NATIONAL SERVICE REAUTHORIZATION ACT--Continued -- (Senate - March 25, 2009)
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AMENDMENT NO. 717 TO AMENDMENT NO. 687
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I so appreciate the Senator from Maryland for managing this important bill and the Senator from Utah, both of whom have done an excellent job, along with Senator Kennedy's guidance and support during the times he could be with us to move this bill, because it has been a great work of many Members of this body, both Democrats and Republicans. Of course, Senator Enzi has also been a great leader in this effort. It is such a timely and important subject as Americans are searching amidst all of the difficulties faced in the economic climate and uncertainty on the international front.
Americans are realizing the importance of loved ones and family. They are realizing the importance of the community that is around them. For better or worse, even though we are a great travel destination--and I do want to encourage people to continue traveling as they can, particularly to places such as New Orleans and Louisiana that see a number of visitors--I think Americans are turning a little bit more inward and want to spend more time with their families and right at home in their communities.
So this bill is timely because it basically calls America to come together, and it recognizes that some of our greatest assets are not just our money--which is fleeting, as we can tell these days. I remember my father used to tell me when I was growing up, he said: The easiest thing for me to give you, sweetheart, is a $20 bill, even though we didn't have a lot of them floating around the house, but the hardest thing for me to give you is my time. That is what this bill calls for. This bill calls for us to give our time and our talents. God has given us all an equal amount; we all get 24 hours in a day. A life is made by how people spend that time, either serving themselves, worshiping idol gods, or spending their time on the things that matter.
I think this bill has such significance for us as a Nation now as we think about how to revitalize our service programs, update them, modernize them, particularly in light of the fact that we have so many healthy seniors, men and women who have achieved unimaginable success, different than many generations in the past. They find themselves at a great point in their life, in their late sixties or early seventies, very healthy, or even mid fifties. They are retiring and want to serve. So I think this is an excellent bill.
Mr. President, I come to the floor only to again congratulate the leaders and offer an amendment that gives a slight twist to a piece of this that I think is very important. I know a lot of great work has gone on. The amendment I wish to call up is amendment No. 717.
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Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I wish to take a minute to explain the amendment. I understand both Senators managing have looked at this and both their staffs have looked at it as well. It is a slight change to the mentoring portion of this bill dealing with children at risk.
If you think of America having 300 million people, about a third of those would be children. So we have about 100 million children in America, I guess between the ages of zero and 18 or 21. That is a lot of kids to care for. We as a nation are trying to do our best as individual parents and families and communities. However, there is a special group of children--and I am going to take a minute more--there is a special group of children who are actually our children. All of these 100 million are ours theoretically. But definitely--and not in theory, but in actuality there are 500,000 children--as the Senator from Maryland knows very well because her career started as the only social worker, I think, in this body--500,000 children who are in foster care actually are children of the government, of the State, of our national and State governments. We are primarily responsible as a government for their care, their welfare, and their education.
So my amendment is quite simple. It adds a provision for a mentoring program for this special group of children, foster children who sometimes spend a few years there--sometimes a long time, unfortunately. Despite our great efforts to make foster care temporary, we know there are barriers for reunification or adoption. We are trying to work through those barriers. But we have some extraordinary, I say to my colleagues Senator Hatch and Senator Mikulski, some extraordinary pilots underway in this country.
In States such as California, where Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger joined to support this program, there are promising results coming back about foster children in elementary and high schools who have mentors of their same age. We have always had grandparent mentoring, and that is very effective, where seniors are mentoring children. But, as you know, if you have teenagers, as I do, sometimes teenagers don't like to listen to adults. But teenagers will listen to their peers.
This is a great opportunity to have mentors from colleges and high schools coming to mentor our children who are in foster care. I will submit for the Record--because my colleague is going to speak--some exciting results.
I ask unanimous consent that a list of these results be printed in the Record.
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Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, that is basically the substance of my amendment. It doesn't add a special corps, but it is an amendment that says when we care for children in need, let's look especially at foster care children and promote those kinds of mentorship programs that we know work and that can make a difference.
Of all the children in America, I say to the Senator from Maryland, these children really need our focus, our attention, our love and our support. I understand this amendment can be taken up at any time that is appropriate for the managers.
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