Shaheen, Crapo Reintroduce Bill to Help Bring Missing Service Members Home
Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) reintroduced the Bring Our Heroes Home Act, which would eliminate obstacles preventing families and caseworkers from accessing the records needed for recovering America’s prisoners of war (POWs) and missing in action (MIA).
“Families of service members who went missing in action have borne a heavy emotional and psychological burden as many have waited years, sometimes even decades, for information about their lost loved ones to emerge. These service members have sacrificed for our country, and we have an obligation to support their families’ efforts to learn the fate of their lost loved ones,” said Shaheen. “The bipartisan Bring Our Heroes Home Act would ensure that the records of service members are properly collected, declassified when appropriate, and made public, helping honor their legacy and heal their families. Our lost service members cannot be forgotten or left behind.”
“It is imperative that we continue to recognize and remember all of the sacrifices America’s service members, past and present, have made in service to defending our nation and our freedom,” said Crapo. “America’s heroes and their families deserve this reduction in bureaucratic red tape as we make a strong effort to identify and recover those who have not yet made it back home.”
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, more than 81,500 Americans remain unaccounted for from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars and other conflicts. The measure would establish an independent government office, the Missing Armed Forces and Civilian Personnel Records Review Board in the executive branch, to identify missing personnel records, facilitate the transmission and disclosure of these records and review any decisions by federal agencies to postpone declassification. The legislation would also require all government agencies to transmit any missing service member and civilian records to NARA unless there are grounds such as national security to postpone the disclosure of sensitive records.
Other co-sponsors include Senators Jim Risch (R-ID), John Thune (R-SD), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Mike Rounds (R-SD).
Shaheen and Crapo introduced the legislation twice previously, in both the 116th and 117th Congress. The Senators have long-supported various efforts to identify and recover all missing and unaccounted for American military personnel.
Since she began serving in Congress in 2009, Shaheen has worked diligently on behalf of Granite State families to return the remains of their loved ones lost in war. In 2016, Shaheen successfully added an amendment to North Korea Sanctions legislation, which was signed into law, to protect efforts to recover the remains of American service members in North Korea. In Fiscal Year (FY)2019 government funding legislation that was signed into law, Senator Shaheen supported efforts to increase funding of an additional $30 million for the Defense Personnel Accounting Agency (DPAA), which is the agency responsible for identifying remains of POWs and MIAs from conflicts around the world.
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