Sponsors (3)
The bill significantly expands independent review, centralization, and public access to military and civilian personnel records—bringing closure and transparency for families and researchers—while trading off higher taxpayer costs, administrative strain, heightened privacy risks, and potential national‑security and legal vulnerabilities if sensitive material is inadequately protected.
Families of missing service members, veterans, and other affected next-of-kin will gain substantially expanded access to historical Armed Forces and civilian personnel records, improving chances for closure, benefits claims, and accurate historical information.
An independent, bipartisan Review Board with subpoena and oversight authorities (backed by staff and clear ethics rules) will be able to locate, review, and push for public disclosure of missing personnel records, increasing independent accountability and trust.
Records will be centralized at the National Archives under standardized metadata, formats, and a presumption of declassification, making searches easier for families, researchers, and the public and reducing fragmentation across agencies.
Disclosure and unsealing requirements risk exposing legitimately sensitive national-security, intelligence, or operational information that could harm ongoing operations or sources if redactions or postponements fail to fully protect it.
Implementing broad search, declassification, transfer, Board operations, and subpoena enforcement will impose substantial and open‑ended administrative and fiscal costs on federal agencies and taxpayers, with several provisions leaving funding caps and long-term obligations unspecified.
Broader definitions of covered records, mandatory publication of determinations, and centralized collection increase the risk that sensitive personal information about individuals named in records will be publicly exposed, raising privacy harms and litigation risk.
Based on analysis of 15 sections of legislative text.
Creates a Review Board and National Archives collection to find, copy, and publicly disclose federal records about missing U.S. military and civilian personnel, with narrow exceptions for national security and privacy.
Official title: To provide for the creation of the missing Armed Forces and civilian personnel Records Collection at the National Archives, to require the expeditious public transmission to the Archivist and public disclosure of missing Armed Forces and civilian personnel records, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 15, 2025 by Chris Pappas · Last progress December 15, 2025
Creates an independent Review Board and a National Archives collection to find, copy, and publicly release federal records about missing U.S. Armed Forces members and civilian personnel from December 7, 1941 through the date of enactment. It requires all federal offices to search for, preserve, and transmit relevant records to the Archivist, sets narrow national-security and privacy exceptions for postponing disclosure, authorizes staff and procedural rules for the Board, and authorizes "such sums as are necessary" to carry out the law.