Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 3218) to extend the pilot program for volunteer groups to obtain criminal history background checks.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilots Extension Act of 2008 will allow a simple 6-month extension to the National Child Safety Pilot Program passed as a part of the PROTECT Act of 2003.

I am proud to sponsor the House version of this bill. The Senate has already taken up the legislation by unanimous consent, so if the House votes to pass this bill, as I hope it will, it will go to the President to be signed into law.

We're fortunate to have millions of Americans who generously give their time and energy to volunteer and mentor children. In 1986, as a then young lawyer, I volunteered as a Big Brother for a 7-year-old in the Greater Los Angeles area. That relationship has been one of the most rewarding and enduring that I've ever had. It also taught me firsthand the trust that we place in the adult in a mentoring situation. It's important that we protect children by taking reasonable and practical steps to help guard against the chance that a convicted child abuser or sex offender might conceal his or her past and place our children at risk.

Since 2003, and earlier, States have been authorized to access national fingerprint-based background checks through the FBI on behalf of youth-serving organizations. Unfortunately, as of today, only one- third of States have the infrastructure in place for a youth-serving organization to get a background check from the FBI in an affordable and timely manner.

In passing the PROTECT Act, Congress acted in response to the need to protect children from predators who could gain access to children under the guise of volunteering. Mentoring groups, large and small, want access to the information they need to protect children, and the pilot has been extremely successful in providing that access through a fee- supported system at no cost to taxpayers.

The pilot demonstrated that there was a clear need for this program to protect children. Six percent of checks conducted came back with serious criminal records, in many cases records that would have not turned up through a search of a State database or through a name-based commercial search. We have cases from around the Nation in which applicants for volunteering positions with children were sex offenders, repeat felons, and child abusers.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reviewed files in which an applicant had a criminal record in four States, including a conviction for murder, which they didn't reveal to the organization. Losing access to these checks would be disastrous for hundreds of small, community-based mentoring organizations.

Due to the success of the program, we have extended the pilot twice before. It is now set to expire July 31 unless we extend it again. This bill would provide a 6-month extension to give us all time to work on an appropriate permanent bill that protects our children, while also protecting the privacy of potential volunteers.

I am proud to sponsor, along with my colleague, Mr. Rogers of Michigan, the Child Protection Improvements Act, a bill which would do just that. We will continue to work with stakeholders and the Judiciary Committee to put in place a permanent system of protection.

The pilot program has demonstrated that youth-serving organizations correctly want to watch out for children and want access to affordable, accurate and prompt background checks to help them do so. We need to keep the pilot program in place while we develop the permanent bill.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I join with my colleague in urging passage of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 3218, the ``Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008''. First, I would like to thank my distinguished colleague, Adam Schiff of California, for introducing this much-needed piece of legislation. This bill will amend the ``PROTECT Act of 2003'' by extending for six months the currently expiring Child Safety Pilot Program. This program will allow certain volunteer organizations to obtain national and state criminal history background checks on their volunteers. I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this act.

The ``Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008'' is critical because it will ensure that our Nation's children remain safe from predators and sex-offenders. By allowing volunteer organizations working with children the option of State and Federal background checks, we protect our children from our greatest fear: that the very organizations that set out to help our children, inadvertently harm them.

The ``PROTECT Act of 2003'' was aimed at defending children from the horrors of exploitation, abuse, and abduction. Yet, if we fail to act now, the act's 60-month ``Child Safety Pilot Program'' will expire. We cannot afford to leave volunteer groups without this critical tool, and in the process leave countless children at risk.

Upon enactment, the ``Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008'' will extend by 6 months the ``Child Safety Pilot Program'', and will allow certain volunteer organizations to continue utilizing the national and state criminal history background checks. With passage of this act, we take one step forward to a day when all the children of our Nation are safe from the harms and horrors of abuse.

Currently in the US, there are over 100,000 cases of child abuse, abduction, or exploitation, each year. It is imperative that we do not allow this number to escalate out of carelessness. Why should we allow an extra Amber Alert to occur when it would be so easy to prevent?

The Amber Alert Network which was first implemented in the State of Texas is an important element in attaining a truly secure environment. This system is part of an additional level of protection. Yet, programs like Amber Alert lose their significance when they are not accompanied by meaningful precautions. The background checks that the ``Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008'' makes possible, allow us to stop Amber Alerts before they happen.

I have always seen the safety of children as an issue of tremendous importance. Whether it is through this bill, protecting children from sex-offenders, or in recent legislation such as H.R. 3397, safeguarding children against lead-poisoning, or in other acts improving school safety, I believe that the well-being of our children must be one of our foremost concerns.

I urge my colleagues to support this act to protect the children of Texas' 18th and the children of our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 3218, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008, which extends the Child Safety Pilot Program for volunteer organizations for an additional 6 months.

Originally created in 2003 under the PROTECT Act, the Child Safety Pilot Program has proven to be an effective resource for groups such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the National Mentoring Partnership, and the National Council of Youth Sports.

Through the pilot program, any nonprofit organization that provides youth-focused care, as defined in the National Child Protection Act of 1993, may request criminal history background checks from the FBI on applicants for volunteer or employee positions that entail working with children.

Currently, over 10,000 background checks have been administered through the Child Safety Pilot Program. Of those checks, 7.5 percent of all workers screened had an arrest or conviction on their record. Crimes uncovered included rape, child sexual abuse, murder, and domestic battery. Over 25 percent of applicants with a criminal record committed crimes in States other than where they were applying to work. If it weren't for the Child Safety Pilot Program, employers may not have known that the applicants had criminal records.

Volunteer organizations across the country are working hard to provide safe learning and growing environments for our children. That means hiring professional and responsible employees. S. 3218 extends a program that has successfully helped these groups do just that.

I urge my colleagues to join in supporting this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3218, introduced earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to the bill be placed in the Record.