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. CROCK-
ETT, 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. RAMI-
REZ, 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Britanny Clardy Miss-
ing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Black women and girls are uniquely vulner-
able and too easily erased from public discussions 
about missing and murdered people. 
(2) According to the National Crime Informa-
tion Center, in 2020, of the 268,884 girls and 
women reported missing, 90,333, or nearly 34 per-
cent, were Black, while Black girls and women make 
up only 15 percent of the female population in the 
United States. 
(3) Nationally, cases involving Black girls and 
women stay open four times longer than other cases 
on average, as reported by Convention on the Elimi-
nation of Racial Discrimination. 
(4) Nationally, Black women have the highest 
rates of death due to homicide among women (4.4. 
per 100,000 compared to 1.5 per 100,000 for White 
women) and statistically shown these murders are 
most often committed by an intimate partner or 
someone the victim knows. 
(5) Understanding the roots of how and why 
Black women and girls are not as well protected 
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from violence as White women and girls requires at-
tention to both historical and present-day manifesta-
tions of interlocking systems of oppression, such as 
racism and sexism. 
(6) Effective research regarding the racial in-
equities surrounding violence against women and 
girls should— 
(A) involve local, relevant community en-
gaged research expertise in the area; 
(B) seek to center community members as 
essential experts through interviews and focus 
groups with Black women and girls who have 
lived experience within the topic; 
(C) include the use of mixed methods ap-
proaches to evaluate, monitor, and communicate 
data with the broader impacted communities; 
and 
(D) include a long-term evaluation plan to 
assess the impact of the data collection efforts 
and involve data specialists or consultants 
equipped to build tracking and reporting infra-
structure. 
(7) That considering all the facts above, the ex-
isting Federal resources dedicated to combatting vio-
lence against women and girls is not enough to ad-
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dress this problem and additional resources must be 
targeted directly to protecting, supporting and pro-
viding justice to Black women and girl in the United 
States. 
SEC. 3. OFFICE FOR MISSING AND MURDERED BLACK 
WOMEN AND GIRLS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 
the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and Mur-
dered Black Women and Girls (hereinafter referred to as 
the ‘‘Office’’), which shall be headed by a Director ap-
pointed by the Attorney General. 
(b) PERSONNEL AND FUNDS.—Not later than 90 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attor-
ney General shall provide to the Office such personnel and 
funds as necessary to establish and operate the Office as 
a component of the Department. 
(c) DUTIES OF OFFICE.—The Director of the Office 
shall— 
(1) serve as the legal and policy advisor to the 
Attorney General to ensure justice for missing and 
murdered Black women and girls; 
(2) develop recommendations for policies to ad-
dress injustice in the criminal justice system’s re-
sponse to cases of missing and murdered Black 
women and girls; 
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(3) establish a national advisory commission of 
Black women and girls who have experienced vio-
lence, abduction, or trafficking, and family members 
who have lost a loved one to this violence; 
(4) coordinate with the relevant Federal agen-
cies, the national advisory commission established in 
paragraph (3), State, local, and Tribal agencies, and 
local family services agencies to— 
(A) collect data on missing person and 
homicide cases involving Black women and 
girls, including the total number of cases, the 
rate at which the cases are solved, the length of 
time the cases remain open, and a comparison 
to similar cases involving different demographic 
groups; 
(B) collect data on Amber Alerts, including 
the total number of Amber Alerts issued, the 
total number of Amber Alerts that involve 
Black girls, and the outcome of cases involving 
Amber Alerts disaggregated by the child’s race 
and sex; 
(C) collect data on reports of missing 
Black girls, including the number classified as 
voluntary runaways, and a comparison to simi-
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lar 
cases 
involving 
different 
demographic 
groups; and 
(D) conduct case reviews and report on the 
results of such reviews for cases involving miss-
ing and murdered Black women and girls, in-
cluding— 
(i) cold cases for missing Black 
women and girls; and 
(ii) death investigation review for 
cases of Black women and girls ruled as 
suicide or overdose under suspicious cir-
cumstances. 
(5) develop tools and processes to evaluate the 
implementation and impact of the efforts of the Of-
fice; 
(6) facilitate technical assistance for State, 
local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies during 
active cases involving missing and murdered Black 
women and girls; and 
(7) create and maintain a centralized data re-
pository and public dashboard for the tracking of 
missing and Murdered Black women and girls. 
(d) REPORT REQUIRED.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the first Jan-
uary 15th after the date of enactment of this Act, 
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and biennially thereafter, the Director of the Office, 
in coordination with the relevant Federal agencies 
and State, local, and Tribal agencies, shall submit a 
report to the covered committees on missing and 
murdered Black women and girls, including— 
(A) an analysis and assessment of any 
data collected in subsection (c)(4); 
(B) an analysis and assessment on the 
intersection between cases involving missing 
and murdered Black women and girls and labor 
trafficking and sex trafficking; 
(C) any findings derived from the case re-
views conducted under subsection (c)(4)(D); 
(D) an analysis of any case review con-
ducted relating to the prosecution and sen-
tencing for cases where a perpetrator com-
mitted a violent or exploitative crime against a 
Black woman or girl; 
(E) reviews sentencing guidelines for 
crimes related to missing and murdered Black 
women and girls; and 
(F) recommendations for policies to ad-
dress to the criminal justice system’s response 
to cases of missing and murdered Black women 
and girls, including— 
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(i) the intersection between cases in-
volving 
missing 
and 
murdered 
Black 
women and girls and labor trafficking and 
sex trafficking; and 
(ii) analyze and assess the intersection 
between cases involving murdered Black 
women and girls and domestic violence, in-
cluding prior instances of domestic violence 
within the family or relationship, whether 
an offender had prior convictions for do-
mestic assault or related offenses, and 
whether the offender used a firearm in the 
murder or any prior instances of domestic 
assault. 
(2) COVERED COMMITTEES DEFINED.—In this 
subsection, the term ‘‘covered committees’’ means 
the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee 
on Homeland Security of the House of Representa-
tives and the Committee on the Judiciary and the 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs of the Senate. 
SEC. 4. GRANTS TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS 
TO PROVIDE CERTAIN SERVICES. 
(a) GRANT PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.—Not later than 
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
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Director of the Office shall establish a grant program to 
provide grants to community-based organizations that 
provide services designed to prevent or end the targeting 
of Black women or girls or provide assistance to victims 
of offenses that targeted Black women or girls. 
(b) GRANT
AWARD.—Community-based organiza-
tions awarded a grant under this section shall use the 
amount awarded under the grant program to— 
(1) provide culturally appropriate services de-
signed to reduce or prevent crimes that target Black 
women or girls; 
(2) provide culturally appropriate training re-
lated to the handling of situations and crimes tar-
geting of Black women and girls, including training 
for law enforcement officers, county attorneys, city 
attorneys, judges, and other criminal justice part-
ners; and 
(3) provide victim services or survivorship sup-
port to Black women and girls who are victims of 
crimes or other offenses or to the family members of 
missing and murdered Black women and girls. 
Æ 
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