to as ‘CODIS’) by an accredited, 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 7218 IH

1 government-funded CODIS forensic laboratory 

2 awarded a grant under this section may be used only 

3 for identifying missing persons and unidentified re4 mains. 

5 ‘‘(2) LIMITATION ON USE.—Any biological fam6 ily DNA reference samples from citizens of the 

7 United States or foreign nationals entered into 

8 CODIS for purposes of identifying missing persons 

9 and unidentified remains may not be disclosed to a 

10 Federal or State law enforcement agency for law en11 forcement purposes.’’; and 

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

13 and inserting the following: 

14 ‘‘SEC. 205. USE OF FUNDS. 

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

16 may use such funds to— 

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

18 fiscal year 2017 for the transportation, processing, 

19 identification, and reporting of missing persons and 

20 unidentified remains, including migrants; 

21 ‘‘(2) establish and expand programs developed 

22 to improve the reporting of unidentified persons in 

23 accordance with the assurances provided in the ap24 plication submitted pursuant to section 203(b); 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 7218 IH

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

2 analysts and technicians, fingerprint examiners, fo3 rensic odontologists, and forensic anthropologists, 

4 needed to support such identification programs; and 

5 ‘‘(4) procure and maintain state-of-the-art 

6 multimodal, multipurpose forensic and DNA-typing 

7 and analytical equipment.’’. 

8 (b) KRISTEN’S ACT.—Section 3 of Kristen’s Act (34 

9 U.S.C. 40504 note) is amended to read as follows: 

10 ‘‘SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDING. 

11 ‘‘The Attorney General is authorized to use funds 

12 otherwise appropriated for the operationalization, mainte13 nance, and expansion of the National Missing and Uniden14 tified Persons System (NamUs) for the purpose of car15 rying out this Act.’’. 

16 SEC. 3. RESCUE BEACONS. 

17 Section 411(o) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 

18 (6 U.S.C. 211(o)) is amended by adding at the end the 

19 following: 

20 ‘‘(3) RESCUE BEACONS.—Beginning in fiscal 

21 year 2019, in carrying out subsection (c)(8), the 

22 Commissioner shall purchase, deploy, and maintain 

23 not more than 170 self-powering, 9–1–1 cellular 

24 relay rescue beacons along the southern border of 

25 the United States at locations determined approVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:41 Dec 07, 2018 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7218.IH H7218

pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 7218 IH

1 priate by the Commissioner to mitigate migrant 

2 deaths.’’. 

3 SEC. 4. REPORTING ON NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTI4 FIED PERSONS (NAMUS) PROGRAM. 

5 Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 

6 of this Act, and every year thereafter, the Attorney Gen7 eral shall submit a report to the appropriate committees 

8 of Congress regarding— 

9 (1) the number of unidentified person cases 

10 processed; 

11 (2) CODIS associations and identifications; 

12 (3) the number of anthropology cases processed; 

13 (4) the number of suspected border crossing 

14 cases and associations made; 

15 (5) the number of trials supported with expert 

16 testimony; 

17 (6) the number of students trained and profes18 sions of those students; and 

19 (7) the turnaround time and backlog. 

20 SEC. 5. OTHER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 

21 (a) UNIDENTIFIED REMAINS.—Not later than 1 year 

22 after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 

23 thereafter, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border 

24 Protection shall submit a report to the appropriate com25 mittees of Congress regarding all unidentified remains disVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:41 Dec 07, 2018 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7218.IH H7218

pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 7218 IH

1 covered, during the reporting period, by U.S. Customs and 

2 Border Protection on or near the border between the 

3 United States and Mexico, including— 

4 (1) for each deceased person— 

5 (A) the cause and manner of death, if 

6 known; 

7 (B) the sex, age (at time of death), and 

8 country of origin (if such information is deter9 minable); and 

10 (C) the location of each unidentified re11 main; 

12 (2) the total number of deceased people whose 

13 unidentified remains were discovered by U.S. Cus14 toms and Border Protection during the reporting pe15 riod; 

16 (3) the efforts of U.S. Customs and Border 

17 Protection to engage with nongovernmental organi18 zations, institutions of higher education, medical ex19 aminers and coroners, and law enforcement agen20 cies— 

21 (A) to identify and map the locations at 

22 which migrant deaths occur; and 

23 (B) to count the number of deaths that 

24 occur at such locations; and 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 7218 IH

1 (4) a detailed description of U.S. Customs and 

2 Border Protection’s Missing Migrant Program, in3 cluding how the program helps mitigate migrant 

4 deaths while maintaining border security. 

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

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

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

8 shall submit a report to the appropriate committees of 

9 Congress regarding the use of rescue beacons along the 

10 border between the United States and Mexico, including, 

11 for the reporting period— 

12 (1) the number of rescue beacons in each bor13 der patrol sector; 

14 (2) the specific location of each rescue beacon; 

15 (3) the frequency with which each rescue bea16 con was activated by a person in distress; 

17 (4) a description of the nature of the distress 

18 that resulted in each rescue beacon activation (if 

19 such information is determinable); and 

20 (5) an assessment, in consultation with local 

21 stakeholders, including elected officials, nongovern22 mental organizations, and landowners, of necessary 

23 additional rescue beacons and recommendations for 

24 locations for deployment to reduce migrant deaths. 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
10 

•HR 7218 IH

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

2 the report required under subsection (a) is submitted to 

3 the appropriate committees of Congress, the Comptroller 

4 General of the United States shall submit a report to the 

5 same committees that describes— 

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

7 collects and records border-crossing death data; 

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

9 Border Protection border-crossing death data collec10 tion methodology across its sectors; 

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

12 data and statistical analysis on trends in the num13 bers, locations, causes, and characteristics of border14 crossing deaths compare to other sources of data on 

15 these deaths, including border county medical exam16 iners and coroners and the Centers for Disease Con17 trol and Prevention; 

18 (4) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

19 measures the effectiveness of its programs to miti20 gate migrant deaths; and 

21 (5) the extent to which U.S. Customs and Bor22 der Protection engages Federal, State, local, and 

23 Tribal governments, foreign diplomatic and consular 

24 posts, and nongovernmental organizations— 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
11 

•HR 7218 IH

1 (A) to accurately identify deceased individ2 uals; 

3 (B) to resolve cases involving unidentified 

4 remains; 

5 (C) to resolve cases involving unidentified 

6 persons; and 

7 (D) to share information on missing per8 sons and unidentified remains, specifically with 

9 the National Missing and Unidentified Persons 

10 System (NamUs). 

Æ 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS