S. 5230 · 117th Congress

Billy's Law

Introduced on Dec 8, 2022 by Christopher Murphy (D-CT). 4 cosponsors, 3 of them from another party. Became Public Law 117-327.

Stage
Became law
Public Law 117-327
Introduced
Dec 8, 2022
Cosponsors
4
3 from the other party
Policy area
Crime and Law Enforcement
Open in the Congress explorerCongress.govAlert me

Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. Reported by committee
  3. Passed one chamber
  4. Passed both chambers
  5. Sent to the President
  6. Became law

Official title

A bill to increase accessibility to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, to facilitate data sharing between such system and the National Crime Information Center database of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and for other purposes.

Subjects

  • Computers and information technology
  • Congressional oversight
  • Criminal justice information and records
  • Employee hiring
  • Government information and archives
  • Government studies and investigations
  • Intergovernmental relations
  • Law enforcement administration and funding
  • Missing persons
  • State and local government operations
  • Technology assessment

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Public Law, Dec 27, 2022). Public domain.

Billy's Law or the Help Find the Missing Act

This act provides statutory authority for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to maintain the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) consistent with its existing purpose and structure.

NamUs is a national information clearinghouse and resource center for cases involving missing persons and unidentified or unclaimed remains. NamUs is administered by the National Institute of Justice within DOJ.

The act also establishes new requirements.

First, it requires a law enforcement agency that submits a missing child report to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to also submit the missing child report to NamUs. The NCIC is a computerized index of criminal justice data and files for reports of missing and unidentified persons. Current law requires law enforcement agencies to submit missing child reports to the NCIC database but not to the NamUs databases.

Second, the act establishes requirements to facilitate data sharing between the NCIC database and the NamUs databases with respect to missing and unidentified persons.

Specifically, the act requires DOJ to give the National Institute of Justice access to the NCIC missing person and unidentified person records for the purpose of validating cases and reconciling data with NamUs.

Additionally, the act requires DOJ to assess the NCIC and NamUs systems and governing statutes, policies, and procedures and create a plan for NCIC to automatically transmit certain records to NamUs.

Third, the act requires DOJ to report to forensic medicine service providers and law enforcement agencies on best practices for collecting, reporting, and analyzing data and information on missing persons and unidentified human remains.

DOJ must also report to Congress biennially on the status of the NCIC database and the NamUs databases. The report must describe the process of information sharing between the NCIC database and NamUs databases.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Christopher MurphyD-CTSponsor

Democrats · 1

Republicans · 3

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

  1. On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass
    Dec 14, 2022· House· Passage· Passed 422–4

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Dec 8, 2022Introduced in Senate
  2. Dec 8, 2022Passed/agreed to in Senate: Introduced in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent.(consideration: CR S7080-7081; text: CR S7080-7081)
  3. Dec 8, 2022 · SenateIntroduced in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S7080-7081; text: CR S7080-7081)
  4. Dec 9, 2022 · SenateMessage on Senate action sent to the House.
  5. Dec 12, 2022 · HouseReceived in the House.
  6. Dec 12, 2022 · HouseHeld at the desk.
  7. Dec 14, 2022 · HouseMr. Nadler moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill.
  8. Dec 14, 2022 · HouseConsidered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H9828-9831)
  9. Dec 14, 2022 · HouseDEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on S. 5230.
  10. Dec 14, 2022 · HouseAt the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.
  11. Dec 14, 2022 · HouseConsidered as unfinished business. (consideration: CR H9842)
  12. Dec 14, 2022Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 422 - 4 (Roll no. 526).House · Roll call 526
  13. Dec 14, 2022 · HouseOn motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 422 - 4 (Roll no. 526). (text: CR H9828-9829)House · Roll call 526
  14. Dec 14, 2022 · HouseMotion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  15. Dec 23, 2022Presented to President.
  16. Dec 23, 2022 · HousePresented to President.
  17. Dec 27, 2022Signed by President.
  18. Dec 27, 2022Signed by President.
  19. Dec 27, 2022Became Public Law No: 117-327.
  20. Dec 27, 2022Became Public Law No: 117-327.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 6, 2026 · loaded Oct 6, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.