The Bring Our Heroes Home Act aims to accelerate the identification, declassification, and public release of government records related to missing U.S. Armed Forces members and civilian personnel dating back to December 7, 1941, modeling its approach on the process used for JFK assassination records. It creates a new Missing Armed Forces and Civilian Personnel Records Collection at the National Archives and establishes an independent five-member Review Board, appointed by the President with congressional input, to oversee agency compliance, resolve disputes over withheld records, and make final determinations on disclosure. Federal agencies, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives would be required to search for, preserve, and transmit relevant records within set deadlines—generally 180 days to begin transfers and one year to complete them after the Board is established—with limited exemptions for active missing-persons investigations and ongoing family casework. Records may only be withheld under narrow national security or privacy grounds, and after ten years, most records must be fully released unless the President personally certifies continued secrecy is justified. The bill authorizes whatever funding is necessary to implement it, sets the Review Board to terminate four years after its members are sworn in, and primarily benefits historians, researchers, veterans, and especially families seeking answers about missing service members and civilians.
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