HR6828-118

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Brittany Clardy Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Act.

2. Findings Congress finds the following: Black women and girls are uniquely vulnerable and too easily erased from public discussions about missing and murdered people. According to the National Crime Information Center, in 2020, of the 268,884 girls and women reported missing, 90,333, or nearly 34 percent, were Black, while Black girls and women make up only 15 percent of the female population in the United States. Nationally, cases involving Black girls and women stay open four times longer than other cases on average, as reported by Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Nationally, Black women have the highest rates of death due to homicide among women (4.4. per 100,000 compared to 1.5 per 100,000 for White women) and statistically shown these murders are most often committed by an intimate partner or someone the victim knows. Understanding the roots of how and why Black women and girls are not as well protected from violence as White women and girls requires attention to both historical and present-day manifestations of interlocking systems of oppression, such as racism and sexism. Effective research regarding the racial inequities surrounding violence against women and girls should— involve local, relevant community engaged research expertise in the area; seek to center community members as essential experts through interviews and focus groups with Black women and girls who have lived experience within the topic; include the use of mixed methods approaches to evaluate, monitor, and communicate data with the broader impacted communities; and include a long-term evaluation plan to assess the impact of the data collection efforts and involve data specialists or consultants equipped to build tracking and reporting infrastructure. That considering all the facts above, the existing Federal resources dedicated to combatting violence against women and girls is not enough to address this problem and additional resources must be targeted directly to protecting, supporting and providing justice to Black women and girls in the United States.

3. Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls There is established within the Department of Justice an Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls (hereinafter referred to as the Office), which shall be headed by a Director appointed by the Attorney General. Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall provide to the Office such personnel and funds as necessary to establish and operate the Office as a component of the Department. The Director of the Office shall— serve as the legal and policy advisor to the Attorney General to ensure justice for missing and murdered Black women and girls; develop recommendations for policies to address injustice in the criminal justice system’s response to cases of missing and murdered Black women and girls; establish a national advisory commission of Black women and girls who have experienced violence, abduction, or trafficking, and family members who have lost a loved one to this violence; coordinate with the relevant Federal agencies, the national advisory commission established in paragraph (3), State, local, and Tribal agencies, and local family services agencies to— collect data on missing person and homicide cases involving Black women and girls, including the total number of cases, the rate at which the cases are solved, the length of time the cases remain open, and a comparison to similar cases involving different demographic groups; collect data on Amber Alerts, including the total number of Amber Alerts issued, the total number of Amber Alerts that involve Black girls, and the outcome of cases involving Amber Alerts disaggregated by the child’s race and sex; collect data on reports of missing Black girls, including the number classified as voluntary runaways, and a comparison to similar cases involving different demographic groups; and conduct case reviews and report on the results of such reviews for cases involving missing and murdered Black women and girls, including— cold cases for missing Black women and girls; and death investigation review for cases of Black women and girls ruled as suicide or overdose under suspicious circumstances; develop tools and processes to evaluate the implementation and impact of the efforts of the Office; facilitate technical assistance for State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies during active cases involving missing and murdered Black women and girls; and create and maintain a centralized data repository and public dashboard for the tracking of missing and murdered Black women and girls. Not later than the first January 15th after the date of enactment of this Act, and biennially thereafter, the Director of the Office, in coordination with the relevant Federal agencies and State, local, and Tribal agencies, shall submit a report to the covered committees on missing and murdered Black women and girls, including— an analysis and assessment of any data collected in subsection (c)(4); an analysis and assessment on the intersection between cases involving missing and murdered Black women and girls and labor trafficking and sex trafficking; any findings derived from the case reviews conducted under subsection (c)(4)(D); an analysis of any case review conducted relating to the prosecution and sentencing for cases where a perpetrator committed a violent or exploitative crime against a Black woman or girl; reviews sentencing guidelines for crimes related to missing and murdered Black women and girls; and recommendations for policies to address to the criminal justice system’s response to cases of missing and murdered Black women and girls, including— the intersection between cases involving missing and murdered Black women and girls and labor trafficking and sex trafficking; and analyze and assess the intersection between cases involving murdered Black women and girls and domestic violence, including prior instances of domestic violence within the family or relationship, whether an offender had prior convictions for domestic assault or related offenses, and whether the offender used a firearm in the murder or any prior instances of domestic assault. In this subsection, the term covered committees means the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate.

4. Grants to community-based organizations to provide certain services Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office shall establish a grant program to provide grants to community-based organizations that provide services designed to prevent or end the targeting of Black women or girls or provide assistance to victims of offenses that targeted Black women or girls. Community-based organizations awarded a grant under this section shall use the amount awarded under the grant program to— provide culturally appropriate services designed to reduce or prevent crimes that target Black women or girls; provide culturally appropriate training related to the handling of situations and crimes targeting of Black women and girls, including training for law enforcement officers, county attorneys, city attorneys, judges, and other criminal justice partners; and provide victim services or survivorship support to Black women and girls who are victims of crimes or other offenses or to the family members of missing and murdered Black women and girls.