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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H. Res. 1597 Introduced in House (IH)]
118th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1597
Recognizing the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on its 40th anniversary.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 26, 2024
Mr. Biggs submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
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RESOLUTION
Recognizing the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on its 40th anniversary.
Whereas 40 years ago John and Reve Walsh, along with other advocates for children, founded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, whose mission is to serve as the leading nonprofit organization in the United States to help locate missing children and combat child sexual exploitation; Whereas John and Reve Walsh's son Adam was tragically murdered following an unconscionable abduction, leading them to a lifetime of advocacy on behalf of missing and exploited children; Whereas, as a result of the tireless advocacy of the Walshes and countless others, in 1984, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was established to serve as the clearinghouse for information relating to missing and exploited children in the United States and as a resource for parents, children, and law enforcement; Whereas, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Missing Children's Assistance Act (34 U.S.C. 11291 et seq.), establishing a national resource center and clearinghouse for missing children, a role that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was designated to fulfill; Whereas the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, in coordination with Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies, provides a critical response to help in locating missing children, responds to reports of child sexual exploitation, and distributes posters of missing children to the public; Whereas, over the last 40 years, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of over 448,000 children and has received 200,000,000 reports relating to suspected child sexual exploitation; Whereas, since its founding, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has received more than 5,600,000 calls to its 24-hour call center; Whereas, following an increase in reports relating to the online sexual exploitation of children, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children established its CyberTipline, which provides an online mechanism for members of the public and electronic service providers to report incidents of suspected online sexual exploitation; Whereas, since its inception in 1998, the CyberTipline has received 200,000,000 reports of child sexual exploitation, which the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reviews and makes available to international, Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, for their review and handling; Whereas, in 2023, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children launched its "Take It Down" tool, a groundbreaking program that helps victims of online child sexual exploitation remove from the internet nude or sexually explicit photos and videos taken of them while under the age of 18; Whereas, with the passage of the Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023 (Public Law 118-65; 138 Stat. 1439), on June 17, 2024, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was reauthorized to perform 16 programs of work, including--
(1) helping to locate and recover missing children;
(2) responding to reports of child sexual exploitation and working to identify children depicted in sexually abusive imagery;
(3) conducting analytical services, including on child sex trafficking cases;
(4) offering community safety education for child-serving professionals; and
(5) providing family crisis and mental health assistance; and
Whereas, for over 40 years, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has been essential to combating the sexual exploitation of children in the United States and has served as a critical resource to children, parents, and law enforcement: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives-- (1) recognizes the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on the 40th anniversary of its founding; (2) commends the tremendous work that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children undertakes to assist and protect children in the United States; (3) supports the continued mission of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization; and (4) respectfully requests that the Clerk of the House transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.