§1742a Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act

Summary

Each Secretary must set up a faster way for nonprofit groups or adults to get permission to search Federal land when someone is missing and believed to be dead. The law defines three key terms: “eligible” — a nonprofit group or person whose members are all adults in the State where the search happens; “good Samaritan search-and-recovery mission” — a search for one or more missing people believed to be deceased; and “Secretary” — the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as appropriate. The process must say that the people doing the search act privately and are not Federal volunteers, that the Federal Tort Claims Act and the Federal Employees Compensation Act do not apply, and that other federal volunteer rules do not treat them as federal volunteers. The Secretary cannot require liability insurance if the group signs a written acknowledgment of those rules and a waiver that releases and indemnifies the United States. The Secretary must approve or deny a request within 48 hours and, if denying it, must explain why and say what the requester can do to get approval. Each Secretary must make partnerships with search-and-recovery groups to help coordinate and speed searches, and within 180 days after March 12, 2019, they must send Congress a joint report on those partnership plans and efforts.