S. 575: HERO Act of 2015
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S. 575: HERO Act of 2015
114th Congress · introduced 2015-02-25 · Crime and Law Enforcement · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
federal
Follow this bill, step by step
- Where it came from: introduced 2015-02-25 · official record
- Who proposed it: Sen. Kirk, Mark Steven [R-IL] · what a sponsor is
- What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
- Where it stands now: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
- If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.
Official title
HERO Act of 2015
Plain summary
Human Exploitation Rescue Operations Act of 2015 or the HERO Act of 2015 This bill amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to operate, within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a Cyber Crimes Center to provide investigative assistance, training, and equipment to support domestic and international investigations by ICE of cyber-related crimes. Within the Cyber Crimes Center, DHS shall operate a Child Exploitation Investigations Unit, which shall: coordinate all ICE child exploitation initiatives, including investigations into child exploitation, child pornography, child victim identification, traveling child sex offenders, and forced child labor, including the sexual exploitation of minors; focus on child exploitation prevention, investigative capacity building, enforcement operations, and training for law enforcement personnel; provide training and technical expertise to cooperating law enforcement agencies and personnel; provide psychological support and counseling services for ICE personnel engaged in child exploitation prevention initiatives; collaborate with the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Association to Protect Children to recruit, train, equip, and hire wounded, ill, and injured veterans and transitioning service members through the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative (HERO) Child Rescue Corps program; collaborate with other governmental and nongovernmental entities for the sponsorship of, and participation in, outreach and training activities; and collect and maintain data on the total number of suspects identified by ICE, the number of arrests and cases opened for investigation by ICE, and the number of cases resulting in prosecution and report on such data. DHS shall operate, within the Cyber Crimes Center, a Computer Forensics Unit (CFU). The CFU is directed to: (1) provide training and technical support in digital forensics to ICE personnel and other law enforcement personnel investigating crimes; (2) provide computer hardware, software, and forensic licenses for all computer forensics personnel within ICE; (3) participate in research and development in the area of digital forensics; and (4) collaborate with DOD and the National Association to Protect Children to recruit, train, equip, and hire wounded, ill, and injured veterans and transitioning service members through the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative (HERO) Child Rescue Corps program. DHS shall also operate, within the Cyber Crimes Center, a Cyber Crimes Unit (CCU). The CCU shall: (1) oversee the cyber security strategy and cyber-related operations and programs for ICE, (2) enhance the ability of ICE to combat criminal enterprises operating on or through the Internet, (3) provide training and technical support in cyber investigations to ICE personnel and other law enforcement personnel, (4) participate in research and development in the area of cyber investigations, and (5) recruit participants in the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative (HERO) Child Rescue Corps program for investigative and forensic positions. Congress declares that Homeland Security Investigations of ICE should hire, recruit, train, and equipment wounded, ill, or injured military veterans who are affiliated with the HERO Child Rescue Corps program for investigative, intelligence, analyst, and forensic positions. The bill further amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to expand the purposes of the DHS Acceleration Fund for Research and Development of Homeland Security Technologies to include conducting research and development to advance technology for the investigation of child exploitation crimes, including child victim identification, trafficking in persons, child pornography, and for advanced forensics.
Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.
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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes
Officials and money
Sponsor: Sen. Kirk, Mark Steven [R-IL] · 3 cosponsors
Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.
Cosponsors on this site
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mike Lee (R-UT), Thom Tillis (R-NC)
No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.
Words on this page, explained (3)
- Ballot initiative
- A proposed law or constitutional amendment that citizens place on the ballot by gathering enough voter signatures, so voters decide it directly. About half the states allow some form of it.
- Bill
- A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).
- Securities
- Financial investments that can be bought and sold, such as stocks and bonds.
Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
- Congress.gov
- Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-114s575.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/114/s>
Record fed-us-cong114-s575 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong114 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong114