Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006
CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 26, 2006)
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Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 3525, the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006. I would like to thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) and many other Members for their support of this bipartisan legislation.
This legislation reauthorizes and improves oversight and accountability of numerous child protection programs that will provide about $4 billion during the next 5 years to help keep children safe.
In recent years, the subcommittee I chair has held a dozen hearings on our Nation's child protection system. Every witness testified about the need to reform this broken system, which too often has lost track of children or placed them in homes where they suffered continued abuse and neglect.
The legislation before us today includes a number of provisions designed to improve the monitoring of children in foster care and to hold States more accountable for the care they provide. This legislation will require States to ensure that at least 90 percent of children in foster care are visited on a monthly basis in response to research highlighting the importance of frequent visits in promoting child safety.
This legislation also makes substantial improvements to the Child Welfare Services program. For example, this program now is permanently authorized. As a result, there has been little oversight and monitoring of the Child Welfare Services program in recent decades. This legislation will authorize this program through fiscal year 2011, ensuring that future Congresses examine this program, as improved in this bill, to make sure that it is operating properly.
This legislation also stresses preventing abuse and neglect from occurring, not just managing its effects. Among other measures, it targets new funds to a key cause of child abuse and neglect: parental drug abuse, including by parents who abuse methamphetamine, which is a major concern in my own northern California congressional district. A total of $145 million in program funds will be available to community groups working with child welfare officials to help keep parents off drugs.
Mr. Speaker, I have highlighted just a few of the many improvements this legislation will make to our Nation's child protection system, but there is still much more work to do. Children still linger in foster care waiting for permanent families. Every year, almost 24,000 of these youths age out of foster care without a family of their own. We will continue to work to ensure this system protects these children and promotes a brighter future. We also will continue our efforts to ensure that Federal taxpayer dollars are being spent properly within these programs. Today marks one step forward towards those goals.
This legislation has the support of numerous organizations including the Children's Defense Fund, the Child Welfare League of America, and the National Indian Child Welfare Association.
I thank all the Members and staff who have worked to bring this legislation to the floor today. The Child and Family Services Improvement Act is good legislation, and I urge all my colleagues to support it.
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Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, the Child and Family Services Improvement Act is good legislation that will help ensure the safety of vulnerable children. It will hold States accountable for visiting children in foster care on at least a monthly basis.
It will target existing resources to help States and local communities address the impact of parental substance abuse on child welfare programs. Again, I would like to thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) and all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their work in crafting this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I believe it will take an important step towards improving our Nation's child protection system.
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