PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Sep 30, 2015
Billy's Law or the Help Find the Missing Act
This bill authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ), through the National Institute of Justice, to maintain public databases, known as the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), of missing persons and unidentified remains.
It requires DOJ to facilitate information sharing between the NamUs databases and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. DOJ must update the online data entry format to allow criminal justice agencies, medical examiners, and coroners to simultaneously submit information to NamUs and NCIC. DOJ must also promulgate rules that protect confidential, private, and law enforcement sensitive information.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
The bill amends the Crime Control Act of 1990 to require a law enforcement agency that submits a missing child report to NCIC to also submit such missing child report to NamUs.
It directs DOJ to establish a program to award matching grants to law enforcement agencies, coroners, and medical examiners to facilitate information reporting to the NCIC database and NamUs databases to help locate missing persons and identify unidentified remains.
DOJ must report: (1) to medical examiners, coroners, and law enforcement agencies on best practices for data collection and analysis; and (2) to Congress on the status of the NCIC database and NamUs databases.
People & committees
Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] · D–CT
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Aug 10, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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