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Memorandum on Missing Persons and Missing Children

January 19, 1996

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

Subject: Missing Persons or Children Notices in Federal Facilities

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to provide for the posting of missing persons or children notices in buildings owned or controlled by the Federal Government, I hereby direct as follows:

Section 1. Posting of Missing Persons or Children Notices in Federal Facilities. Executive departments and agencies possessing custody or control over buildings or facilities occupied by Federal employees shall take such actions as are reasonable, necessary, and appropriate to provide for the posting of missing persons or children notices in public and other appropriate areas of such domestic buildings or facilities, as determined by the Federal official having primary responsibility for management and operation of the building or facility involved.

Sec. 2. Duties of Federal Official. Such official shall maintain, or shall designate a representative to maintain, the physical area upon which missing persons or children notices may be placed. The official or the designated representative shall give priority and special prominence to notices involving missing children who are believed to have been abducted by non-family members or otherwise are in imminent physical danger.

Sec. 3. Exceptions. Nothing in this memorandum shall require an executive department or agency to provide public access to its buildings or facilities if such access could impede or disrupt the performance of official duties by government employees or potentially be harmful to the national security.

Sec. 4. Consultation. Executive departments and agencies shall consult with the Department of Justice and the General Services Administration in carrying out the purposes of this memorandum.

Sec. 5. Judicial Review. This memorandum is intended only to improve the internal management of the Federal Government, and is not intended, and should not be construed, to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or its employees.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

William J. Clinton, Memorandum on Missing Persons and Missing Children Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/222297

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