(a) The Department of Veterans Affairs will supplement and expand the national effort to assist in the location and recovery of missing children by maximizing the economical use of missing children information in domestic official mail and publications directed to members of the public and Department of Veterans Affairs employees.

(b) The Department of Veterans Affairs will insert pictures and biographical information related to missing children in a variety of official mail originating at the Department of Veterans Affairs automation centers. In addition, pictures and biographical information are printed in self-mailers and other Department of Veterans Affairs publications (newsletters, bulletins, etc.).

(c) The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (National Center) is the sole source from which the Department of Veterans Affairs will acquire the camera-ready and other photographic and biographical materials to be disseminated for use by Department of Veterans Affairs organizational units. The information is ordered and disseminated by Information Management Service.

(d) The Department of Veterans Affairs will remove all printed inserts and other materials from circulation or other use within a three-month period from the date the National Center notifies the Department of Veterans Affairs that a child whose picture and biographical information have been made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs has been recovered or that permission of the parent(s) or guardian to use the child's photograph and biographical information has been withdrawn. The National Center is responsible for immediately notifying the Department of Veterans Affairs contact person, in writing, of the need to withdraw from circulation official mail and other materials related to a particular child. Photographs which were reasonably current as of the time of the child's disappearence shall be the only acceptable form of visual medium or pictorial likeness used in official mail.

(e) The Department of Veterans Affairs will give priority to official mail that is addressed to:

(1) Members of the public that will be received in the United States, its territories and possessions; and

(2) Inter- and intra-agency publications and other media that will also be widely disseminated to Department of Veterans Affairs employees.

(f) The Department of Veterans Affairs will avoid repetitive mailings of material to the same individuals.

(g) All Department of Veterans Affairs employee suggestions and/or recommendations for additional cost-effective opportunities to use photographs and biographical data on missing children will be provided to the Department of Veterans Affairs contact person.

(h) These shall be the sole regulations for the Department of Veterans Affairs and its component organizational units.

(Authority: 39 U.S.C. 3220(a)(2), 5 U.S.C. 301).

[52 FR 10889, Apr. 6, 1987, as amended at 60 FR 48388, Sept. 19, 1995]