Crapo pushes for additional efforts to bring home missing service members

Washington, D.C. – According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), 359 Idahoans are listed as missing during their service in the United States Armed Forces. To continue his efforts to bring home prisoners of war (POWs) and missing in action (MIA), U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced, with U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), the Bring Our Heroes Home Act to provide for an expedited and consolidated process for declassifying and collecting records of POW and MIA peronnel.

“Our country cannot waver on efforts to bring home America’s missing servicemembers,” said Crapo. “We owe it to the families and survivors of the brave women and men in uniform to bring home their loved ones who sacrificed so much for our country. Over 82,000 Americans still remain missing, and their families deserve some sense of resolution to the lingering questions that still fill their lives. Piecing together the circumstances, whereabouts and lives of those lost cannot be easy, but bringing them home is critical to honoring their service. The Bring Our Heroes Home Act will prioritize and facilitated the declassification of records related to missing servicemembers, and aid in bringing them all home.”

“For generations, Americans have given the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation and in the name of freedom. My heart breaks for the family members of the tens of thousands of service members who have not yet been brought home to be mourned and honored by their loved ones, and a forever grateful nation,” said Shaheen. “I appreciate Senator Crapo’s leadership on this effort, and hope that together we can move this bill through Congress so the United States can complete its mission to bring every American hero home.”

S. 2794, the Bring Our Heroes Home Act, would consolidate all records related to missing personnel within a newly instituted Missing Armed Forces Personnel Records Collection at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and require all government agencies to transmit any records to their possession pertaining to missing servicemembers to NARA. The measure would also establish an independent government office, the Missing Armed Forces Personnel Records Review Board, to identify missing personnel records, facilitate the transmission and disclosure of these records, and review any decisions by federal agencies to postpone declassification.

Senator Crapo previously co-sponsored the legislation in the 115th Congress and has long supported various efforts to identify and recover all missing and unaccounted for American military personnel.