S.Res. 726

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 726 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 726

Expressing support for the designation of May 5, 2026, as the 
``National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women 
and Girls''.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 12, 2026

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

_______________________________________________________________________

RESOLUTION

Expressing support for the designation of May 5, 2026, 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, 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, 2026, 
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 10 
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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