[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8368]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           YOUTH PROMISE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Webster of Florida). The Chair 
recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to an 
incredibly important piece of legislation that will provide essential 
funding for programs which will go miles toward helping every young 
person in America who has maybe had a misstep reach their potential and 
achieve their American Dream.
  As I travel my district, I am so impressed as I meet some of the most 
incredible young people in north central Florida. These young Americans 
have the capability of literally changing the world and the capability 
of bettering their communities and setting a positive example for the 
youth that will follow in their footsteps.
  Unfortunately, too many will fall victim to the circumstances in 
which they were born. Too many will become familiar with the inside of 
a juvenile detention facility, as the image of the classroom fades from 
memory, and the all-too-often reality of life behind bars begins to 
materialize. I want to stress that if this happens to even just one 
child, that is one child too many.
  We live in the greatest nation on Earth. We tell our children they 
can be whatever they want to be when they grow up, yet we know the 
reality for some is that as these very words are spoken, there is no 
truth to them. These are the youth who fall subject to the cradle-to-
prison pipeline, and it is unacceptable.
  These are the children in our communities, children who go to school 
with our own kids and, yes, in some cases even our own children. We 
have the ability to change their reality. H.R. 2197, the Youth PROMISE 
Act, will do just that. The Youth PROMISE Act establishes a PROMISE 
Advisory Panel of State representatives as well as local PROMISE 
Coordinating Councils, which will develop and implement evidence-based 
locally controlled--not Washington-controlled--youth violence 
prevention and intervention practices and mentorship opportunities.
  These practices will occur on a community level, working with 
families, working with schools, nonprofits, juvenile justice advocates, 
and law enforcement officers to intervene early in a child's life to 
prevent them from starting down a path that can easily define the 
remainder of their lives.
  Last Congress, the Youth PROMISE Act garnered the bipartisan support 
of over 130 Members of this body in Congress, yet it sat in committee 
for nearly 2 years. This Congress, the Youth PROMISE Act has sat in the 
House Committee on Education and the Workforce for over 400 days 
without action.
  Our youth cannot continue to wait. There are many issues that 
Congress deals with which Republicans, Democrats, and Independents 
cannot agree upon, but this is not one of them. If they have not 
already, I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this vital piece of 
legislation. I urge leadership in the House and the Senate to bring up 
this bill for a vote, a vote for our challenged youth so that they may 
continue the great posterity of this Nation.

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