Sponsors (12)
The bill substantially increases transparency and gives families and researchers stronger tools, records, and an independent Review Board to locate and disclose historic missing-person records — at the trade-off of added costs, administrative and legal burdens, privacy risks, and the potential to expose sensitive national-security information or complicate diplomatic and legal relationships.
Families of missing service members and civilian personnel (parents, veterans, relatives) will get substantially faster, clearer access to personnel, POW/MIA, and investigation records that can help determine the fate of loved ones and provide closure.
Parents, families, and the public will gain an independent Review Board with subpoena and investigatory powers, nonpartisan vetting, and reporting duties that increases the likelihood agencies produce, preserve, and disclose missing-person records.
Researchers, historians, veterans, and the public will benefit from a centralized Collection at the National Archives with required formats and metadata that preserves, standardizes, and makes records easier to search and use for historical and benefits purposes.
Military personnel, intelligence operations, and taxpayers risk exposure of national-security or intelligence-sensitive information if declassification or public release reveals operational details, sources, or methods.
Taxpayers and federal budgets face increased and potentially open-ended costs because agencies must search, review, redact, transfer, and maintain records and the Act authorizes multi-year spending without clear caps.
Veterans, service members, and their families may have personal data and sensitive information exposed (privacy harms, health or operational details) if redaction standards or safeguards are inadequate.
Based on analysis of 15 sections of legislative text.
Creates a Review Board and National Archives Collection to locate, transmit, and publicly release U.S. records about missing military and eligible civilian personnel since Dec 7, 1941, with limited exceptions.
Creates an independent Review Board and a public records collection at the National Archives to find, collect, and make public U.S. government records about missing Armed Forces members and eligible civilian personnel who went missing from December 7, 1941, through the Act’s enactment. It requires federal offices to search for, preserve, and transmit records to the Archivist, sets standards for disclosure and narrow exceptions for national security and privacy, authorizes staff and funding, and empowers the Board to seek court orders (including petitions to unseal grand-jury materials) and to ask the Attorney General and Secretary of State to help obtain records from U.S. and foreign courts or governments.
Introduced November 19, 2025 by Michael Dean Crapo · Last progress November 19, 2025