Help Find the Missing Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 5230, the Help Find the Missing Act, also known as Billy's Law. I thank Senator Murphy for his leadership on this bill, and I am honored to introduce it in the House.
This bill is named for Billy Smolinski. Billy went missing from my hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut, on August 24, 2004, nearly 20 years ago.
Unlike with missing children, Federal law does not require law enforcement to report missing adults or unidentified bodies. Without it, families are left to unravel the mystery of what happened to their loved ones without any support. The Smolinski family was left to navigate a complicated and disjointed system.
In the absence of a vigorous and sustained effort to solve the crime, the family created a personal tip line, placed billboards on highways that I drove by every day for many years, and worked closely with a private investigator.
When Bill and Janice Smolinski received tips, they would organize search parties, which worked with rescue teams and brought in highly trained cadaver dogs to sniff the woods in search of their son.
Each year, nearly half a million people go missing, and sadly, many of them will never see their loved ones again. Yet, over 40,000 sets of unidentified human remains are either held at coroners' offices or disposed of after going unclaimed.
Due to gaps in missing persons databases, missing persons and unidentified remains are rarely matched. Billy's Law will fix this critical gap by directing the Department of Justice to continually operate NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and connect it to the FBI's National Crime Information Center. It will also provide guidelines for local law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, and coroners on how to best handle missing person cases.
This bill has the support of the National Fraternal Order of Police and the Consortium of Forensic Science Organizations, as well as both the Smolinski family and the family of Gabby Petito.
This bill will also help to bring home the missing, many whose names never make headlines or who are never talked about in the media, and offer closure to the families of those who will never make it home.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bipartisan, commonsense legislation to deliver justice to countless families.
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