District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2004

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of H.R. 2765, which the clerk will report.

The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

A bill (H.R. 2765) making appropriations for the government of the District of Columbia and other activities chargeable in whole or in part against the revenues of said District for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio is recognized.

AMENDMENT NO. 1783

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I have a substitute amendment at the desk.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.

The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Ohio [Mr. DeWine] proposes an amendment numbered 1783.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

(The amendment is printed in the RECORD under "Text of Amendments.")

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, as chairman of the District of Columbia Subcommittee, it is my pleasure to present to the Members of the Senate this morning a bill that has been approved by the Appropriations Committee.

Let me first thank the Senator from Louisiana, Ms. MARY LANDRIEU, my colleague, for her excellent work on this bill.
She has worked very hard with me. I thank her for her efforts in drafting this appropriations bill that is before us this morning.

This bill provides $545 million in Federal funds for the District of Columbia, and it also includes the city's own local budget of $5.7 billion. The funds in this bill focus on a number of key priorities for the District of Columbia. I wish to highlight four of those priorities.

First is improving the lives and opportunities for children in foster care.

Second is enhancing educational opportunities for inner-city students.

Third is reducing and preventing crime in the District of Columbia.

Fourth is increasing the security in our Nation's Capital.

Mr. President, I wish to discuss the first priority at some length—improving foster care in the District of Columbia. No one who is familiar with our Nation's Capital needs to be reminded about the sorry state of the foster care system in the District of Columbia. No one who reads the Washington Post, no one who lives in the District of Columbia, no one who listens to the radio needs to be reminded of this. The foster care system in the District of Columbia is a scandal; it is a crime; it is a tragedy. The fact that it exists in our Nation's Capital makes it even worse. We have an obligation as Members of the Senate and this Congress to do something about it.

Senator Landrieu and I started well over a year ago to focus on the foster care system. We decided to have a series of hearings, where we would bring in experts from the District and from across the country to look at the foster care system in the District of Columbia. Our goal was to try to find out as much as we could about the foster care system in the District of Columbia, try to find out what was wrong with it, and try to find out what we could do as Members of the Senate, what the Federal Government could do to try to be of assistance.

This bill represents the first attempt by the Federal Government to directly impact this foster care system in a very meaningful way. What we did was listen to the testimony, listen to the foster parents, listen to the experts, and take their suggestions. What you will find in this bill are the ideas that came from these parents, from the experts, from the people who see this system day after day. We have provided some money, which we believe will help with these ideas and begin to change this system. It is the right thing to do.

As Members know, over the years, the District of Columbia has had an abysmal record in protecting the lives and well-being of the children in the District's care. Children in foster care have died, been abused, or they have languished for years in foster care, often bouncing from foster home to foster home without ever finding permanent placement with a loving family.

The statistics are shocking. Children in foster care in the District spend an average of 5 years in foster care before they achieve a permanent placement. I will repeat that. The children in the District of Columbia spend an average of 5 years before they ever find a permanent home. Obviously, that means some children languish in foster care much longer than 5 years. That is wrong, and we must do something about it.

During our subcommittee hearings, we found that the District of Columbia is unable to track its children in foster care.
They cannot even keep track of them. We have this very sophisticated—supposedly—computer system, yet inputs are not being made, the tracking is not taking place, and complete data is not even available in the child and family services computer system for over 70 percent of children in foster care today. How can we keep track of these poor kids and determine their well-being when much of their personal information is not ever entered into this automated computer system? This simply must change.

While putting together this bill, Senator Landrieu and I learned a lot. We learned that only about one-third of the children in foster care who need mental health services are actually receiving the services. Moreover, many children who come into care wait for weeks and weeks, or months and months, before they even receive that first mental health assessment.

Let's understand that these are not just your average children. These are children who, many times, have been neglected, abandoned, physically or sexually abused, or they have witnessed, many times, terrifying domestic violence. These are obviously children who need some initial, at least, assessment in regard to their mental health problems. For them to wait months before an assessment is just wrong. It makes no sense. It is just asking for trouble.

Clearly, we all understand that these kids, after experiencing trauma and abuse and neglect, are in desperate need of mental health services. We need to provide those services quickly to these children.

Furthermore, during our committee hearings on foster care, Senator Landrieu and I learned that there is a severe shortage of social workers in the District. That should not have been a revelation to anybody. We know that from articles we have read in the newspapers. But it was brought home even more starkly in the hearings we held—the shortage of well-trained social workers in the District of Columbia. Many of these workers are carrying extremely high caseloads, making it very difficult for them to do their job. Also, many of these caseworkers simply are not being provided the tools they need to get their jobs done.

We found there are several critical needs that, if addressed, could certainly go a long way in improving the lives of thousands of children in the District's foster care system, and it would expedite their placement in stable, loving homes.
Therefore, this bill does contain $14 million in new money to address these needs.

Let me explain what these new programs and ideas are.

No. 1, we provide for intensive early intervention. This means when a child comes into care, the case will be treated as an emergency situation. Just as hospitals triage medical trauma, the District's child and family service agency triage the emotional trauma facing children who are brought into their care. The earlier a child is stabilized, the better his or her chances of avoiding long-term damage. If a child can remain with an appropriate or qualified family member, he or she will face much less emotional trauma.

Some of the funds provided in this bill will allow the agency to staff such an early intervention program and will establish a flexible fund for the purchase of beds, clothing, and other items to ensure that a relative can bring a child into his or her home immediately without forcing the child to stay in a group home or foster home.

Second, early mental health evaluations and timely mental health services for all children in foster care. What does this mean? The bill provides $3 million for the District's Department of Mental Health to ensure all children receive mental health assessments within 15 days of coming into foster care; further, that all mental health assessment reports are provided to the court within 5 days of assessment and that all children receive mental health services immediately after the court orders those services. This will help alleviate the current intolerable situation.

According to the District of Columbia Family Court, in most child abuse and neglect cases where mental health services have been ordered, there are long delays in providing these services to the child or to the family. It can often take up to 6 to 8 weeks, or longer, to complete an evaluation and up to 60 days after the evaluation before the mental health services are actually provided, even in very serious and dangerous situations. Under this bill, that would change.

The third provision of this bill will provide for the recruitment and retention of qualified social workers and will begin to deal with this problem. How do we do this? The bill will provide $3 million in new money for the repayment of student loans to encourage social workers to enter or to stay in the field. It will allow this money to be provided as an incentive to pay back student loans if the young social workers agree to continue to stay and work. It will take that burden away from that social worker.

One of the problems, of course, is a person wants to be a social worker, they want to do good, they want to stay in the field, but because of this low rate of pay and they have this big burden, this big debt, they cannot stay in the field very long. They have to do something elsewhere where they can make more money to pay back the debt.

This bill will help them ease that burden. It is no surprise that the higher the caseload per social worker, the lower the quality of service to each of the children.

The District, like many cities, suffers from a high turnover of social workers. That is not good for the kids. In fact, the national current turnover rate has doubled since 1991. Clearly, the relatively low pay and difficult working conditions of social workers have resulted in a child welfare workforce crisis in the District. Without doubt, steps must be taken to encourage more social workers to enter the child welfare workforce and we must improve the salaries, we must improve the working conditions and the training of workers, and we want to retain more of the qualified and experienced social workers.
The reality is, the longer a social worker is there, the more experience they get, and we want to retain the experienced social workers.

The fourth provision of this new program is recruitment and retention of foster parents. The bill provides $1.1 million to recruit and retain foster parents. CFSA has experienced difficulties with recruiting and retaining an adequate number of appropriate foster care parents. One reason for this is lack of availability of respite care for foster parents. This is one of the items Senator Landrieu and I heard foster parents tell us—good people who were very much overburdened. One mom who came in was taking care of many children. She said: If we just had the opportunity for a few hours to have a break, this would be of great help.

Foster parents do not have the same opportunities for respite as biological parents many times do. The funds in this bill would provide emergency respite, planned respite, and ongoing regularly scheduled respite care. This is critical to provide foster parents the rest they need to continue to stay on as foster parents.

The fifth provision is to improve computer tracking of all children in foster care. I talked earlier about the situation of the computer system and how bad it is. The bill provides $3 million to move the agency's current client-server system to a Web-based architecture and to provide laptop computers to all CFSA social workers.

The subcommittee heard testimony from the General Accounting Office that CFSA's database lacks many active foster care cases and the system is often down. In addition, social workers do not have access to the database via laptop computers when they are with children, foster families, or while waiting in court. This would be a great opportunity to better utilize the precious time of social workers so they can use that time sitting in court or, when they are out in the field, to put the data directly, immediately into that computer. This is to better utilize the precious time social workers have.

Social workers now must return to the office late at night and enter the data of children in care. With laptop computers and Web-based access to information, social workers would then be able to enter key data from off-site locations. We want social workers to use that precious time hands on, dealing with kids, dealing with families. That is most important. Using technology better will enable them to spend more time with these families. We want them to spend time on case plans and working with the families. This will enable them to do that.

I spoke at length about the foster care initiative in this bill because it is so very important. It breaks new ground. It does something about which Senator Landrieu and I feel very passionately. We feel passionately about it because we learned so much about it in the hearings we held. This subject deserves this Congress's time. It deserves our attention. It deserves our money.

As chairman of this subcommittee, I and the ranking member, Senator Landrieu, have listened to far too many horror stories about children dying or being abused in the District's foster care system. As a Federal partner with this city, I believe it is imperative we provide funds and seek ways to protect the lives of these very precious children. It is our duty and it is our moral responsibility to do so.

The second priority which this bill funds is enhancing educational opportunities for inner-city kids. This bill provides a total of $40 million new money—I emphasize "new money"—for three interrelated components: $13 million to promote excellence in traditional public schools in the District of Columbia; $13 million to expand choice through high-quality charter schools; and $13 million for opportunity scholarships for low-income students in failing schools to attend private schools; and $1 million for administrative fees. That is $40 million in new money for the District of Columbia's children to help educate them.

This is a balanced approach. It is balanced because, as I said, it is $13 million, $13 million, and $13 million. It is evenly divided. The charter schools, $13 million; public schools, $13 million; and $13 million for the new scholarships.

Let us make no mistake about it. This is new money. It is not taking it from the public schools. It is not taking it anywhere else from public education. This is money that Senator Gregg has worked long and hard to come up with, other Members have worked long and hard to come up with, to put together in a package that is balanced, that is reasonable, and that we will be talking about more on the Senate floor later.

It is for the kids in the District of Columbia and it makes sense. This is a plus-up in funding. This is new money. It is for the kids in the District of Columbia.

Turning to the bill itself, I will read directly from the language of the bill. We will be discussing this later. I think the bill says it very well on page 21, when we talk about these scholarships. It provides students and their families with the widest range of educational options, because that is really what we are talking about: public schools, charter schools, and, with this additional $13 million to scholarships, options for the parents, options for the students.

I am pleased to report that this three-sector approach to improving DC schools is wholeheartedly supported by Mayor Anthony Williams. He has been out front in leading the charge for this plan. He was on Capitol Hill yesterday very eloquently describing why this is needed for the District of Columbia.

The plan for the District has wide support, but the most important supporters for this program are the thousands of low-income parents of schoolchildren in this city whose children are languishing in failing schools. Under this bill, the priority for children to be able to get these scholarships is children who are in what are described as the failing schools. These parents want an opportunity to try a new approach. I believe they deserve that opportunity. Their hope is for a brighter future for their children.

The third priority funded by this bill is reducing and preventing crime in the District of Columbia. The Federal Government entirely funds the DC courts and the Court Services and Supervision Agency. This bill provides a total of $377 million for these agencies, which is $18 million more than the President's budget request. Most of these additional resources are to integrate the 18 different computer systems that track offender and litigation information.

In addition, the bill provides additional resources to allow the Court Services and Supervision Agency to enhance its supervision of high-risk sex offenders, as well as offenders with mental health problems and offenders with a history of domestic violence. I submit that these are the most dangerous offenders. These are offenders who are the most likely to cause harm and damage to the citizens of the District of Columbia, and to the tourists and visitors who come here every single day.

Senator Landrieu and I held a hearing. We heard from the people in the Government of the District of Columbia and the Federal officials who are charged by law with supervising these individuals who are out on parole and probation. What they
told us was these are the most high-risk offenders. They are out on the streets. Right or wrong, they are out on the streets.
They told us these are the most dangerous individuals.

I must say from my experience years ago as a county prosecutor that there is no doubt these are the most dangerous offenders. What we learned is that the ratio of the supervisors to these offenders today is only 42 to 1, many times. In other words, 42 offenders to 1 supervisor. What our bill would do is to take that ratio down to 25 to 1. It is the right thing to do, and we are going to do it with this bill. We are targeting those dangerous offenders. This is a boost to safety in the District of Columbia.

Additional resources also will expand the Agency's use of GPS-based electronic monitoring equipment to ensure that offenders are not near locations such as schools or specific residences.

The fourth priority in this bill is increasing security in the Nation's Capital. Since September 11, we all understand the importance of security in the District of Columbia. Therefore, the bill includes security funding, including resources to complete a Unified Communications Center which will be the center for coordinated multiagency responses in the event of regional and national emergencies.

Funds also are included to continue to prepare the District's largest hospital, Washington Hospital Center, and its only dedicated children's hospital, Children's National Medical Center, for bioterrorist and chemical attacks. We began this process last year and further funding is in this year's budget.

The bill also continues to provide funds to reimburse the District for increased police, fire, and emergency personnel costs associated with the presence of the Federal Government.

Let me again thank Senator Landrieu, who is the ranking member of the subcommittee. It is always a pleasure to work with her. She has done a great job on this bill. She and I share the same concerns for the children and the residents who live in our Nation's Capital. We have worked very closely together on this bill. I believe we have put together a bill that is within budget. It is a bill that focuses on improving the well-being of the District's children and protecting the safety of all those who live and work here.

So I thank Senator Landrieu, I thank the Chair, and I will at this point yield to Senator Landrieu.