One Stop Shop Community Reentry Program Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I voted for this bill in committee because it is a worthy objective.

Assisting prisoners to successfully reenter society, find jobs, and take their place as law-abiding citizens is essential to the safety and stability of our society.

But on further reflection, I have come to believe that this is a program that the Federal Government should not be funding through grants to local organizations.

Grants have become the third biggest expenditure of the entire Federal Government, behind only Social Security and National Defense.

We give away a half-trillion dollars a year in this manner, that is roughly $4,000 from an average family's taxes, with little oversight, little accountability, little follow-up, and little results.

Reentry preparation should be a top priority of Federal and State prison systems. State prisons are a State responsibility. They should be funded by taxpayers of the individual States. Probation departments exist precisely to promote reentry, and the model in this bill should be considered by them.

Now, Federal prisons are our responsibility, and we also have probation services that should be striving toward implementing concepts in this bill.

If this measure funded Federal programs that expanded reentry preparation within the Federal prisons and probation system, I would strongly support it, but it doesn't. Instead, it takes the money of a taxpayer in one State and throws that money at a nonprofit organization in another State with the hope that some good will come from it. And some might.

But more likely, it will disappear into the salaries of various groups who will write glowing reports of their work and apply for more grants next year. And if for some reason the Federal Bureau of Prisons is unable to provide these services, then they should be competitively bid out to contractors with specific performance measurements and accountability.

Federal grant spending is completely out of control and it has to stop. Reckless spending--all for good causes--I have never seen a grant program that doesn't promise to do good things, but it is destroying our prosperity. That spending is driving the worst inflation in 40 years and the most ruinous debt in our Nation's history. And it is hard to find a grant program that actually delivers on its promises.

I think it is time that we began to spend taxpayers' money as carefully as they spend what they have got left after we have taxed them into debt.

This bill falls short of that responsibility.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. There lies the key element to my friends who are ignoring the fact that this one-stop legislation has bipartisan support. It means that someone who was in opposition to my party, my caucus, supports this. The work that Ms. Bass did with all of us was a bipartisan effort. And the reason is because this is an investment.

And my friends keep talking about grants. And so it is the grant that continues to be the line of argument and the--how should I say it--the bee sting. And they are wrong because grants have oversight. Grants require these organizations to apply and present the best practices, the best evidence. And so I am very glad that it is a grant. But it also gives those with broad needs across the land the fair opportunity to apply for a grant to be able to have these kinds of programs.

The one-stop model that this legislation promotes would aim to provide complete reentry services to address the critical elements of the reentry process that promote long-term reentry success, which as I said, is housing, employment, education, and healthcare.

The bill will ensure that returning citizens can effectively access the services funded through the many bills that we have tried to work on.

Now let me just be very clear. One of my good friends called off a list of offenders that really triggers fear, apprehension, and distaste. Well, those are the very individuals that we would hope that through treatment, medical care and otherwise, and getting them into a proper program, that they can be contributing, that their families do not have to be fearfully looking over their shoulder as to what have they done next. We have to try. And these programs will hire those who have a difficult time finding employment. But you can be assured that working with the program they will be screened prior to their employment; their employment will reduce their likelihood to recidivate.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is extremely important that we take the tough questions and give good answers. Tough questions about: What do you do with those who are trying to reenter? What you do is you have a good program that is tough and that it works.

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