Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 494) to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to reauthorize the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant program,…
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 494) to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to reauthorize the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant program, and for other purposes, as amended.
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, this is a very special bill to my heart and to my constituents and to the many, many advocates dealing with the reformation of the juvenile justice system and the importance of such.
I would like to take note of many of them, but, in particular, the National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Council and Coalition that represent decades of work all over the Nation, organizations that recognize that the best place for our young juveniles that have had some encounter with the system is not in a detention-like jail.
I hope that as we move forward on criminal justice reform and juvenile justice reform that we can reform the places and the attitudes toward juveniles who run awry of the system all over the Nation.
This bill is named for Tiffany May Joslyn, a champion for criminal justice reform, who formerly served as deputy chief counsel of the Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations Subcommittee, and whose life tragically was cut short on March 5, 2016, in a car accident, which sadly also claimed the life of her brother Derrick. She was just 33 years old.
Her family loved her. Her family still remembers how much she talked about her work on the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations that I served on at that time as the ranking member.
So passage of this bill last Congress in this body was both bitter and sweet, but I would understand that Tiffany, in the place where she is, would have been proud as she championed these causes fearlessly. This moment is for both her and for all of the millions of young people that will be helped by this bill.
We worked very hard on this bill, and it is a bipartisan bill. It has, I believe, those who have an interest in doing the very best for our Nation and for our young people.
The Tiffany Joslyn bill will help stem the epidemic of juveniles within the criminal justice system by reauthorizing the juvenile justice system and the juvenile accountability block grant program and providing funding to State and local governments for the creation of antibullying and antigang prevention programs and intervention.
It is clearly important to recognize that it is only us that can begin to reframe the old-fashioned attitudes about ``lock'em up.'' We know that there was a period of time, Mr. Speaker, when it was a shift so that schools and the education system were saying: Get the bad apples out of your classroom, not even into the principal's office or not even into the auditorium for detention.
They leaped from the classroom into the hands of law enforcement officers who then, as we have seen some of the untoward actions, had to wrestle them down or there was emotional encounters, but they went downtown, as many of us would say, to the county jail or to the detention center.
We hope that we will provide other tools to be able to intervene on behaviors by way of providing resources to some of our well-documented groups and organizations and new ones that have creative ways of intervening in a juvenile's life. How many of us have heard the story of how a pilot, a lawyer, a doctor started out their life, and then how they wound up as being contributing citizens because someone intervened. This bill is about intervention.
In addition to reauthorizing the juvenile justice programs, the Tiffany Joslyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant, and the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act clarifies how to address the occurrences of bullying through developmentally appropriate intervention and prevention techniques, which center on evidence-based models and best practices.
Best practices bring people together, because it doesn't matter whether you are Republican or Democrat, it brings people together, and that is best practices that rely on schools and communities rather than the involvement from law enforcement and the justice system.
What we want is to put a big red stop sign in front of the life of every juvenile that might be awry with the system, and procedures and rules to be able to find an alternative way.
H.R. 494 is designed to help both the victims and perpetrators of bullying. Research studies have shown that approximately 25 percent of school bullies will be convicted of a criminal offense in their adult years. Let's put a stop sign there. Let's not have that happen.
We also recognize that cyberbullying has become an epidemic, particularly for young people. Their life is centered around technology. Many times they are in their home, bedroom, et cetera, only with technology, and they use that in a way--because their brains are not matured until 25 and over, they use it in a way that they don't fully comprehend how vicious, how devastating this could be to the receiver of that information, how exposing that could be to the receiver of that information.
Let's get in their lives. Let's use this legislation to do so.
It also includes provisions for gang prevention programs which will help guide our children toward socially beneficial paths. If we want our children to learn, we must be able to maintain a safe and healthy school environment.
Bullying is a massive issue in our Nation's schools. Over the years, I have worked with young children as young as 10 or 12. Some of them have organized their own antibullying organizations, looking to us to affirm them, and I hope in this legislation we will have the opportunity to do so. If we want our children to learn, that is what we must do.
The National Center for Educational Studies shows that 14 percent of 12- to 18-year-olds surveyed reported being victims of direct or indirect bullying. One out of four kids is bullied. Cyberbullying is in the midst of that. That is why I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.
I also urge them to consider that we may have short memories on some things, but I am sure many of us can go back and remember that middle school, that early age leading up to 18 and then going off, some to college and some on, at some point, to work. We remember that indecisive moment. We remember wanting to have friends and wanting to be liked. And then we remember the alternative of those who might take advantage of that.
With that in mind, here we are with an opportunity to deal with best practices and to help our young people in the best way possible.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the ``Tiffany Joslyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Reauthorization and the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act'', which we passed in the last Congress, here in the House.
This bill is named for Tiffany May Joslyn, a champion for criminal justice reform, who served as Deputy Chief Counsel of the Crime Subcommittee and whose life tragically was cut short on March 5, 2016, in a car accident, which sadly also claimed the life of her brother, Derrick. She was just 33 years old.
So passage of this bill last Congress in this body, was both bitter and sweet. Tiffany would have been proud, as she championed these causes fearlessly. This moment is for both her and for all the millions of young people that will be helped by this bill.
The Tiffany Joslyn bill will help stem the epidemic of juveniles within the criminal justice system by reauthorizing the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant program (JABG) and providing funding to state and local governments for the creation of bullying and gang prevention programs.
It also includes provisions for gang prevention programs, which will help guide our children towards socially beneficial paths.
If we want our children to learn, we must be able to maintain a safe and healthy school environment. Bullying is a massive issue in our nation's schools.
The National Center for Educational Studies reports show that 14 percent of 12- to 18-year-olds surveyed, reported being victims of direct or indirect bullying. One out of 4 kids is bullied.
This is why I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.
It will authorize such appropriations as may be necessary, which is anticipated to be at least $30 million per year.
In addition to reauthorizing juvenile justice programs, the Tiffany Joselyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Reauthorization and
the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act clarifies how to address the occurrences of bullying through developmentally appropriate intervention and prevention techniques, which center on evidence-based models and best practices that rely on schools and communities rather than involvement from law enforcement and the justice system.
H.R. 494 is designed to help both the victims and perpetrators of bullying. Research studies have shown that approximately 25 percent of school bullies will be convicted of a criminal offense in their adult years.
Bullying is not just in a schoolyard anymore; it is a crisis that's taking over our nation. Gone are the days that children can come home and seek solace and escape from their bullies; technological advances have made it easy for young people to be tormented on social networks at any time from any place.
They are never out of harm's reach. This needs to end. Americans children should be protected, and no child should be persecuted for exercising their American right to be themselves.
It is time for us to come to a conclusive solution to America's bullying crisis so that we may keep all of our children safe.
My bill, H.R. 494, provides the solution that we need.
This is why I support this bill and ask my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me, first of all, thank the ranking member for his kind support of this legislation. I think we have been together long enough to know how important this kind of work is; and a tribute to his father, who certainly probably ran across a few juveniles in the course of his work as a law enforcement officer. So I thank the gentleman so very much.
I want to thank the chairman of the committee, Mr. Nadler, for his support of this legislation and continued work in this area.
Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson), the chair on the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.
Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman.
We are inquiring, and I am just going to say it publicly. We were about to engage the ranking member, but we are inquiring to be sure that the bill is complete. Its language was, ``and Anti-Bullying and Intervention Act.'' That is what the bill has carried over a period of time, so I was trying to get a ruling about that addition to the title.
That is clearly what we are trying to do. If I might engage the gentleman in a dialogue: it reads, ``the Tiffany Joslyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Program Reauthorization Act,'' and it has always read, over the years, ``and Anti-Bullying and Intervention Act.'' It is in my text here, ``and the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act.''
We are awaiting a ruling, and may have to--but I at least want to get it on the Record. You see what I am saying?
And that is the name that has been carried over the years that we have had----
I believe so.
Mr. Speaker, if I might, I assume I can proceed.
First of all, I want to thank the ranking member for his courtesies, and thank the committees for their courtesies.
I would not desire to not move forward H.R. 494. So any motion for amending at this time, I would like unanimous consent to withdraw and to emphasize what the bill is in my debate.
I seek to not withdraw H.R. 494, just any request for editing the legislation.
I yield to the gentleman.
That is my desire at this time.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. Does the gentleman?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
So I will close at this time asking for support of this legislation. But as I do so, I cannot help but thank--I think we have had----
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I thank the gentleman from Georgia for engaging in the colloquy on this important issue, and I think we have created a record that indicates that this bill is the Tiffany Joslyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Program Reauthorization Act, and it does cover bullying prevention and intervention, and we will move forward with that understanding and recognize the importance of those elements of the bill.
I want to just take a moment in my closing to acknowledge again the National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Coalition and to indicate their support for a bill that has gone unfunded now for 6 years, and to indicate in their letter that H.R. 494 updates the JABG to reflect current research and practices; incentivizes States to use graduated sanctions and incentives grounded in positive youth development; enhanced antibullying measures, gang prevention programs, and additional youth violence prevention and intervention services. It also updates the JABG to include evidence-based practices such as trauma-informed practices and mental healthcare.
I am excited about this legislation. And I close by saying bullying is not just a schoolyard action anymore; it is a crisis that is taking over our Nation.
Gone are the days that children can come home and seek solace and escape from their bullies. Technological advances have made it easy for young people to be tormented on social networks at any time from any place. They are never out of harm's reach.
This needs to end. American children should be protected, and no child should be persecuted for existing or exercising their American right to just be themselves. It is time for us to come to a conclusive solution to America's bullying crisis so that we may keep all of our children safe. I think we are on the right path by passing H.R. 494 and moving it to the Senate. That is why I support this bill and ask my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
