[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2517 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
H.R.2517
One Hundred Tenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday,
the third day of January, two thousand and eight
An Act
To amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act to authorize
appropriations; 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 ``Protecting Our Children Comes First
Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Section 402 of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.
5771) is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 402. FINDINGS.
``The Congress finds that--
``(1) each year thousands of children are abducted or removed
from the control of a parent having legal custody without such
parent's consent, under circumstances which immediately place the
child in grave danger;
``(2) many missing children are at great risk of both physical
harm and sexual exploitation;
``(3) in many cases, parents and local law enforcement
officials have neither the resources nor the expertise to mount
expanded search efforts;
``(4) abducted children are frequently moved from one locality
to another, requiring the cooperation and coordination of local,
State, and Federal law enforcement efforts;
``(5) growing numbers of children are the victims of child
sexual exploitation, increasingly involving the use of new
technology to access the Internet;
``(6) children may be separated from their parents or legal
guardians as a result of national disasters such as hurricanes and
floods;
``(7) sex offenders pose a threat to children;
``(8) the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
administers programs under this Act through the Child Protection
Division, including programs which prevent or address offenses
committed against vulnerable children and which support missing
children's organizations; and
``(9) a key component of such programs is the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children, which--
``(A) serves as a national resource center and
clearinghouse;
``(B) works in partnership with the Department of Justice,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals
Service, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of
State, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the
United States Secret Service, the United States Postal
Inspection Service, and many other agencies in the effort to
find missing children and prevent child victimization; and
``(C) operates a national network, linking the Center
online with each of the missing children clearinghouses
operated by the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto
Rico, as well as with international organizations, including
Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom, the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France, and others,
which enable the Center to transmit images and information
regarding missing and exploited children to law enforcement
across the United States and around the world instantly.''.
SEC. 3. DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATOR.
Section 404(b) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.
5773(b)) is amended--
(1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:
``(1) In general.--The Administrator shall annually make a
grant to the Center, which shall be used to--
``(A)(i) operate a national 24-hour toll-free telephone
line by which individuals may report information regarding the
location of any missing child, and request information
pertaining to procedures necessary to reunite such child with
such child's legal custodian; and
``(ii) coordinate the operation of such telephone 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 governments, and 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 programs being
carried out by Federal agencies to assist missing and
exploited children and their families;
``(D) coordinate public and private programs that locate,
recover, or reunite missing children with their families;
``(E) disseminate, on a national basis, information
relating to innovative and model programs, services, and
legislation that benefit missing and exploited children;
``(F) based solely on reports received by the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and not
involving any data collection by NCMEC other than the receipt
of those reports, annually provide to the Department of
Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention--
``(i) the number of children nationwide who are
reported to NCMEC as missing;
``(ii) the number of children nationwide who are
reported to NCMEC as victims of non-family abductions;
``(iii) the number of children nationwide who are
reported to NCMEC as victims of parental kidnappings; and
``(iv) the number of children recovered nationwide
whose recovery was reported to NCMEC;
``(G) provide, at the request of State and local
governments, and public and private nonprofit agencies,
guidance on how to facilitate the lawful use of school records
and birth certificates to identify and locate missing children;
``(H) provide technical assistance and training to law
enforcement agencies, State and local governments, elements of
the criminal justice system, public and private nonprofit
agencies, and individuals in the prevention, investigation,
prosecution, and treatment of cases involving missing and
exploited children;
``(I) provide assistance to families and law enforcement
agencies in locating and recovering missing and exploited
children, both nationally and, in cooperation with the
Department of State, internationally;
``(J) provide analytical support and technical assistance
to law enforcement agencies through searching public records
databases in locating and recovering missing and exploited
children and helping to locate and identify abductors;
``(K) provide direct on-site technical assistance and
consultation to law enforcement agencies in child abduction and
exploitation cases;
``(L) provide forensic technical assistance and
consultation to law enforcement and other agencies in the
identification of unidentified deceased children through facial
reconstruction of skeletal remains and similar techniques;
``(M) track the incidence of attempted child abductions in
order to identify links and patterns, and provide such
information to law enforcement agencies;
``(N) provide training and assistance to law enforcement
agencies in identifying and locating non-compliant sex
offenders;
``(O) facilitate the deployment of the National Emergency
Child Locator Center to assist in reuniting missing children
with their families during periods of national disasters;
``(P) operate a cyber tipline to provide online users and
electronic service providers an effective means of reporting
Internet-related child sexual exploitation in the areas of--
``(i) possession, manufacture, and distribution of
child pornography;
``(ii) online enticement of children for sexual acts;
``(iii) child prostitution;
``(iv) sex tourism involving children;
``(v) extrafamilial child sexual molestation;
``(vi) unsolicited obscene material sent to a child;
``(vii) misleading domain names; and
``(viii) misleading words or digital images on the
Internet,
and subsequently to transmit such reports, including relevant
images and information, to the appropriate international,
Federal, State or local law enforcement agency for
investigation;
``(Q) work with law enforcement, Internet service
providers, electronic payment service providers, and others on
methods to reduce the distribution on the Internet of images
and videos of sexually exploited children;
``(R) operate a child victim identification program in
order to assist the efforts of law enforcement agencies in
identifying victims of child pornography and other sexual
crimes; and
``(S) develop and disseminate programs and information to
the general public, schools, public officials, youth-serving
organizations, and nonprofit organizations, directly or through
grants or contracts with public agencies and public and private
nonprofit organizations, on--
``(i) the prevention of child abduction and sexual
exploitation; and
``(ii) internet safety.''; and
(2) in paragraph (2) by striking ``$20,000,000'' and all that
follows through ``2008'', and inserting ``$40,000,000 for fiscal
year 2008 and such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2009
through 2013''.
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
Section 408(a) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.
5777(a)) is amended by striking ``2007 through 2008'' and inserting
``2008 through 2013''.
SEC. 5. REPEALER.
The Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5771 et seq.) is
amended--
(1) by striking section 407; and
(2) by redesignating section 408 as section 407.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.