Wyoming Legislature 2023: Tribal Relations Committee Looks At Alerts For Missing Adults

2022 Select Committee on Tribal Relations 
Committee Chairs (click to meet the committee)

Senate - Affie Ellis
House - Lloyd Larsen

Senate committee members - Cale Case, Tim Salazar
House committee members- Andi LeBeau, Jim Blackburn

It isn’t often that AARP Wyoming follows bills that come out of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Trial Relations, but in 2023, a bill dealing with Missing Person Alert Systems bears watching. 

Senate Committee Chair Affie Ellis (photo above) says the bill is based on the federal Ashanti Alert Act of 2018, which establishes a nationwide communications network to aid in the search and recovery of missing persons between the ages of 18 and 64. The law was named for Ashanti Billie, who was abducted and killed in 2017. The proposed law would allow for an emergency alert system to be transmitted when an adult between 18 and 64 has been identified as missing and the individual has a proven mental or physical disability. 

The bill, which came out of the Tribal Relations Committee includes allowing for alerts for those with developmental disabilities, as well as those who suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia, or those who suffer from or could, without access to medication, suffer from cognitive impairment. 

Thus far the bill has been largely supported, though there is some question as to whether this effort can be put into place without a bill. Ellis says codifying the effort would make sure the program stays in-place through future legislatures and Gubernatorial administrations.