In the Senate of the United States,
October 21 (legislative day, October 2), 1998.
Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representa-
tives (H.R. 2440) entitled ‘‘An Act to make technical amend-
ments to section 10 of title 9, United States Code.’’, do pass
with the following
AMENDMENT:
Page 2, after line 17 insert:
SEC. 2. NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED
CHILDREN.
(a) FINDINGS.—Section 402 of the Missing Children’s
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5771) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the
end;
(2) in paragraph (8), by striking the period at
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(9) for 14 years, the National Center for Miss-
ing and Exploited Children has—
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‘‘(A) served as the national resource center
and clearinghouse congressionally mandated
under the provisions of the Missing Children’s
Assistance Act of 1984; and
‘‘(B) worked in partnership with the De-
partment of Justice, the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation, the Department of the Treasury, the
Department of State, and many other agencies
in the effort to find missing children and prevent
child victimization;
‘‘(10) Congress has given the Center, which is a
private non-profit corporation, access to the National
Crime Information Center of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the National Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System;
‘‘(11) since 1987, the Center has operated the
National Child Pornography Tipline, in conjunction
with the United States Customs Service and the
United States Postal Inspection Service and, begin-
ning this year, the Center established a new
CyberTipline on child exploitation, thus becoming ‘the
911 for the Internet’;
‘‘(12) in light of statistics that time is of the es-
sence in cases of child abduction, the Director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation in February of 1997
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created a new NCIC child abduction (‘CA’) flag to
provide the Center immediate notification in the most
serious cases, resulting in 642 ‘CA’ notifications to
the Center and helping the Center to have its highest
recovery rate in history;
‘‘(13) the Center has established a national and
increasingly worldwide network, linking the Center
online with each of the missing children clearing-
houses operated by the 50 States, the District of Co-
lumbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as with Scotland
Yard in the United Kingdom, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon,
France, and others, which has enabled the Center to
transmit images and information regarding missing
children to law enforcement across the United States
and around the world instantly;
‘‘(14) from its inception in 1984 through March
31, 1998, the Center has—
‘‘(A) handled 1,203,974 calls through its 24-
hour toll-free hotline (1-800-THE-LOST) and
currently averages 700 calls per day;
‘‘(B) trained 146,284 law enforcement,
criminal and juvenile justice, and healthcare
professionals in child sexual exploitation and
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security personnel, and thereby helped to reduce in-
fant abductions in the United States by 82 percent;
‘‘(18) the Center is now playing a significant
role in international child abduction cases, serving as
a representative of the Department of State at cases
under The Hague Convention, and successfully resolv-
ing the cases of 343 international child abductions,
and providing greater support to parents in the
United States;
‘‘(19) the Center is a model of public/private
partnership, raising private sector funds to match
congressional appropriations and receiving extensive
private in-kind support, including advanced tech-
nology provided by the computer industry such as im-
aging technology used to age the photographs of long-
term missing children and to reconstruct facial im-
ages of unidentified deceased children;
‘‘(20) the Center was 1 of only 10 of 300 major
national charities given an A+ grade in 1997 by the
American Institute of Philanthropy; and
‘‘(21) the Center has been redesignated as the
Nation’s missing children clearinghouse and resource
center once every 3 years through a competitive selec-
tion process conducted by the Office of Juvenile Jus-
tice and Delinquency Prevention of the Department of
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Justice, and has received grants from that Office to
conduct the crucial purposes of the Center.’’.
(b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 403 of the Missing Chil-
dren’s Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5772) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the
end;
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(3) the term ‘Center’ means the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children.’’.
(c) DUTIES
AND
FUNCTIONS
OF
THE
ADMINIS-
TRATOR.—Section 404 of the Missing Children’s Assistance
Act (42 U.S.C. 5773) is amended—
(1) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection
(d); and
(2) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the
following:
‘‘(b) ANNUAL GRANT TO NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISS-
ING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall an-
nually make a grant to the National Center for Miss-
ing and Exploited Children, which shall be used to—
‘‘(A)(i) operate a national 24-hour toll-free
telephone line by which individuals may report
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information regarding the location of any miss-
ing child, or other child 13 years of age or
younger whose whereabouts are unknown to such
child’s legal custodian, 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 missing
and exploited children;
‘‘(C) provide to State and local govern-
ments, public and private nonprofit agencies,
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 agencies
to assist missing and exploited children and
their families;
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‘‘(D) coordinate public and private pro-
grams that locate, recover, or reunite missing
children with their families;
‘‘(E) disseminate, on a national basis, in-
formation relating to innovative and model pro-
grams, services, and legislation that benefit miss-
ing and exploited children;
‘‘(F) provide technical assistance and train-
ing to law enforcement agencies, State and local
governments, elements of the criminal justice sys-
tem, public and private nonprofit agencies, and
individuals in the prevention, investigation,
prosecution, and treatment of cases involving
missing and exploited children; and
‘‘(G) provide assistance to families and law
enforcement agencies in locating and recovering
missing and exploited children, both nationally
and internationally.
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.—
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Admin-
istrator to carry out this subsection, $8,000,000 for
each of fiscal years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003.
‘‘(c) NATIONAL INCIDENCE STUDIES.—The Adminis-
trator, either by making grants to or entering into contracts
with public agencies or nonprofit private agencies, shall—
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‘‘(1) periodically conduct national incidence
studies to determine for a given year the actual num-
ber of children reported missing each year, the num-
ber of children who are victims of abduction by
strangers, the number of children who are the victims
of parental kidnapings, and the number of children
who are recovered each year; and
‘‘(2) provide to State and local governments,
public and private nonprofit agencies, and individ-
uals information to facilitate the lawful use of school
records and birth certificates to identify and locate
missing children.’’.
(d) NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED
CHILDREN.—Section 405(a) of the Missing Children’s As-
sistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5775(a)) is amended by inserting
‘‘the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
and with’’ before ‘‘public agencies’’,
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.—Section 408 of
the Missing Children’s Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5777) is
amended by striking ‘‘1997 through 2001’’ and inserting
‘‘1999 through 2003’’.
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(f) REPEAL
OF OBSOLETE REPORTING REQUIRE-
MENTS.—Section 409 of the Missing Children’s Assistance
Act (42 U.S.C. 5778) is repealed.
Attest:
Secretary.