This week, U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., who leads the U.S. House Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee, showcased the “Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act.”
This bill, which Bean introduced at the end of last week, “renews the Missing Children’s Assistance Act (MCAA) and makes critical updates to help the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) better support youth who are missing, to reduce child sexual exploitation, and to prevent child victimization.”
Bean weighed in this week on why he introduced the proposal.
“As a father of three, I cannot imagine the pain of a missing or exploited child. Reauthorizing the MCAA gives hope and encouragement to loved ones during a time of immense heartbreak and uncertainty. Time is a critical factor in the search and recovery effort, and this bill will modernize the reporting system, so law enforcement can more efficiently find missing persons and bring closure to countless families to ensure the NCMEC can continue their critical mission to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization,” said Bean.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Ct., is co-sponsoring the proposal.
“The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has served as a lifeline for children and their families. By introducing the Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023, we are ensuring the Center has the resources it needs to continue protecting children and supporting families, which is particularly important today as more children are falling victim to predatory online practices. I applaud the Senate’s swift action on this bill and am eager to work with Congressman Bean to advance this bill in the House,” said Courtney.
Bean’s office offered some information on why he was championing the proposal.
“The MCAA was enacted in 1984 to provide federal coordination of state and local efforts to recover and support missing and exploited children. It has been reauthorized and amended multiple times, most recently by the Missing Children’s Assistance Act of 2018. The MCAA directs the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to establish a national resource center to carry out many of the objectives of the MCAA. NCMEC, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, has served as the national resource center since enactment of the MCAA in 1984. In 2022, NCMEC assisted law enforcement, families, and child welfare agencies with 27,644 cases of missing children and recovered the child in 88 percent of those cases,” Bean’s office noted.
The bill was sent to the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee.
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., introduced the bill in the U.S. Senate back in June with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, as the only co-sponsor. The bill passed the Senate without opposition at the end of July.
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