TRACE Act

The TRACE Act would require the Attorney General, through the Director of the National Institute of Justice, to add a new data field to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NMIS). This field would indicate whether the last known location of a missing person (or, for unidentified remains, where the remains were located) was confirmed or suspected to be on Federal land, including specific location details about the Federal land unit. In addition, the Act mandates annual reporting beginning in the second year after enactment, detailing how many cases involved Federal-land locations, disaggregated by the Federal land management agency with jurisdiction. The law defines Federal land to include lands administered by the Agriculture, Interior (excluding Indian-trust lands), and Defense departments (specifically Army Corps of Engineers-administered land/water projects). In short, the bill adds specific Federal-land location data to NMIS and requires annual public reporting on these cases by managing agency, aiming to improve tracking and transparency around missing persons and unidentified remains on federal lands.