[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2615 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2615

   To establish a program to promote child literacy by making books 
available through early learning and other child care programs, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 23, 2000

 Mr. Kennedy (for himself and Mrs. Hutchison) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To establish a program to promote child literacy by making books 
available through early learning and other child care programs, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Book Stamp Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Literacy is fundamental to all learning.
            (2) Between 40 and 60 percent of the Nation's children do 
        not read at grade level, particularly children in families or 
        school districts that are challenged by significant financial 
        or social instability.
            (3) Increased investments in child literacy are needed to 
        improve opportunities for children and the efficacy of the 
        Nation's education investments.
            (4) Increasing access to books in the home is an important 
        means of improving child literacy, which can be accomplished 
        nationally at modest cost.
            (5) Effective channels for book distribution already exist 
        through child care providers.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Early learning program.--The term ``early learning'', 
        used with respect to a program, means a program of activities 
        designed to facilitate development of cognitive, language, 
        motor, and social-emotional skills in children under age 6 as a 
        means of enabling the children to enter school ready to learn, 
        such as a Head Start or Early Head Start program carried out 
        under the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.), or a State 
        pre-kindergarten program.
            (2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Health and Human Services.
            (3) State.--The term ``State'' means the 50 States, the 
        District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, 
        the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the 
        Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
            (4) State agency.--The term ``State agency'' means an 
        agency designated under section 658D of the Child Care and 
        Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858b).

SEC. 4. GRANTS TO STATE AGENCIES.

    (a) Establishment of Program.--The Secretary shall establish and 
carry out a program to promote child literacy and improve children's 
access to books at home and in early learning and other child care 
programs, by making books available through early learning and other 
child care programs.
    (b) Grants.--
            (1) In general.--In carrying out the program, the Secretary 
        shall make grants to State agencies from allotments determined 
        under paragraph (2).
            (2) Allotments.--For each fiscal year, the Secretary shall 
        allot to each State an amount that bears the same ratio to the 
        total of the available funds for the fiscal year as the amount 
        the State receives under section 658O(b) of the Child Care and 
        Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858m(b)) for 
        the fiscal year bears to the total amount received by all 
        States under that section for the fiscal year.
    (c) Applications.--To be eligible to receive an allotment under 
this section, a State shall submit an application to the Secretary at 
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the 
Secretary may require.
    (d) Accountability.--The provisions of sections 658I(b) and 658K(b) 
of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 
9858g(b), 9858i(b)) shall apply to States receiving grants under this 
Act, except that references in those sections--
            (1) to a subchapter shall be considered to be references to 
        this Act; and
            (2) to a plan or application shall be considered to be 
        references to an application submitted under subsection (c).
    (e) Definition.--In this section, the term ``available funds'', 
used with respect to a fiscal year, means the total of--
            (1) the funds made available under section 416(c)(1) of 
        title 39, United States Code for the fiscal year; and
            (2) the amounts appropriated under section 9 for the fiscal 
        year.

SEC. 5. CONTRACTS TO CHILD CARE RESOURCE AND
              REFERRAL AGENCIES.

    A State agency that receives a grant under section 4 shall use 
funds made available through the grant to enter into contracts with 
local child care resource and referral agencies to carry out the 
activities described in section 6. The State agency may reserve not 
more than 3 percent of the funds made available through the grant to 
support a public awareness campaign relating to the activities.

SEC. 6. USE OF FUNDS.

    (a) Activities.--
            (1) Book payments for eligible providers.--A child care 
        resource and referral agency that receives a contract under 
        section 5 shall use the funds made available through the grant 
        to provide payments for eligible early learning program and 
        other child care providers, on the basis of local needs, to 
        enable the providers to make books available, to promote child 
        literacy and improve children's access to books at home and in 
        early learning and other child care programs.
            (2) Eligible providers.--To be eligible to receive a 
        payment under paragraph (1), a provider shall--
                    (A)(i) be a center-based child care provider, a 
                group home child care provider, or a family child care 
                provider, described in section 658P(5)(A) of the Child 
                Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 
                9858n(5)(A)); or
                    (ii) be a Head Start agency designated under 
                section 641 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9836), an 
                entity that receives assistance under section 645A of 
                such Act to carry out an Early Head Start program or 
                another provider of an early learning program; and
                    (B) provide services in an area where children face 
                high risks of literacy difficulties, as defined by the 
                Secretary.
    (b) Responsibilities.--A child care resource and referral agency 
that receives a contract under section 5 to provide payments to 
eligible providers shall--
            (1) consult with local individuals and organizations 
        concerned with early literacy (including parents and 
        organizations carrying out the Reach Out and Read, First Book, 
        and Reading Is Fundamental programs) regarding local book 
        distribution needs;
            (2) make reasonable efforts to learn public demographic and 
        other information about local families and child literacy 
        programs carried out by the eligible providers, as needed to 
        inform the agency's decisions as the agency carries out the 
        contract;
            (3) coordinate local orders of the books made available 
        under this Act;
            (4) distribute, to each eligible provider that receives a 
        payment under this Act, not fewer than 1 book every 6 months 
        for each child served by the provider for more than 3 of the 
        preceding 6 months;
            (5) use not more than 5 percent of the funds made available 
        through the contract to provide training and technical 
        assistance to the eligible providers on the effective use of 
        books with young children at different stages of development; 
        and
            (6) be a training resource for eligible providers that want 
        to offer parent workshops on developing reading readiness.
    (c) Discounts.--
            (1) In general.--Federal funds made available under this 
        Act for the purchase of books may only be used to purchase 
        books on the same terms as are customarily available in the 
        book industry to entities carrying out nonprofit bulk book 
        purchase and distribution programs.
            (2) Terms.--An entity offering books for purchase under 
        this Act shall be present to have met the requirements of 
        paragraph (1), absent contrary evidence, if the terms include a 
        discount of 43 percent off the catalogue price of the books, 
        with no additional charge for shipping and handling of the 
        books.
    (d) Administration.--The child care resource and referral agency 
may not use more than 6 percent of the funds made available through the 
contract for administrative costs.

SEC. 7. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Not later than 2 years of the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary shall prepare and submit to Congress a report on the 
implementation of the activities carried out under this Act.

SEC. 8. SPECIAL POSTAGE STAMPS FOR CHILD LITERACY.

    Chapter 4 of title 39, United States Code is amended by adding at 
the end the following:
``Sec. 416. Special postage stamps for child literacy
    ``(a) In order to afford the public a convenient way to contribute 
to funding for child literacy, the Postal Service shall establish a 
special rate of postage for first-class mail under this section. The 
stamps that bear the special rate of postage shall promote childhood 
literacy and shall, to the extent practicable, contain an image 
relating to a character in a children's book or cartoon.
    ``(b)(1) The rate of postage established under this section--
            ``(A) shall be equal to the regular first-class rate of 
        postage, plus a differential of not to exceed 25 percent;
            ``(B) shall be set by the Governors in accordance with such 
        procedures as the Governors shall by regulation prescribe (in 
        lieu of the procedures described in chapter 36); and
            ``(C) shall be offered as an alternative to the regular 
        first-class rate of postage.
    ``(2) The use of the special rate of postage established under this 
section shall be voluntary on the part of postal patrons.
    ``(c)(1) Of the amounts becoming available for child literacy 
pursuant to this section, the Postal Service shall pay 100 percent to 
the Department of Health and Human Services.
    ``(2) Payments made under this subsection to the Department shall 
be made under such arrangements as the Postal Service shall by mutual 
agreement with such Department establish in order to carry out the 
objectives of this section, except that, under those arrangements, 
payments to such agency shall be made at least twice a year.
    ``(3) In this section, the term `amounts becoming available for 
child literacy pursuant to this section' means--
            ``(A) the total amounts received by the Postal Service that 
        the Postal Service would not have received but for the 
        enactment of this section; reduced by
            ``(B) an amount sufficient to cover reasonable costs 
        incurred by the Postal Service in carrying out this section, 
        including costs attributable to the printing, sale, and 
        distribution of stamps under this section,
as determined by the Postal Service under regulations that the Postal 
Service shall prescribe.
    ``(d) It is the sense of Congress that nothing in this section 
should--
            ``(1) directly or indirectly cause a net decrease in total 
        funds received by the Department of Health and Human Services, 
        or any other agency of the Government (or any component or 
        program of the Government), below the level that would 
        otherwise have been received but for the enactment of this 
section; or
            ``(2) affect regular first-class rates of postage or any 
        other regular rates of postage.
    ``(e) Special postage stamps made available under this section 
shall be made available to the public beginning on such date as the 
Postal Service shall by regulation prescribe, but in no event later 
than 12 months after the date of enactment of this section.
    ``(f) The Postmaster General shall include in each report provided 
under section 2402, with respect to any period during any portion of 
which this section is in effect, information concerning the operation 
of this section, except that, at a minimum, each report shall include 
information on--
            ``(1) the total amounts described in subsection (c)(3)(A) 
        that were received by the Postal Service during the period 
        covered by such report; and
            ``(2) of the amounts described in paragraph (1), how much 
        (in the aggregate and by category) was required for the 
        purposes described in subsection (c)(3)(B).
    ``(g) This section shall cease to be effective at the end of the 2-
year period beginning on the date on which special postage stamps made 
available under this section are first made available to the public.''.

SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act 
$50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001 through 2005.
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