[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 191 (Tuesday, December 13, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8542-S8543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          TRIBUTE TO TOM BIRCH

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, it is a distinct honor and privilege 
for me to congratulate Thomas L. Birch, the legislative counsel and 
founding director, of the National Child Abuse Coalition, for his 
decades of service to children.
  After more than 30 years as head of the coalition, Tom is retiring. 
Mr. Birch established the National Child Abuse Coalition three decades 
ago as a way to focus greater attention on the more than 700,000 
children who are abused and neglected each year.
  From his earliest days, Tom was inspired to make a difference in the 
lives of some of our most vulnerable children and families. His 
interest was first peaked as a high school student working at a public 
housing project in Stamford, CT. He noticed that not all kids had the 
same opportunity and that not all children had the same start at life. 
His experiences also demonstrated that with the right kind of support, 
we could make a difference in these young lives. We could even the 
playing field.
  Tom continued on to college and became an attorney, but when he 
reached Washington, he brought with him that same passion to make a 
difference. We all talk about how important children are to this 
country's future, but Tom felt you had to do more than just say that--
he had to act. He began his new job on Capitol Hill working for the 
chair of what we now call the HELP Committee, under Senator Walter 
Mondale. In fact, the week Tom Birch started his work for the future 
Vice President, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA, 
was signed into law. He would continue advocating for children and the 
prevention of child abuse by working on the staffs of Senator Paul 
Simon and Congressman John Brademas.
  When Tom ended his career as a Capitol Hill staffer he moved on but 
didn't move away from his main mission in life: to continue to make a 
difference for the most vulnerable children in the land. He formed a 
coalition to focus attention on preventing the abuse and neglect of 
children. In 1981 the National Child Abuse Coalition was created under 
the leadership of Mr. Birch. His pride and constant inspiration has 
been to shape the growth of CAPTA, and that, too, would be the mission 
of the coalition he founded.
  Because of Tom Birch's efforts, more than 30 national member 
organizations, working through the coalition, have been able to 
coordinate and strengthen their Federal advocacy on behalf of the 
millions of vulnerable children. Through this time period Tom has 
contributed to important developments, including the creation of 
children's trust funds across the States; the establishment of national 
child abuse data; greater focus on community-based solutions, including 
the community-based grants to prevent child abuse and neglect; and more 
recently he and the coalition were an important voice of support for 
the new home visitation program enacted by Congress in 2010.
  Through his leadership the coalition has also served as an advocate 
in the appropriations process for CAPTA and similar programs such as 
the Social Services Block Grant, SSBG, and the Promoting Safe and 
Stable Families

[[Page S8543]]

Program, PSSF. When opportunities have arisen he has worked to 
highlight ways to strengthen programs such as Head Start and childcare 
to make sure the country took every opportunity to address child 
neglect and to prevent it.
  Others have recognized Mr. Birch's contributions, including the 
American Psychological Association, which honored him in 2003 with 
their Award for Distinguished Contribution to Child Advocacy. Later in 
2006 Casey Family Programs honored Tom again by giving him their 
Leadership Award.
  I want to join the many others in recognizing Tom Birch. These days 
we talk a great deal about lobbyists and special interests in 
Washington, DC, but there are certain groups of people here in 
Washington you don't hear about. They won't be featured on the evening 
news or the front page of the newspaper. These are the men and women 
who patiently and quietly walk these halls to tell the stories of 
vulnerable children. These people do it not to get rich or to promote 
the fortunes of the powerful; they work on behalf of our most 
vulnerable. Tom is one of these people, an unsung hero who has made a 
true difference for vulnerable children. It has been a job well done 
for Tom. I hope his retirement is successful and rewarding in every way 
he wishes it to be, and I thank him very much for all the contributions 
he has made to the lives of all the most vulnerable children all across 
this country.

                          ____________________