Sponsors (6)
The bill improves search-and-rescue effectiveness and transparency by adding standardized Federal-land location data to NamUs and requiring annual reporting, but it introduces modest costs, privacy risks, and potential coverage gaps for some Federal lands that must be managed.
Families of missing people and search-and-rescue / law-enforcement agencies will have clearer, case-level Federal land location data in NamUs so searches can be prioritized and records show whether a last known location was on Federal land.
Federal land coverage definitions are clarified (identifying National Forests, BLM lands, and Corps projects), reducing legal ambiguity for enforcement and program implementation on covered Federal lands.
Standardizing and centralizing Federal-land location data in NamUs improves interagency coordination between DOJ, federal land managers, and state/local partners for case handling and resource allocation.
Collecting and storing more specific Federal-land location details in NamUs and publishing annual counts raises privacy and safety risks for missing persons, victims, and ongoing investigations if access controls and data protections are not strong.
Narrow definitions and the limitation of Department of Defense inclusion to Corps‑administered projects could leave other Federal lands (including some military lands) outside the policy, producing coverage gaps and complicating coordination around cases near excluded Federal properties.
DOJ and NamUs will face modest implementation and recurring administrative costs to add, maintain, and report the new Federal-land data field, which is a taxpayer cost and operational burden for the agencies.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Official title: Direct the Attorney General to include a data field in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to indicate whether the last known location of a missing person was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 13, 2025 by Thomas Roland Tillis · Last progress September 4, 2025
Adds a data field to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) to indicate when a missing person’s last known location was confirmed or suspected to be on Federal land and to capture details about that Federal land unit. Requires the Attorney General (acting through the National Institute of Justice) to deliver an annual report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees with counts of NamUs cases involving Federal land, starting by January 15 of the second calendar year after enactment and covering the prior calendar year. Defines key terms used for implementation (who counts as the Attorney General for this purpose and which Federal lands are included). The measure creates new data and reporting duties but does not appropriate funding or create new programs.