Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEAN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank Madam Chair, Ms. Foxx, very much for the time.

Mr. Speaker, every 40 seconds in America a mother or father will experience the worst nightmare, a missing child. The reason can be as benign as a simple misunderstanding or a serious abduction by a stranger.

In fact, nearly half a million children are reported missing every year, but astonishing as that number is, the real number could be much higher since many children are not reported missing.

However, Mr. Speaker, it didn't always used to be this way.

In the 1970s when I grew up--hard to believe that--but when I grew up in the 1970s, I remember that we had unfettered play activities outside as long as you are home before the streetlights came on. We were there for dinner. Unsupervised outdoor activity was a safe, integral part of adolescence and we lived in a high-trust society. Though, over time that image of society slowly faded away due to several high-profile child abductions, including the tragedy of Adam Walsh.

Now, the world feels much less safe.

Each year, threats to our children grow just as the avenues for reaching them are expanding. Predators are more sophisticated about how they gain access to children, their actions are more brazen, and those threats have found a way into our homes.

The proliferation of the internet and smartphones have enabled child sex trafficking and other forms of child exploitation. Consequently, the number of reports of online photos and videos of children being sexually abused is at record levels.

Bottom line: Our children deserve to grow up in a safe environment. It is our duty to protect our most precious and vulnerable citizens and for our law enforcement to be prepared to respond efficiently and quickly when the unthinkable happens.

That is where the Missing Children's Assistance Act, the MCAA, comes in. Enacted in 1984, the MCAA allowed the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, to serve as the national resource center with the goal of protecting children from abduction, exploitation, and abuse.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children helps locate missing children and provides support for victims of abduction, exploitation, and abuse. The organization works tirelessly to prevent these tragedies from occurring in the first place, creating a safer world for our children.

Here are some numbers, Mr. Speaker, and they are big numbers, too. In 2023, NCMEC received 148,695 calls, and the organization assisted law enforcement, families, and child welfare with 28,886 cases of missing children, recovering 88 percent of those cases. For 40 years, NCMEC has led the fight to protect children across the Nation, recovering more than 400,000 missing children.

By supporting NCMEC, we contribute to the safety and well-being of all children, ensuring they can grow up in an environment where they are protected, nurtured, and allowed to flourish.

That is why I am proud to join Representative Joe Courtney to introduce the companion to this bill. The Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023 makes critical updates to help the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children better support youth who are missing, to reduce child sexual exploitation, and to prevent child victimization. This bill also provides critical transparency requirements to better assess the performance of specific scientific techniques and NCMEC's forensic partners to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Specifically, this bipartisan, bicameral bill will improve NCMEC's ability to assist law enforcement to:

Identify, locate, and recover missing and exploited children;

Develop educational materials to reduce the risk of child sex trafficking, online enticement, sexual extortion, and cyberbullying;

Provide education and technical assistance to help conduct background checks on individuals working with children;

Offer support to missing and exploited children and their families; and

Facilitate requests to have child sexual abuse materials removed from the internet.

As the father of three, I can't imagine the pain of having a missing or exploited child. It is why I am voting ``yes'' on this bill, the Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023. I strongly urge the entire body, all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, to join me and support this bill and uphold our solemn duty to shield children from exploitation and danger.

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