[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 25315-25320]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FAIR ACCESS FOSTER CARE ACT OF 2005

  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
Senate bill (S. 1894) to amend part E of title IV of the Social 
Security Act to provide for the making of foster care maintenance 
payments to private for-profit agencies.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                                S. 1894

       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 ``Fair Access Foster Care Act 
     of 2005''.

     SEC. 2. FOSTER CARE MAINTENANCE PAYMENTS TO PRIVATE FOR-
                   PROFIT AGENCIES.

       Section 472(b) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
     672(b)) is amended by striking ``nonprofit'' each place it 
     appears.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Herger) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. 
McDermott) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger).
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1894, the Fair Access 
Foster Care Act of 2005. This legislation has recently passed the 
Senate by unanimous consent.
  S. 1894 makes a technical change that will ease the administration of 
payments to families who assist foster children. It does so by 
permitting the transmission of foster care maintenance payments through 
any agency that assists families caring for foster children in licensed 
settings. Current law prevents the transmission of these payments 
through private for-profit agencies.
  As we have come to learn, public and private agencies that assist 
families who serve foster children play a pivotal role in promoting 
child safety and well-being.

                              {time}  1145

  While we allow States the flexibility to determine what agencies can 
best serve children, current law creates administrative burdens that 
deter the transmission of Federal funds through private for-profit 
agencies. This legislation would rectify that inequity, ensuring that 
all public and private agencies that assist families caring for foster 
children are treated in the same way.
  Mr. Speaker, S. 1894 is identical to bipartisan legislation 
introduced by the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), and I thank him 
for his work on this legislation. The legislation is supported by the 
American Public Human Services Association and the Child Welfare League 
of America. The Congressional Budget Office has informally estimated 
that the cost of this legislation would be insignificant.
  Mr. Speaker, everyone agrees our Nation's children's welfare system 
is in need of improvement. Unfortunately, this change will only relieve 
one small facet of a much larger set of administrative burdens that 
today too often get in the way of ensuring child safety. This 
legislation is an important step in the right direction, and we must 
continue to pursue broader reforms in our Nation's child protection 
programs.
  I thank all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their 
support of today's legislation. I urge all Members to support this 
bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill, the Fair Access Foster Care Act, makes a 
minor technical change designed to broaden the agencies that can 
recruit and reimburse foster families to include private welfare 
agencies. The CBO, Congressional Budget Office, concludes that this 
modification would impact only ``isolated cases'' within the child 
welfare system. So it is not any big step forward.
  In short, we should not give the American people the false impression 
that we are actually facing the urgent and unattended needs for 
countless vulnerable children in this country, because we simply are 
not. ``Fair Access'' in the title still will not bring any access for 
over half of the abused and neglected children in America today. Over 
half of America's most vulnerable children are not merely left behind, 
they are left out of access, and that simply is not fair.
  Make no mistake, we know how to fix it. We could start by investing 
in prevention, providing sufficient resources for States to work with 
families to prevent child abuse and neglect. We could start by 
investing in the people on the front lines; we would do something about 
the fact that the average tenure of a caseworker in the foster care 
system is less than 2 years.
  We could start by investing in families. We could remove the 
obstacles in current law that prevent foster children from receiving 
Federal help if they are in the care of a relative because their 
parents' home is not safe.
  We could start by investing in compassion. Thousands of children are 
among the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but we ignore pleas for help in 
spite of what we know to be true. Study after study shows that child

[[Page 25316]]

abuse and neglect rises in the months immediately after natural 
disasters, particularly hurricanes; that is happening today in 
Louisiana. But Republicans and the administration pretend to be deaf 
and blind to the truth.
  Mr. Speaker, I have a letter dated September 22, 2005, from the State 
of Louisiana. In it the State's Child Welfare Director asks the Bush 
administration for the same assistance that New York City received 
after 9/11, to meet the needs of abused and neglected children. And 
that is not all. The Governor of Louisiana has asked us to help them 
keep foster children in safe and stable settings and provide services 
like mental health treatment to counteract the trauma these children 
endured. Louisiana's leaders asked the administration to partner with 
them to prevent child abuse and to keep children and their families 
safely together.
  Who can forget the President going down to Louisiana and saying, We 
will do everything we can to help the people affected by this disaster? 
Louisiana has asked us to be an extended family in a time of need, 
Americans helping Americans. But 6 weeks later, the Governor is still 
waiting for an answer to that letter.
  Children remain vulnerable, without fair access, in fact, without any 
access. As bad as this is, the Republican leaders want their Members to 
make things even worse. Sometime soon, in fact, the notice on my 
BlackBerry says on Thursday, the House will consider what is known as 
the Budget Reconciliation Act. As it stands now, Republican leaders 
intend to cut resources dedicated to children in foster care.
  Cut, let me say it again so the Members can remember it: Cut the 
resources for children. They intend to reduce the number of children in 
low-income families eligible for Federal foster care. They intend to 
reduce the reimbursement for the oversight of foster care for children 
who live with relatives. And the Republican leaders intend to cut case 
management and rehabilitative services provided to foster children 
through the Medicaid program. If they get their way, Republican leaders 
will take away hundreds of millions of dollars in services for abused 
and neglected kids and give it away in tax cuts for the rich.
  Fair access is a false hope under this Republican leadership. They 
would like to zero out the problem as if all these kids who need us 
will simply vanish.
  I am not going to let that happen. Not today, not tomorrow, not the 
day when the so-called budget reconciliation bill comes to the floor. 
It is a kid-buster bill, and America is better than that. Ask anyone in 
Louisiana. Ask anyone in America. It is time to fund some compassion. 
It is time to care for Americans. Americans, not Iraqis, not Afghanis, 
not anybody else, Americans who need us to help them.
  We are making a technical correction today that will benefit a few 
kids, but Republican leaders need to make a titanic correction in 
reconciliation or we will all go down with the ship of state. A 
majority party that is deaf and blind to meeting the needs of our most 
vulnerable children is a party that has been in power too long.
  Mr. Speaker, not even the very rich would fault you and us for 
putting the children first. Do it while they still have a future we can 
save.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  The material previously referred to is as follows:

                                    Department of Social Services,


                                 Office of Community Services,

                              Baton Rouge, LA, September 22, 2005.
     Re addressing Hurricane Katrina's impact on Louisiana Child 
         Welfare Services.

     Amy Grissom, LMSW,
     Program Specialist, Admin. for Children and Families, Dallas, 
         Texas.
       Dear Ms. Grissom: the purpose of this letter is to outline 
     requests for waivers of certain activities and for budgetary 
     assistance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As you are 
     aware, the catastrophic effect of Hurricane Katrina has 
     dramatically impacted the activities the Louisiana Department 
     of Social Services, and diminished the extent to which the 
     Office of Community Services can implement pre-Katrina 
     initiatives. Coupled with these effects, the state is 
     experiencing significant changes in the public role expected 
     of the Office for the foreseeable future as Louisiana 
     continues its recovery and support of impacted families, 
     children, and communities.
       We note that ACF Information Memorandum ACYF-CB-IM-05-06 
     provides for notice to states of flexibility in regards to 
     title IV-E funds that can assist and protect/support 
     hurricane victims. We seek meaningful ways now to 
     operationalize that offer of provision of flexibility through 
     these requests. The following requests are proposed after 
     considerable thought and assessment of the changing impact of 
     Hurricane Katrina on Louisiana statewide, for Louisiana 
     clients and providers, and on the Office of Community 
     Services. The requests are grouped under two broad 
     categories: Procedural Waivers and Requests and Budgetary 
     Requests.
       The requests are as follows:

                    Procedural Waivers and Requests


Title IV E Claims for Foster Home Care Licensing Status. Licensed Child 
    Care Institutions (Residential Facilities and Day Care Programs)

       1. As foster homes, residential care institutions, and 
     child-care institutions are due for relicensing, we propose 
     to grant provisional status for up to one year provided there 
     is documentation that the licensure record contains no 
     concerns about the home in the previous year period. We also 
     ask to provisionally license these providers in foster 
     families/child care institutions who may have been 
     temporarily displaced to another state.
       Rationale: This will ease the requirements for families 
     being re-licensed. Louisiana Office of Community Services is 
     asking to make claims through Title IV E for such cases, for 
     a one-year period. We want the ability to make claims for 
     full federal participation for such activities for one year 
     with provisionally licensed homes and facilities.
       2. For new applicant homes, we propose to grant provisional 
     licenses to new homes for the next four months that are in 
     the process of being studied. This would preclude the need to 
     have the health department and fire inspections since those 
     are currently backlogged in many parts of the state.
       Rationale: We propose this in order to expedite an increase 
     of available new foster home providers to assist with the 
     care of children coming into state custody as a result of the 
     Hurricane.
       3. We propose to grant provisional licenses to displaced 
     foster families and provide maintenance payments, medical 
     cards, etc., for foster chi1dren in those households as 
     needed.
       Rationale: We want to be able to quickly provisionally 
     license displaced families so that they can provide foster 
     care services.

      Child and Family Services Plan and Program Improvement Plan

       We request that the Program Improvement Plan be suspended 
     for a period of 12 months from September 1, 2005 until August 
     31, 2006, without potential financial penalties. We seek 
     relief for a one-year period from PIP reporting and related 
     activities except those that interface with the PIP and that 
     the Office undertakes relative to Hurricane Katrina relief 
     efforts. If granted, we propose to renew PIP implementation 
     on June 1, 2006 with the report interval to resume 45 days 
     after August 31, 2006 (approximately on October 15, 2006). 
     Restarting the PIP after the year period may require a 
     renegotiation of the PIP (or at least a realignment or 
     revision of much of the PIP content) before beginning and we 
     propose that approach as well.
       Rationale: There has been a dramatic data base shift that 
     has and is occurring for Louisiana families, reporting 
     regions, and children in care. For instance, the largest 
     metropolitan area has been severely impacted and is now and 
     for the next year period (at least) likely to be the smallest 
     region of the state. Further, our Office is now impacted by 
     the new demands for different services for the population and 
     provider base to help implement services. The service 
     capacity in the Orleans Region, which previously was the 
     largest metropolitan area, is changed dramatically.
       2. We propose that the 5-Year Child and Family Services 
     Plan be suspended for one year through September 2006, 
     without potential financial penalties. We seek relief from 
     reporting on objectives for a one-year period.
       Rationale: If granted, we propose to resume implementation 
     on October 1, 2006 for year two initiatives, goals, 
     objectives, and due dates. Essentially, year two of the 2005-
     2009 CFSP wi1l functionally become year three of the CFSP.

                  Title IV E Program Improvement Plan

       3. We propose that the previously negotiated time frames 
     for the title IV-E Program Improvement Plan be extended for 
     six additional months, that the objectives presently due on 
     November 8, 2005 would then be due on May 8, 2006. We further 
     request that those time frame objectives due on February 8, 
     2006 would be due on August 8, 2006. This request would make 
     the title IV-E PIP extended to an 18-month PIP rather than a 
     12 month PIP.
       Rationale: The Office of Community Services task force work 
     efforts to revise the residential licensing regulations have 
     been suspended as state Licensing, the Office of

[[Page 25317]]

     Youth Development, and this Office now have staff attending 
     to Hurricane Katrina issues, and much of the subsequent IV-E 
     PIP outcomes are predicated on the completion of tasks due on 
     November 8, 2005. The title IV-E PIP involved large 
     participation and input from the Orleans area, this area is 
     now uninhabited.

                            Judicial Review

       4. We request presumptive title IV-E eligibility during the 
     period of 72 hours prior to the evacuation through the time 
     when evacuated courts in the impacted disaster areas resume 
     normal functioning.
       Rationale: The Department is seeking relief from these 
     reviews for two reasons: the change in governmental role and 
     expectation and the eliminated capacity to conduct reviews in 
     the disaster impacted areas of Orleans and Jefferson Region. 
     ACYF-CB-IM05-06 clearly acknowledges that areas ``may not 
     have court systems that are fully functioning.'' Courts such 
     as those formerly functioning in Orleans and Jefferson 
     Parishes have now been closed for five weeks, and cannot have 
     retroactive ``'alternative procedures'' for judicial 
     determinations regarding contrary to the welfare and 
     reasonable efforts. In the absence of either our staff or 
     courts having access to case documentation, we may not even 
     know for whom we need to obtain these judicial 
     determinations, much less what the removal circumstances 
     were, e.g., we have no way of knowing how many children were 
     in care pending continued custody hearings.
       5. We request a waiver of administrative review/case review 
     requirements pursuant to ACYF-CB-IM-05-06
       Rationale: This is provided for in the referenced 
     memorandum.

                           Budgetary Requests

       The following listing contains issues related to recovery 
     from Hurricane Katrina's impact on the State of Louisiana 
     Department of Social Services, Office of Community Services 
     to adequately operate as the public child welfare agency 
     statewide.
       1. Social Service Block Grant (SSBG) Funding--We are 
     requesting a 35% increase in the present funding. This is 
     requested in order to keep foster care placements stable.
       Rationale: Needed to support foster and adoptive placements 
     and residential treatment within as well as outside of the 
     state. Entire communities in the severely affected areas of 
     Louisiana (and neighboring states as well) will need 
     extensive supports and services to stabilize and sustain 
     adequate placement resources and to meet on a service 
     continuum the needs of vulnerable children and families in 
     the rebuilding period. Residential placements in Louisiana 
     are currently funded by state and the SSBG, and not by title 
     IX as is common in other states. Many of these supports will 
     be directed at recruitment of additional foster home 
     providers.
       2. An additional federal funding allocation for clothing, 
     personal items in the form of an special appropriated 
     allocation for all foster children from Hurricane Katrina 
     affected areas.
       Rationale: Rationale is the same as above. Children and 
     families in the displaced areas will need this as well.
       3. Chafee Independent Family Living Program--we are 
     requesting 35-40% increase in the allocation for the Chafee 
     Program.
       Rationale: A large number of the Independent Living 
     programs were in the disaster impact areas and were pre-
     Katrina providing a large variety of independent living and 
     young adult services as well as a large number of the 
     provider base were located in New Orleans. Supervised 
     apartments were destroyed or severely damaged as well as 
     furnishings, clothing, and other critical items were lost. 
     New supervised apartment housing wi11 have to be developed 
     and will cost more to the state.
       4. Additional funding for foster care reunification 
     services and supports through title IV-B, parts 1 and 2 is 
     requested. This is requested for a two-year period. Further, 
     the state is asking assistance in regards to the required 
     match for these funds. There is no state funding 
     appropriation for the additional matching funding. The state 
     is asking for a federal waiver for the requirement for state 
     matching participation for any increase in these funding 
     sources for services.
       Rationale: Children and their biological parents may be 
     separated by significant distances for an extended or 
     indefinite period of time. Pursuant to federal and state 
     child welfare law, states will remain responsible for making 
     reasonable efforts to reunify those children with their 
     families so long as that is the case plan goal. It is 
     noteworthy that approximately one third of the total foster 
     homes in the state were in the Katrina impacted areas. 
     Louisiana does not have a sufficient number of alternative 
     placement resources to replace these children. Children taken 
     into custody in other states will need to be returned to 
     Louisiana and this will result in increased strain on the 
     limited number of available foster homes. Special provisions 
     for recruitment and licensure are sought. It is anticipated 
     also that as the weeks ensue that there wi11 be increases in 
     the number of child abuse reports resulting in a further 
     increase in the need for foster care placement resources. Due 
     to the devastation in three major regions of state foster 
     care population; there will be few families in those areas 
     who will be able to consider fostering or adopting children. 
     This will impact the requirements the state will labor under 
     for requirements for proximity of placement to parents. 
     Additionally, part 2 of title IV-B provides for promoting 
     safe and stable families. This too requires expansion to 
     expand access to mental health assessment and placement 
     assessment services for children and families and to increase 
     support to foster parents through service providers such as 
     family resource centers. Title IV-B, part 2, which has been 
     so instrumental over the past decade of providing for 
     services to prevent removal and provide assistance with 
     reunification, must now be allowed to address for the next 12 
     months (at minimum) issues of posttraumatic stress in foster 
     children, adjustment counseling for families, grief and loss 
     counseling, social, mental health, and placement assessments, 
     and to put in place services to address other Katrina mental 
     health and crisis recovery impacts of the disaster effects on 
     families and children involved in child welfare in the state.
       5. Request for approval of random moment sampling 
     procedures for cost allocation of administrative and other 
     costs associated with service delivery. The state is 
     requesting that we continue to use the June 30, 2005 random 
     moment samples for the quarter ending September 30, 2005 and 
     for the foreseeable future (at least one year) until 
     statistics can be reasonably obtained from and for disaster 
     areas.
       Rationale: The state has no statistical capacity for random 
     moment sampling for the three storm impacted disaster 
     regions. Random moment sampling cannot be conducted in these 
     areas. Using the June 30, 2005 sample is our last pre-Katrina 
     milepost for these statistics.
       6. Request for special assistance from the Federal 
     Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide for FEMA 
     related replacement costs for replacement of items of foster 
     children that were lost in the storm. The state is asking for 
     ACF assistance with FEMA to organize a quick and easy method 
     for foster parents to submit and receive reimbursements or 
     payments for the items of foster children that were lost 
     during the storm and subsequent evacuation.
       Rationale: These are costs that FEMA may be able to 
     reimburse by special arrangement. An innovative foster parent 
     special reimbursement ``track'' is envisioned to assist these 
     families in any state they have relocated to due to 
     evacuation from the disaster areas. Expedited reimbursement 
     to lessen the recovery burden on foster children is the aim 
     of this request.
       We appreciate the opportunity to submit these requests to 
     your office. We would welcome any questions or comments. A 
     prompt reply would be appreciated.
           Sincerely
                                          Marketa Garner Gautreau,
                                              Assistant Secretary.

  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I thank the gentleman from Washington for his support for this 
legislation. I appreciate the concern expressed across the aisle, but 
the concern is not valid. It is important that we accurately explain 
the policy included in the spending reform bill, what it will do.
  This legislative fix would not alter Federal eligibility for foster 
care and adoptive assistance. Instead, it would ensure that every State 
uses the same eligibility criteria for receipt of Federal payments. 
Promoting child safety and well-being must remain the goal of these 
programs. And Federal law must be applied evenly in all States. We are 
doing just that with this policy fix.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. 
Cole), who is the author of this legislation.
  Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 
1894, the Fair Access Foster Care Act of 2005.
  This legislation makes a technical change to current law, which will 
allow foster care maintenance payments to any public or private agency 
that assists families who care for foster children. This will allow 
for-profit agencies to operate on the same footing as all other such 
agencies, but States will continue to decide which agencies to use 
based on their best judgment about what is in the interest of the 
children and the families they serve.
  The Fair Access Foster Care Act will ease the administrative costs to 
States that already elect to work with nonprofit agencies, allowing the 
focus and the money to be concentrated on what really matters.
  Speaking for my own State, in Oklahoma there are 15 agencies that 
provide therapeutic foster care. Five of these agencies operate under a 
for-profit business model.
  Mr. Speaker, I will again note that this legislation does not require 
any

[[Page 25318]]

State to contract with for-profit agencies. Individual State agencies 
charged with the oversight of custody children will continue to create 
their own rules for licensing child-placing agencies within the State. 
This legislation is identical to legislation I authored, H.R. 3008, so 
I am very grateful that this legislation was scheduled for 
consideration.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to extend my gratitude to the gentleman from 
California (Chairman Herger), the gentleman from Washington (Ranking 
Member McDermott), and also to the staff of the Ways and Means 
Committee for guiding this bill through the legislative process.
  And finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to extend my thanks to my friend, 
Dr. Laura Boyd of Norman, Oklahoma. Dr. Boyd and I belong to different 
parties and have even been on the opposite sides of each other in 
various campaigns over the years, but we have always had the ability to 
work together across the aisle when it counted.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Boyd did a commendable job in raising awareness of 
this issue, and she was an effective proponent for this needed change 
in the law. She is a very big reason why we are at this point today.
  I urge the Members to support the passage of this bill, S. 1894.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman 
from Houston, Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished 
gentleman for yielding me this time, and I remain very appreciative of 
his long-standing interest and support on these important issues 
dealing with children.
  Let me thank the distinguished gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) for 
his work on this issue and working, of course, as he has indicated, in 
a bipartisan way with his constituents back home.
  I think it is important to note that those of us who are on this 
floor and our colleagues obviously have a great concern for our 
children. So this reporting of the truth about the calamity and the 
concern about the foster care system in America should not be taken 
personally. We should all be moving toward trying to improve the 
system. And I rise in support of the Fair Access Foster Care Act of 
2005 simply because it is a procedural change that allows a broader 
response to the needs of our foster care children.
  I happened to have worked in Houston with an outreach committee 
cochaired by myself and former Congressman Mike Andrews, who used to be 
a member of the Ways and Means Committee; and we worked on recruitment 
of foster parents, providing foster parents with more resources. And 
this was a decade or so ago. Unfortunately, in 2005 we have the same 
concerns dealing with our foster care system. It is, in fact, broken to 
a certain extent, and the Fair Access Foster Care Act of 2005 will at 
least provide the access to not-for-profits to be able to channel the 
care of foster children, therapeutic care, how important that is, 
counseling and psychologists and psychiatrists, to build these lives.
  But we cannot, Mr. Speaker, deny the fact that more resources are not 
needed in recruitment, more resources are not needed to give foster 
parents relaxation, R&R, so that they can come back home to take care 
of these children. More resources are needed in keeping siblings 
together, and, of course, as my colleague from the great State of 
Washington said, more resources are needed to stand in the way of child 
abuse and neglect.
  Might I cite for the Members an article that says ``Record High 
Numbers of Children Reported in Foster Care.'' This article reports the 
fact that these numbers are growing and growing and growing. Let me 
also say that we have seen over the course of 2 months one natural 
disaster after another: Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane 
Wilma, and the terrible tornado in Kentucky and Indiana. In Hurricane 
Katrina alone, the statistics show that 35 percent of those impacted by 
Hurricane Katrina will be children.
  One of the things that we fail to recite and repeat on the floor of 
the House, Mr. Speaker, 1,000-plus individuals died in Hurricane 
Katrina. Many of them are the parents of children now still living with 
relatives or children that are missing. And the very fact that we have 
ignored that dilemma shows that downstream we are going to be facing 
huge numbers of children needing foster care.

                              {time}  1200

  In my own congressional district, we have thousands of Hurricane 
Katrina survivors. Many of the family members are there taking care of 
other people's children or their relative's children.
  So the foster care concept or the structure of foster care 
unfortunately is a safety net for children who are without any 
supervision or not having their needs being taken care of because of 
the family dissolution and other problems. This is an important step to 
fix the problem to add more people into the system, but this does not, 
Mr. Speaker, answer the total question of building a foster care system 
to aid those who suffer from neglect and helping out children in these 
terrible times.
  Mr. Speaker, I speak today in support of S. 1894, the Fair Access 
Foster Care Act of 2005. Therapeutic foster care is foster care for 
children with special medical, psychological, emotional, and social 
needs. These children need comprehensive support and attention, 
requiring a great deal of commitment and sacrifice from foster care 
parents. Prior to the placement of a child, a potential therapeutic 
foster care parent must complete a certification process that involves 
a background check, a training program, and at least two homestudies.
  Generally therapeutic foster care children are not permitted to 
attend daycare and require ``line of sight'' supervision. That is, 
therapeutic foster care children must be in view of the foster parents 
at all times, except when attending school and other approved 
activities.
  Recruiting parents to provide therapeutic foster care is a never-
ending job. There are always children waiting for a match to be found. 
Therapeutic foster care children stay in crisis shelters for the 
transition period, adding a great deal of stress to their lives.
  Since 1992, IV-E funds from Department of Health and Human Services 
(HHS) have gone to partially fund both for-profit and nonprofit 
therapeutic foster care providers.
  The problem we are facing is that recently, the Oklahoma Department 
of Human Services (DHS) realized that due to a technicality, for-profit 
agencies are not eligible to receive IV-E funds from HHS. In addition, 
other states have come to similar realizations and made arrangements to 
avoid noncompliance. Unfortunately, some states are not even aware of 
this discrimination. S. 1894 amends the United States code to allow all 
therapeutic foster care agencies to receive maintenance payments from 
the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
  The Congressional Budget Office has indicated that any costs 
associated with this legislation would be insignificant. S. 1894 would 
amend the United States code to allow all therapeutic foster care 
agencies to receive maintenance payments from the United States 
Department of Health and Human Services. The Congressional Budget 
Office has indicated that any costs associated with this legislation 
would be insignificant.
  In closing, there are over 500,000 children in foster care today. A 
large number of these children require therapeutic care. The business 
model of for-profit agencies should not prohibit Title IV-E maintenance 
cost reimbursement. Now is not the time to prevent highly qualified 
agencies from placing these children in safe homes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Doggett).
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, this bill provides very limited 
administrative flexibility, essentially just legalizing what a handful 
of States are already doing with foster care. But this tiny finger of 
flexibility given with one hand is taken away with both hands from the 
same abused and neglected children in the companion legislation that 
this same group of Republican leaders has so enthusiastically endorsed 
in our committee and which it plans to foist off on the American people 
this week.
  So extreme is the Republican demand for tax breaks and more tax 
breaks and more tax breaks for those at the top of the economic ladder 
and the multinational corporations that will not pay their fair share 
of the tax burden that Republicans have demanded that the

[[Page 25319]]

same abused and neglected children that they say they would help today, 
would be the ones to pay the tab for these tax cuts.
  Those across America who realize that we need to be doing more for 
children who are physically or sexually abused by a parent, or merely 
abandoned without food or support by a parent who is caught up in a 
drug habit, need to know that those kids need more help. They need to 
know that the companion legislation the Ways and Means Committee has 
approved for consideration in the full House this week would deny those 
children almost $600 million of federal support.
  Most of this is taken from battered, abused, and neglected children 
who found a new home with a loving family member. Think about it: a 
grandparent who realizes their child has gone astray and they take 
their abused, neglected grandchild back into their family to try to 
give them a chance.
  The only federal court, an appellate court, that has interpreted our 
existing federal foster care law in the case, Rosales v. Thompson, 
issued a decision that is so clear that the Bush administration chose 
not to appeal it to the United States Supreme Court. However, the Bush 
administration has said it will not apply the court's decision to the 
law in this country outside a number of Western States. Under the 
court's ruling, abused, neglected, and battered children who seek the 
safety and stability of a home with grandparents, or other relatives 
who are not formally licensed as foster caregivers are eligible to 
receive, quite wisely, federal foster care assistance.
  The Republicans are now saying we should deny funding to these 
grandparents and other relatives that care. The would tear apart tens 
of thousands of families and disregard the very purpose of the Adoption 
and Safe Families Act, a Federal law that directs a preference be given 
to placements with relatives.
  For some reason, after endless speeches proclaiming a concern for 
``family values,'' the only families that count are those that are 
sitting up at the top of the economic ladder, while the families that 
have taken in an abused and neglected child are left behind. This 
companion bill is the so-called ``reconciliation'' which really ought 
to be spelled W-R-E-C-K, ``wreck,'' because it is a wreck for these 
tens of thousands of loving and caring families. It is speeding through 
this Congress and speaking volumes about how much ``family values'' 
really count up here.
  To say that the Republicans would literally take food from the mouths 
of babes to fund tax breaks for the rich might sound like partisan 
rhetoric, but if you watch this Congress this week, that is exactly 
what you will see.
  This very year, President Bush's Office of Management and Budget 
rated the federal child support program among the highest and most 
efficient programs in the Federal Government; and yet, in the same bill 
in which they plan to take away about $600 million from families caring 
for abused and neglected children, they plan to deny federal support 
for child support enforcement, as amazing as that might seem.
  There has been a 75 percent increase in child support collections 
from deadbeat dads since fiscal year 1996, adding up to $21.2 billion, 
a big figure, but it translates, just like these monies for the foster 
families, into hundreds of thousands of small amounts that put food on 
the table and allow kids to have the clothes to go to school.
  Apparently, the folks that are running this place, the Administration 
and the House of Representatives do not know what it is like to be a 
single mom out there trying to get kids through school or to be a 
single grandmother having to start a second family to care for a 
grandchild while trying to keep them out of trouble and struggling to 
put food on the table. A few hundred dollars a month--whether it is 
from a deadbeat dad or through this foster care program for abused and 
neglected families--can make a big difference. That little bit of money 
makes the difference between a child who has a future and a child who 
ends up just like the abused and neglected parent that placed them in 
this horrible situation.
  And, in the same bill that is a companion to this, House Republicans 
go even farther than cutting off support for programs that address 
deadbeat dads and abused and neglected children, they also cut child 
care funding to the tune of about $500 billion. Those funds are cut 
from those who are struggling to get off welfare and will result in 
270,000 fewer children of poor working families being able to get 
access to child care in the next 5 years.
  This Republican reduction in our federal investment in children will 
cost us millions and billions of dollars in the long run, but, most 
importantly, it will deny too many children in this country the 
opportunity to achieve their full, God-given potential. It is wrong. 
And while this minor piece of uncontested legislation ought to be 
approved today, we need to reject this attempt by extremists in this 
Congress to place all the burden of their fiscal mismanagement on the 
most vulnerable people in our society.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger) brought out a 
harmless little bill here today, and some may wonder why we have taken 
so much time to whale away on the Budget Reconciliation Act which is 
coming down the road.
  The fact is that this issue of child welfare is an issue that we have 
absolutely neglected in this House, and we are talking about the whole 
issue of child care.
  This one little bill here has the title, which is the part that 
offends me: ``Fair Access to Foster Care Act.'' Well, advertising like 
that would be out of order, because that is misrepresenting what this 
is about. This is a technical corrections bill. But the Republicans 
want to come out here, and everything is a PR piece: ``Fair Access to 
Foster Care.'' You do not intend to give to anyone. You are not giving 
it in this bill. You are not going to give it on Thursday in the 
reconciliation bill. There is simply no concern about foster children 
in this Republican leadership.
  When they send people like the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Herger), a good, solid citizen, out here to defend this as ``fair 
access to foster care,'' people will say, well, I voted for the Fair 
Access to Foster Care bill, as though voting for a title meant 
something.
  Mr. Speaker, this administration is 6 weeks without picking up a pen 
and signing a letter to help the kids in Louisiana. That is a President 
who is leaving people behind. That is a Congress who is leaving 
children behind. You are not going to get away from it with the Fair 
Access to Foster Care Act.
  I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this bill. We will continue 
this discussion on Thursday when we have the Budget Reconciliation Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments on the other side 
of the aisle. However, almost none of what was just discussed has 
anything to do with what is on the floor today. The bill before us is a 
good one and one every Member should support. Members will soon have a 
chance to support needed spending reforms to reduce deficits and help 
balance the budget. That should be a goal for all of us.
  But what we hear today from the other side of the aisle is what we 
always hear: one, ``no'' on any savings in Federal programs; and, two, 
``no'' on commonsense reforms; but, three, ``yes'' on raising taxes on 
the American people. Unfortunately, it is just the same old liberal 
wine in the same old bottles.
  Mr. Speaker, the legislation before us today is an important step 
towards improving our Nation's child protection programs. It would 
ensure that all public and private agencies that assist families who 
care for foster children are treated in the same manner. It is good 
legislation and would help States focus their efforts on promoting 
child safety and well-being.
  I would like to again thank my colleagues for their work in this 
area, and I urge all Members to support this legislation.

[[Page 25320]]




                             General Leave

  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on subject of the bill now under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simmons). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Fair Access Foster 
Care Act of 2005. This bill will provide for fair access to foster care 
maintenance payments by adding private for-profit agencies to the list 
of eligible recipients. Currently, State and non-profit agencies are 
the only therapeutic foster care providers eligible for this funding. 
Children with special medical, psychological, emotional, and social 
needs are the most vulnerable in the foster care system. Congress 
should provide strong support for all agencies willing to be involved 
in these fragile lives.
  For children who enter foster care, separation from birth parents is 
traumatic, and separation from siblings who share a common history is a 
devastating, ultimately isolating loss. Since the 1980s, researchers 
have focused increasing attention on the importance of sibling ties. 
Siblings who are placed together have been known to transition more 
smoothly into new homes, and most researchers agree that attachments 
between siblings are critically important. In recent years, many states 
have taken action to help siblings stay together.
  I am pleased to share with you an encouraging story of hope from my 
district. The Salvation Army chapter in Wichita, Kansas, conducts an 
annual birth family Christmas party and a summer picnic at Camp 
Hiawatha that provides an opportunity to reunite foster care children 
and their birth families. In addition to these annual events, the staff 
works with United Methodist Youthville to provide sibling visits a 
couple times a month. The foster care parents are required to make the 
connection for these visits with the foster child's siblings and/or 
parents.
  In May of this year, there were 4,789 foster care children in the 
State of Kansas, and 542,000 in the country. According to the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services, the average stay for a child 
in the foster care system is 33 months. About 44 percent of these 
children reunite with their birth parents. Over 50 percent of foster 
children become juvenile delinquents, and the same percentage does not 
complete high school. These statistics speak of the desperate need for 
a good and solid foster care system, and of the commendable work so 
many agencies and families are willing to do for these children. 
Children in the foster care system become the responsibility of us all 
and their lives are changed forever when Americans begin to take that 
responsibility personally. My colleague Congressman Tom DeLay has both 
fostered children and been involved with foster care programs for years 
and I commend his work on this issue.
  I am proud to support this legislation that will increase the access 
and opportunity for therapeutic foster care for our Nation's children.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Herger) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the Senate bill, S. 1894.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

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