[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1177 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1177
Expressing support for the designation of May 5, 2024, as the
``National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
and Girls''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 29, 2024
Mr. Newhouse (for himself, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Matsui, Ms.
Porter, Ms. Norton, Ms. McCollum, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Stansbury, Mr.
Blumenauer, Ms. Brownley, Mr. Huffman, Ms. Leger Fernandez, Ms.
Pingree, Mr. Kilmer, Ms. Schrier, Mr. Stanton, Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Mr.
Soto, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Smith of Nebraska, Ms. Salazar, Mr. Rosendale,
Mr. Armstrong, Mrs. Rodgers of Washington, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Gallego,
Mr. Johnson of South Dakota, Mr. Cole, Mrs. Bice, Mr. Stauber, Mr.
Pocan, Ms. Davids of Kansas, Ms. DelBene, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms.
Tokuda, Mr. Case, Mr. Joyce of Ohio, and Mr. Espaillat) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Natural
Resources, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing support for the designation of May 5, 2024, as the
``National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
and Girls''.
Whereas, according to a 2016 study commissioned by the Department of Justice's
(DOJ) National Institute of Justice (NIJ), more than 4 in 5 (84.3
percent) American Indian and Alaska Native women experienced violence in
their lifetime, with 56.1 percent being a result of sexual violence and
55 percent being from intimate partner violence;
Whereas, according to 2017 data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
found homicide was the sixth-leading cause of death for American Indian
and Alaska Native women and girls under 44 years of age, with murder
rates more than 10 times the national average;
Whereas approximately 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons
have been entered into the National Crime Information Center index
throughout the United States, and approximately 2,700 cases of murder
and nonnegligent homicide offenses have been reported to the Federal
Government's Uniform Crime Reporting Program;
Whereas, according to a 2020 joint study completed by the State of Hawai'i and
the Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women, 64 percent of human
trafficking victims in Hawai'i identified as at least part Native
Hawaiian;
Whereas the current local, State, and Federal funding available in Indian
country is inadequate to address the basic, emergency, and long-term
service needs of victims and negatively impacts Tribal governments'
ability to distribute lifesaving resources;
Whereas, in 2019, Operation Lady Justice was launched through Executive Order
13898 which established the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American
Indians and Alaska Natives aimed at mitigating the missing and murdered
Indigenous women (MMIW) crisis by improving the investigatory and
prosecutorial capabilities of Federal justice agencies and generating
new guidelines for data sharing and law enforcement responses;
Whereas, in 2020, Savanna's Act (Public Law 116-165) and the Not Invisible Act
(Public Law 116-166) were signed into law which initiated a joint
commission between the Department of the Interior (DOI) and DOJ to
combat violent crime within Tribal communities and develop new law
enforcement protocols when investigating MMIW;
Whereas, in 2021, DOI created a Missing and Murdered Unit within their Bureau of
Indian Affairs' Office of Justice Services to expand cross-departmental
and interagency collaboration for the purposes of investigating cases of
missing and murdered Indigenous people at the request of Tribal
leadership; and
Whereas, in previous years, May 5 has been designated as the day of remembrance
for ``Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls'' in honor of the
birth date of Hanna Harris, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, who
was murdered after being reported missing by her family in Lame Deer,
Montana: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) expresses support for the designation of a ``National
Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and
Girls'';
(2) calls on the people of the United States and interested
groups to--
(A) commemorate the lives of missing and murdered
Indigenous women and girls whose cases are documented
and undocumented in public records and the media; and
(B) demonstrate solidarity with the families of
victims in light of those tragedies;
(3) recommends that the Department of Justice's National
Institute of Justice commission a new study on missing and
murdered Indigenous women and girls to ensure up-to-date
statistics are made public regarding the current state of the
missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls crisis given 8
years have passed since their 2016 study was published; and
(4) recognizes that, despite the positive efforts made,
there is more work to be done to address this nationwide
crisis.
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