S 1038 Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.
S. 1038 To direct the Attorney General to include a data field in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to indicate whether the last known location of a missing person was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill directs the Attorney General to add a tracking field to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to record whether a missing person's last known location was on Federal land or in U.S. territorial waters. The system will capture specific location details about which Federal land unit or water area was the last known location when applicable. The Attorney General is required to submit an annual report to Congress documenting how many missing persons cases in the database involve a last known location on Federal land or territorial waters. The bill aims to improve data collection for missing persons cases that occur in areas under federal jurisdiction.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Tillis, Thomas [R-NC] (R-NC)
5 cosponsors
Actions (10)
- Sep 4, 2025 Held at the desk. · house
- Sep 4, 2025 Received in the House. · house
- Sep 4, 2025 Message on Senate action sent to the House. · senate
- Sep 2, 2025 Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S5987; text: CR S5987) · senate
- Sep 2, 2025 Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- Jul 28, 2025 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 126. · senate
- Jul 28, 2025 Committee on the Judiciary. Reported by Senator Grassley with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Without written report. · senate
- Jul 24, 2025 Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably. · senate
- Mar 13, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. · senate
- Mar 13, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Committee action
What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.
Meetings where this bill was on the agenda
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 13, 2025
Mr. Tillis (for himself, Mr. Padilla, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Coons) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
July 28, 2025
Reported by Mr. Grassley, with an amendment [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
A BILL
To direct the Attorney General to include a data field in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to indicate whether the last known location of a missing person was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere Act” or the “TRACE Act”.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act: (1) Attorney general.—The term “Attorney General” means the Attorney General, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Justice. (2) Federal land.—The term “Federal land” means land owned by the United States that is under the administrative jurisdiction of— (A) the Secretary of Agriculture; (B) the Secretary of the Interior (except land held in trust for the benefit of an Indian Tribe); or (C) the Secretary of Defense only with respect to land and water resources projects administered by the Corps of Engineers.
SEC. 3. DATA FIELD IN THE NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM RELATED TO FEDERAL LAND.
The Attorney General shall include in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System a data field to indicate whether the last known location of the missing person was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land, including any specific location details about the unit of Federal land that was the last known location of the missing person.
SEC. 4. REPORT.
Not later than January 15 of the second calendar year that begins after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report that contains, for the previous calendar year, the number of cases in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System for which the missing person’s last known location was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere Act” or the “TRACE Act”.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Attorney general.—The term “Attorney General” means the Attorney General, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Justice.
(2) Federal land.—The term “Federal land” means land owned by the United States that is under the administrative jurisdiction of—
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture;
(B) the Secretary of the Interior (except land held in trust for the benefit of an Indian Tribe); or
(C) the Secretary of Defense only with respect to land and water resources projects administered by the Corps of Engineers.
(3) Territorial waters of the united states.—The term “territorial waters of the United States” means all waters of the territorial sea of the United States, 12 nautical miles wide, adjacent to the coast of the United States and seaward of the territorial baseline, as described in Presidential Proclamation 5928 of December 27, 1988.
SEC. 3. DATA FIELD IN THE NATIONAL MISSING AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS SYSTEM RELATED TO FEDERAL LAND AND TERRITORIAL WATERS.
The Attorney General shall include in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System a data field to indicate whether the last known location of the missing person was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land or in the territorial waters of the United States, including any specific location details about the unit of Federal land or the area of the territorial waters of the United States that was the last known location of the missing person.
SEC. 4. REPORT.
Not later than January 15 of the second calendar year that begins after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report that contains, for the previous calendar year, the number of cases in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System for which the missing person’s last known location was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land or in the territorial waters of the United States. Calendar No. 126
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1038
A BILL
To direct the Attorney General to include a data field in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to indicate whether the last known location of a missing person was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land, and for other purposes.
July 28, 2025
Reported with an amendment
Comments