Missing persons tracking gets federal land upgrade for better coordination
S. 1038 — TRACE Act · Filed by Thom Tillis (R-NC) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 13, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill requires the Attorney General to add a data field to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) that tracks whether a missing person was last seen on federal land or in U.S. territorial waters, and to report annually on how many cases involve federal locations. The goal is to improve coordination between law enforcement agencies investigating disappearances on public lands and in federal waters.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward administrative measure that improves data collection and inter-agency coordination for missing persons cases on federal lands and waters. It creates no new enforcement powers, restrictions, or private benefits—only a data field and reporting requirement.
What the text implies
- Improved data field may reveal patterns in disappearances on federal lands, potentially informing resource allocation and safety protocols for public lands management.
- Annual reporting requirement creates public accountability for missing persons cases on federal property, which may increase pressure on agencies to improve search and recovery efforts.
- Data standardization across NamUs may improve cold-case investigations by enabling better cross-jurisdictional pattern analysis.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates a data infrastructure improvement that helps law enforcement agencies coordinate searches for missing persons on federal lands and waters, potentially improving search outcomes and recovery rates. Families of missing persons gain better visibility into cases and inter-agency coordination without any offsetting cost or restriction.
Named in the bill
Attorney General, Director of the National Institute of Justice, National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Defense, Corps of Engineers, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, House Committee on the Judiciary
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Mar 13, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 13, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
- Jul 24, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably”
- Sep 2, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S5987; text: CR S5987)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,225 characters) on Jun 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Missing persons tracking gets federal land upgrade for better coordination” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1038 Report an error
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