The U.S. House Tuesday passed Savanna’s Act, a policy that would require the Department of Justice to create new protocols to address missing or murdered Native Americans.
The policy requires law enforcement to receive training on how to record tribal enrollment for victims in federal databases and requires the justice department to report statistics on missing or murdered Native Americans.
The bill is named after a woman who went missing in 2017 whose body was found in a North Dakota river.
Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte backed the bill in the House and said its passage "brings us one step closer to ending this epidemic by upgrading data and providing communication among law enforcement."
Savanna’s Act was also supported by U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester, who both sit on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
The bill now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk.
