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U.S. House Poised to OK Bill to Help Missing Children

By Alyson Klein — September 16, 2013 1 min read
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The U.S. House of Representatives is slated to approve an honest-to-goodness bipartisan bill Tuesday aimed at bolstering the Missing Children’s Assistance Act.

The law, which was first passed in 1984, authorized the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a non-profit organization that partners with the U.S. Department of Justice. It serves as a national clearinghouse to help coordinate private and public programs on the issue of missing missing children.

The bill is scheduled to be on the House “suspension calendar” tomorrow—a technical procedure for bills that have broad support on both sides of the aisle.

The measure would continue to help law enforcement agencies partner with states and school districts to find and recover missing children and identify and find victims—or childre at risk for—of child sex trafficking.

The bill authorizes (which means “recommends,” in Congress-speak) $40 million a year to carry out these programs. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children would be slated for $32 million of that.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and co-sponsored by Reps. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House education committee, and Rep. George Miller of California, the top Democrat, as well as Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Minn.

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