[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 15, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           INTRODUCTION OF THE FEDERAL YOUTH COORDINATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, I spent a good part of my life in coaching, 
dealing with young people, and not long ago, I had a call from a young 
man whom I had not heard from for about 7 or 8 years.
  This young man was abandoned by his father in infancy and then by his 
mother when he was 12, and he spent basically 2 years on his own on the 
streets, and he spent some time in a group home and, needless to say, 
had a very difficult life. Maybe things are getting a little better 
now, but unfortunately, this story is not unusual. It happens more and 
more frequently.
  The National Academy of Sciences estimates that 10 million teens, 
which is one-fourth of our teenagers, are at serious risk of not 
achieving a productive adulthood. There are 22 million fatherless 
children in our country. Fifty percent of our children currently grow 
up without both biological parents. We are the most violent Nation in 
the world for Nations that are not at war for young people in regard to 
homicide and suicide. We have 3 million teenagers addicted to alcohol 
and hundreds of thousands addicted to other kinds of drugs.
  I would submit, Mr. Speaker, that this level of dysfunction among our 
young people is a greater threat to the long-term well-being of our 
Nation than terrorism. That is an extreme statement, but I really 
believe it is true.
  The Federal Government has responded to this problem by creating more 
than 150 youth-serving programs spread over 12 agencies. Most of these 
programs are in Health and Human Services, Department of Education, 
Department of Justice.
  The problem is that many of these programs are duplicative. Most have 
not been evaluated for effectiveness. Many of them do not serve the 
function for which they were designed. Many have no clear mission or 
goals. There is often little communication between agencies and 
programs, and there is unnecessary complexity in obtaining youth 
services. For instance, someone in foster care may have to deal with 
four or five different agencies, and for a young person in foster care 
that is almost impossible to negotiate.
  The General Accounting Office calls Federal response to youth 
programs a perfect example of ``mission fragmentation,'' and it 
recommends coordination, consolidation and streamlining of youth-
serving programs.
  The White House Task Force on Disadvantaged Youth did a study and 
they arrived at a similar conclusion, that we had a tremendous amount 
of dysfunction and disorganization in our youth-serving programs.
  Therefore, at the request of numerous youth-serving agencies, we have 
drafted the Federal Youth Coordination Act which will be introduced 
tomorrow. This bill creates a council composed of members of all 12 
youth-serving agencies. This council will have to meet at least four 
times a year. The Council will be charged with basically five different 
tasks.
  Number 1, they will be asked to evaluate youth-serving programs to 
make sure they are accomplishing what they were designed to do.
  Number 2, they are charged with coordinating and consolidating across 
agencies. In many cases, the way the language of the bill is written, 
they cannot even talk to each other if they are in different agencies.
  Number 3, provide an annual report on progress on coordination, 
streamlining and consolidation.
  Number 4, set quantifiable goals for Federal youth programs and 
develop a plan to reach those goals. In other words, they have to, in 
some way, quantify and measure what it is they are trying to do and how 
far they have gone in achieving those goals.
  Number 5, hold Federal agencies accountable for achieving results.
  I would ask my colleagues to please support the Federal Youth 
Coordination Act. This bill will help the Federal Government deliver 
more services more effectively to a greater number of children. It will 
be more cost-effective, and I hope that it will receive broad 
bipartisan support.

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