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Washington, DC– Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, this week introduced legislation to strengthen efforts to recover missing children and support youth who are the victims of violent crimes.

The Improving Support for Missing and Exploited Children Act (H.R.1808) updates and streamlines the Missing Children’s Assistance Act to help the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) better serve vulnerable children and their families.

“As a father, I cannot imagine how I would feel if one of my children were missing or hurt. This bill is personal to me,”said Guthrie, who introduced similar legislationthat was signed into law in 2013. “I am proud to introduce this legislation so that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children can continue to help thousands of children who are in harm’s way every year.”

Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT) cosponsored the legislation.

BACKGROUND: In 1984, Congress established a grant under the Missing Children’s Assistance Act to support efforts to find missing children and prevent child exploitation. For more than 30 years, that grant has helped the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) coordinate and support state and local efforts to recover children who are missing and protect youth who are the victims of sexual exploitation. A unique public-private partnership, NCMEC works with families, law enforcement, schools, community leaders, and nonprofits to help build a national response to crises and crimes affecting some of the most vulnerable children across the country. To update and streamline the Missing Children’s Assistance Act, Reps. Guthrie and Courtney introduced H.R. 1808. The bipartisan legislation will strengthen the role of NCMEC in efforts to:

• Encourage and increase public awareness of new and innovative ways to recover and protect missing and exploited children;
• Better protect the growing number of children who go missing from state care and those who are victims of sex trafficking;
• Improve assistance in identifying and locating abductors, criminal offenders, and missing children;
• Prevent children from becoming the victims of exploitation online; and
• Provide transparency surrounding recovery and prevention efforts.

For a copy of the bill, click here.

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