Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2010

I thank the manager of this bill for his continuing leadership on issues of ensuring the safety of our children. To the manager for our friends on the other side of the aisle, I likewise thank him for his long record in law enforcement and for supporting this legislation, which I rise to support, S. 3998, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act.

Mr. Speaker, our children permeate our lives and our society. Not only are children engaged in what we call organized activities such as the Boys and Girls Clubs which permeate all of our communities and districts, or little league baseball, football, soccer and basketball, in schools and after-school clubs; but they also do ad hoc things such as doing their own volunteer work and working with organizations that ask for young people to volunteer. I rise enthusiastically to support the opportunity for nonprofits and others to be able to access these criminal background checks and applaud the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that I've worked with over the years.

We are always saddened when we hear of a missing child, an abused child, or a child that has been murdered. Over the last couple of months and in the last year, we have seen children that have been dismembered, we have seen children that have been lost, we have seen children that have been brutally abused; certainly some at the hands of their relatives or parents. But if we can protect these children when they leave our home to ensure that they do have the safety of the adult leadership that is working with them, we will have made a giant step forward. Our children are our most precious resource. If we look at the crime statistics, we will see that they represent a sizable proportion of those children that have either been sexually abused or in fact suffered a violent act. So I think that this expansion is extremely important.

I would also commend to my colleagues my interest in seeing my legislation on the DNA data bank on sexual predators to be accessible all over the country to law enforcement and particularly isolated to those who are sexual predators as relates to children. I have spoken to many law enforcement officers who believe that this would be another expedited source of assistance to them. Obviously this would be a grim set of circumstances because it means that they would have in their possession a case that either a child was sexually molested and lived or a child was sexually molested and did not live. But anything that we can do

to ensure that law enforcement within the guidelines of our own Constitution and beliefs have all the resources that they need to protect our children I believe is extremely important.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to move this legislation, to hold hearings on this legislation, and to ensure that we give every tool to law enforcement to protect our children.

But in the instance of this legislation, this is, in fact, a very important statement about our commitment to protecting our children.

I congratulate Senator Schumer. And to all of the organizations that every day encounter adults that work with children, this gives you an added extra tool that I know that you will use to be able to ensure that our children have a full and complete quality of life, enjoy the activities that you provide for them, and, yes, have the opportunity to volunteer themselves and work with adults who they know are concerned about their best interests and not those who may have a record that would undermine the purpose and goals of the organization in which they work.

So, in conclusion, let me thank those who have supported this legislation and ask my colleagues to enthusiastically support S. 3998, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act.

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

Today, the House considers S. 3998, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2010. This bill was introduced by Senator Schumer of New York and recently passed the Senate by unanimous consent. I might just say parenthetically it makes me feel good that I finally found a bill sponsored by the gentleman from New York that I could support.

This bill extends the child safety pilot program, which provides background checks for volunteer organizations that work with children, for an additional year. Originally created, as the gentleman from Virginia said, in 2003 under the PROTECT Act, the child safety pilot program has proven itself to be an effective resource for protecting our children. Through the pilot project, nonprofit organizations that provide youth-based care may request criminal history background checks from the FBI on applicants for volunteer or employee positions that involve working with children.

A study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided data that underscores the importance of the pilot program. The National Center found that of almost 90,000 background checks performed through the pilot program, 6 percent of volunteer applicants were found to have a criminal history of concern. These included serious offenses such as sexual abuse of minors, assault, child cruelty, drug offenses and even murder. Further, over 42 percent of those with criminal histories had convictions in a State other than the State in which they then were applying to volunteer. If the volunteer group had performed a search only of the in-state records, many relevant criminal convictions would not have been identified. One youth-serving organization that received 1600 applications for volunteer positions found that over 50 percent of the applicants lied about having a criminal history, even though they knew it would be subjected to a background check. Of the applicants with criminal records, 23 percent had a different name reflected on their record than the one used to apply to volunteer. Without access to the national criminal database, many of these dangerous individuals may have slipped through the cracks.

Mr. Speaker, volunteer and other child-serving organizations across the country are working hard to provide safe learning and growing environments for our children. That means hiring professional and responsible employees. This bill will help and continues to help these groups to do just that, by extending the pilot program.

The child safety pilot program is supported by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America; the YMCA; the Salvation Army; Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America; and Volunteers of America as well as many other important organizations. Many Members of this body are parents first and Members of Congress second. This legislation is critical to keeping our children safe from criminals.

If just a single child does not become a victim of crime because of this program, then obviously it will have been successful. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reiterate my support for this piece of legislation and yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 3998) to extend the Child Safety Pilot Program.

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.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, S. 3998, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2010, will extend the national child safety pilot program for an additional 12 months.

Many Americans across the country graciously give their time and energy to volunteer and mentor children. While most of these volunteers act with good intentions, it is important that we are able to identify those who may misuse these opportunities to harm children.

The national child safety pilot program was passed in 2003 as part of the PROTECT Act. This program assists organizations in checking the criminal records of volunteers before placing them as mentors with children.

Since 2003, the national child safety pilot project has enabled State governments to work with youth-serving organizations to access FBI's national fingerprint-based background checks system. The pilot program has helped prevent child predators and sex offenders from getting access to children through legitimate mentoring programs by providing access to the more comprehensive data in the FBI's database. We have authorized this noncontroversial fee-based program on three other occasions in anticipation of creating a permanent program. This pilot program has provided extremely important information to mentoring organizations--at no cost to taxpayers. We hope that this 12-month extension will give us more time to work with the Senate and the Department of Justice to permanently authorize this program.

I would like to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) for his leadership in this legislation and his commitment to keeping children safe. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

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

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3998, which was introduced earlier today.

I ask 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 be printed in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.