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 addi-
tion to the Committee on Homeland Security, for a period to be subse-
quently 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 re-
mains, resolving missing persons cases, 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 ‘‘Missing Persons and 
Unidentified Remains Act of 2018’’. 
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SEC. 2. USE OF GRANT FUNDS. 
(a) JENNIFER’S LAW.—Jennifer’s Law (34 U.S.C. 
40501 et seq.) is amended— 
(1) by striking section 202 (34 U.S.C. 40501) 
and inserting the following: 
‘‘SEC. 202. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 
‘‘(1) GRANTS
AUTHORIZED.—The Attorney 
General may award grants to eligible entities de-
scribed in paragraph (2), with priority given to eligi-
ble entities in southern border States, to enable the 
eligible entities to improve the transportation, proc-
essing, identification, and reporting of missing per-
sons and unidentified remains, including migrants. 
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—Eligible entities de-
scribed in this paragraph are the following: 
‘‘(A) States and units of local government. 
‘‘(B) Accredited, government-funded, Com-
bined DNA Index System (commonly known as 
‘CODIS’) forensic laboratories, which dem-
onstrate the grant funds will be used for DNA 
typing and uploading biological family DNA 
reference samples, including samples from for-
eign nationals, into CODIS, subject to the pro-
tocols for inclusion of such forensic DNA pro-
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files into CODIS, and the privacy protections 
required under section 203(c). 
‘‘(C) Medical examiners offices. 
‘‘(D) Accredited, publicly funded toxicology 
laboratories. 
‘‘(E) Accredited, publicly funded crime lab-
oratories. 
‘‘(F) Publicly funded university forensic 
anthropology center laboratories. 
‘‘(G) Nonprofit organizations that have 
working collaborative agreements with State 
and county forensic offices, including medical 
examiners, coroners, and justices of the peace, 
for entry of data into CODIS or the National 
Missing and Unidentified Persons System (com-
monly known as ‘NamUs’), or both.’’; 
(2) in section 203 (34 U.S.C. 40502)— 
(A) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘a State’’ 
and inserting ‘‘an entity described in section 
202’’; 
(B) in subsection (b)— 
(i) in the matter preceding paragraph 
(1), by striking ‘‘State’’ and inserting ‘‘ap-
plicant’’; 
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(ii) by striking paragraph (1) and in-
serting the following: 
‘‘(1) report to the National Crime Information 
Center and, when possible, to law enforcement au-
thorities throughout the applicant’s jurisdiction re-
garding every deceased unidentified person, regard-
less of age, found in the applicant’s jurisdiction;’’; 
(iii) in paragraph (3), by striking 
‘‘and’’ at the end; 
(iv) in paragraph (4), by striking the 
period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 
and 
(v) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) collect and report information to the Na-
tional Missing and Unidentified Persons System 
(NamUs) regarding missing persons and unidenti-
fied remains.’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(c) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR BIOLOGICAL FAM-
ILY REFERENCE SAMPLES.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—Any suspected biological 
family DNA reference samples received from citizens 
of the United States or foreign nationals and 
uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System 
(commonly referred to as ‘CODIS’) by an accredited, 
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government-funded 
CODIS 
forensic 
laboratory 
awarded a grant under this section may be used only 
for identifying missing persons and unidentified re-
mains. 
‘‘(2) LIMITATION ON USE.—Any biological fam-
ily DNA reference samples from citizens of the 
United States or foreign nationals entered into 
CODIS for purposes of identifying missing persons 
and unidentified remains may not be disclosed to a 
Federal or State law enforcement agency for law en-
forcement purposes.’’; and 
(3) by striking section 204 (34 U.S.C. 40503) 
and inserting the following: 
‘‘SEC. 205. USE OF FUNDS. 
‘‘An applicant receiving a grant award under this title 
may use such funds to— 
‘‘(1) pay for the costs incurred during or after 
fiscal year 2017 for the transportation, processing, 
identification, and reporting of missing persons and 
unidentified remains, including migrants; 
‘‘(2) establish and expand programs developed 
to improve the reporting of unidentified persons in 
accordance with the assurances provided in the ap-
plication submitted pursuant to section 203(b); 
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