[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 25, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5096-S5097]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kohl, Mr. 
        Feingold, and Mr. Durbin):
  S. 1210. A bill to extend the grant program for drug-endangered 
children; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing with Senator 
Grassley, as well as Senators Kohl, Feingold and Durbin as original co-
sponsors, the Drug Endangered Children Act of 2007. This bill would 
take an important grant program for drug-endangered children that 
Congress authorized in the USA PATRIOT Reauthorization Act, and extend 
it for two additional years.
  In particular, the USA PATRIOT Reauthorization Act authorized $20 
million in Federal grants for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 to States to 
assist in the treatment of children who have been endangered by living 
at a home where methamphetamine has been manufactured or distributed. 
But unless we pass new legislation, that authorization will not 
continue beyond the current fiscal year.
  A companion bill was introduced earlier this year by California 
Congressman Dennis A. Cordoza, with bipartisan support in the House.
  The White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP, 
has documented that innocent children are sometimes found in homes and 
other environments, hotels, automobiles, apartments, etc., where 
methamphetamine and other illegal substances are produced.
  According to the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) National 
Clandestine Laboratory Seizure System, there were 1,660 children 
affected by or injured or killed at methamphetamine labs during 2005.
  These children who live at or visit drug-production sites or are 
present during drug production face a variety of health and safety 
risks, including: inhalation, absorption, or ingestion of toxic 
chemicals, drugs, or contaminated foods that may result in nausea, 
chest pain, eye and tissue irritation, chemical burns, and death; fires 
and explosions; abuse and neglect, and hazardous lifestyles, presence 
of booby traps, firearms, code violations, and poor ventilation.
  Where children are involved, drug lab seizures must go beyond the 
normal response from law enforcement, fire and HAZMAT organizations. 
Additional agencies and officials often must be called in to assist, 
including emergency medical personnel, social services, and physicians.
  Recognizing this need, the ONDCP several years ago announced a 
national Drug Endangered Children (DEC) initiative to assist with 
coordination between existing State programs and create a standardized 
training program to extend DEC to states where such a program does not 
yet exist.
  As a result of this initiative, several states developed DEC 
programs, to coordinate the efforts of law enforcement, medical 
services, and child welfare workers, to ensure that children found in 
these environments receive appropriate attention and care.
  These DEC programs began to develop interagency protocols to support 
drug-endangered children, addressing issues such as: staff training, 
including safety and cross training; roles and responsibilities of 
agencies involved; appropriate reporting, cross-reporting, and 
information sharing; safety procedures for children, families, and 
responding personnel; interviewing procedures; evidence collection and 
preservation procedures, and medical care procedures.
  Protocols were designed to identify and provide guidance on the 
variety of issues that responding agencies needed to address in these 
situations, such as taking children into protective custody and 
arranging for child protective services, immediately testing the 
children for methamphetamine exposure, conducting medical and mental 
health assessments, and ensuring short- and long-term care.
  Unfortunately, the ONDCP's initiative, which had been funded in part 
through a DOJ award of $2.124 million under the Community Oriented 
Policing Services (COPS) Methamphetamine Initiative of 2003, was not 
continued thereafter.
  The USA PATRIOT Reauthorization Act that we passed in 2005, 
establishing a specific grant program for this purpose, recognized the 
need to continue this initiative. Unfortunately, this grant program 
that we authorized was never funded. In fiscal year 2006, the program 
that we authorized was appropriated no funds at all.
  In fiscal year 2007, the House of Representatives voted to include $5 
million for this important program as part of its CJS Appropriations 
bill. But unfortunately, the 109th Congress adjourned without passing 
most of its FY2007 appropriations bills, and the Continuing Resolution 
we passed to keep the government running did not fund this provision 
either.
  So the bill that I introduce today would give the Congress another 
chance to revive this important initiative. And it can't come too soon 
for places like Merced, California, where three-quarters of all foster 
care cases are reported to be methamphetamine-related.
  I urge my colleagues to adopt this legislation and ask unanimous 
consent that the text of this bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 1210

       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 ``Drug Endangered Children Act 
     of 2007''.

     SEC. 2. DRUG-ENDANGERED CHILDREN GRANT PROGRAM EXTENDED.

       Section 755(c) of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and 
     Reauthorization Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 3797cc-2(c)) is 
     amended by striking ``fiscal years 2006 and 2007'' and 
     inserting ``fiscal years 2008 and 2009''.

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague today, 
Senator Feinstein, in introducing the Drug Endangered Children Act 
(DEC) of 2007. As U.S. Senators representing States that have been 
among the hardest hit by the scourge of meth, we have witnessed first 
hand how this horrible drug has devastated individual lives and 
families. We have seen the havoc wreaked on the environment as well as 
the child welfare system and we have listened to the horror stories of 
those caught in the grips of addiction.
  Last year we worked together in a bi-partisan effort to pass the 
Combat

[[Page S5097]]

Meth Act, which was eventually included in the USA PATRIOT Act 
Reauthorization. The result has been a dramatic decrease in the number 
of clandestine meth lab seizures. While this is certainly welcome news, 
particularly for our first responders and local law enforcement 
community, last year there were over 6,400 clandestine meth lab 
incidents throughout the country. In my home State, we saw a 73 percent 
decrease in the number of meth lab incidents compared to the previous 
year yet there were still over 300 incidents last year alone. Clearly, 
the Combat Meth Act has made progress against locally produced meth, 
but further action is needed to fully combat this epidemic.
  In spite of our success and ongoing efforts to reduce the dangers 
from ``mom and pop'' meth labs, new and more disturbing instances of 
meth production, trafficking, and abuse are becoming more prevalent 
throughout the country. In the State of Missouri, police recently made 
seven meth-related arrests in just as many hours in the tiny, quiet 
town of Ozark. The house where these arrests were made belonged to a 
45-year-old grandmother, who was baby sitting her infant grandson while 
his mother was away at school. Upon her arrest she admitted to using 
meth, but denied she was a dealer. However, while police searched the 
house, six more individuals were picked up on meth-related charges. 
When it was all said and done, three children under the age of 3 
watched as the police arrested their parent or grandparent for selling 
or possessing this dangerous drug.
  Sadly, this was not an unusual incident. Since 2002, more than 12,000 
children throughout the country have been affected, injured, or killed 
at meth lab sites and thousands more have been sent to foster homes or 
were victims of meth-related abuse in the home. In Iowa, the Department 
of Health reports that over 1,000 children over the past 4 years were 
classified as victims of abuse, and that nearly half of child abuse 
cases have been meth-related.
  Due to the shocking number of children that were being victimized by 
meth in one form or another, I joined my colleagues in supporting the 
``Drug Endangered Children Act of 2005.'' This bill which passed into 
law as part of the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization, established a 
national grant program to support state Drug Endangered Children 
programs and to assist local law enforcement, medical services, and 
child welfare workers to ensure that victimized children would receive 
proper attention and treatment after living in these terrible 
environments. I'm pleased to report that since we implemented this 
grant program, a large number of communities throughout the nation have 
formed multi-disciplinary alliances for the benefit of drug-exposed 
children. There are 16 communities throughout Iowa that have taken 
advantage of these grants and more are in the process of planning and 
setting up programs.
  The Drug Endangered Children Act of 2007 would re-authorize this 
important grant program for an additional 2 years and assist States in 
coordinating law enforcement, medical services, and child welfare 
efforts, to ensure that children found in such environments receive 
appropriate attention and care. I am pleased to join with my colleague 
again as we work together to renew this wonderful and worthwhile 
program. I ask that my colleagues join us in support of this important 
legislation and pass the Drug Endangered Children Act of 2007.
                                 ______