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Billy's Law

Public Law 117-327 · S. 5230 · 117th Congress · began in the Senate

Signed by Joe Biden (D) on Dec 27, 2022 · Crime and Law Enforcement

Sponsor: Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-CT)

Cosponsors (4): Sen. John Cornyn,

Passage votesYeaNay

  • HouseRecorded vote: 422 yea, 4 nay422–4
  • SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes

The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.

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Summary

The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.

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.

Who voted for it

Every House member of the 117th Congress on the ideology compass. Highlighted: the 422 who voted yea on final passage. Faded: everyone else, including those who voted nay, did not vote, or had not yet taken office.

422 yea4 nay4 present or did not vote

ProEstablishmentAnti
Economic left–right
More liberalMore conservative

Democrats who voted yea(217)

Republicans who voted yea(205)

Data notes

The House’s recorded vote on the final version of the law (roll call 973 in Voteview), matched to the vote the record cites and checked against its totals. Positions are each member’s DW-NOMINATE score for that Congress, as on the Ideology page; left to right is more liberal to more conservative. Paired and announced yea votes count as yea. Lists follow the compass, most liberal first. A name links to a profile only for members of the current Congress. A law passed by voice vote or unanimous consent has no member list, and neither does a vote Voteview has not yet recorded.

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Committees

The record shows no committee referral for this bill.

Data notes

A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.

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Related bills

2 bills the Library of Congress relates to this one.

  • H.R. 9491Identical bill

    Help Find the Missing Act

  • S. 5029Related bill

    Help Find the Missing Act

Data notes

Related bills are identified by the Congressional Research Service, the House and the Senate: companion and identical bills, bills with similar text, bills that were folded into this law, and rules that brought it to the floor. A bill that is itself a public law in this site’s data links here; the others link to Congress.gov.

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Timeline

From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 15 actions.

  1. Dec 27, 2022Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 117-327.
  2. Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
  3. Dec 23, 2022FloorFloor · Presented to President.
  4. Dec 14, 2022FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  5. FloorFloor · 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
  6. FloorFloor · Considered as unfinished business.
  7. FloorFloor · At 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.
  8. FloorFloor · DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on S. 5230.
  9. FloorFloor · Considered under suspension of the rules.
  10. FloorFloor · Mr. Nadler moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill.
  11. Dec 12, 2022FloorFloor · Held at the desk.
  12. FloorFloor · Received in the House.
  13. Dec 9, 2022FloorFloor · Message on Senate action sent to the House.
  14. Dec 8, 2022FloorFloor · Introduced in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
  15. IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in Senate
Data notes

Every action the Library of Congress lists for the bill, from introduction to signing, plus the dated committee hearings. The source lists many steps twice (the chamber’s own entry and the Library of Congress copy, or a presidential and a became-law entry with the same words); those are shown once. Amendments are listed in their own section.

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Amendments

No amendments to this bill are on record.

Data notes

Amendments offered to this bill in either chamber, as the Library of Congress records them: each with a status read from its last recorded step: agreed to, rejected, withdrawn, ruled out of order, fell with another amendment, or offered with no vote recorded (most Senate amendments are only ever offered). The wording of each amendment is the source’s. Amendments to amendments and amendments to other bills are not listed.

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Official record

The bill’s full text is on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.