Title: Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act of 2019
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act of 2019
This bill revises the authority for state grants to improve the reporting of unidentified and missing persons.
Specifically, the bill
The bill also requires the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to deploy rescue beacons along the southern border to mitigate migrant deaths.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2174 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2174

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 18, 2019

    Mr. Cornyn (for himself, Ms. Harris, Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Udall) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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 2019''.

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 described in paragraph (2), with 
        priority given to eligible entities in southern border States, 
        to enable the eligible entities to improve the transportation, 
        processing, identification, and reporting of missing persons 
        and unidentified remains, including migrants.
            ``(2) Eligible entities.--Eligible entities described in 
        this paragraph are the following:
                    ``(A) States and units of local government.
                    ``(B) Accredited, publicly funded, Combined DNA 
                Index System (commonly known as `CODIS') forensic 
                laboratories, which demonstrate the grant funds will be 
                used for DNA typing and uploading biological family DNA 
                reference samples, including samples from foreign 
                nationals, into CODIS, subject to the protocols for 
                inclusion of such forensic DNA profiles 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 
                laboratories.
                    ``(F) Publicly funded university forensic 
                anthropology 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 
                (commonly 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 
                        ``applicant'';
                            (ii) by striking paragraph (1) and 
                        inserting the following:
            ``(1) report to the National Crime Information Center and, 
        when possible, to law enforcement authorities throughout the 
        applicant's jurisdiction regarding every deceased unidentified 
        person, regardless 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 National 
        Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) regarding 
        missing persons and unidentified remains.''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c) Privacy Protections for Biological Family 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, 
        publicly funded CODIS forensic laboratory awarded a grant under 
        this section may be used only for identifying missing persons 
        and unidentified remains.
            ``(2) Limitation on use.--Any biological family 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 
        enforcement 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 application submitted pursuant to 
        section 203(b);
            ``(3) hire and maintain additional DNA case analysts and 
        technicians, fingerprint examiners, forensic odontologists, and 
        forensic anthropologists, needed to support such identification 
        programs; and
            ``(4) procure and maintain state of the art multi-modal, 
        multi-purpose forensic and DNA-typing and analytical 
        equipment.''.
    (b) Kristen's Act.--Section 3 of Kristen's Act (34 U.S.C. 40504 
note) is amended to read as follows:

``SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDING.

    ``The Attorney General is authorized to use funds otherwise 
appropriated for the operationalization, maintenance, and expansion of 
the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for the 
purpose of carrying out this Act.''.

SEC. 3. RESCUE BEACONS.

    Section 411(o) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 
211(o)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Rescue beacons.--Beginning in fiscal year 2019, in 
        carrying out subsection (c)(8), the Commissioner shall 
        purchase, deploy, and maintain not more than 170 self-powering, 
        9-1-1 cellular relay rescue beacons along the southern border 
        of the United States at locations determined appropriate by the 
        Commissioner to mitigate migrant deaths.''.

SEC. 4. REPORTING ON NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM 
              (NAMUS) PROGRAM.

    Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this act, 
and every year thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit a report 
to the appropriate committees of Congress regarding--
            (1) the number of unidentified person cases processed;
            (2) CODIS associations and identifications;
            (3) the number of anthropology cases processed;
            (4) the number of suspected border crossing cases and 
        associations made;
            (5) the number of trials supported with expert testimony;
            (6) the number of students trained and professions of those 
        students; and
            (7) the turnaround time and backlog.

SEC. 5. OTHER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) Unidentified Remains.--
            (1) Reporting requirement.--Not later than 1 year after the 
        date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the 
        Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall submit 
        a report to the appropriate committees of Congress regarding 
        all unidentified remains discovered, during the reporting 
        period, on or near the border between the United States and 
        Mexico, including--
                    (A) for each deceased person--
                            (i) the cause and manner of death, if 
                        known;
                            (ii) the sex, age (at time of death), and 
                        country of origin (if such information is 
                        determinable); and
                            (iii) the location of each unidentified 
                        remain;
                    (B) the total number of deceased people whose 
                unidentified remains were discovered by U.S. Customs 
                and Border Protection during the reporting period;
                    (C) to the extent such information is available to 
                U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the total number of 
                deceased people whose unidentified remains were 
                discovered by Federal, State, local or Tribal law 
                enforcement officers, military personnel, or medical 
                examiners offices;
                    (D) the efforts of U.S. Customs and Border 
                Protection to engage with nongovernmental 
                organizations, institutions of higher education, 
                medical examiners and coroners, and law enforcement 
                agencies--
                            (i) to identify and map the locations at 
                        which migrant deaths occur; and
                            (ii) to count the number of deaths that 
                        occur at such locations; and
                    (E) a detailed description of U.S. Customs and 
                Border Protection's Missing Migrant Program, including 
                how the program helps mitigate migrant deaths while 
                maintaining border security.
            (2) Public disclosure.--Not later than 30 days after each 
        report required under paragraph (1) is submitted, the 
        Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall 
        publish on the website of the agency the information described 
        in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (1) during each 
        reporting period.
    (b) Rescue Beacons.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Commissioner of 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall submit a report to the 
appropriate committees of Congress regarding the use of rescue beacons 
along the border between the United States and Mexico, including, for 
the reporting period--
            (1) the number of rescue beacons in each border patrol 
        sector;
            (2) the specific location of each rescue beacon;
            (3) the frequency with which each rescue beacon was 
        activated by a person in distress;
            (4) a description of the nature of the distress that 
        resulted in each rescue beacon activation (if such information 
        is determinable); and
            (5) an assessment, in consultation with local stakeholders, 
        including elected officials, nongovernmental organizations, and 
        landowners, of necessary additional rescue beacons and 
        recommendations for locations for deployment to reduce migrant 
        deaths.
    (c) GAO Report.--Not later than 6 months after the report required 
under subsection (a) is submitted to the appropriate committees of 
Congress, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit a 
report to the same committees that describes--
            (1) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection collects and 
        records border-crossing death data;
            (2) the differences (if any) in U.S. Customs and Border 
        Protection border-crossing death data collection methodology 
        across its sectors;
            (3) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection's data and 
        statistical analysis on trends in the numbers, locations, 
        causes, and characteristics of border-crossing deaths compare 
        to other sources of data on these deaths, including border 
        county medical examiners and coroners and the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention;
            (4) how U.S. Customs and Border Protection measures the 
        effectiveness of its programs to mitigate migrant deaths; and
            (5) the extent to which U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
        engages Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments, foreign 
        diplomatic and consular posts, and nongovernmental 
        organizations--
                    (A) to accurately identify deceased individuals;
                    (B) to resolve cases involving unidentified 
                remains;
                    (C) to resolve cases involving unidentified 
                persons; and
                    (D) to share information on missing persons and 
                unidentified remains, specifically with the National 
                Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
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