[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 28, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1003-E1004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





              FAMILY FIRST PREVENTION SERVICES ACT OF 2016

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. VERN BUCHANAN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 21, 2016

  Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Speaker, I request that the following extraneous 
materials on H.R. 5456, the Family First Prevention Services Act of 
2016 be submitted:

      CWLA, Together, Making Children and Families a National 
                                                      Priority

                                     Washington, DC, June 13,2016.
     Hon. Kevin Brady,
     Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, 
         Washington, DC.
     Hon. Orrin Hatch,
     Finance Committee, U.S. Senate,
     Washington DC.
     Hon. Sander Levin,
     Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives,
     Washington, DC.
     Hon. Ron Wyden,
     Finance Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington DC.
       Dear Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Levin:
       Dear Chairman Hatch and Ranking Member Wyden: The Child 
     Welfare League of America endorses the Families First 
     Prevention Services Act. We feel that the legislation offers 
     the important possibility of allowing funds to provide vital 
     mental health, substance use and in-home services that could 
     help children stay with their own families. Current funding 
     for this important part of a continuum of needed services is 
     lacking and we know we must address these areas if we are to 
     strengthen the well-being and outcomes for children and 
     families that come to the child welfare and child protection 
     systems.
       This legislation provides an important reauthorization of 
     the two Title IV-B programs including an extension of the 
     adoption-kinship incentives, court improvement funds, 
     workforce development funds tied to caseworker visits, and 
     the regional partnership grants. The bill includes some 
     needed improvements to the Chaffee program in regard to the 
     age of eligibility.
       We hope to work with the Congress and the Administration in 
     the implementation of some of the more challenging aspects of 
     the bill to make sure that the oversight and implementation 
     of the residential care parts of this law are carried out in 
     the most effective way possible. In the years ahead we also 
     hope to push Congress on new strategies that can go beyond 
     simply reallocating current child welfare funds and instead 
     invest in what is truly needed and proven effective.
       Thank you again for your dedication and hard work.
           Sincerely,
                                            Christine James-Brown,
                   President/CEO, Child Welfare League of America.


                                      Children's Defense Fund,

                                    Washington, DC, June 13, 2016.
     Hon. Kevin Brady,
     Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, House of 
         Representatives.
     Hon. Orrin Hatch,
     Chairman, Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate.
     Hon. Vern Buchanan,
     Chairman, Human Resources Subcommittee, Committee on Ways and 
         Means, House of Representatives.
     Hon. Sandy Levin,
     Ranking Member, Committee on Ways and Means, House of 
         Representatives.
     Hon. Ron Wyden,
     Ranking Member, Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate.
     Hon. Lloyd Doggett,
     Ranking Member, Human Resources Subcommittee, Committee on 
         Ways and Means, House of Representatives.
       Dear Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee Chairmen 
     Brady and Hatch, Ranking Members Levin and Wyden and Human 
     Resources Subcommittee Chairman Buchanan and Ranking Member 
     Doggett: One of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF)'s first 
     reports decades ago was Children without Homes: An 
     Examination of Public Responsibility to Children in Out-of-
     Home Care and we have been unrelenting since in our advocacy 
     for children who come to the attention of the child welfare 
     system and their families. Today I offer CDF's full support 
     of the proposed Family First Prevention Services Act. It 
     takes historic and long overdue steps to direct federal child 
     welfare dollars to improve outcomes for vulnerable children 
     and families. I urge you to move toward a timely mark up in 
     both the House and Senate so these vulnerable children do not 
     have to wait longer for these important reforms.
       Especially significant are the redirected funds in the Act 
     for services and programs to assist children at risk of 
     foster care to remain safely with parents or family 
     caregivers. The proposal ensures quality prevention and 
     treatment services for mental health and substance abuse 
     problems that bring many families to the attention of the 
     child welfare system. Such services and treatment are 
     especially critical in responding to the current heroin and 
     opioid epidemic, and we applaud additional provisions to 
     address this crisis. The proposal also helps strengthen 
     families and protect children by providing them in-home 
     skill-based services. At the same time, it requires states to 
     have a plan to track and prevent child maltreatment 
     fatalities.
       The Family First Prevention Services Act takes important 
     steps to ensure children who need foster care will be placed 
     in the least-restrictive most family-like setting appropriate 
     to their needs, and gives special attention to children whose 
     emotional or other special needs require residential 
     treatment. It continues to recognize and increase supports 
     for grandparents and other relatives who step in to care for 
     children when their parents cannot; addresses the special 
     needs of pregnant and parenting teens and protections for 
     their children; and offers supports to help older youth 
     transition from foster care to adulthood. There is a 
     continued important emphasis on ensuring permanent families 
     for children.
       This new proposal builds on your Committees' work on 
     previous bipartisan and bicameral child welfare legislation. 
     In fact, it was 36 years ago today, June 13th, 1980 that the 
     Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act was passed by 
     Congress and then signed into law on June 17th. You followed 
     that with the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the Foster Care 
     Independence Act, the Fostering Connections to Success and 
     increasing Adoptions Act, and more recently the Preventing 
     Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, to name 
     several, all of which included provisions to begin to better 
     align federal funding with improved outcomes for vulnerable 
     children and their families. The Family First Preventive 
     Services Act now takes important next steps.
       The Children's Defense Fund looks forward to working with 
     all of you to make the proposed improvements for children in 
     the Family First Prevention Services Act a reality. Thank you 
     for your continuing leadership on behalf of these most 
     vulnerable children and their families.
           Sincerely yours,
                                            Marian Wright Edelman,
     President.
                                  ____

                                           Children's Home Society


                                                   of America,

                                       Chicago, IL, June 14, 2016.
     Hon. Kevin Brady,
     Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,
     U.S. House of Congress, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Sandy Levin,
     Ranking Member, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of 
         Congress, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Levin: As a 
     nationwide membership organization comprised of many of the 
     most long standing and respected child and family 
     organizations in the county, Children's Home Society of 
     America is writing in support of your efforts to promote and 
     improve outcomes for many of the hundreds of thousands of 
     children and youth who come to the attention of the child 
     welfare system each year, including children in foster care. 
     Over the decades the House Ways and Means Committee, with 
     bipartisan support, has taken significant steps forward on 
     behalf of our most vulnerable children and the Family First 
     Prevention Services Act of 2016 continues those efforts.
       Allowing funds under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, 
     currently used primarily for out-of-home care for children, 
     to be used for the first time for prevention services to help 
     keep children at risk of placement in foster care safely at 
     home with their parents or with kin is a significant move in 
     the right direction. Kinship caregivers play a critical role 
     in protecting children temporarily while their parents are 
     not able to and also in ensuring new permanent families for 
     children who cannot return home.
       We strongly support the bill's recognition of the 
     importance of quality services for these children, which are 
     evidence-based and trauma-informed and the importance of 
     accountability in tracking the provision of services and 
     their benefits for children. States at different stages in 
     reforming their systems will also have help training staff 
     for the development and delivery of these new services and 
     putting in place the infrastructure needed to administer and 
     oversee their delivery and child outcomes.
       The Family First Prevention Services Act over time also 
     will take important steps to

[[Page E1004]]

     ensure children who need to enter foster care will be placed 
     in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their needs, 
     by targeting federal dollars only on smaller family-foster 
     homes and on other care settings for children and youth with 
     special treatment needs or those in special circumstances, 
     such as pregnant and parenting teens or older youth in 
     independent living settings. A number of states already have 
     undertaken special efforts to reduce the number of children 
     in congregate care and to preserve group care settings for 
     children with special treatment needs.
       Children and society pay a high cost when the current 
     systems fail to adequately address the needs of the children 
     who come to the attention of our child welfare systems, 
     nearly 80 percent of whom are victims of neglect. We believe 
     that the specific changes proposed will go far in encouraging 
     state and local child welfare systems, private providers, the 
     courts and youth and families who have been involved in the 
     system to work together to achieve significant change for 
     children over the next decade.
       We look forward to working with you to ensure these new 
     child welfare finance reforms will truly benefit children who 
     come to the attention of the child welfare system and to 
     continue to explore additional improvements on their behalf 
     to ensure they all have safe, permanent families. Thank you 
     for your continuing leadership on behalf of these children.
           Sincerely,

                                               Sharon Osborne,

                                      Board Chair, Children's Home
     Society of America.
                                  ____



                             Children's Hospital of Wisconsin,

                                                    Milwaukee, WI.
     Hon. Vern Buchanan,
     Chairman, Human Resources Subcommittee, House Committee on 
         Ways & Means, Washington DC.
       Dear Chairman Buchanan: Children's Hospital of Wisconsin 
     strongly supports the Family First Prevention Services Act of 
     2016 (H.R. 5456). We applaud your leadership on this 
     important issue.
       Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (Children's) is the 
     region's only independent health care system dedicated solely 
     to the health and well-being of children. We serve children 
     from every county in the state and are recognized as one of 
     the leading pediatric health care centers in the United 
     States. In addition, Children's is the largest not-for-
     profit, community-based child and family serving agency in 
     Wisconsin. Through our Community Services work, we provide a 
     continuum of care to more than 15,000 children and families 
     annually. This includes family preservation and support, 
     child and family counseling, child welfare, child advocacy 
     and protection, and foster care and adoption services.
       We strongly support the Family First Prevention Services 
     Act that that would allow funds under Title IV-E of the 
     Social Security Act to be used for the first time for 
     evidence-based prevention services to help keep children at 
     risk of placement in foster care safely at home with their 
     parents or with kin. The legislation represents a significant 
     and meaningful shift in child welfare policy by prioritizing 
     up-front, evidence-based services to keep families together. 
     We know from experience and empirical research that this is 
     important for the healthy development of children.
       The bill also makes significant advancements to integrate 
     interventions and measures focused on child well-being into 
     the child welfare system. Children's believes that 
     prioritizing and providing accountability for child well-
     being, in addition to safety and permanency, is critical to 
     achieving better outcomes for children and society and 
     positioning children to thrive into adulthood.
       Children's is committed to improving the health and well-
     being of children and families. We believe the Family First 
     Prevention Services Act will enable the child welfare system 
     to better serve our most vulnerable children and families.
           Sincerely,

                                                   Amy Herbst,

                                 Vice President, Child Well-Being,
     Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.
                                  ____

                                                       First Focus


                                        Campaign for Children,

                                    Washington, DC, June 14, 2016.
     Hon. Kevin Brady,
     Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, House of 
         Representatives, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Orrin Hatch,
     Chairman, Committee on Finance,
     U.S. Senate, Washington DC.
     Hon. Vern Buchanan,
     Chairman, Human Resources Subcommittee, Committee on Ways and 
         Means, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Sander Levin,
     Ranking Member, Committee on Ways and Means, House of 
         Representatives, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Ron Wyden,
     Ranking Member, Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, Washington 
         DC.
     Hon. Lloyd Doggett,
     Ranking Member, Human Resources Subcommittee, Committee on 
         Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairmen Brady and Hatch, Ranking Members Levin and 
     Wyden, Chairman Buchanan and Ranking Member Doggett: On 
     behalf of the First Focus Campaign for Children (FFCC), a 
     bipartisan organization committed to making children and 
     their families a priority in federal policy and budget 
     decisions, I am writing in strong support of H.R. 5456, the 
     Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016. This bill that 
     makes important policy changes in federal child welfare 
     spending that better support the needs of vulnerable children 
     and families.
       Currently, there are 415,000 children in the foster care 
     system, a number that has increased by 3.5 percent from 2014. 
     Nearly 31 percent of children placed in foster care were 
     removed due to parental alcohol or drug use, and in some 
     states, the percentage of removal due to parental substance 
     abuse is closer to 60 percent. In addition, 57,000 children 
     in foster care live in group homes or congregate care 
     settings. These children and youth do not have a clinical 
     need to be in such a setting, and should be with families who 
     can provide love and support.
       The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016 contains 
     many important provisions that address these poor statistics 
     and will make a significant impact in strengthening and 
     keeping families together. For the first time states will be 
     able to use federal dollars from Tide IV-E of the Social 
     Security Act to provide time-limited, evidence-based services 
     to families. The services are aimed to help prevent children 
     from entering the foster care system by allowing federal 
     reimbursement to families for mental health services, 
     substance abuse treatment, and in-home parent skill-based 
     programs. In addition, the bill incentivizes states to ensure 
     that children are placed in family-based settings by only 
     allowing federal reimbursement after an assessment has 
     occurred and it has been determined that the child should be 
     placed in a quality residential treatment program.
       The legislation also includes a number of other provisions 
     aimed to reform and strengthen the child welfare system 
     including the extension of the Tile IV-B program, improving 
     supports for youth transitioning to adulthood, establishing 
     model foster care licensing standards, and calling for a GAO 
     review to examine compliance of states in reinvesting savings 
     from the federal adoption assistance reimbursement for 
     special needs kids
       We look forward to working with you to ensure these new 
     child welfare finance reforms will truly benefit children who 
     come to the attention of the child welfare system and to 
     continue to explore additional improvements on their behalf 
     to ensure they all have safe, permanent families. Thank you 
     for your continued leadership on behalf of these children.
           Sincerely,
                                                     Bruce Lesley,
     President

                          ____________________