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S. 2854 — what changed

Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016

From Introduced in Senate to Engrossed in Senate. 1 section amended between Introduced in Senate and Engrossed in Senate.

Sec. 2 Investigation of unsolved civil rights crimes

The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 (28 U.S.C. 509 note) is amended—

(1)
in section 2—
(A)
in paragraph (1), by striking “and” at the end;
(B)
in paragraph (2), by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and
(C)
by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:

“(3) coordinate the sharing of information between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the civil rights community, and other entities;

changed “(4) hold accountable individuals who were perpetrators of, support the full accounting of all victims whose deaths or accomplices in, unsolved civil rights murders;disappearances were the result of racially motivated crimes;

changed “(5) express the condolences of the authority to the communities affected by hold accountable under Federal and State law all individuals who were perpetrators of, or accomplices in, unsolved civil rights murders, murders and to the families of the victims of such murders; anddisappearances;

changed “(6) comply with requests for information received pursuant express the condolences of the authority to section 552 the communities affected by unsolved civil rights murders, and to the families of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the “Freedom victims of Information Act”).”such murders and such disappearances;

added “(7) keep families regularly informed about the status of the investigations of such murders and such disappearances of their loved ones; and

added “(8) expeditiously comply with requests for information received pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, (commonly known as the “Freedom of Information Act”) and develop a singular, publicly accessible repository of these disclosed documents.”

(2)
in section 3—
(A)
in subsection (b)—
(i)
in paragraph (1), by striking “occurred not later than December 31, 1969, and”;
(ii)
in paragraph (2), by inserting before the period at the end the following: “, and eligible entities”; and
(iii)
by adding after paragraph (2) the following:

changed “(3) Review of closed cases—The Deputy Chief shall shall, to the extent practicable, reopen and review any case involving a violation described in paragraph (1) that was closed prior to the date of the enactment of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016 without an in-person investigation conducted by an officer or employee of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice or by an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“(4) Task force

changed “(A) In general—The Deputy Chief shall establish a task force that includes representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice, State and local law enforcement agencies, and eligible entities to conduct assist, as appropriate, with conducting a thorough investigation of, and to make recommendations to the Deputy Chief regarding, the cases involving violations described in paragraph (1).

changed “(B) Authorization of appropriations—In addition to amounts made available to carry out this Act under section 6, there is authorized to be appropriated to the Attorney General $1,500,000 for fiscal year 2016 2017 and each subsequent fiscal year to carry out this paragraph.”

(B)
in subsection (c)—
(i)
in paragraph (1)—
(I)
in subparagraph (A), by striking “that occurred not later than December 31, 1969”;
(II)
in subparagraph (F), by striking “and” at the end;
(III)
in subparagraph (G), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(IV)
by inserting after subparagraph (G) the following:

changed “(H) the number of cases referred by an eligible entity or a State or local law enforcement agency or prosecutor to the Department within the study period, the number of such cases that resulted in Federal charges being filed, the date the charges were filed, and if the Department declines to prosecute or participate in an investigation of a case so referred, the fact that it did so.”so, and the outreach, collaboration, and support for investigations and prosecutions of violations of criminal civil rights statutes, including murders and including disappearances described in section 2(4), within Federal, State, and local jurisdictions.”

(ii)
in paragraph (2), by inserting before the period at the end the following: “and a description of the activities conducted under subsection (b)(3)”;
(3)
in section 4(b)—
(A)
in paragraph (1), by striking “occurred not later than December 31, 1969, and”; and
(B)
in paragraph (2), by inserting before the period at the end the following: “, and eligible entities”;
(4)
in section 5—
(A)
changed in subsection (a)—(a), by striking “occurred not later than December 31, 1969, and”; and
(i)
removed by inserting after “local law enforcement agencies” the following: “, or eligible entities,”; and
(ii)
removed by striking “occurred not later than December 31, 1969, and”; and
(B)
changed in subsection (b), by striking “each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2017” and inserting “fiscal year 2016 2017 and each subsequent fiscal year”;
(5)
in section 6—
(A)
in subsection (a)—
(i)
changed by striking “each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2017” and inserting “fiscal year 2016 2017 and each subsequent fiscal year”; and
(ii)
by striking “occurred not later than December 31, 1969, and”; and
(B)
by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

changed “(b) Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice—Subject to the availability of appropriations, Justice—Using funds appropriated under section 3(b)(4)(B), the Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice shall provide technical assistance by bringing together law enforcement agencies and communities in the investigation of violations described in section 4(b).”

(6)
in section 7—
(A)
in the heading, by striking “Definition of “criminal civil rights statutes”” and inserting “Definitions”;
(B)
added in paragraph (6), by redesignating subparagraphs (A) and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, and indenting the clauses accordingly;
(C)
added by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (6) as subparagraphs (A) through (F), respectively, and indenting the subparagraphs accordingly;
(D)
renumbered was (8)(3) by striking “In this Act, the term” and inserting:

“(1) Criminal civil rights statutes—The term”

(E)
renumbered was (8)(4) by inserting at the end the following:

“(2) Eligible entity—The term eligible entity means an organization whose primary purpose is to promote civil rights, an institution of higher education, or another entity, determined by the Attorney General to be appropriate.”

(7)
by striking section 8.