What This Bill Does · Plain English
Summary · Congress.gov
Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere Act or the TRACE Act This bill requires the National Institute of Justice to include in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) an additional data field for information about whether the last known location of a missing person was on federal land or in the territorial waters of the United States. NamUs is a national information clearinghouse and resource center for cases involving missing persons and unidentified or unclaimed remains.
Action Timeline
2025-09-04
Held at the desk.
2025-09-04
Received in the House.
2025-09-04
Message on Senate action sent to the House.
2025-09-02
Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S5987; text: CR S5987)
2025-09-02
Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
2025-07-28
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 126.
2025-07-28
Committee on the Judiciary. Reported by Senator Grassley with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Without written report.
2025-07-28
Committee on the Judiciary. Reported by Senator Grassley with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Without written report.
2025-07-24
Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
2025-03-13
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did S.1038 pass?
S.1038 is still alive. Current stage: PASSED_ONE. Pass likelihood: 25%.
What does S.1038 do?
Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere Act or the TRACE Act This bill requires the National Institute of Justice to include in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) an additional data field for information about whether the last known location of a missing person was on federal land or in the territorial waters of the United States. NamUs is a national information clearinghouse and resource center for cases involving missing persons and unidentified or unclaimed remains.
Who sponsored S.1038?
S.1038 was sponsored by Thomas Tillis (R-North Carolina).
Full Bill Text
119 S1038 ES: Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere Act U.S. Senate text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. 119th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1038 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES AN ACT 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. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-Members Everywhere Act or the TRACE Act . 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. 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. 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. Passed the Senate September 2, 2025. Secretary
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