Jenna Quinn Law

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 1147, the Jenna Quinn Law. The Jenna Quinn Law considers only one small part of the much broader Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA.

Through the reauthorization of CAPTA, Congress could take meaningful steps in preventing and addressing child abuse and neglect through providing States with the necessary resources to strengthen community- based child abuse prevention services. Despite CAPTA reauthorization passing in the House on a bipartisan basis in two previous Congresses, the bill did not become law, so we find ourselves here today considering the very narrowly drafted Jenna Quinn Law, which specifies that the HHS Secretary can award projects aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. It must be said that the Jenna Quinn Law regrettably does not authorize any new funding for such projects.

Reauthorizing CAPTA would have been a much better route and is a top priority, but another priority would be to address the communication holes in State child welfare systems. Specifically, the inability to communicate the threat of child endangerment across State lines can have devastating consequences.

In particular, one of my constituents, Heaven Watkins, fell victim to the lack of communication between State welfare agencies. In her case, the system allowed her to remain with an abusive parent who moved her from Minnesota to Virginia. Her past abuse was not communicated with Virginia officials, and the move resulted in her tragic death.

I am frustrated that this bill did not come to us under regular order. As a result, I am not able to offer the amendment that I offered at markup and the language that had been included in previous House- passed CAPTA reauthorization bills. My amendment would have required the creation of a nationwide interstate data exchange system to provide caseworkers with appropriate background and information on a family's interaction with the child welfare system in another State. If we had that State database in place, then it could have prevented further abuse or even death at the hands of abusive caregivers whose actions are not monitored across State lines, as was the case for Heaven Watkins and countless children.

While, ultimately, I will support the Jenna Quinn Law as far as it goes, the issue of child abuse prevention and treatment requires a more comprehensive approach. We can and should do more to reduce child abuse and neglect.

Despite the lack of a more comprehensive approach and no additional funding, this bill is still a step in the right direction. As a result, I will vote ``yes'' on the bill.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Wild), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Mr. Speaker, while this legislation would be a step to improve prevention, awareness, and reporting of child sexual abuse in schools, it woefully falls short of a comprehensive reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA.

CAPTA was last reauthorized over a decade ago in 2010, and a timely reauthorization is an appropriate solution to prevent child abuse and neglect from happening in the first place and provide better evidence- based treatments to address child maltreatment.

In both the 116th and the 117th Congresses, when I was chairman of the committee, the House passed a bipartisan CAPTA reauthorization bill called Stronger CAPTA. Regrettably, a CAPTA reauthorization has not yet become law despite a mutual understanding that Congress must do more to support children and families.

If the bipartisan Stronger CAPTA bill had been signed into law, it would have already provided States with necessary resources to expand locally driven prevention strategies, which strengthen families and invest in child protective services agencies.

Unfortunately, the bill we are considering today does not provide any additional funding to implement its proposed grant program on child sexual abuse prevention and awareness. In contrast, Stronger CAPTA would actually provide States with the resources to strengthen prevention programs.

Research shows that the best way to support families is to provide a targeted prevention to families of at-risk children when they are at risk of maltreatment, and primary prevention services need to be provided so that families can be served before they become vulnerable to factors associated with maltreatment.

Additionally, Stronger CAPTA would have streamlined communications between child protective services agencies across the country so that critical information is not lost across State lines. Such a system would likely have saved the life of Heaven Watkins, the 11-year-old who I mentioned before, who tragically died because local child protective services had no way of knowing that her parents had a history of child abuse in another State.

If the reforms in Stronger CAPTA had been in place, Heaven's death would likely have been prevented. By investing in prevention strategies and improving the collection and sharing of vital information, we can keep children like Heaven from slipping through the cracks.

There is no doubt that Congress has a vital role in helping States protect children from immediate injury and lifelong emotional trauma associated with child abuse and neglect.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working in a bipartisan manner in the next Congress to reauthorize CAPTA. Meanwhile, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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