To renew the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to approve demonstration projects designed to test innovative strategies in State child welfare programs.

I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, the chairman, Mr. Davis, is correct. We have worked on this together. We have participated in hearings and have learned together and cooperated on this very important subject to which we may bring differing perspectives but a common goal of wanting to respond to the needs of America's most vulnerable children.

I believe that this bipartisan legislation which I do fully support, is important; however, it is also important to understand what we support and where we have differences and to understand what this legislation accomplishes and what it fails to accomplish. This bill is certainly preferable to allowing two very important laws to expire next week.

Each year, over 700,000 children here in America become victims of abuse and neglect, perpetrated by the very people who are supposed to love and care for them. I think most Americans, as do my wife, Libby, and I, when we're back home in Texas and surrounded by Clara, Zayla, and Ella, our three granddaughters, believe it's just almost incomprehensible that parents or grandparents could cause harm to a member of their own families. Yet that is the reality that too many of our children face. One expert came to our committee during the hearing and suggested that, once every 6 hours of every day, a child dies in America as a result of abuse.

I agree that both the Child Welfare Services and the Promoting Safe and Stable Families laws should be renewed for another 5 years. I disagree that these programs should be continued at their current baseline funding levels since, with need growing and funding limited, too many of our most vulnerable children cannot access the services that they so desperately need. These are the children whose neglect not only produces problems for them, but will produce more problems for all of American society in the future. They are the children we should be helping today so that we are not incarcerating them after they have done harm to someone tomorrow.

Less than half of the children in foster care in America today receive federal assistance to help with the room and board. Today, 40 percent of children who are found to be victims of abuse and neglect don't receive any follow-up or intervention at all. That is a very big gap that will likely only grow over the course of the next 5 years with the legislation that we are renewing.

In my home State of Texas, the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Act accounts for a very significant source of funding to help our youngest Texans. According to one of our witnesses in committee, Dr. Jane Burstain of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin, funding from this program accounted for $2 of every $3 supporting child abuse and neglect prevention programs last year. In San Antonio, for example, these programs provide important resources to help vulnerable families through the Bexar County Child Welfare Board.

This bill also grants States support for parental substance abuse programs. My friend Darlene Byrne, a district judge in Austin, Texas, who helped establish the Family Treatment Drug Court that was partially funded by dollars from this act that we're renewing, writes that she has seen new babies who are not drug positive, moms and couples reunify with their families, and workers receive their GEDs or high school diplomas and find employment. Those are the people that these programs help.

In short, she says that this program has contributed in transforming lives and in helping to stop the cycle of drug abuse, poverty, and violence in Texas. It is important both to those who benefit directly and to all of us who have a stake in having folks participate to the full extent of their God-given potential, not posing dangers to the rest of our society.

Today's legislation also includes, as Mr. Davis indicated, some modest policy changes that strengthen the States' abilities to respond to at-risk children. Mr. Speaker, the bill, I believe, leaves too many problems unresolved. I think, though, in this current climate that the renewal of the legislation as it's proposed is the best that we can do for our at-risk children. This bill reauthorizes help to at least some children who become victims of maltreatment. It provides family support and activities to some vulnerable families, and it promotes adoption services for those children who cannot safely return to their biological parents.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield 4 minutes to the former chair of this Subcommittee on Human Resources, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott).

I yield 2 minutes to my colleague from California (Ms. Bass), one of the leaders on this subject of foster children, who came and testified to our committee based on her long experience working in the State of California in the assembly on this subject.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my colleague from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin), who has been very active in a Foster Youth Financial Security Act.

(Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, some in this House have suggested earlier in the year that the programs embodied in this legislation, and everything else that opens opportunities through government support from Pell Grants to Title I funding for education to the school lunch program to Head Start, that all of these are ``welfare'' and should be cut. Fortunately, that approach is not being taken here today. We are reauthorizing, in a bipartisan way, these two very important programs that would expire next week.

Mr. Speaker, however, it should be noted that, much like somebody might be flatlined, we are flat funding the renewal of these programs, meaning that in 5 years we are authorizing the same amount of money for these programs, if it can be appropriated, that existed last year. That means that there are many needs in our country that will not be fully addressed in this legislation. It means that last year, if less than half of those in foster care received support for food and board, they will be in the same situation over the course of this legislation. It means that the 40 percent of children who are subject to abuse and neglect are unlikely to be able to access services as they were last year.

But renewing this legislation remains, despite those deficiencies, an important accomplishment in the current political environment. And, as Mr. Davis and a number of other speakers have noted, we have made some modest improvements.

Another of those not touched on yet is our work in this legislation to ensure that children in foster care can stay in the schools that they started in, even though they may be moved between families. That's an important part of adding a little certainty to the lives of children who have been abused or neglected and find themselves with a great deal of uncertainty.

It is for the improvements in this act and the recognition of what harm would be done if this act were not adopted here in a bipartisan way that so many child advocacy groups have joined in supporting it-- the Child Welfare League of America, First Focus, Zero to Three--as well as groups of those organizations that are involved in administering some of these funds: the National Conference of State Legislatures, the American Public Human Services Association, and the Conference of State Court Administrators.

I believe this legislation is important. It's important to get it adopted promptly. I hope the Senate will respond to our bipartisan approval today, as Mr. Davis has suggested they have already begun to do in the committee process, and move forward to see it fully adopted by next week. I urge all of my colleagues to join in supporting this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1194) to renew the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to approve demonstration projects designed to test innovative strategies in State child welfare programs.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

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

I rise tonight in support of H.R. 1194, a bill to extend the child welfare waiver authority for States.

This bill will allow States to test innovative approaches to improve the way we protect children from abuse and neglect. In doing so, it extends authority that was in place between 1994 and 2006 but has since lapsed.

Since 2006, the Department of Health and Human Services has not had the authority to approve new efforts by States to test better ways of helping children at risk of abuse or neglect. The bill before us today would simply allow HHS to approve new waivers once again so States can test new ways of better serving children and families.

As the current chairman of the Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over child welfare programs, I'm pleased to cosponsor this legislation with my friend, Mr. McDermott, a current member of the subcommittee, as well as its prior chairman.

The Human Resources Subcommittee held a hearing on child welfare waivers last year, which showed the value of State flexibility in this area. Since 1994, 23 States have run waiver programs that helped inform the child welfare policy debate and, more importantly, improve the lives of children and families. Seven States have been granted extensions and have continued their waiver programs approved before 2006. This bipartisan bill before us today will allow such current waiver programs to continue, while importantly providing the Secretary of HHS with authority to approve up to 10 new waivers a year.

The bill before us is identical to legislation the House approved unanimously on September 23, 2010. However, the Senate did not act on that legislation before conclusion of the last Congress.

This bill is supported by the National Conference of State Legislatures, as well as groups active in promoting effective child welfare programs.

I would like to insert in the Record following my remarks copies of their letters in support of H.R. 1194.

Especially in challenging financial times, we must be sure that taxpayer dollars are well spent. The original 1994 law required rigorous evaluations of each waiver program, and this bill continues that requirement. This means States will have the flexibility to test new ideas, but the American people and the Congress will know if these ideas have made a difference. And because these waiver programs must be cost neutral to be approved in the first place, the Congressional Budget Office has assured us that this legislation as a whole is cost neutral.

I would like to include the CBO analysis to that effect in the Record as well.

It is fitting we are debating this measure in May, which is National Foster Care Month. National Foster Care Month is a time to celebrate the great work done by thousands of foster parents across the Nation, and also a time to raise awareness of the hundreds of thousands of children in foster care who need a permanent home. This legislation will let States test better ways of helping these young people, including by working with families to keep kids from entering foster care in the first place.

So as we recognize National Foster Care Month, this bill is a great way to work towards solutions that ensure that each child has a permanent home. Child welfare legislation has often been an area of bipartisanship in this Chamber, and I'm grateful that we can continue that tradition with the bill before us today.

I thank Mr. McDermott for his extensive work on this bill and look forward to continuing to work with him and all our colleagues as this legislation moves forward. I urge support for this legislation.

National Conference of

State Legislatures,

Washington, DC, April 13, 2011.

Hon. John Boehner,

Speaker of the House, Longworth HOB, Washington, DC.

Hon. Nancy Pelosi,

House Minority Leader, Cannon HOB, Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi: On behalf

of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), we

urge you to support H.R. 1194, a bill to renew the authority

of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human

Services to approve demonstration projects designed to test

innovative strategies in state child welfare programs.

Congressman Jim McDermott and Congressman Geoff Davis have

fashioned bipartisan legislation that helps create

opportunities to enhance the state/federal partnership to

assist our nation's most vulnerable children.

NCSL supports reinstating and expanding federal waiver

authority so that states can test the results of increased

funding flexibility on the development of service

alternatives and on the overall delivery of child welfare

services, targeting programs to address the needs of their

children. By renewing Title IV-E waiver authority from 2011

through 2016, H.R. 1194 will give states an enhanced ability

to provide early intervention and crisis intervention

services that will safely reduce out-of-home placements and

improve child outcomes.

H.R. 1194 will allow states to improve the quality of their

child welfare interventions and reinvest savings in their

programs. It will also provide both state and federal

legislators more information on what innovations are

effective to transform the lives of children who are at risk

of abuse and neglect. We applaud Congressmen McDermott and

Davis for crafting this legislation.

Sincerely,

Hon. Mary Jane Wallner,

New Hampshire House of Representatives, Chair, NCSL

Standing Committee on Human Services and Welfare.

Hon. Wes Keller,

Alaska House of Representatives, Chair, NCSL Standing

Committee on Human Services and Welfare.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful again to acknowledge my colleague Mr. McDermott and his many years of work on this issue. The staff in both the majority and minority on the subcommittee have worked very hard through time on this issue to bring this bipartisan measure to the floor today.

Passage of H.R. 1194 will renew child welfare waiver authorities so States can again test new ways of helping at-risk youth. These waivers will let States develop new ideas, and allow them to spend money on what we know is most effective, which is working to keep children safely together with their families.

I urge passage of this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Let me thank Dr. McDermott, first of all, for his consistent, years-long support of our children that are in foster care. And I thank the manager and the Representative of the majority for their hard work.

This bill was introduced in the 111th Congress. It was passed by voice vote. It is an important amendment to the Social Security Act to renew through FY 2016, where it authorizes up to 10 States and tribes to conduct demonstration projects that serve as tests for methods to improve child welfare programs.

As a cochair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, we have worked on a number of issues through the years. We have been privileged to deal with the question of mentoring, the question of bullying, the question of dealing with the disabled child, and, yes, the question of dealing with foster parenting. In fact, some years ago I served as a cochair with then-Congressman Mike Andrews to provide relief to foster parents by finding a process that would provide vacation time for them. I have gone to meetings dealing with grandparents who have become foster parents. So it is important to be able to find the best practices.

The waivers that will come about are designed to afford more flexibility to States in determining how to use Federal funding for child welfare and foster care. The program gave more discretion to the State Departments that administer child welfare programs aimed to foster innovative and effective child welfare programs.

One of the issues in the State of Texas is the age-old issue of aging out. What do you do with the 18- or 19-year-old who had lived in foster care, ages out, and has no place to go? I hope in the course of this legislation we will find that creative thinking.

This bill, of course, addresses delays to guardianship for children in foster care, provides early crisis intervention programs that are so important to improve the outcomes of the foster care system, and addresses domestic violence that results in placement in foster care.

To the late Congressman Mickey Leland, I am reminded that we had a facility called the Mickey Leland refuge or relief area in our district, the 18th Congressional District, that provided an emergency placement for children that had to be taken out of the home immediately. We cradled children from zero to toddler age. Our children need us, and those who are in fact taking care of foster children need us as well.

There are 423,000 children living in foster care; 26,000 of these children are from my home State of Texas. I frankly believe those numbers are even higher. But this legislation will continue a unique opportunity for States granted waivers to address the diverse needs of the cities and regions of the particular States.

I can't think of a more precious resource than our children. I am very glad to be part of the Congressional Children's Caucus; and I deeply believe this particular legislation, Mr. Speaker, provides a safety net for our children. I ask my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1194, a bill to renew the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to approve demonstration projects designed to test innovative strategies in state child welfare programs. My colleague, Jim McDermott, introduced this bill in the 111th Congress, and it was passed by a voice vote. This legislation, which amends Title XI of the Social Security Act to renew through FY2016, authorizes up to ten states and tribes to conduct demonstration projects that serve as tests for methods to improve child welfare programs.

Under the previous authority, which began in 1997 and ended in 2006, 23 states and tribal jurisdictions received waivers to certain provisions of the Social Security Act. These waivers are designed to afford more flexibility to states in determining how to use federal funding for child welfare and foster care. The program gave more discretion to the state departments that administer child welfare programs, and aimed to foster innovative and effective child welfare programs.

The waiver authority in this legislation requires states to report on Federal, state and local funding sources that support all services under a demonstration project, increasing our knowledge of waiver policies and allow for successful implementation of similar programs in the future.

Under the previous waiver authority, many innovative and effective demonstration projects were successfully tested in States, providing the Department of Health and Human Services with new ideas for implementation at the national level. This legislation does not seek to reduce funding or services for child welfare at any level, but rather seeks to improve these services by allowing states the flexibility to test programs.

The bill introduced by my colleague from Washington addresses delays to guardianship for children in foster care, provides early and crisis intervention programs to improve the outcomes of the foster system, and addresses domestic violence that results in placement in foster care.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) reports that at the end of 2009, there were 423,000 children living in foster care. 26,600 of those children were from my home state of Texas. In fact, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services estimates that as of February 2011, 3,726 children in Houston were living in foster care. As the Representative for Texas' 18th Congressional District in Houston, I am committed to increasing the efficiency and improving the outcomes of foster care and other child welfare systems.

This legislation would continue a unique opportunity for states granted waivers to address the diverse needs of the cities and regions in that particular state. Of the 3,726 children in foster care throughout Houston, nearly 2,000 of those children are African American. While foster care disproportionately affects African Americans in Houston, these demographics change throughout the state. This program encourages innovation based on the needs of

states, and will certainly contribute to national initiatives.

Child welfare is a deeply important issue for this country. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates the 2010 Census will show the number of children in foster care is over half a million and will only continue to rise. It is our responsibility to take any possible measure to improve the outcomes of foster care, and renewing the authority granted to Health and Human Services under H.R. 1194 is essential to that goal.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2883) to amend part B of title IV of the Social Security Act to extend the child and family services program through fiscal year 2016, and for other purposes, as amended.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

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

I rise today in support of H.R. 2883, the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act, a bill that continues a tradition of bipartisanship in crafting child welfare legislation.

The bill we're considering today reauthorizes two important child welfare programs, incorporating a series of improvements developed during hearings held by the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources over the past few months.

In addition to continuing and making improvements to two major child welfare programs, this bill also renews authority for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to approve child welfare waivers during the next 3 years. Past waivers have allowed States to test new and better ways of helping children at risk of abuse and neglect.

Earlier this year, the House unanimously passed legislation renewing this authority, but the Senate has not followed suit.

This bill, which our colleagues in the Senate also support and which was favorably reported by the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, will allow innovation to continue and may yield information to improve child welfare programs in the future. The bill will also establish a process to create needed data standards in child welfare programs. This language is a first step towards improving collaboration between social service programs.

We have often heard in hearings that States and programs within States have difficulty coordinating services because of difficulty sharing data, and that this lack of coordination increases costs and decreases effectiveness. This bill directs the Secretary of HHS to work with the States to establish national data standards so that all State child welfare programs are speaking the same language.

To show the wide support for this bill, Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert letters of support into the Record from the following organizations: The National Conference of State Legislatures; the American Public Human Services Association; the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators; the American Institute of CPAs; the American Humane Association; the North American Council on Adoptable Children; Voice for Adoption; the Association on American Indian Affairs; the National Indian Child Welfare Association; Youth Villages; First Focus Campaign for Children; Zero to Three (The National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families); the National Foster Care Coalition; the Child Welfare League of America; the Children's Defense Fund; the Center for the Study of Social Policy; and the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

National Foster Care Coalition,

Washington, DC, September 13, 2011.

Hon. Max Baucus,

Chairman, Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington,

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to my friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), for working with me to bring this measure to the floor today and thank him and thank both the majority and minority staffs for their hard work on this effort. H.R. 2883 is a bipartisan, bicameral, no-cost effort to extend and make modest adjustments to programs designed to help ensure the safety and well- being of children at risk of abuse and neglect. We need to do all we can to ensure more children remain safely in their homes, and this bill will help to do so.

National Conference

of State Legislatures,

September 13, 2011.

Hon. Dave Camp,

Chairman, House Ways & Means, Cannon House Office Building,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Sandy Levin,

Ranking Member, House Ways & Means, Longworth House Office

Building, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Camp and Representative Levin: On behalf of

the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), we urge

you to support H.R. 2883, a bill to renew the authority of

the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

to approve demonstration projects designed to test innovative

strategies in state child welfare programs and reauthorizing

the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program.

Congressmen Geoff Davis and Lloyd Doggett have fashioned

bipartisan legislation that helps create opportunities to

enhance the state-federal partnership to assist our nation's

most vulnerable children.

NCSL supports reinstating and expanding federal waiver

authority so that states can test the results of increased

funding flexibility on the development of service

alternatives and on the overall delivery of child welfare

services. This allows states to target programs to address

the needs of their youngest citizens. By renewing and

extending Title IV-E waiver authority through 2014, H.R. 2883

will give states an enhanced ability to provide early

intervention and crisis intervention services that will

safely reduce out-of-home placements and improve child

outcomes.

NCSL supports the reauthorization of the PSSF program. The

PSSF program enhances state efforts to develop additional

family preservation, family reunification, and family support

programs. We appreciate the flexibility provided to states in

H.R. 2883 and that the legislation does not preempt current

state laws.

H.R. 2883 will allow states to improve the quality of their

child welfare interventions and reinvest savings in their

programs. It will also provide both state and federal

legislators tools to develop innovative an effective

approaches to transform the lives of children who are at risk

of abuse and neglect. We applaud Congressmen Davis and

Doggett for crafting this legislation.

Sincerely,

William T. Pound,

Executive Director, NCSL.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2883, ``The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act,'' which reauthorize Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, including the Promoting Safe and Stable Families and Child Welfare Services programs, while also reinstating the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to authorize States to implement innovative demonstration programs through Title IV-E waivers.

As Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I have been a stalwart supporter of protecting the health and welfare of children and families. Today there are more than 463,000 children and youth that are in out-of-home care. Every day, more than a half million U.S. children are in the foster care system with over 120,000 waiting to be adopted. With no permanent legal guardians, they are our Nation's children, and we have a responsibility to ensure a bright future for those who are handed a rough start in life. Foster children like all children deserve a safe environment to grow and nourish in. This piece of legislation is a step in the right direction in addressing the needs of our Nation's children when they need our help the most. There are many silent heroes who have opened their homes and taken on the role of foster parents, social workers, mentors, caregivers and volunteers to the children in this Nation. These young kids need to know someone is looking out for them and supporting legislation like the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act provides these silent heroes with additional resources and requirements to meet the needs of children in care.

There are an estimated 12 million foster care alumni in the U.S. representing all walks of life. Each and every one of the 12 million alumni has a story of their struggles, challenges and success. The Foster care system is supposed to ensure that children are cared for by members of our communities on a full-time or temporary basis when their parents are unable to provide adequate care. Often the natural parents cannot provide for a child's care for a variety of reasons such as due to incarceration, physical or mental illness, behavioral difficulties, or problems within the family environment. These issues may include child abuse, alcoholism, extreme poverty, or crime. These children often become wards of the State and we have the responsibility to protect their interests and to ensure they are provided with the care they need.

If even a single child continues to be abused or neglected while under state supervision then that is one child too many. This legislation, although not ideal, is a valid attempt to address the needs of families in crisis. In 2001, an estimated 903,000 U.S. children were found to be victims of abuse or neglect. This number is above the estimated 879,000 child maltreatment victims in 2000 but below the annual estimated highs of more than 1 million child maltreatment victims recorded through the mid-1990s. For the year 2001, States reported 59 percent of these victims experienced neglect, compared to 63 percent in 2000 and 58 percent in 1999. The percentage of physical abuse and sexual abuse victims has declined over the past 5 years but held constant between 2000 and 2001. These children need our protection. There are over 500,000 children in foster care and with this economic downturn I hope this number does not keep on rising. But hope is not enough, we need to continue to fund programs to help these children and their families.

The size of the foster care caseload rises or falls depending upon both the number of entries to foster care--children who are removed from their homes in a given year--and the number of exits in that same year--children reunited with their families, adopted, emancipated, or placed in another permanent setting. The number of entries to foster care has outpaced the number of exits for two decades.

Accountability is key, children who received ``services from Child Protective Services died as a result of abuse 16 times more often than children in the general population 16.3 percent of all fatalities were children who had received services or were 'known to the system'. These children were already in a high risk category however, we must do our best to transform these numbers and ensure their safety. Currently at least 716 thousand children received ``services'' (28 States reporting) or 1 percent of the general population. If CPS intervention had no effect, 1 percent of this group would have suffered a fatality; if CPS intervention had made an improvement, the percentage would be less than 1 percent. However, it is 16.3 times that amount. (18 States reporting)

At this time children are again bearing the brunt of families in crisis. When a household falls into poverty, children are exposed to increased parental distress, inadequate childcare arrangements, and poor nutrition. This will lead to an increase of families needing child welfare services. For these reasons I support this legislation.