Today, U.S. Congressman Tim Burchett (TN-02) and U.S. Congressman Joe Neguse (CO-02) introduced the bipartisan Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere (TRACE) Act to improve missing persons reporting.

Over 600,000 people go missing in the United States annually, and tens of thousands of people remain missing every year. Ensuring these case files contain accurate and up-to-date information would improve rescue efforts and law enforcement’s ability to catch criminals behind individuals’ disappearances.

“No missing persons case should go unsolved just because investigators couldn't easily access the information they need,” said Rep. Burchett. “Improving the way our agencies record and share case details could save lives, and would also help the public gain more insight into how these situations are handled.”

“As the Representative for a district that is over fifty percent public lands, and Chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, I firmly believe we must do more to protect every hiker, backpacker, explorer, and tourist that comes to our national parks for enjoyment and recreation. This bill provides a much needed update to the existing missing persons database, increasing protections for Americans and ensuring that should tragedy strike – and an individual was to go missing – there are processes in place to properly aid in their search and rescue efforts,” said Congressman Neguse.

The TRACE Act would enhance reporting requirements for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for individuals who go missing on public lands. This bill would direct the U.S. Department of Justice to include the following fields in NamUs:

• A description of any initial search, rescue, or recovery mission, or ongoing search effort.
• The cause of death, if remains are found.
• Whether the person was or was suspected to have been on federal land at the time of their disappearance, and if so, the agency of jurisdiction, the activity in which the person was engaged, and the suspected destination.
• A description of any belongings that were recovered, and the location of each item.

Original source can be found here.