TRACE Act

Track missing persons on federal lands and waters

If enacted, the Attorney General, through the National Institute of Justice, would add a field to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. It would show if a person’s last known spot was confirmed or suspected on Federal land or in U.S. territorial waters, with the specific park, forest, project area, or water area named. The bill would define Federal land as land run by Agriculture or Interior (not land held in trust for an Indian Tribe), and Defense land only for Army Corps of Engineers projects. It would define U.S. territorial waters as the 12‑nautical‑mile territorial sea described in a 1988 presidential proclamation. The Attorney General would send a report each year to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. The first report would be due by January 15 of the second calendar year after enactment, and would cover the prior year. Families and investigators would have better public data to use.