Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2008 --Continued--

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008--Continued -- (Senate - October 23, 2007)

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, about 2 percent of all children under the age of 18 have at least one parent incarcerated in a State or Federal prison. According to the Bureau of Justice.

In 1999 an estimated 721,500 State and Federal prisoners were parents to 1,498,800 children under age 18. 22 percent of all minor children with a parent in prison were under 5 years old. Prior to admission, less than half of the parents in State prison reported living with their children 44 percent of fathers, 64 percent of mothers.

As a group, children of prisoners are less likely than their peers to succeed in school and more likely to become engaged in delinquent behavior. So, it is important that we support organizations that provide positive adult mentors to address the needs of these at-risk children--organizations like the Seedling Foundation in Austin, TX; and national organizations like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and Amachi, both of which have chapters in most States.

Many of these organizations depend on grants from the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program, authorized in 2001 under section 439 of the Social Security Act and administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This program was designed to keep children connected to a parent in prison in order to increase the chances that the family will come together successfully when the parent is released. Unfortunately, this program has been level-funded for the past few years.

The current allocation for the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program is $507,000 below the President's request and is at the fiscal year 2007 level. I would have preferred that the Senate adopt an amendment to a modest increase in fiscal year 2008 funding and restore this amount to the Senate bill. At the very least, I would encourage the conferees to retain the existing funding for this program.

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