[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8] [Senate] [Pages 10444-10445] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]REQUEST FOR CONSULTATION Mr. COBURN. I ask unanimous consent that my letter to Senator McConnell dated June 9, 2010, be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: U.S. Senate, Washington, DC, June 9, 2010. Hon. Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Dear Senator McConnell: I am requesting that I be consulted before the Senate enters into any unanimous-consent agreements or time limitations regarding S. 3019/H.R. 3695, Billy's Law. I support the goals of this legislation and believe that information regarding missing persons and unidentified remains should be accurate and properly maintained. However, I believe that we can and must do so in a fiscally responsible manner. My concerns are included in, but not limited to, those outlined in this letter. While this bill is well-intentioned, it costs the American people over $64 million. This legislation has received no process in the Senate Judiciary Committee, as it was only recently introduced on February 23, 2010. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I believe, prior to floor consideration, legislation under the committee's jurisdiction should be processed in regular order. Appropriate hearings and debate in committee markup are essential to all legislation, especially legislation like Billy's Law, which spends significant federal dollars, authorizes new programs and requires the sharing of personally identifiable information between government databases. Although additional resources may be necessary, we should act responsibly by reviewing current operations, evaluating their effectiveness, and then determining the best strategy for addressing the areas with the most need. That cannot be accomplished with constant use of the hotline process. The Congressional Research Service estimates that 94% of all measures passed by the Senate do not receive a roll call vote. The hotline process is even more detrimental to transparency and oversight when legislation, like Billy's Law, is hotlined without going through regular committee order. Moreover, it is irresponsible for Congress to jeopardize the future standard of living of our children by borrowing from future generations. The U.S. national debt is now $13 trillion. That means over $42,000 in debt for each man, woman and child in the United States. A year ago, the national debt was $11.2 trillion. Despite pledges to control spending, Washington adds $4.6 billion to the national debt every single day--that is $3.2 million every single minute. In addition to the above, there are several specific problems with this legislation. First, Billy's Law seeks to authorize the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), an online repository for information about missing persons and unidentified remains. However, this database has been in operation, without Congressional authorization, since 2007. Before we seek to condone an existing program by providing a Congressional authorization, we should perform rigorous oversight of NamUs to determine whether there is existing waste, fraud and abuse or ways to increase its efficiency. Without the opportunity to conduct hearings and committee markup, it is impossible to effectively examine and evaluate the current operation of NamUs. Second, merely to maintain NamUs, Billy's Law authorizes $2.4 million per year for fiscal years 2011 through 2016, totaling $14.4 million, without corresponding offsets. This authorization exceeds the yearly sum of $1.3 million the Department of Justice indicates is necessary to maintain the database. Furthermore, according to the Congressional Research Service, Congress already provides funding for NamUs via the National Institute of Justice and the Community Oriented Policing Service. I am concerned that this bill will enable NamUs to double dip into multiple sources of funding for the same purposes. Third, the bill requires the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database and NamUs to share information on missing persons and unidentified remains. While the bill requires the Attorney General and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to establish rules on confidentiality of this information, I remain concerned about the protection of this personally identifiable information. NamUs is accessible not only by law enforcement, but also the public. NamUs is comprised of two smaller databases--the Missing Persons Database and the Unidentified Remains Database. While the Unidentified Remains Database does not allow the public to enter information and restricts certain information from being accessed by the public, the Missing Persons Database allows both the public and law enforcement to submit information about missing persons. There is no way to guarantee the consistency and accuracy of publicly entered information. The ability of NamUs and NCIC to share information via this legislation magnifies these concerns. Fourth, the bill also establishes an Incentive Grants Program to provide law enforcement, coroners, medical examiners and other authorized agencies with grants to facilitate reporting information to both NCIC and NamUs. These grants can be used for very broad purposes, including hiring, contracting and ``other purposes consistent with the goals of this section.'' I believe that state and local law enforcement and other state or locally-run agencies should bear the burden of reporting state and local information. If these databases are, in fact, effective and further the investigations carried out by state and local law enforcement, they should be willing to prioritize funding in their own budgets to utilize the databases accordingly. Furthermore, the task of investigating missing person and unidentified remains cases often falls primarily on state and local law enforcement. As a result, the federal government should not bear the entire cost for either the Incentive Grants Program or the operation of the NamUs database. For the Incentive Grants Program, the bill authorizes $10 million per year for fiscal years 2011 through 2015, totaling $50 million that is not offset by reductions in real spending elsewhere in the federal budget. In addition, there is no limit on the amount that the Attorney General may award for each grant. Rather, the Attorney General has the discretion to determine how much each grantee receives. In addition to offsets for federal spending on these programs, I believe all funding in this legislation should be borne at least equally between the states and the federal government. It is clear that state and local law enforcement will be utilizing NamUs often. In fact, the Incentive Grants Program authorized in this bill is specifically to help state and local entities ``facilitate the process of reporting information regarding missing persons and unidentified remains to the NCIC database and NamUs databases. . . .'' While there is no question that law enforcement should endeavor to quickly locate [[Page 10445]] missing persons and return them to their families, the federal government is already making efforts to facilitate this process. Congress should, like many American individuals and companies do with their own resources, evaluate current programs, determine any needs that may exist and prioritize those needs for funding by cutting from the federal budget programs fraught with waste, fraud, abuse and duplication. Sincerely, Tom A. Coburn, M.D., United States Senator. ____________________