34 U.S.C. § 12621 — Missing Americans Alert Program

Page 412 TITLE 34—CRIME CONTROL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT § 12621 1 So in original. The period probably should be a dash. not be expanded without the consent of the owner. (4) Limited participation by States and local- ities A State or locality need not authorize the stopping of motor vehicles under all sets of conditions specified under the program in order to participate in the program. (e) Motor vehicles for hire (1) Notification to lessees Any person who is in the business of renting or leasing motor vehicles and who rents or leases a motor vehicle on which a program decal or device is affixed shall, prior to trans- ferring possession of the vehicle, notify the person to whom the motor vehicle is rented or leased about the program. (2) Type of notice The notice required by this subsection shall— (A) be in writing; (B) be in a prominent format to be deter- mined by the Attorney General; and (C) explain the possibility that if the motor vehicle is operated under the specified conditions, the vehicle may be stopped by law enforcement officials even if the offi- cials have no other basis for believing that the vehicle is being operated unlawfully. (3) Fine for failure to provide notice Failure to provide proper notice under this subsection shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed $5,000. (f) Notification of police As a condition of participating in the pro- gram, a State or locality must agree to take reasonable steps to ensure that law enforcement officials throughout the State or locality are fa- miliar with the program, and with the condi- tions under which motor vehicles may be stopped under the program. (g) Regulations The Attorney General shall promulgate regu- lations to implement this section. (h) Authorization of appropriations There are authorized to carry out this sec- tion.1 (1) $1,500,000 for fiscal year 1996; (2) $1,700,000 for fiscal year 1997; and (3) $1,800,000 for fiscal year 1998. (Pub. L. 103–322, title XXII, § 220002, Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2074.) Editorial Notes CODIFICATION Section was formerly classified to section 14171 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to edi- torial reclassification and renumbering as this section. SUBCHAPTER X—PROTECTIONS FOR THE ELDERLY § 12621. Missing Americans Alert Program (a) Grant program to reduce injury and death of missing Americans with dementia and devel- opmental disabilities Subject to the availability of appropriations to carry out this section, the Attorney General, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance and in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services— (1) shall award competitive grants to health care agencies, State and local law enforcement agencies, or public safety agencies and non- profit organizations to assist such entities in planning, designing, establishing, or operating locally based, proactive programs to prevent wandering and locate missing individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Dis- ease, or developmental disabilities, such as au- tism, who, due to their condition, wander from safe environments, including programs that— (A) provide prevention and response infor- mation, including online training resources, and referrals to families or guardians of such individuals who, due to their condition, wan- der from a safe environment; (B) provide education and training, includ- ing online training resources, to first re- sponders, school personnel, clinicians, and the public in order to— (i) increase the safety and reduce the in- cidence of wandering of persons, who, due to their dementia or developmental dis- abilities, may wander from safe environ- ments; (ii) facilitate the rescue and recovery of individuals who, due to their dementia or developmental disabilities, wander from safe environments; and (iii) recognize and respond to and appro- priately interact with endangered missing individuals with dementia or develop- mental disabilities who, due to their con- dition, wander from safe environments; (C) provide prevention and response train- ing and emergency protocols for school ad- ministrators, staff, and families or guard- ians of individuals with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, or developmental dis- abilities, such as autism, to help reduce the risk of wandering by such individuals; and (D) develop, operate, or enhance a notifica- tion or communications systems for alerts, advisories, or dissemination of other infor- mation for the recovery of missing individ- uals with forms of dementia, such as Alz- heimer’s Disease, or with developmental dis- abilities, such as autism; and (2) shall award grants to health care agen- cies, State and local law enforcement agen- cies, or public safety agencies to assist such agencies in designing, establishing, and oper- ating locative tracking technology programs for individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, or children with devel- opmental disabilities, such as autism, who have wandered from safe environments. Page 413 TITLE 34—CRIME CONTROL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT § 12621 1 So in original. The comma probably should not appear. (b) Application To be eligible to receive a competitive grant under subsection (a), an agency or organization shall submit an application to the Attorney General at such time, in such manner, and con- taining such information as the Attorney Gen- eral may require, including, at a minimum, an assurance that the agency or organization will obtain and use assistance from private nonprofit organizations to support the program. The At- torney General shall periodically solicit applica- tions for grants under this section by publishing a request for applications in the Federal Reg- ister and by posting such a request on the website of the Department of Justice. (c) Preference In awarding grants under subsection (a)(1), the Attorney General shall give preference to law enforcement or public safety agencies that part- ner with nonprofit organizations that appro- priately use person-centered plans minimizing restrictive interventions and that have a direct link to individuals, and families of individuals, with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as autism. (d) Authorization of appropriations There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027. (e) Grant accountability All grants awarded by the Attorney General under this section shall be subject to the fol- lowing accountability provisions: (1) Audit requirement (A) Definition In this paragraph, the term ‘‘unresolved audit finding’’ means a finding in the final audit report of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice that the audited grantee has utilized grant funds for an unau- thorized expenditure or otherwise unallow- able cost that is not closed or resolved with- in 12 months from the date when the final audit report is issued. (B) Audits Beginning in the first fiscal year beginning after March 23, 2018, and in each fiscal year thereafter, the Inspector General of the De- partment of Justice shall conduct audits of recipients of grants under this section to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of funds by grantees. The Inspector General shall deter- mine the appropriate number of grantees to be audited each year. (C) Mandatory exclusion A recipient of grant funds under this sec- tion that is found to have an unresolved audit finding shall not be eligible to receive grant funds under this section during the first 2 fiscal years beginning after the end of the 12-month period described in subpara- graph (A). (D) Priority In awarding grants under this section, the Attorney General shall give priority to eligi- ble applicants that did not have an unre- solved audit finding during the 3 fiscal years before submitting an application for a grant under this section. (E) Reimbursement If an entity is awarded grant funds under this section during the 2-fiscal-year period during which the entity is barred from re- ceiving grants under subparagraph (C), the Attorney General shall— (i) deposit an amount equal to the amount of the grant funds that were im- properly awarded to the grantee into the General Fund of the Treasury; and (ii) seek to recoup the costs of the repay- ment to the fund from the grant recipient that was erroneously awarded grant funds. (2) Nonprofit organization requirements (A) Definition of nonprofit organization For purposes of this paragraph and the grant programs under this section, the term ‘‘nonprofit organization’’ means an organiza- tion that is described in section 501(c)(3) of title 26 and is exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of such title. (B) Prohibition The Attorney General may not award a grant under this section to a nonprofit orga- nization that holds money in offshore ac- counts for the purpose of avoiding paying the tax described in section 511(a) of title 26. (C) Disclosure Each nonprofit organization that is award- ed a grant under this section and uses the procedures prescribed in regulations to cre- ate a rebuttable presumption of reasonable- ness for the compensation of its officers, di- rectors, trustees, and key employees, shall disclose to the Attorney General, in the ap- plication for the grant, the process for deter- mining such compensation, including the independent persons involved in reviewing and approving such compensation, the com- parability data used, and contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and deci- sion. Upon request, the Attorney General shall make the information disclosed under this subparagraph available for public in- spection. (3) Conference expenditures (A) Limitation No amounts made available to the Depart- ment of Justice under this section may be used by the Attorney General, or by any in- dividual or entity awarded discretionary funds through a cooperative agreement under this section, to host or support any expenditure for conferences that uses more than $20,000 in funds made available by the Department of Justice, unless the head of the relevant agency or department,1 pro- vides prior written authorization that the funds may be expended to host the con- ference. (B) Written approval Written approval under subparagraph (A) shall include a written estimate of all costs Page 414 TITLE 34—CRIME CONTROL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT § 12622 associated with the conference, including the cost of all food, beverages, audio-visual equipment, honoraria for speakers, and en- tertainment. (C) Report The Deputy Attorney General shall submit an annual report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representa- tives on all conference expenditures ap- proved under this paragraph. (4) Annual certification Beginning in the first fiscal year beginning after March 23, 2018, the Attorney General shall submit, to the Committee on the Judici- ary and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on the Judici- ary and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, an annual cer- tification— (A) indicating whether— (i) all audits issued by the Office of the Inspector General under paragraph (1) have been completed and reviewed by the appro- priate Assistant Attorney General or Di- rector; (ii) all mandatory exclusions required under paragraph (1)(C) have been issued; and (iii) all reimbursements required under paragraph (1)(E) have been made; and (B) that includes a list of any grant recipi- ents excluded under paragraph (1) from the previous year. (f) Preventing duplicative grants (1) In general Before the Attorney General awards a grant to an applicant under this section, the Attor- ney General shall compare potential grant awards with other grants awarded by the At- torney General to determine if grant awards are or have been awarded for a similar pur- pose. (2) Report If the Attorney General awards grants to the same applicant for a similar purpose the At- torney General shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Com- mittee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep- resentatives a report that includes— (A) a list of all such grants awarded, in- cluding the total dollar amount of any such grants awarded; and (B) the reason the Attorney General awarded multiple grants to the same appli- cant for a similar purpose. (Pub. L. 103–322, title XXIV, § 240001, Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2080; Pub. L. 115–141, div. Q, title I, § 102(a), Mar. 23, 2018, 132 Stat. 1116; Pub. L. 117–263, div. E, title LIX, § 5903(b), Dec. 23, 2022, 136 Stat. 3441.) Editorial Notes CODIFICATION Section was formerly classified to section 14181 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to edi- torial reclassification and renumbering as this section. AMENDMENTS 2022—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 117–263 substituted ‘‘2023 through 2027’’ for ‘‘2018 through 2022’’. 2018—Pub. L. 115–141, § 102(a)(1), substituted ‘‘Ameri- cans’’ for ‘‘Alzheimer’s Disease Patient’’ in section catchline. Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 115–141, § 102(a)(2), amended sub- sec. (a) generally. Prior to amendment, text read as fol- lows: ‘‘The Attorney General shall, subject to the avail- ability of appropriations, award a grant to an eligible organization to assist the organization in paying for the costs of planning, designing, establishing, and oper- ating a Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Pro- gram, which shall be a locally based, proactive program to protect and locate missing patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.’’ Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 115–141, § 102(a)(3), inserted ‘‘com- petitive’’ after ‘‘to receive a’’, ‘‘agency or’’ before ‘‘or- ganization’’ in two places, and ‘‘The Attorney General shall periodically solicit applications for grants under this section by publishing a request for applications in the Federal Register and by posting such a request on the website of the Department of Justice.’’ at end. Subsecs. (c) to (f). Pub. L. 115–141, § 102(a)(4), added subsecs. (c) to (f) and struck out former subsecs. (c) and (d) which related to eligible organization for a grant and authorization of appropriations for fiscal years 1996 to 1998, respectively. § 12622. Annual report Not later than 2 years after March 23, 2018, and every year thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives a report on the Missing Americans Alert Program, as amended by sub- section (a), which shall address— (1) the number of individuals who benefitted from the Missing Americans Alert Program, including information such as the number of individuals with reduced unsafe wandering, the number of people who were trained through the program, and the estimated num- ber of people who were impacted by the pro- gram; (2) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement or public safety agencies that ap- plied for funding under the Missing Americans Alert Program; (3) the number of State, local, and tribal local law enforcement or public safety agen- cies that received funding under the Missing Americans Alert Program, including— (A) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement or public safety agencies that used such funding for training; and (B) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement or public safety agencies that used such funding for designing, estab- lishing, or operating locative tracking tech- nology; (4) the companies, including the location (city and State) of the headquarters and local offices of each company, for which their loca- tive tracking technology was used by State, local, and tribal law enforcement or public safety agencies; (5) the nonprofit organizations, including the location (city and State) of the head- quarters and local offices of each organization, that State, local, and tribal law enforcement