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On January 9, 1997, the first morning of the new 105th Congress, among the first bills introduced in the House of Representatives was H.R. 409, "To restore provisions of the Missing Persons Act as in effect before the amendments made by the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997." In effect, the bill, if passed into law, will overturn the underhanded decimation by Senator John McCain of key provisions of the Missing Service Persons Act.

The "McCain Amendment," which authored and endorsed by the Pentagon bureaucracy, but adamantly opposed by veterans organizations and the families of servicemen and civilians still missing in action from the Korean War, Cold War and Vietnam War, severely jeopardizes current and future service persons who are captured or are missing. The central provision of McCain's legislation permits U.S. Government officials to "willfully and purposely withhold information related to the whereabouts of missing persons," without fear of penalty.

The principal bipartisan co-sponsors of H.R. 409 are World War II Army Air Corps veteran Benjamin Gilman (Republican) of New York, Lee Hamilton (Democrat) of Indiana, Korean War-era Marine Gerry Solomon (Republican) of New York, Gulf War Marine Paul McHale (Democrat) of Pennsylvania, James Talent (Republican) of Missouri and Korean War fighter pilot and Vietnam War POW Sam Johnson (Republican) of Texas. The bill was referred to the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House National Security Commiteee, which is chaired by Gulf War Army JAG Steve Buyer (Republican) of Indiana.

In order to become law, the bill must first pass through the Military Personnel Subcommittee and the full National Security Committee in order to become a provision within the House version of the National Security Authorization Act of 1998. After the bill passes through the House, it will become part of the conference between the House National Security Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is chaired by World War II D-Day paratrooper Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.

In conference, the staffs of the two committees wheel and deal on provisions to reach a compromise on a joint Authorization Act, which is usually signed into law by the President in the months of September or October.

McCain, infamous for bullying tactics in conference. Last year, he succeeded in gutting the Missing Persons Act because House and Senate committee staff cut a deal at midnight on the last day of the conference, without informing House Military Subcommittee Chairman Bob Dornan (Republican) of California or full Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (Republican) of South Carolina. Dornan responded to the midnight treachery by authoring H.R. 4000 to overturn the McCain Amendment. With (a record) 260 original bi-partisan sponsors, H.R. 4000 passed the House unanimously. However, as a free standing bill it was never brought to the floor in the Senate because McCain attached massive IRS (Income Tax) provisions and Military Depot funding provisions to H.R. 4000, assuring that the Senate could not begin to debate the core issue of accounting for POW/MIAs. In response to McCain's treachery, the new H.R. 409 contains the same language as H.R. 4000. The new bill will restore the gutted provisions of the Missing Service Persons Act, including: penalizing government officials who willfully and purposely withhold information on a missing person; accounting for civilian Defense Department employees who serve with or are deployed with U.S. forces; mandates a period of 48 hours (rather than 10 days under McCain's Act) for a commander to report that a service person is missing; mandates a board of review to be convened every three years for a POW/MIA last known or suspected of being alive; prevents a missing person from being declared dead without credible proof and requires that if a body is not identifiable that a certification by a practitioner of an appropriate forensic science is required to assure that a body recovered is that of the missing person.

In coming weeks new provisions will be added that will assure that the Pentagon conducts case reviews of compelling Korean, Cold War and Vietnam POW/MIA cases.
It will take strong support from veterans, MIA families and concerned citizens around the country to assure that predictable treachery by McCain and Committee staff will not prevail.<