To create a deficit-neutral reserve fund for legislation to enable States to establish or expand quality programs of early childhood home visitation.

SA 880. Mrs. MURRAY (for herself and Mr. Bond) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 13, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2010, revising the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2009, and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2011 through 2014; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place in title II, insert the following:

SEC. __. DEFICIT-NEUTRAL RESERVE FUND FOR HOME VISITATION PROGRAMS.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget may revise the allocations, aggregates, and other levels in this resolution for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, motions, or conference reports that provide funds to States to establish or expand quality programs of early childhood home visitation that increase school readiness, child abuse and neglect prevention, and early identification of developmental and health delays, including potential mental health concerns, and that--

(1) serve pregnant women, or parent's or other primary caregivers and their children under the age of entry into kindergarten through quality programs of early childhood home visitation;

(2) are delivered by nurses, social workers, child development specialists, or other well-trained and competent staff, as demonstrated by education or training and the provision of ongoing specific training and supervision in the model of service being delivered;

(3) have outcomes and research standards that--

(A) demonstrate ongoing positive outcomes for children, parents and other primary caregivers that enhance child health and development;

(B) conform to a clear consistent home visitation model that has been in existence for at least 3 years and that--

(i) is research-based, grounded in relevant empirically-based knowledge;

(ii) is linked to program determined outcomes;

(iii) is associated with a national organization or institution of higher education that has comprehensive home visitation program standards that ensure high quality service delivery and continuous program quality improvement; and

(iv) has demonstrated significant positive outcomes when evaluated using well-designed and rigorous randomized controlled or well-designed and rigorous quasi-experimental research designs, and the evaluation results have been published in a peer-reviewed journal; and

(4) show, establish, or propose linkages to high quality early learning opportunities; provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit over either the period of the total of fiscal years 2009 through 2014 or the period of the total of fiscal years 2009 through 2019.