[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3998 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3998

To expand au pair exchange visitor programs to include the provision of 
 in-home independent living services for adults with disabilities, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 18, 2004

 Mr. Cooper (for himself and Mr. Foley) introduced the following bill; 
     which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To expand au pair exchange visitor programs to include the provision of 
 in-home independent living services for adults with disabilities, 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 ``Au Pair Program Expansion Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Since their inception in 1986, au pair exchange visitor 
        programs have become some of the most successful cultural 
        exchange programs in the history of the United States.
            (2) Au pair exchange visitor programs welcome approximately 
        12,000 au pairs into the United States per year.
            (3) Permanently authorized in 1997, au pair exchange 
        visitor programs historically only included a child care 
        component for participants.
            (4) The success of au pair exchange visitor programs in 
        helping to meet the child care needs of families in the United 
        States demonstrates the programs' capacity to fulfill a demand 
        for in-home assistance while also providing a valuable cultural 
        experience for au pair participants.
            (5) Currently, there is a critical shortage of providers of 
        in-home independent living services for adults with low or 
        moderate levels of disability. Although these adults only 
        require moderate levels of assistance with basic activities of 
        daily living, the shortage of providers forces many of these 
        adults to rely unnecessarily on expensive skilled care services 
        or to live in an institutional setting at great cost.
            (6) The expansion of au pair exchange visitor programs to 
        include the provision of in-home independent living services 
        for adults with disabilities would not only improve the quality 
        of life for such adults but would expand opportunities for 
        foreign students to participate in such programs.
            (7) Due to the complexities of such an expansion, a pilot 
        program using sponsors that are already designated by the 
        Department of State to conduct an au pair exchange program is 
        the appropriate way to gauge the merits of undertaking such 
        expansion on a permanent basis.

SEC. 3. PILOT PROGRAM EXPANDING AU PAIR PROGRAM TO INCLUDE IN-HOME 
              ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES.

    (a) Establishment of Pilot Program; Termination.--Not later than 
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
State shall establish a pilot program under which sponsors designated 
by the Department of State to conduct an au pair exchange visitor 
program may place foreign nationals participating in such program in 
positions that require the foreign national to provide in-home 
independent living services to an adult with disabilities rather than 
child care services. Only sponsors designated by the Department of 
State to conduct an au pair exchange visitor program on the date of the 
enactment of this Act may participate in such pilot program. Such pilot 
program shall terminate not earlier than 5 years after the date on 
which it is commenced.
    (b) Regulations.--In promulgating regulations under subsection (a), 
the Secretary of State--
            (1) shall define ``in-home independent living services'' to 
        include only home support services such as--
                    (A) personal care (such as walking, bathing, 
                dressing, and assistance with eating);
                    (B) homemaker services (shopping, meal preparation, 
                and light housekeeping); and
                    (C) performance of routine household chores 
                (cleaning and yard work) and to exclude the provision 
                of medical care or other services that are required to 
                be delivered by licensed health professionals or under 
                the direction of a physical or occupational therapist;
            (2) shall ensure that all cultural exchange and educational 
        aspects of the existing au pair exchange visitor programs are 
        unimpaired;
            (3) may include provisions expanding the age range of au 
        pair candidates desiring to provide in-home independent living 
        services to adults with disabilities; and
            (4) shall establish standards to ensure that foreign 
        nationals placed pursuant to the pilot program receive 
        appropriate training to prepare them for their work with adults 
        with disabilities.
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