The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S5694-S5695 on Aug. 16, 2018.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Hatch, Ms.
Klobuchar, and Mr. Portman):
S. 3354. A bill to amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bill to update and extend the Missing Children's Assistance Act. Senators Feinstein, Hatch, Klobuchar, and Portman have joined as original cosponsors, and I thank these colleagues for their support. I also want to thank Congressman Brett Guthrie and the chairman of the House Education Committee, Virginia Foxx, for championing a related companion measure in the other chamber.
The purpose of this bipartisan bill, entitled the Missing Children's Assistance Act of 2018, is to ensure the continued availability of federal resources for the work of missing children's organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Since its inception in 1984, the National Center has served as the official national resource center and clearinghouse on missing and exploited children. The National Center works in partnership with State child protective services agencies to help locate children who go missing from foster care. It also works in partnership with families, schools, corporate and nonprofit entities, the FBI, the Marshals Service, and the Secret Service, as well as other federal state and local entities, to prevent child abductions and facilitate the recovery of children who may become victims of sex trafficking. Each year, thousands of children run away or go missing in the United States, which is why this work is so important.
The names Johnny Gosch, Eugene Martin and Jetseta Gage, for example, still bring heartbreak to all Iowans. Johnny Gosch was a 12-year-old paperboy delivering newspapers in West Des Moines, Iowa, when he disappeared in 1982. Two years later, 13-year-old Eugene Martin disappeared in Des Moines, Iowa--also while delivering newspapers. And 10-year-old Jetseta Gage was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a convicted sex offender in rural Johnson County, Iowa in 2005. Theirs are not isolated cases. Too many other children across the country have had to cope with the physical and emotional trauma of being abducted, trafficked or sexually exploited.
Under the legislation that I have proposed, the Justice Department will continue to play an important role in implementing the Missing Children's Assistance Act. Through its Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Department will continue to annually award grants to the National Center and other nonprofit organizations to further their important work of preventing and responding to offenses committed against vulnerable children. Extending this authorized funding at $40 million annually for five more years, as proposed in this bill, will ensure that the Office can continue to support these nonprofit organizations in their important efforts in public-private partnerships with families, private entities, and federal, state, local, and international law enforcement agencies.
The bipartisan legislation I have sponsored also includes several important updates to the Missing Children's Act, which Congress last reauthorized in 2013. Some of these reforms already are included in another bipartisan bill, known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which I sponsored and the Senate passed last year. Other changes would help increase public awareness of methods to prevent abductions and support the recovery of missing children.
The activities authorized by the Missing Children's Assistance Act will expire on September 30th unless Congress acts quickly to adopt a reauthorization measure. As a parent, as a grandparent, I call on my colleagues to join me in supporting the prompt passage of this bill.
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