[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 18 (Thursday, February 17, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1629-S1631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ROCKEFELLER:
  S. 415. A bill to amend part A of title IV of the Social Security Act 
to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct 
research on indicators of child well-being; to the Committee on 
Finance.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce legislation 
today know as the State Child Well-Being Research Act of 2005. This 
bill is designed to enhance child well-being in every State by 
collecting data on a State-by-State basis to provide information to 
advocates and policy-makers

[[Page S1630]]

about the well-being of children. Developing a set of indicators and 
measuring progress of child well-being deserves to be a priority.
  My hope is to incorporate this important research initiative into the 
welfare reform reauthorization package. I believe that the Senate 
should reauthorize our welfare program, known as Temporary Assistance 
to Needy Families, TANF, and we should do it this year. Chairman 
Grassley's interest in a bipartisan process is very encouraging.
  In 1996, Congress passed bold legislation to dramatically change our 
welfare system, and I supported it. The driving force behind this 
reform was to promote work and self-sufficiency for families and to 
provide flexibility to States to achieve these goals. States have used 
this flexibility to design different programs that work better for 
families who rely on them.
  Nine years later, it is obvious that we need State-by-State data on 
child well-being to measure the results. The current Survey of Income 
and Program Participation (SIPP) is used to evaluate the progress of 
welfare, and it has been an important national longitudinal study 
designed to provide rich, detailed data; the kinds of data most useful 
to academic researchers. It does not, however, provide States with 
good, timely data to help them more effectively accomplish the goals 
set forth in welfare reform. This is why is makes sense to invest in 
both types of surveys, the SIPP and this bill. As social policy and 
flexibility shifts to the States, the data measuring its effects should 
be specific.
  This bill, the State Child Well Being Research Act of 2005, is 
intended to fill this information gap by collecting timely, State-
specific data that can be used by policy-makers, researchers, and child 
advocates to assess the well being of children. It would require that a 
survey examine the physical and emotional health of children, 
adequately represent the experiences of families in individual States, 
be consistent across States, be collected annually, articulate results 
in easy to understand terms, and focus on low-income children and 
families.
  The proposed legislation will provide data for all States, including 
small rural States that cannot be covered under SIPP because the sample 
size is too small. A modest investment in this bill would offer State 
data for the twenty-three rural states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, 
Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, 
Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, 
Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 
Moreover, data from a cross-sectional survey would be available to 
State policy-makers on a far more timely basis than those of a national 
longitudinal study, a matter of months instead of years.
  Further, this bill avoids some of the other problems that plague the 
current system by making data files easier to use and more readily 
available. As a result, the information will be more useful for policy-
makers managing welfare reform and programs for children and families.
  This legislation also offers the potential for the Health and Human 
Service Department to partner with several private charitable 
foundations, including the Annie E. Casey, John D. and Catherine T. 
MacArthur, and McKnight foundations, who are interested in forming a 
partnership to provide outreach and support and to guarantee that the 
data collected would be broadly disseminated. This type of public-
private partnership helps to leverage additional resources for children 
and families and increases the study's impact. Given the tight budget 
we face, partnerships make sense.
  I hope my colleagues will support this effort to learn about the 
well-being of our children in rural States. I ask unanimous consent 
that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 415

       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 ``State Child Well-Being 
     Research Act of 2005''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The well-being of children is a paramount concern for 
     our Nation and for every State, and most programs for 
     children and families are managed at the State or local 
     level.
       (2) Child well-being varies over time and across social, 
     economic, and geographic groups, and can be affected by 
     changes in the circumstances of families, by the economy, by 
     the social and cultural environment, and by public policies 
     and programs at both the Federal and State level.
       (3) States, including small States, need information about 
     child well-being that is specific to their State and that is 
     up-to-date, cost-effective, and consistent across States and 
     over time.
       (4) Regular collection of child well-being information at 
     the State level is essential so that Federal and State 
     officials can track child well-being over time.
       (5) Information on child well-being is necessary for all 
     States, particularly small States that do not have State-
     level data in other federally supported data bases, such as 
     the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
       (6) Telephone surveys of parents, on the other hand, 
     represent a relatively cost-effective strategy for obtaining 
     information on child well-being at the State level for all 
     States, including small States.
       (7) Data from telephone surveys of the population are used 
     to monitor progress toward many important national goals, 
     including immunization of preschool children with the 
     National Immunization Survey, and the identification of 
     health care issues of children with special needs with the 
     National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs.
       (8) A State-level telephone survey can provide information 
     on a range of topics, including children's social and 
     emotional development, education, health, safety, family 
     income, family employment, and child care. Information 
     addressing marriage and family structure can also be obtained 
     for families with children. Information obtained from such a 
     survey would not be available solely for children or families 
     participating in programs but would be representative of the 
     entire State population and consequently, would not only 
     inform welfare policymaking, but policymaking on a range of 
     other important issues, such as child care, child welfare, 
     and education.

     SEC. 3. RESEARCH ON INDICATORS OF CHILD WELL-BEING.

       Section 413 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 613) is 
     amended by adding at the end the following:
       ``(k) Indicators of Child Well-Being.--
       ``(1) In general.--The Secretary, through grants, 
     contracts, or interagency agreements shall develop 
     comprehensive indicators to assess child well-being in each 
     State.
       ``(2) Requirements.--
       ``(A) In general.--The indicators developed under paragraph 
     (1) shall include measures related to the following:
       ``(i) Education.
       ``(ii) Social and emotional development.
       ``(iii) Health and safety.
       ``(iv) Family well-being, such as family structure, income, 
     employment, child care arrangements, and family 
     relationships.
       ``(B) Other requirements.--The data collected with respect 
     to the indicators developed under paragraph (1) shall be--
       ``(i) statistically representative at the State level;
       ``(ii) consistent across States;
       ``(iii) collected on an annual basis for at least the 5 
     years following the first year of collection;
       ``(iv) expressed in terms of rates or percentages;
       ``(v) statistically representative at the national level;
       ``(vi) measured with reliability;
       ``(vii) current;
       ``(viii) over-sampled, with respect to low-income children 
     and families; and
       ``(ix) made publicly available.
       ``(C) Consultation.--In developing the indicators required 
     under paragraph (1) and the means to collect the data 
     required with respect to the indicators, the Secretary shall 
     consult and collaborate with the Federal Interagency Forum on 
     Child and Family Statistics.
       ``(3) Advisory panel.--
       ``(A) Establishment.--The Secretary shall establish an 
     advisory panel to make recommendations regarding the 
     appropriate measures and statistical tools necessary for 
     making the assessment required under paragraph (1) based on 
     the indicators developed under that paragraph and the data 
     collected with respect to the indicators.
       ``(B) Membership.--
       ``(i) In general.--The advisory panel established under 
     subparagraph (A) shall consist of the following:

       ``(I) One member appointed by the Secretary of Health and 
     Human Services.
       ``(II) One member appointed by the Chairman of the 
     Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives.
       ``(III) One member appointed by the Ranking Member of the 
     Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives.
       ``(IV) One member appointed by the Chairman of the 
     Committee on Finance of the Senate.
       ``(V) One member appointed by the Ranking Member of the 
     Committee on Finance of the Senate.
       ``(VI) One member appointed by the Chairman of the National 
     Governors Association, or the Chairman's designee.

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       ``(VII) One member appointed by the President of the 
     National Conference of State Legislatures or the President's 
     designee.
       ``(VIII) One member appointed by the Director of the 
     National Academy of Sciences, or the Director's designee.

       ``(ii) Deadline.--The members of the advisory panel shall 
     be appointed not later than 2 months after the date of 
     enactment of the State Child Well-Being Research Act of 2005.
       ``(C) Meetings.--The advisory panel established under 
     subparagraph (A) shall meet--
       ``(i) at least 3 times during the first year after the date 
     of enactment of the State Child Well-Being Research Act of 
     2005; and
       ``(ii) annually thereafter for the 3 succeeding years.
       ``(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There are 
     authorized to be appropriated for each of fiscal years 2006 
     through 2010, $15,000,000 for the purpose of carrying out 
     this subsection.''.
                                 ______