H.R. 1010 — BADGES for Native Communities Act

This section directs the Attorney General to appoint 1 or more Tribal facilitators for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) and assigns them duties to coordinate reporting, consultation, technical assistance, training, and outreach related to missing persons cases, unclaimed human remains, and unidentified remains of interest to Indian Tribes. As background, NamUs is a national database used to help law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, and families track and resolve missing and unidentified person cases. The Tribal facilitators must work with Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, the Office of Tribal Justice, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Justice Services, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, State law enforcement agencies, and the National Indian Country Training Initiative to improve reporting and case resolution. This section also requires the Attorney General, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Justice, to submit annual reports to Congress for the 3-year period beginning on the date of enactment and to publish annual public transparency information on a publicly accessible website describing the facilitators’ activities and accomplishments during the preceding 1-year period.

This section revises the Indian Law Enforcement Reform Act to require the Office of Justice Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to include, in its unmet-needs list, the unmet staffing needs of law enforcement, corrections, and court personnel at Tribal and Bureau justice agencies, including criminal investigators, medical examiners, coroners, forensic technicians, indigent defense staff, crime victim services staff, and prosecution staff, as well as the Missing and Murdered Unit of the Office of Justice Services; the replacement and repair needs of Tribal and Bureau corrections facilities; infrastructure and capital needs for Tribal police and court facilities, including evidence storage and processing; and public safety and emergency communications and technology needs, including equipment and internet capacity needs. This section also establishes a new annual reporting requirement for the Attorney General to submit to specified Senate and House committees a report on Department of Justice law enforcement agencies working on criminal investigations and prosecutions in Indian country, including the number of full-time employees, the percentage of time they spend in Indian country, 5-year turnover rates, average years of Department of Justice experience, vacant positions, needed expertise and skills, estimated staffing needs, and measures used to track hiring, retention, and training strategies. This section further directs the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct, not later than 18 months after the first annual report is submitted, a review of unmet staffing identified by Department of Justice law enforcement agencies and to report findings and, as appropriate, proposals for improving how the Department of Justice measures unmet staffing and other needs for those agencies.

This section establishes a 5-year demonstration program for the Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, to conduct or adjudicate personnel background investigations for applicants for law enforcement positions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). As part of the program, the Secretary may conduct a background investigation, a security clearance determination, or both for BIA law enforcement applicants, and may enter into memoranda of agreement with State or local governments, Indian Tribes, or Tribal organizations to expedite access to information needed for those investigations and determinations. (Thus, the provision is intended to speed hiring for BIA law enforcement positions by allowing the Department to handle or streamline the clearance process.) This section provides that a background investigation conducted or adjudicated under the demonstration program that results in a security clearance is sufficient to satisfy the applicable requirements of the Office of Personnel Management or another federal agency for those investigations. This section requires the Secretary to submit a report to specified Senate and House committees not later than 3 years after the program is established, including a description of the program and any recommended changes, whether it should be reauthorized, the number of background investigations conducted, the costs and cost savings associated with the process, the processing times for investigations and adjudications, and any other relevant information.

This section establishes within the Office of Justice Programs a Missing or Murdered Response Coordination Grant Program for Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, States, and multi-State or Tribal consortia to improve the investigation and coordination of cases involving missing persons, sexual violence, and death investigations of interest to Indian Tribes. As background, the program is designed to support Tribal, State, local, and Federal law enforcement coordination and to improve case tracking and data entry into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and the Missing Persons File in the National Crime Information Center. This section limits State and multi-State eligibility to applicants that, to the satisfaction of the Attorney General, either (1) report missing persons cases to the national crime information databases or have a plan to do so using grant funds, and, if the grant will be used for data sharing, (2) have entered into a memorandum of understanding with each participating Indian Tribe and relevant Tribal organization. This section authorizes grant funds for three categories of activities: (1) establishing a statewide or regional center to document and track missing persons, sexual violence, and death investigations of interest to Indian Tribes and to enter related information on missing persons, unclaimed human remains, and unidentified remains into federal databases; (2) establishing a State or regional commission to improve coordination among Federal, Tribal, State, and local law enforcement agencies; and (3) developing and disseminating resources, including local or statewide rapid notification or communication systems, to improve investigation and response efforts. This section authorizes $1,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out the grant program.

This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study of evidence collection, handling, response times, and processing procedures and practices used by the Office of Justice Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in cases involving Indians or crimes committed in Indian country. The study must also examine barriers to evidence collection, handling, response times, and processing identified by those agencies, and the views of their law enforcement officials and United States Attorneys’ Offices on whether those barriers are related to United States Attorneys declination rates due to insufficient evidence. In addition, the study must describe barriers faced by Tribal law enforcement agencies and by State and local law enforcement agencies that exercise jurisdiction over Indian country. The Comptroller General must submit a report on the study’s results to the Senate Committees on Indian Affairs, the Judiciary, and Appropriations and the House Committees on Natural Resources, the Judiciary, and Appropriations not later than 18 months after enactment.

This section directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to coordinate with the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to ensure that Federal training materials and culturally appropriate mental health and wellness programs are available locally or regionally to law enforcement officers working for the Office of Justice Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs or an Indian Tribe. It also directs the agencies to determine whether those law enforcement agencies are eligible to receive services under the Law Enforcement Assistance Program of Federal Occupational Health or any other Federal law enforcement assistance program targeted to law enforcement officers working for Federal or Tribal agencies.