Missing on Federal Land? New Bill Requires Specific Tracking in National Database

The "Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere Act," or TRACE Act, mandates a specific update to the national system used for missing persons cases. It requires adding a dedicated data field to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) to note when a person's last known location was confirmed or suspected to be on federal land. The goal is to improve data collection and reporting for these specific types of cases.

Pinpointing Cases on Public Lands

The core change here is the new data field within NamUs, as outlined in Section 3. Currently, NamUs gathers extensive data, but this Act singles out cases potentially linked to federal areas. What counts as "Federal land"? Section 2 defines it as land owned by the U.S. and managed by the Secretary of Agriculture (like National Forests), the Secretary of the Interior (like National Parks or BLM land), or certain Army Corps of Engineers projects. So, if someone goes missing and their last known point was, say, a campsite in a National Park or their car was found near a trail on Bureau of Land Management property, this new field would flag that specific detail in the system.

The Annual Check-In

Beyond tracking individual cases, the TRACE Act sets up a reporting requirement (Section 4). Starting the second calendar year after the Act passes, the Attorney General must send an annual report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees by January 15th. This report will simply tally the number of NamUs cases from the previous year where the missing person's last known location was flagged as being on federal land. This creates a consistent, official count accessible to lawmakers, offering a clearer picture year over year of how often federal lands are connected to missing persons reports.