Modernizing the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
I want to salute the gentleman and Mr. Young for their bipartisan initiative here that would eliminate some of the current paperwork barriers that are preventing abused and neglected children from being quickly placed in safe, loving homes, which happen to be on the other side of a State border. Their coming together in this bipartisan initiative is constructive in helping some of the most vulnerable children in America.
It is unacceptable for children who already face so many challenges to have to deal with this additional hardship because the process, as it exists now, just is not working.
Based on the experience we have had with those States that were involved in a pilot program, we know that waiting times there were reduced by almost one-third.
I think, with that experience, we can move forward under this bill for an electronic information exchange that will work and will improve the times that these young people face.
While this bipartisan step is a welcome one, it should also serve as a reminder to us of all the work that remains.
Last week the National Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, a commission that was created with legislation that I authored back in 2012, issued its final report entitled ``Within Our Reach: A National Strategy to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities.''
However you count them and however you may focus on the data needed to adequately describe this problem, there are far too many children in America today who do suffer, including many who actually are killed, by abuse and neglect.
Our committee, much in the tradition of this piece of bipartisan legislation, has addressed these issues on a bipartisan basis in the past. I hope that we can do the same with the report of the Commission, that we can move forward to consider some of its recommendations, like its unanimous recommendations.
This was a bipartisan Commission appointed by President Obama and by House and Senate Democratic and Republican leaders. They came together with unanimous recommendations on a number of pieces of legislation, such as the importance of renewing the home visiting programs that go out and work with young parents that strengthen families and help them be the kind of parents they want to be.
We need an ongoing conversation here about foster care financing. The reauthorization of programs like the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program is coming up this year, and the Home Visiting Program, fully known as the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, is up for renewal this next year.
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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I hope we can find ways to work together to advance what has been done here and to advance specific legislation that will help reduce the number of children that suffer from abuse and neglect.
I must note, though, that at the same time this legislation was approved in our committee, under the Republican budget, the Social Services Block Grant was terminated. I hope that is not done by the Congress as a whole.
The Social Services Block Grant is a major source of funding for prevention of child abuse and neglect today, used by State and local governments to focus on prevention with far too little focus on prevention overall.
One of the major conclusions of this Commission on Child Fatalities is that we focus our attention so much on the end, after the abuse has occurred, and not on the beginning, to try to prevent abuse. We need to focus on prevention. So at the same time this bill was approved, that support was cut.
Hopefully, Congress will reject the bill to eliminate the Social Services Block Grant and we can come together to find more resources to do what must be done to prevent us from just lurching from one tragedy to another and help stabilize and support families working to see that children are protected. I thank the gentlemen again for their effort.
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