On Thursday, Representative Joe Heck made a brief introduction to the House Public Lands Subcommittee about his new bill called HR 2166 – The Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act of 2013.
He recaps two very sad situations from last year where people have gone missing within the Lake Mead Recreational Area and the inability for their families to hire private search & recovery organizations to help find them or their remains.
Red Rock Search and Rescue found murder victim Keith Goldberg’s remains within 2 hours…but they had to cut through red tape for 15 months before they were allowed to begin their search. Air Force Staff Sargent Antonio Tucker was presumed drowned and after a 10 month wait, a private underwater and recovery firm found his remains within 2 days.
In short, HR 2166 “requires the Secretary of Interior and of Agriculture to expedite access to federal lands to allow entities trained and certified to national standards and acting in a not-for-profit capacity to carry about privately requested Good Samaritan search and recovery submissions”.
You can watch the 5-minute introduction on Representative Joe Heck’s YouTube channel below and if you want to read what the subcommittee had to say in response, you can read an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal by clicking here!
