110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2517 
AN ACT 
To amend the Missing Children’s Assistance Act to authorize 
appropriations; and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Our Chil-
dren Comes First Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Section 402 of the Missing Children’s Assistance Act 
(42 U.S.C. 5771) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘SEC. 402. FINDINGS. 
‘‘The Congress finds that— 
‘‘(1) each year thousands of children are ab-
ducted or removed from the control of a parent hav-
ing legal custody without such parent’s consent, 
under circumstances which immediately place the 
child in grave danger; 
‘‘(2) many missing children are at great risk of 
both physical harm and sexual exploitation; 
‘‘(3) in many cases, parents and local law en-
forcement officials have neither the resources nor 
the expertise to mount expanded search efforts; 
‘‘(4) abducted children are frequently moved 
from one locality to another, requiring the coopera-
tion and coordination of local, State, and Federal 
law enforcement efforts; 
‘‘(5) growing numbers of children are the vic-
tims of child sexual exploitation, increasingly involv-
ing the use of new technology to access the Internet;
‘‘(6) children may be separated from their par-
ents or legal guardians as a result of national disas-
ters such as hurricanes and floods; 
‘‘(7) sex offenders pose a threat to children; 
‘‘(8) the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin-
quency Prevention administers programs under this 
Act through the Child Protection Division, including 
programs which prevent or address offenses com-
mitted against vulnerable children and which sup-
port missing children’s organizations; and 
‘‘(9) a key component of such programs is the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 
which— 
‘‘(A) serves as a national resource center 
and clearinghouse; 
‘‘(B) works in partnership with the De-
partment of Justice, the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation, the United States Marshals Service, 
the Department of the Treasury, the Depart-
ment of State, the Bureau of Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement, the United States Secret 
Service, the United States Postal Inspection 
Service, and many other agencies in the effort 
to find missing children and prevent child vic-
timization; and
‘‘(C) operates a national network, linking 
the Center online with each of the missing chil-
dren clearinghouses operated by the 50 States, 
the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as 
well as with international organizations, includ-
ing Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom, the 
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL 
headquarters in Lyon, France, and others, 
which enable the Center to transmit images and 
information regarding missing and exploited 
children to law enforcement across the United 
States and around the world instantly.’’. 
SEC. 3. DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATOR. 
Section 404(b) of the Missing Children’s Assistance 
Act (42 U.S.C. 5773(b)) is amended— 
(1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Administrator shall 
annually make a grant to the Center, which shall be 
used to— 
‘‘(A)(i) operate a national 24-hour toll-free 
telephone line by which individuals may report 
information regarding the location of any miss-
ing child, and request information pertaining to
procedures necessary to reunite such child with 
such child’s legal custodian; and 
‘‘(ii) coordinate the operation of such tele-
phone line with the operation of the national 
communications system referred to in part C of 
the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (42 
U.S.C. 5714–11); 
‘‘(B) operate the official national resource 
center and information clearinghouse for miss-
ing and exploited children; 
‘‘(C) provide to State and local govern-
ments, and public and private nonprofit agen-
cies, and individuals, information regarding— 
‘‘(i) free or low-cost legal, restaurant, 
lodging, and transportation services that 
are available for the benefit of missing and 
exploited children and their families; and 
‘‘(ii) the existence and nature of pro-
grams being carried out by Federal agen-
cies to assist missing and exploited chil-
dren and their families; 
‘‘(D) coordinate public and private pro-
grams that locate, recover, or reunite missing 
children with their families;