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 ‘‘Safeguarding Endan-
gered Children, Unaccompanied and at Risk of Exploi-
tation Act of 2023’’ or as the ‘‘SECURE Act of 2023’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) According to statistics kept by U.S. Cus-
toms and Border Protection, at least 345,000 chil-
dren have crossed the United States southern border 
unaccompanied since early 2021. 
(2) Thousands of these children have been vic-
tims of child sex trafficking, forced child labor, or 
child sexual exploitation and abuse, or some com-
bination of these crimes. 
(3) The Department of Health and Human 
Services, through its Office of Refugee Resettlement, 
was and is responsible for the well-being of these 
children up through repatriation or placement in 
safe homes within the United States. 
(4) The Department and the Office have lost 
contact with as many as 85,000 of these migrant 
children after placing them with sponsors in the 
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United States and their locations and well-being is 
currently unknown. 
(5) The risk of child sex trafficking, forced 
child labor, and sexual exploitation and abuse of 
these children is immediate and grave. 
SEC. 3. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 75 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and 
the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall 
jointly submit a status report to the Committee on the 
Judiciary of the House of Representatives, the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representa-
tives, the Committee on Homeland Security of the House 
of Representatives, the Committee on Homeland Security 
and Government Affairs of the Senate, the Committee on 
the Judiciary of the Senate, and the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate on the sta-
tus of all unaccompanied alien children that have been in 
the custody and care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement 
since January 1, 2021, and have been released to a parent, 
family-member, or sponsor within the United States. 
(b) CONTENTS
OF REPORT.—Such status report 
shall include, at a minimum, all information known by the 
Secretaries and FBI concerning— 
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(1) the age, sex, and location (including the city 
and State) for each child; 
(2) the number of days the child was in the 
custody and care of the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services before placement with a sponsor 
within the United States; 
(3) whether they live with a non-relative or rel-
ative and the degree of kinship; 
(4) the number of related and unrelated adults 
living in the child’s home; 
(5) the number of formerly unaccompanied 
alien children in the home; 
(6) an assessment (and the results thereof) of 
the child’s cognitive, emotional, physical, and behav-
ioral well-being; 
(7) an assessment (and the results thereof) of 
whether the child is a victim of, or is at risk of being 
a victim of child sexual exploitation and abuse or se-
vere forms of trafficking in persons as defined by 
Public Law 106–386, including an explanation of 
the methodology used in each assessment; 
(8) whether all the adults in the home have 
been subject to a fingerprint-based check of national 
crime information databases (as defined in section 
534(f)(3)(A) of title 28, United States Code); 
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(9) whether a fingerprint or other background 
check has revealed an adult in the home has a 
record of a conviction for child abuse or neglect, for 
spousal abuse, for a crime against children (includ-
ing child pornography), or for a crime involving vio-
lence, including rape, sexual assault, or homicide, a 
felony drug-related offense or three or more mis-
demeanor drug offenses, or crimes of involving moral 
turpitude; and 
(10) the number of children that the Office of 
Refugee Resettlement has tried to contact without 
success on at least three separate attempts. 
(c) UPDATE AND RESUBMISSION OF REPORT.—The 
joint status report required by this section shall be up-
dated and resubmitted every 60 days to the Committee 
on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 
Representatives, the Committee on Homeland Security of 
the House of Representatives, the Committee on Home-
land Security and Government Affairs of the Senate, the 
Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, and the Com-
mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the 
Senate. 
(d) TERMINATION DATE.—The reporting require-
ments under this section shall remain in effect until the 
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unaccompanied alien children described in subsection (a) 
have been adequately accounted for, or that three years 
have elapsed since the first report, whichever comes first. 
SEC. 4. FUNDING CONDITIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—For each day the required status 
report is submitted late to the Committee on the Judiciary 
of the House of Representatives, the Committee on En-
ergy and Commerce of the House of Representatives, the 
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Rep-
resentatives, the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Government Affairs of the Senate, the Committee on the 
Judiciary of the Senate, and the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, as deter-
mined by the relevant committee chairs and ranking mem-
bers— 
(1) $100,000 shall be rescinded from unobli-
gated funds made available for the salaries and ex-
penses of the Office of the Secretary for Health and 
Human Services; 
(2) $100,000 shall be rescinded from unobli-
gated funds made available for the salaries and ex-
penses of the Office of the Secretary for Homeland 
Security; and 
(3) $100,000 shall be rescinded from unobli-
gated funds made available for the salaries and ex-
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penses of the Office the Director of the Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation. 
(b) LIMITATION ON RESCISSION.—The amount of 
funds rescinded for each office shall not exceed 
$10,000,000 per fiscal year. 
Æ 
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