Democratic Connecticut: Latest News

Gabby Petito's family on Friday praised a new, bipartisan Senate bill to help find missing persons as a "huge step forward."The new bill introduced Thursday by Democratic Connecticut senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal and Republican senators John Cornyn of Texas, John Hooven of North Dakota and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, aims to streamline the national process for reporting missing persons."We said as parents we are going to help make changes. Here is a huge step forward," Petito's father, Joseph Petito, said in a tweet Friday.The legislation offers funding to the National Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for a missing persons/unidentified database that the public can access and contribute to; connects NamUs with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to improve missing persons databases; requires law enforcement to report missing persons to NamUs; establishes incentives to help states report missing persons; and requires the Justice Department to issue best-practice guidelines regarding the handling of missing persons cases.FILE - A sign honors the death of Gabby Petito on Sept.