[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4446 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4446

To amend the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 to strengthen juvenile 
                           and family courts.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 13, 2010

  Mr. Heller (for himself, Ms. Titus, and Ms. Berkley) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 to strengthen juvenile 
                           and family courts.

    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 ``Strengthening Outcomes for America's 
Juvenile and Family Courts Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO STRENGTHEN JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURTS.

    Subtitle C of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 
13021-13024) is amended to read as follows:

      ``Subtitle C--Programs for Juvenile and Family Court Judges

``SEC. 221. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    ``Congress finds the following:
            ``(1) The prevention of child abuse and neglect can help 
        stop the cycle of violence in communities.
            ``(2) Research indicates that child abuse and neglect is 
        associated with the early onset of juvenile crime and that 
        there is a significant relationship between child maltreatment 
        and delinquency.
            ``(3) The co-occurrence of domestic violence and child 
        abuse or neglect in a majority of studies ranged from 30 to 60 
        percent of families.
            ``(4) There are currently over 500,000 children in the 
        Nation's foster care system, and in 2005 there were an 
        estimated 1,700,000 delinquency cases handled in juvenile 
        courts nationwide.
            ``(5) Children and youth in the Nation's juvenile and 
        family court systems require judicial oversight and effective 
        services to ensure timely and meaningful resolution of their 
        cases.
            ``(6) Juvenile and family court judges can hold systems 
        accountable for ensuring that children and youth receive the 
        services they need, and in cases of juvenile delinquency, that 
        children and youth are held accountable for their actions, 
        while ensuring safety of communities.
            ``(7) Juvenile and family court judges require education, 
        technical assistance and research which can provide the 
        knowledge and information they need to improve decision-making 
        on the bench and effective judicial leadership outside of the 
        courtroom.

``SEC. 222. GRANTS FOR JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES AND PERSONNEL.

    ``(a) In General.--The Attorney General, acting through the Office 
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Office of 
Justice Programs, shall make grants to improve training, education, 
technical assistance, and research to assist the Nation's courts, 
judges, judicial personnel, attorneys, child welfare personnel, and lay 
child advocates.
    ``(b) Grantee Organizations.--
            ``(1) An organization to which a grant is made pursuant to 
        subsection (a) shall be a national nonprofit organization that 
        has broad membership among juvenile and family court judges and 
        has demonstrated experience in grant administration of 
        activities described in subsection (a).
            ``(2) A national nonprofit organization described in 
        paragraph (1) shall have specialized expertise addressing the 
        overlap of and the judicial system's handling of--
                    ``(A) child abuse and neglect;
                    ``(B) adoption and foster care;
                    ``(C) elder abuse;
                    ``(D) juvenile justice and delinquency;
                    ``(E) violence against women;
                    ``(F) family violence;
                    ``(G) alcohol and drug abuse;
                    ``(H) supervised visitations;
                    ``(I) child custody; and
                    ``(J) divorce.

``SEC. 223. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    ``There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this subtitle 
$12,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2014.''.
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