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Rep. Tom Reed moved Tuesday to pass the Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2013, a bill that funds the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), programs run by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), and supports law enforcement efforts to help victims of sex trafficking. Reed co-sponsored the legislation.

“As a father, the thought of my children in danger is horrifying, and something every parent always has in the back of their minds,” Reed said. “This legislation ensures the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is able to continue providing care to children and their families, and strengthens the original legislation to provide for additional resources to combat the sexual exploitation of children. Our work continues in bringing more children back home to their families, and today’s bill passage is a step toward that goal.”

In 1984, Congress passed the Missing Children’s Assistance Act that established a toll-free number to report missing children and created a clearinghouse to identify, locate, and recover missing and exploited children. Since then the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, working with law enforcement, has helped to recover more than 188,000 children across the country.

The House bill reauthorizes NCMEC programs and adds provisions to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, including: more frequent studies on missing and exploited children, limits federal funds for employee compensation to provide more program funding, and strengthens accountability by requiring the Inspector General to conduct audits of grantees.

“This bill directs federal funds to our most precious resource, our children,” Reed continued. “We have to be doing everything possible to protect our children from the very real dangers that exist and give organizations designed to combat those dangers the tools they need to succeed. The Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act does just that.”

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