NICS Improvement Act of 2007

Bill: 110-hr-297
Sponsor: Rep. McCarthy, Carolyn [D-NY-4]
Introduced: 2007-01-05 in the House
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Aliens
Ammunition
Armed Forces and National Security
Arrest
Auditing
Automation
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Computer networks
Confidential communications
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Court records
Criminal justice information
Criminal statistics
Department of Justice
Drug abuse
Drug addiction
Due process of law
Economics and Public Finance
Electronic data interchange
Electronic government information
Expatriation
Families
Family violence
Federal aid to Indians
Federal aid to law enforcement
Federal-state relations
Firearms
Firearms control
Fugitives from justice
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Health
Identification of criminals
Illegal aliens
Immigration
Intergovernmental fiscal relations
Juries
Law
Medical records
Mental illness
Military discharges
Minorities
Pardons
Right of privacy
Right to counsel
Science, Technology, Communications
State courts
User charges

Summary:
action_date: 2007-01-05
text: 
NICS Improvement Act of 2007 - Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to require: (1) the head of each federal agency that has records relating to persons for whom receipt of a firearm would violate federal or state law to provide that information to the Attorney General for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS); (2) the agency, upon being made aware that the basis under which a record was made available no longer applies, to correct the record and notify the Attorney General; and (3) the Secretary of Homeland Security to make available to the Attorney General records relevant to a determination that a person is disqualified from possessing or receiving a firearm and information about a change in such person's status for removal from NICS, where appropriate.

Directs the Attorney General to make grants to: (1) states and Indian tribal governments to establish or upgrade information and identification technologies for firearms eligibility determinations; and (2) states for use by the state court system to improve the automation and transmittal to federal and state record repositories of criminal history dispositions, records relevant to determining whether a person has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, court orders, and mental health adjudications or commitments.

Requires: (1) the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics to study and evaluate NICS operations and to report annually to Congress and to specified states regarding best practices; and (2) the Comptroller General to conduct an audit of the expenditure of all funds appropriated for criminal records improvement to determine how the funds were expended.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-02-02
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
action_date: 2007-01-29
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H965-966)
action_date: 2007-01-17
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H637)
action_date: 2007-01-05
text: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
action_date: 2007-01-05
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2007-01-05
text: Introduced in House