[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 200 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 200

     Expressing support for the designation of May 5, 2025, as the 
 ``National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women 
                              and Girls''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 5, 2025

 Mr. Daines (for himself, Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Schatz, Mr. 
 Cramer, Mr. Hickenlooper, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. 
Lujan, Mr. Sheehy, Mr. Moran, Ms. Smith, Mr. Rounds, Ms. Cortez Masto, 
   Mr. Gallego, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Kelly, Mr. 
   Schiff, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Heinrich, Ms. Klobuchar, and Mr. Sullivan) 
 submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
     Expressing support for the designation of May 5, 2025, 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 
        National Institute of Justice, 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 involving American Indian and Alaska 
        Native victims have been reported to the Federal Government's Uniform 
        Crime Reporting Program;
Whereas, according to a 2020 joint study completed by the State of Hawaii and 
        the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, 64 percent of human 
        trafficking victims in Hawaii 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 (84 Fed. Reg. 7521), which established the Task Force on Missing 
        and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives aimed at mitigating the 
        missing and murdered Indigenous women (referred to in this preamble as 
        ``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), which directed the 
        Attorney General to develop new law enforcement protocols when 
        investigating MMIW, and the Not Invisible Act (Public Law 116-166), 
        which initiated a joint commission between the Department of the 
        Interior and the Department of Justice to combat violent crime within 
        Tribal communities, were signed into law;
Whereas, in 2021, the Department of the Interior created a Missing and Murdered 
        Unit within the Office of Justice Services of the Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs 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 5th has been designated as a 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 Senate--
            (1) expresses support for the designation of May 5, 2025, 
        as the ``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 
                American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian 
                women 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 9 
        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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