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“PREVENTING SEX TRAFFICKING AND IMPROVING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H4522-H4529 on May 20, 2014.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PREVENTING SEX TRAFFICKING AND IMPROVING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH IN
FOSTER CARE ACT
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4058) to prevent and address sex trafficking of youth in foster care, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4058
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 ``Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act''.
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Findings.
TITLE I--IDENTIFYING AND PROTECTING YOUTH AT RISK OF SEX TRAFFICKING
Sec. 101. Identifying and screening youth at risk of sex trafficking.
Sec. 102. Documenting and reporting instances of sex trafficking.
Sec. 103. State plan requirement to locate and respond to children who run away from foster care.
Sec. 104. Increasing information on youth in foster care to prevent sex trafficking.
TITLE II--IMPROVING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE AND
SUPPORTING PERMANENCY
Sec. 201. Supporting normalcy for children in foster care.
Sec. 202. Improvements to another planned permanent living arrangement as a permanency option.
Sec. 203. Empowering foster youth age 14 and older in the development of their own case plan and transition planning for a successful adulthood.
Sec. 204. Ensuring foster youth have a birth certificate, Social
Security card, health insurance information, medical records, and a bank account.
TITLE III--IMPROVING DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING ON CHILD SEX
TRAFFICKING
Sec. 301. Including sex trafficking data in the Adoption and Foster
Care Analysis and Reporting System.
Sec. 302. Information on children in foster care in annual reports using AFCARS data; consultation.
TITLE IV--IMPROVING THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE CHILD SUPPORT
COLLECTIONS
Sec. 401. Required electronic processing of income withholding.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Recent reports on sex trafficking estimate that thousands of children are at risk for domestic sex trafficking.
(2) The risk is compounded every year for the up to 30,000 young people who are ``emancipated'' from foster care.
(3) The current child welfare system does not effectively identify, prevent, or intervene when a child presents as trafficked or at risk for trafficking.
(4) Within the foster care system, many young adults are housed in congregate care facilities or group homes, which often are targeted by traffickers.
(5) Within the foster care system, children are routinely denied the opportunity to participate in normal, age or developmentally-appropriate activities such as joining 4-H and other clubs, participating in school plays, playing sports, going to camp, and visiting a friend.
(6) A lack of normalcy and barriers to participation in age or developmentally-appropriate activities contribute to increased vulnerability to trafficking, homelessness, and other negative outcomes for children in foster care.
(7) The latest research in adolescent brain development indicates that young people learn through experience and through trial and error, and that as part of healthy brain development young people need to take on increasing levels of decisionmaking through their teenage years.
(8) In order to combat domestic sex trafficking and to improve outcomes for children in foster care, systemic changes need to be made to the child welfare system that focus on--
(A) the reduction of children in long-term foster care;
(B) greater child engagement in case planning while in foster care;
(C) improved efforts to locate and respond to children who have run away from foster care and to reduce the number of foster children who are on the run;
(D) improved policies and procedures that encourage age or developmentally-appropriate activities for children in foster care and that permit more opportunities for such children to make meaningful and permanent connections with caring adults; and
(E) with regard to domestic sex trafficking, improved identification, prevention, and intervention by the child welfare agency in collaboration with the courts, State and local law enforcement agencies, schools, juvenile justice agencies, and other social service providers.
TITLE I--IDENTIFYING AND PROTECTING YOUTH AT RISK OF SEX TRAFFICKING
SEC. 101. IDENTIFYING AND SCREENING YOUTH AT RISK OF SEX
TRAFFICKING.
Section 471(a)(9) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)(9)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``and'';
(2) in subparagraph (B), by inserting ``and'' after the semicolon; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(C) not later than--
``(i) 1 year after the date of the enactment of this subparagraph, demonstrate to the Secretary that the State agency has developed, in consultation with organizations with experience in dealing with at-risk youth, policies and procedures for identifying and screening (including relevant training for caseworkers), and for determining appropriate State action and services with respect to--
``(I) any child over whom the State agency has responsibility for placement, care, or supervision (including children for whom a State child welfare agency has an open case file but who have not been removed from the home and youth who are not in foster care but are receiving services under section 477 of this Act) who the State has reasonable cause to believe--
``(aa) is a victim of sex trafficking (as defined in section 103(10) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102(10))) or a severe form of trafficking in persons described in section 103(9)(A) of such Act (22 U.S.C. 7102(9)(A)); or
``(bb) is at risk of being a victim of either kind of trafficking; and
``(II) at the option of the State, any individual, without regard to whether the individual is or was in foster care under the responsibility of the State, who has not attained 26 years of age; and
``(ii) 2 years after such date of enactment, demonstrate to the Secretary that the State agency is implementing, in consultation with the child protective services agency or unit for the State, the policies and procedures referred to in clause (i).''.
SEC. 102. DOCUMENTING AND REPORTING INSTANCES OF SEX
TRAFFICKING.
(a) State Plan Requirements.--Section 471(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (32);
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (33) and inserting a semicolon; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(34) provides that, for each child over whom the State agency has responsibility for placement, care, or supervision
(including any child for whom a State child welfare agency has an open case file but who has not been removed from the home, and any youth who is not in foster care but is receiving services under section 477), the State agency shall--
``(A) not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, identify and document appropriately in agency records each child who is identified as being a victim of sex trafficking (as defined in section 103(10) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000) or as being a victim of severe forms of trafficking in persons described in section 103(9)(A) of such Act, as such a victim; and
``(B) report immediately, and in no case later than 24 hours after receiving--
``(i) information on children who have been identified as being victims of sex trafficking (as defined in subparagraph
(A) of this paragraph) to the law enforcement authorities; and
``(ii) information on missing or abducted children to the law enforcement authorities for entry into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, established pursuant to section 534 of title 28, United States Code, and to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; and
``(35) not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, contains a regularly updated description, made available to the public on the Internet website of the State agency, of the specific measures taken by the State agency to protect and provide services to children who are victims of sex trafficking (as defined in section 103(10) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000), or victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons described in section 103(9)(A) of such Act, including efforts to coordinate with State and local law enforcement, schools, juvenile justice agencies, and social service agencies such as runaway and homeless youth shelters and transitional and other supportive housing providers to serve that population.''.
(b) Regulations.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall promulgate regulations implementing the amendments made by subsection (a) of this section and shall provide uniform definitions for States to use for the reports required under section 471(a)(34)(B) of the Social Security Act, as added by such subsection (a).
SEC. 103. STATE PLAN REQUIREMENT TO LOCATE AND RESPOND TO
CHILDREN WHO RUN AWAY FROM FOSTER CARE.
Section 471(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)), as amended by section 102 of this Act, is amended--
(1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (34);
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (35) and inserting ``; and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(36) provides that, not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, the State shall develop and implement specific protocols for--
``(A) expeditiously locating any child missing from foster care;
``(B) determining the primary factors that contributed to the child's running away or otherwise being absent from care, and to the extent possible and appropriate, responding to those factors in current and subsequent placements;
``(C) determining the child's experiences while absent from care, including screening the child to determine if he or she is a possible victim of sex trafficking (as defined in paragraph (9)(C)); and
``(D) reporting such related information as required by the Secretary.''.
SEC. 104. INCREASING INFORMATION ON YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE TO
PREVENT SEX TRAFFICKING.
Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to the Congress a written report which summarizes the following:
(1) Information on children who run away from foster care and their risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking, using data reported by States under section 479 of the Social Security Act and information collected by States related to section 471(a)(36) of such Act, including--
(A) characteristics of children who run away from foster care;
(B) potential factors associated with children running away from foster care (such as reason for entry into care, length of stay in care, type of placement, and other factors that contributed to the child's running away);
(C) information on children's experiences while absent from care; and
(D) trends in the number of children reported as runaways in each fiscal year (including factors that may have contributed to changes in such trends).
(2) Information on State efforts to provide specialized services, foster family homes, or child care institutions for children who are victims of sex trafficking.
(3) Information on State efforts to ensure children in foster care form and maintain long-lasting connections to caring adults, even when a child in foster care must move to another foster family home or when the child is placed under the supervision of a new caseworker.
TITLE II--IMPROVING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE AND
SUPPORTING PERMANENCY
SEC. 201. SUPPORTING NORMALCY FOR CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE.
(a) Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard.--
(1) Definitions relating to the standard.--Section 475 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 675) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(9)(A) The term `reasonable and prudent parent standard' means the standard characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain the health, safety, and best interests of a child while at the same time encouraging the emotional and developmental growth of the child, that a caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in foster care under the responsibility of the State to participate in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities.
``(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term
`caregiver' means a foster parent with whom a child in foster care has been placed or a designated official for a child care institution in which a child in foster care has been placed.
``(10) The term `age or developmentally-appropriate' means--
``(A) activities or items that are generally accepted as suitable for children of the same chronological age or level of maturity or that are determined to be developmentally-appropriate for a child, based on the development of cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities that are typical for an age or age group; and
``(B) in the case of a specific child, activities or items that are suitable for the child based on the developmental stages attained by the child with respect to the cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities of the child.''.
(2) State plan requirement.--Section 471(a)(24) of such Act
(42 U.S.C. 671(a)(24)) is amended--
(A) by striking ``include'' and inserting ``includes'';
(B) by striking ``and that such preparation'' and inserting
``that the preparation''; and
(C) by inserting ``, and that the preparation shall include knowledge and skills relating to the reasonable and prudent parent standard for the participation of the child in age or developmentally-appropriate activities, including knowledge and skills relating to the developmental stages of the cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities of a child, and knowledge and skills relating to applying the standard to decisions such as whether to allow the child to engage in social, extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities, including sports, field trips, and overnight activities lasting 1 or more days, and to decisions involving the signing of permission slips and arranging of transportation for the child to and from extracurricular, enrichment, and social activities'' before the semicolon.
(3) Technical assistance.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall provide assistance to the States on best practices for devising strategies to assist foster parents in applying a reasonable and prudent parent standard in a manner that protects child safety, while also allowing children to experience normal and beneficial activities, including methods for appropriately considering the concerns of the biological parents of a child in decisions related to participation of the child in activities (with the understanding that those concerns should not necessarily determine the participation of the child in any activity).
(b) Normalcy for Children in Child Care Institutions.--Section 471(a)(10) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)(10)) is amended to read as follows:
``(10) provides--
``(A) for the establishment or designation of a State authority or authorities that shall be responsible for establishing and maintaining standards for foster family homes and child care institutions which are reasonably in accord with recommended standards of national organizations concerned with standards for the institutions or homes, including standards related to admission policies, safety, sanitation, and protection of civil rights, and which shall permit use of the reasonable and prudent parenting standard;
``(B) that the standards established pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be applied by the State to any foster family home or child care institution receiving funds under this part or part B and shall require, as a condition of any contract entered into by the State agency and a child care institution, the presence on-site of at least 1 official who, with respect to any child placed at the child care institution, is designated to be the caregiver who is authorized to apply the reasonable and prudent parent standard to decisions involving the participation of the child in age or developmentally-appropriate activities, and who is provided with training in how to use and apply the reasonable and prudent parent standard in the same manner as prospective foster parents are provided the training pursuant to paragraph (24);
``(C) that the standards established pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall include policies related to the liability of foster parents and private entities under contract by the State involving the application of the reasonable and prudent parent standard, to ensure appropriate liability for caregivers when a child participates in an approved activity and the caregiver approving the activity acts in accordance with the reasonable and prudent parent standard; and
``(D) that a waiver of any standards established pursuant to subparagraph (A) may be made only on a case-by-case basis for nonsafety standards (as determined by the State) in relative foster family homes for specific children in care;''.
(c) Effective Date.--
(1) In general.--The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date that is 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, without regard to whether regulations to implement the amendments have been promulgated by that date.
(2) Delay permitted if state legislation required.--If the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines that State legislation (other than legislation appropriating funds) is required in order for a State plan developed pursuant to part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to meet the additional requirements imposed by the amendments made by this section, the plan shall not be regarded as failing to meet any of the additional requirements before the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the 1st regular session of the State legislature that begins after the date of the enactment of this Act. If the State has a 2-year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature.
SEC. 202. IMPROVEMENTS TO ANOTHER PLANNED PERMANENT LIVING
ARRANGEMENT AS A PERMANENCY OPTION.
(a) Elimination of the Option for Children Under Age 16.--
(1) In general.--Section 475(5)(C)(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 675(5)(C)(i)) is amended by inserting
``only in the case of a child who has attained 16 years of age'' before ``(in cases where''.
(2) Conforming amendment.--Section 422(b)(8)(A)(iii)(II) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 622(b)(8)(A)(iii)(II)) is amended by inserting ``, subject to the requirements of sections 475(5)(C) and 475A(a)'' after ``arrangement''.
(b) Additional Requirements.--
(1) In general.--Part E of title IV of such Act (42 U.S.C. 670 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 475 the following:
``SEC. 475A. ADDITIONAL CASE PLAN AND CASE REVIEW SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS.
``(a) Requirements for Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement.--In the case of any child for whom another planned permanent living arrangement is the permanency plan for the child, the following requirements shall apply for purposes of approving the case plan for the child and the case system review procedure for the child:
``(1) Documentation of intensive, ongoing, unsuccessful efforts for family placement.--At each permanency hearing held with respect to the child, the State agency documents the intensive, ongoing, and, as of the date of the hearing, unsuccessful efforts made by the State agency to return the child home or secure a placement for the child with a fit and willing relative (including adult siblings), a legal guardian, or an adoptive parent, including through efforts that utilize search technology (including social media) to find biological family members for children in the child welfare system.
``(2) Redetermination of appropriateness of placement at each permanency hearing.--The State agency shall implement procedures to ensure that, at each permanency hearing held with respect to the child, the court or administrative body appointed or approved by the court conducting the hearing on the permanency plan for the child does the following:
``(A) Ask the child about the desired permanency outcome for the child.
``(B) Make a judicial determination explaining why, as of the date of the hearing, another planned permanent living arrangement is the best permanency plan for the child and provide compelling reasons why it continues to not be in the best interests of the child to--
``(i) return home;
``(ii) be placed for adoption;
``(iii) be placed with a legal guardian; or
``(iv) be placed with a fit and willing relative.
``(3) Demonstration of support for engaging in age or developmentally-appropriate activities and social events.--At each permanency hearing held with respect to the child, the State agency shall document the steps the State agency is taking to ensure the child's foster family home or child care institution is following the reasonable and prudent parent standard.''.
(2) Conforming amendments.--
(A) State plan requirements.--
(i) Part b.--Section 422(b)(8)(A)(ii) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 622(b)(8)(A)(ii)) is amended by inserting ``and in accordance with the requirements of section 475A'' after
``section 475(5)''.
(ii) Part e.--Section 471(a)(16) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)(16)) is amended--
(I) by inserting ``and in accordance with the requirements of section 475A'' after ``section 475(1)''; and
(II) by striking ``section 475(5)(B)'' and inserting
``sections 475(5) and 475A''.
(B) Definitions.--Section 475 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 675) is amended--
(i) in paragraph (1), in the matter preceding subparagraph
(A), by inserting ``meets the requirements of section 475A and'' after ``written document which''; and
(ii) in paragraph (5)(C)--
(I) by inserting ``, as of the date of the hearing,'' after
``compelling reason for determining''; and
(II) by inserting ``subject to section 475A(a),'' after
``another planned permanent living arrangement,''.
(c) Effective Date.--
(1) In general.--The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date that is 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) Delay permitted if state legislation required.--If the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines that State legislation (other than legislation appropriating funds) is required in order for a State plan developed pursuant to part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to meet the additional requirements imposed by the amendments made by this section, the plan shall not be regarded as failing to meet any of the additional requirements before the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the 1st regular session of the State legislature that begins after the date of the enactment of this Act. If the State has a 2-year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature.
SEC. 203. EMPOWERING FOSTER YOUTH AGE 14 AND OLDER IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR OWN CASE PLAN AND
TRANSITION PLANNING FOR A SUCCESSFUL ADULTHOOD.
(a) In General.--Section 475(1)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 675(1)(B)) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``With respect to a child who has attained 14 years of age, the plan developed for the child in accordance with this paragraph, and any revision or addition to the plan, shall be developed in consultation with the child and, at the option of the child, with up to 2 members of the case planning team who are chosen by the child and who are not a foster parent of, or caseworker for, the child. A State may reject an individual selected by a child to be a member of the case planning team at any time if the State has good cause to believe that the individual would not act in the best interests of the child. One individual selected by a child to be a member of the child's case planning team may be designated to be the child's advisor and, as necessary, advocate, with respect to the application of the reasonable and prudent parent standard to the child.''.
(b) Conforming Amendments to Include Children 14 and Older in Transition Planning.--Section 475 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 675) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)(D), by striking ``Where appropriate, for a child age 16'' and inserting ``For a child who has attained 14 years of age''; and
(2) in paragraph (5)--
(A) in subparagraph (C)--
(i) by striking ``and'' at the end of clause (ii); and
(ii) by adding at the end the following: ``and (iv) if a child has attained 14 years of age, the permanency plan developed for the child, and any revision or addition to the plan, shall be developed in consultation with the child and, at the option of the child, with not more than 2 members of the permanency planning team who are selected by the child and who are not a foster parent of, or caseworker for, the child, except that the State may reject an individual so selected by the child if the State has good cause to believe that the individual would not act in the best interests of the child, and 1 individual so selected by the child may be designated to be the child's advisor and, as necessary, advocate, with respect to the application of the reasonable and prudent standard to the child;''; and
(B) in subparagraph (I), by striking ``16'' and inserting
``14''.
(c) Transition Planning for a Successful Adulthood.--Paragraphs (1)(D), (5)(C)(i), and (5)(C)(iii) of section 475 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 675) are each amended by striking
``independent living'' and inserting ``a successful adulthood''.
(d) List of Rights.--Section 475A of such Act, as added by section 202(b)(1) of this Act, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(b) List of Rights.--The case plan for any child in foster care under the responsibility of the State who has attained 14 years of age shall include a document that describes the rights of the child with respect to education, health, visitation, and court participation, and to staying safe and avoiding exploitation, and a signed acknowledgment by the child that the child has been provided with a copy of the document and that the rights contained in the document have been explained to the child in an age-appropriate way.''.
(e) Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit a report to Congress regarding the implementation of the amendments made by this section. The report shall include--
(1) an analysis of how States are administering the requirements of paragraphs (1)(B) and (5)(C) of section 475 of the Social Security Act, as amended by subsections (a) and
(b) of this section, that a child in foster care who has attained 14 years of age be permitted to select up to 2 members of the case planning team or permanency planning team for the child from individuals who are not a foster parent of, or caseworker for, the child; and
(2) a description of best practices of States with respect to the administration of the requirements.
(f) Effective Date.--
(1) In general.--The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date that is 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) Delay permitted if state legislation required.--If the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines that State legislation (other than legislation appropriating funds) is required in order for a State plan developed pursuant to part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to meet the additional requirements imposed by the amendments made by this section, the plan shall not be regarded as failing to meet any of the additional requirements before the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the 1st regular session of the State legislature that begins after the date of the enactment of this Act. If the State has a 2-year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature.
SEC. 204. ENSURING FOSTER YOUTH HAVE A BIRTH CERTIFICATE,
SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, HEALTH INSURANCE
INFORMATION, MEDICAL RECORDS, AND A BANK
ACCOUNT.
(a) Case Review System Requirement.--Section 475(5)(I) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 675(5)(I)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``and receives assistance'' and inserting
``receives assistance''; and
(2) by inserting ``, and, unless the child has been in foster care for less than 6 months or the child is being discharged from care to be reunited with the family of the child or to be adopted, is not discharged from care without being provided with an official birth certificate of the child, a social security card issued by the Commissioner of Social Security, health insurance information and medical records, and if the child has attained 18 years of age, a fee-free (or low-fee) transaction account (as defined in section 19(b)(1)(C) of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 461(b)(1)(C))) established in the name of the child name at an insured depository institution (as defined in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1813)) or an insured credit union (as defined in section 101 of the Federal Credit Union Act (12 U.S.C. 1752)), unless the child, after consultation with the members of the case planning team for the child selected by the child (if any), elects to not have such an account established'' before the period.
(b) Effective Date.--
(1) In general.--The amendments made by this section shall take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act.
(2) Delay permitted if state legislation required.--If the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines that State legislation (other than legislation appropriating funds) is required in order for a State plan developed pursuant to part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to meet the additional requirements imposed by the amendments made by this section, the plan shall not be regarded as failing to meet any of the additional requirements before the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the 1st regular session of the State legislature that begins after the date of the enactment of this Act. If the State has a 2-year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature.
TITLE III--IMPROVING DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING ON CHILD SEX
TRAFFICKING
SEC. 301. INCLUDING SEX TRAFFICKING DATA IN THE ADOPTION AND
FOSTER CARE ANALYSIS AND REPORTING SYSTEM.
(a) In General.--Section 479(c)(3) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 679(c)(3)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (C)(iii), by striking ``and'' after the comma; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(E) the annual number of children in foster care who are identified as victims of sex trafficking (as defined in section 103(10) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102(10))) or a severe form of trafficking in persons described in section 103(9)(A) of such Act--
``(i) who were such victims before entering foster care; and
``(ii) who were such victims while in foster care; and''.
(b) Report to Congress.--Beginning in fiscal year 2016, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit an annual report to Congress that contains the annual aggregate number of children in foster care who are identified as victims of sex trafficking (as defined in section 103(10) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102(10))) or a severe form of trafficking in persons described in section 103(9)(A) of such Act, together with such other information as the Secretary determines appropriate relating to the identification of, and provision of services for, that population of children.
SEC. 302. INFORMATION ON CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE IN ANNUAL
REPORTS USING AFCARS DATA; CONSULTATION.
Section 479A of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 679b) is amended--
(1) by striking ``The Secretary'' and inserting the following:
``(a) In General.--The Secretary'';
(2) in paragraph (5), by striking ``and'' after the semicolon;
(3) in paragraph (6)(C), by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon;
(4) by adding at the end the following:
``(7) include in the report submitted pursuant to paragraph
(5) for fiscal year 2016 or any succeeding fiscal year, State-by-State data on children in foster care who have been placed in a child care institution or other setting that is not a foster family home, including--
``(A) the number of children in the placements and their ages, including separately, the number and ages of children who have a permanency plan of another planned permanent living arrangement;
``(B) the duration of the placement in the settings
(including for children who have a permanency plan of another planned permanent living arrangement);
``(C) the types of child care institutions used (including group homes, residential treatment, shelters, or other congregate care settings);
``(D) with respect to each child care institution or other setting that is not a foster family home, the number of children in foster care residing in each such institution or non-foster family home;
``(E) any clinically diagnosed special need of such children; and
``(F) the extent of any specialized education, treatment, counseling, or other services provided in the settings; and
``(8) include in the report submitted pursuant to paragraph
(5) for fiscal year 2016 or any succeeding fiscal year, State-by-State data on children in foster care who are pregnant or parenting.''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following:
``(b) Consultation on Other Issues.--The Secretary shall consult with States and organizations with an interest in child welfare, including organizations that provide adoption and foster care services, and shall take into account requests from Members of Congress, in selecting other issues to be analyzed and reported on under this section using data available to the Secretary, including data reported by States through the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System and to the National Youth in Transition Database.''.
TITLE IV--IMPROVING THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE CHILD SUPPORT
COLLECTIONS
SEC. 401. REQUIRED ELECTRONIC PROCESSING OF INCOME
WITHHOLDING.
(a) In General.--Section 454A(g)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 654a(g)(1)(A)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``, to the maximum extent feasible,''; and
(2) in subparagraph (A)--
(A) by striking ``and'' at the end of clause (i);
(B) by adding ``and'' at the end of clause (ii); and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(iii) at the option of the employer, using the electronic transmission methods prescribed by the Secretary;''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect on October 1, 2017.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.
General Leave
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Washington?
There was no objection.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today to urge the support of H.R. 4058, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act.
This is a bipartisan bill that I strongly believe will help end sex trafficking, especially of children in foster care.
Madam Speaker, I don't know if you know or the other Members who may be listening today or anyone else who may be listening know that, if you are driving down the street and you see 10 young girls standing on the street corner, that six of those 10 young girls who are in human trafficking, six of those are in foster care--six out of 10--and those are young children that the State, that the taxpayers, that we as citizens of this community--of our communities--are responsible for, and they are on the street.
I am pleased to have worked with my colleague and ranking member on the Human Resources Subcommittee, Mr. Doggett. There are many colleagues who have also supported this legislation.
Today, I am here. This is the beginning of my 10th year in Congress. Prior to that, I was in law enforcement, for 33 years, in the King County Sheriff's Office in Seattle, Washington.
For 19 of those years, there was a team created to go after the most notorious serial killer that this country has ever seen. His name was Ridgway. My quest in that case, to find Gary Ridgway, started in 1982. I was a 31-year-old detective.
One body on August 12, two more bodies on August 15; I found a third body on that same day, going down to the riverbank to recover the other two bodies. These were 16-year-old girls.
This is a topic that we should be talking about here in Congress.
When I was 32 in 1982 and I started working on this case--and we finally arrested Ridgway in 2001, so 1982 until 2001--Ridgway said he killed 60 to 70 women. He pled guilty to 49. We closed 51 cases. I collected the bodies. I collected the bodies of 15 and 16-year-old girls.
They were buried in shallow graves or thrown in a river to drift away. Madam Speaker, some of these victims were pregnant, thrown in a grave along with their unborn child, their life cut short and taken. In some weeks, we collected six bodies.
Can you imagine the horror of the children when they were abducted and drawn into this killer's car or taken to his home? They knew they were being killed. They were strangled, and they fought for their lives.
Can you imagine the horror of the parents, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the brothers and sisters, and the children lost forever, their life ripped away?
That is why we are here today. That is why we are discussing these bills. This is about life; it is about death, and we can save lives. Some Members here have mentioned that we can save lives today. I hope the Senate has the courage to follow through on these bills. We are doing our work here in the House of Representatives.
When I was on the banks of the Green River in 1982, I wondered who in the world is there who cares; and after 15 years of working the case, who cares, who cared about these young girls?
I can tell you, after talking to a number of those young women on the street and girls and children, they were wondering, too: Does anybody care? Does anybody even know I exist? Does anybody even know I am here and what I am going through? I need love. I need help.
One of those girls that I found in early 1982, that was found in 1982, was a young woman named Wendy Coffield. Wendy Coffield was a foster child. She had run away from home before; and this time, when she ran away from home, nobody was looking for her. No one cared. She disappeared, and no one cared, and then she was found, she was found dead.
These are the kids we have to help. My bill focuses on foster kids. Six out of 10 involved in human trafficking today are foster kids.
We had some hearings, of course, over the past few months, and there were some courageous young women who came forward to tell their stories in our subcommittee, and I want to mention their names because it took a lot of courage to come forward and tell their stories about their lives and what they went through and the feeling of nobody caring.
Withelma ``T'' Ortiz Walker Pettigrew is a sex trafficking survivor who experienced 14 foster care placements and was exploited into the sex trafficking trade as a child. This year, though, she was recognized by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in 2014. Talk about turning around your life and having an impact and influence on other people. ``T'' Ortiz Pettigrew has done it.
Noel Gomez, Seattle Organization for Prostitution Survivors, Gomez survived 15 years in the sex trafficking trade and is working to help kids stay out and to get out of the sex trafficking trade.
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Mandy Urwiler, she entered foster care at the age of 15 and had remained in care throughout her extended foster care program. She testified about her personal experience in foster care and her exposure to the sex trafficking world.
Talitha James, a former foster youth from California, was able to leave the system at age 14 after her aunt gave her a stable home.
After hearing from her and many other experts, Mr. Doggett and myself introduced bipartisan legislation to help every State better protect youth in foster care from sex trafficking. This bill requires States to identify victims and to provide them with the services they need to heal. It would also improve data on instances of child trafficking.
On a preventative front, the bill makes sure that the youth can participate in age appropriate activities so they are less vulnerable to trafficking. It encourages States to move forward, moving children out of foster care and into permanent, loving homes.
The approach we are taking is practical. It is bipartisan. It is based on the State's experience. This bill incorporates a wide range of ideas gleaned from bills introduced by members of the Ways and Means Committee like Mr. Paulsen, as well as ideas from over 150 pages of public comments that we received from our December discussion draft.
I am confident that this legislation will ensure that all States take real steps to better understand the problem and keep kids safe while in foster care. I urge all Members to support this legislation.
I want to thank Mr. Doggett, who joins me on the floor today. I want to thank Chairman Camp for his support, Ranking Member Levin for his support, and all those others who have signed on to the bill.
We are here today, as I said, to protect vulnerable children in foster care and work to find them loving homes. That is why we are here. We are here to save lives. Both parties have worked together.
We have received support for this bill from the American Bar Association, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the American Public Human Services Association, Children's Defense Fund, the Human Rights Project for Girls, National Children's Alliance, and eight others. They proudly indicated their support for this important legislation.
I invite all Members to join us in supporting this important bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I join in supporting this bill to combat sex trafficking of children that are in the foster care system. When children come into foster care, they are at risk for exploitation because of the abuse and neglect that they have already suffered in their original family and because of the sense of isolation that they often feel when they have suddenly been removed from their home. Those who prey on children, especially sex traffickers, know this and they take advantage of these youth.
Children are removed from their home; they are bounced around from one place to another often; and then, in my State, when they reach 18, they are told they are on their own. That is a situation that invites, especially for young women, the dangerous sex trafficking in which they are exploited.
There is bipartisan support for this bill. It originated from a thoughtful hearing, with some very strong witnesses describing the problem. It is bipartisan. It is also a modest step forward. It is redirecting our welfare agencies, our child welfare agencies around the country, in what they do. I think that it will provide some modest help in saving lives.
It would do even more if, instead of just new requirements for these States, it were adding new resources. It adds very little in the way of resources, but I think it will be helpful in directing the attention of each of these agencies in the various States to focus on this very serious problem, to give us the data to make the argument to do more in the future.
Because so many of these young people will eventually age out of the system after having been moved around from one home to another, it is important that we help them be able to move into the workforce. In that regard, there was a problem with the bill when one particular provision was removed from the bill because it cost about a million dollars in additional administrative expenses and there was apparently no way found to cover that cost.
I believe that providing a young person who ages out at age 18 from the foster care system with a birth certificate and a Social Security card is a worthwhile thing to do. Chairman Reichert promised to work with us on this in committee. He has. That provision has fortunately been restored here in this bill. It has been restored, however, in a way that really borrows from another provision that is also important to our foster youth, and that is a provision called Family Connections.
The Family Connection grants program is designed to try to connect children with grandparents, with other family members to help in the search for relatives of the foster children who might provide them a home. It provides only about $15 million a year, which is hardly enough to cover the need across the entire United States to provide better connection. If this measure were fully adopted, there would no longer, under the Republican budget rules, be a way to pay for the Family Connections program, which is another vital way that we protect these foster youth.
The Children's Defense Fund, which does support the bill, wrote to us in committee to find a way to restore the provision that cost about a million dollars a year and pointed out that the same day that the committee would not provide a million dollars extra per year, it did find a way under the same budget rules to find not a million, but $310 billion to cover corporate tax breaks.
I believe that this measure is helpful. It is a good step forward. It is a modest step forward that would have benefited from not taking from one in order to help the other when it comes to foster children. We need to be doing more for our foster youth, not only on sex trafficking, but in other ways, more than we are able to accomplish under the strict budget rules today. There is a real inconsistency in saying we cannot find additional revenues to pay for something as serious as this when we can afford to borrow up to $310 billion for various corporate tax breaks, the first of which has already been approved here in the House in our last week.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Doggett for his support.
Just as we were listening to each other and talking to each other regarding the issue that existed prior to bringing this bill to the floor, I am interested in continuing to work with Mr. Doggett on the other issues that he has mentioned in his opening statement.
Now I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black).
Mrs. BLACK. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4058, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act, as well as each of the four additional bipartisan sex trafficking bills being discussed today.
The statistics about sex trafficking are shocking, and it is not just happening abroad. These heinous crimes are being committed right here at home. In fact, the Federal Government reports that some 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually, making this a
$9.5 billion industry each year. Worse, 50 percent of the victims that are trafficked into the United States are under the age of 18, with 60 percent of the trafficking happening in our foster care system.
Madam Speaker, these are children in our communities whose innocence is being stolen away by the horrors of human trafficking. In just one county in my district, there were more than 100 cases of sex trafficking involving a minor in 2011, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
As a mother and a grandmother, my heart just breaks for those impacted by this epidemic. I believe we have a responsibility to reverse this unacceptable trend.
Madam Speaker, an act of Congress won't immediately stop all the forms of this human trafficking, but we can do something. We can make the penalty stiffer. We can put another wall between the innocent victims and those who victimize them. We can pass H.R. 4058 and each of those other bipartisan measures aimed at targeting sex trafficking today. We can and we should.
Mr. DOGGETT. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I should have also mentioned that Mrs. Black is a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Now I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam), also a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. ROSKAM. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member.
It is not often that we get to see a major social movement bringing us, both sides of the aisle, together, but that is absolutely happening right now. There is a buoyancy to that, and there is a joy in that. The joy is not about us, but it is recognizing that we as Members of Congress and the communities that we represent can do an amazing amount of good right now. The amazing amount of good is reflected in what is happening all across the country.
In my constituency in the western suburbs of Chicago, there is an organization called the West Chicagoland Anti-Trafficking Coalition. These are people who have come together, focused in on this issue, trying to bring attention to what is actually happening.
We have heard speaker after speaker regale against the trafficking itself, but there is a brightness to us coming together. There is something very good that is happening in my home State in Illinois.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is a national leader in her office, along with a member of her staff, Jack Blakey, who is the chief of special prosecutions, who have come together to come up with something that is known as the Chicago model.
What is the Chicago model? What they are doing is they are coming in and they are saying that there has to be close coordination between victim services, law enforcement, and prosecutors to the point where victim service advocates are accompanying along on raids, coming alongside to make sure that these young people are rescued. The approach also uses evidentiary and prosecutorial methods that help minimize a victim's exposure in the courtroom itself to minimize her contact with her trafficker.
Did you hear that? There is something incredible that is happening in Chicago that is leading the way, and it is protecting people and minimizing the exposure that victims have to traffickers. In other words, building up a legal case that doesn't have the victim as the focal point in terms of testimony, but creating these types of evidentiary approaches.
We can do something significant. There is something significant that is happening today, and we are all reflecting the mood and the desire on the part of our constituents to be forthright and aggressive in taking on this scandal.
Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to our colleague from California (Ms. Bass), the chair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, who worked so diligently on this around the country.
Ms. BASS. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4058. I am proud to have worked with Chairman Reichert and have become an original cosponsor of the bill. I also want to acknowledge the leadership of Chairman Camp, as well as Ranking Members Doggett and Levin, to pass this important legislation, especially during National Foster Care Month.
As cochair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, I have traveled throughout the country as part of a national listening tour. It has been devastating to learn the children involved in the child welfare system, particularly those who experience multiple placements, are especially susceptible to coercion and manipulation by traffickers.
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In Los Angeles, where I am from, the Probation Department reports that hundreds of young people, all minors, have been identified as victims of sex trafficking. Sixty-one percent have been identified as foster youth. The Los Angeles STAR Court, which specializes in serving commercially sexually exploited youth, reports an even higher percentage: 80 percent of the young people have been foster youth.
Unfortunately, the child welfare system as a whole has not truly recognized trafficking as a crisis within the foster youth population, nor incorporated protocols and systems to address the problem. Few child welfare employees have been adequately trained and prepared to identify or respond to child victims of trafficking. Fewer still have incorporated policies, protocols, and case management techniques to serve this population. Child welfare agencies are not documenting the prevalence of trafficking within the foster care population. Therefore, the scope of the challenge nationwide is unknown.
To address these gaps, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act requires States to develop plans to provide services to child victims of trafficking, as well as to train case workers on how to identify victims and coordinate these services. The bill would also ensure that agencies using existing data collection mechanisms provide a national and State-by-State understanding of the prevalence of this problem.
These are tremendous steps forward, and I look forward to continuing working with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to move legislation that will further prevent exploitation and protect foster youth and all children from trafficking.
It is also significant that this bill helps to empower foster youth by giving foster parents more authority to make day-to-day decisions regarding their foster child's participation in age-appropriate activities. Many foster youth can never attend a prom, can't participate on a sports team, can't go to sleepovers--normal activities that all of our children do. The bill encourages States to more quickly move kids out of foster care and into permanent families, provide older children with a greater say in the development of their own case plans, and ensure that older foster youth have access to critical documents.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Black). The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. DOGGETT. I yield an additional minute to the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. BASS. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, as well as next week welcoming nearly 70 foster youth to the Hill for the third annual Foster Youth Shadow Day.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen), who has introduced his own bill connected to this issue, H.R. 3610, Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act. Mr. Paulsen is also a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. PAULSEN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the chairman for his leadership, along with Ranking Member Doggett.
More than 100,000 children are at risk of being trafficked for commercial sex in America. That is just according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, so it is probably a pretty conservative number. Those most at risk of victimization are the vulnerable, including children in our foster care system. These are young girls age 12, 13, 14, 15.
These youth who have been involved in the foster care system are more likely to become runaways or become homeless at a very early age. In fact, a vast large majority, large percentage of sexual trafficking victims are runaways. Law enforcement has said that. In fact, 60 percent of those runaways being trafficked were in the foster care system at some point.
Madam Speaker, in order to help prevent these youth from becoming victims--and that is what they are, victims, victims of sex trafficking--we need better information also as to what is happening, where, and to whom. We need to identify the trends and fill in the gaps. There are provisions in this legislation that address those shortfalls.
This bill is crucial for addressing the lack of reliable data and reporting to law enforcement as it relates to runaway youth from the child welfare system. The bottom line is we need to help these victims before they become trafficked.
I want to thank Chairman Reichert for his leadership, along with Ranking Member Doggett, for their bipartisan efforts to move this legislation forward expeditiously.
I also want to thank Congresswoman Slaughter for helping author with myself several of the provisions that were incorporated into this legislation.
The good news, Madam Speaker, is this legislation is bipartisan. Hopefully it is going to move forward bicamerally in the Senate as well. It is absolutely an opportunity to save lives.
Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler).
Mrs. HARTZLER. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Reichert and Mr. Doggett for bringing this legislation to the floor and for their leadership on this very, very important issue.
In 2013, the FBI conducted raids on sex trafficking operations in 70 U.S. cities. Perhaps the most startling finding in the aftermath of these raids was that 60 percent of rescued child trafficking victims had lived in foster care or group homes.
This finding has taught us a very important lesson: to comprehensively address such horrific injustice, we must both improve the state of children and family services, and increase the efforts in the Justice Department.
This legislation works to address human trafficking by helping us to ensure that the over 400,000 youth currently in foster care have the security and resources they need to become fully integrated contributors to American society.
Though human trafficking is a global issue, we must remember that it is happening throughout America, sadly even in places like my home State of Missouri. Just last November in Jefferson City, a 28-year-old man was indicted for sex trafficking of a child under the age of 14. Also, earlier this year, a Springfield man pleaded guilty to trafficking of a 17-year-old girl with learning disabilities.
Stories like these remind us that this crime against humanity is a real threat all across the U.S., one that is not limited to big cities or high-crime areas.
Today's legislation proactively confronts one of the most disturbing threats to the liberty and dignity of the American people. We cannot afford to stand idly by while the innocent are being subjected to cruel and dehumanizing treatment right here in our own country. Madam Speaker, I urge the Members of this body to join this effort and help end this form of enslavement and keep kids safe.
Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), who has already spoken eloquently this afternoon about this problem in connection with another bill, to address the issues raised by this bill and the serious problem of sex trafficking.
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill. It is extremely important.
I would like to underscore that there is no politics in sex trafficking. This body is often described as being bitterly partisan. But today that is not the case as voices on both sides of the aisle and hard work on both sides of the aisle have joined to work to try to make it better and try to stop this abuse.
We have already heard and know that trafficking in human beings is nothing less than a modern form of slavery and that the incidence in foster children is tremendously high.
A foster child named Angela came to my office one day and told me the story that at 10 years old the boyfriend of her foster mother started selling her as a prostitute, and her younger brother. She was horrified one day when she saw a picture of herself and her younger brother in a magazine advertising that they were for sale. She spoke out at school to her counselor and they didn't believe her. When the authorities from the welfare agency came to the home she told them she was being abused, and they told her to be grateful to her foster parents--why is she raising such problems.
So there is clearly a need for educating and involving States and agencies in being more sensitive and identifying the victims of child abuse and child sex trafficking. It is something we do not want to acknowledge that it exists in our own country. But every time you see a child on the street, a child prostitute, there is a tragic story behind that young girl or boy of intense abuse. Regrettably, too many of them come out of the American foster care system, a system that is supposed to protect them.
This bill is incredibly needed. I congratulate Mr. Doggett and Ms. Bass for their hard work on this.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), my colleague.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Reichert and Mr. Doggett for this work, and the work of the Ways and Means Committee, which is a vital component to this holistic approach that we have now embraced dealing with human trafficking.
The foster care system that many of us have embraced that needs overhaul, as a member of the foster care task force and caucus, as a member and founder of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I have been dealing with foster care children for a number of years. In fact, I served as a cochair of the Foster Care Task Force in Houston, whose purpose was to give relief to what was then called Foster Care Grandparents, whose grandparents were involved in the foster care system. That is the friendly side of foster care.
But I think it is so very important to recognize that we are still facing that large gap of those youngsters who age out, along with youngsters who are 12, 13, and 14 who have been in the foster care system all of their life. We have heard the stories that they go from house to house, maybe some of them had 30 homes, places where they have lived, for a period of time that they have been in foster care.
What I have seen as I have been on the streets of Houston when we spend a night out on the streets going places where we knew children and young people would be sleeping, that these were children who had either aged out, who had in fact run away, or been in foster care on the streets of Houston. They are a number one target for the dastardly act of sex trafficking, child trafficking, and human trafficking.
So I rise today to support this legislation, again, as it adds to an overall omnibus approach to going after anyone who wants to hide behind the vulnerability of a child and take advantage of them. This bill provides for full resources for foster care children so that they do not find the most welcoming track someone's ugly words that, in fact, are here to undermine them and to take them into this life.
I ask my colleagues to support this legislation because, in fact, it stops those children from going into a life that will ruin their life and to make them find a place where they can find solace.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Washington has 3 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Texas has 7\3/4\ minutes remaining.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga).
Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Madam Speaker, we know a lack of normalcy and barriers to participation in sort of age-appropriate activities increases vulnerability of trafficking, homelessness, and other negative outcomes that kids that are in foster care experience. This bill--and I appreciate the authors of this bill--would ensure that youth and foster care can participate in more age-appropriate activities and they are going to be better connected with their communities and their friends and less vulnerable, therefore, to becoming victims of sex trafficking.
In all this nastiness, negativity, and ugliness, I get to talk about a little ray of hope, though, as well. Bethany Christian Services, which is located in west Michigan and has operations in my district, is an example of an effective child welfare organization that dramatically improves outcomes for children in foster care.
Bethany comes alongside families who will walk with these kids at this time of crisis and welcome them unconditionally into their loving, caring homes. It is also an organizational model that has proven successful. Foster parents work with staff from community agencies toward identified goals for the children in their care, empowering these foster parents to dramatically improve outcomes for those kids that are in their care.
I thank the author of this, who is going to give this same opportunity to all foster children.
Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Reichert for his leadership on this measure.
In this place, we need to make what progress we can under the conditions that exist and make as much of it as possible. I hope that the Senate will respond to this measure. But in order to provide an effective response, we need to have the revenues to provide the resources along with the requirements to meet the needs of our foster youth.
A few weeks ago, I met with a number of attorneys in San Antonio who work with foster youth, particularly those who are aging out, as well as a number of community service groups, religious and nonreligious in their orientation. They describe immense problems that our foster youth face. When they age out at age 18, only about 2 percent of those young people in the San Antonio area ever end up in college.
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Many of them do get a substantial taxpayer subsidy over their lives. Unfortunately, it is a subsidy in our jails and in our penal system after they are engaged in some harmful conduct.
This bill is one step that we can take to address the exploitation of these young people, particularly of young women. There are broader problems out there that need our attention, but I favor moving forward with the progress that we can make today to address this one critical problem.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, in closing, I do believe that this bill can help end sex trafficking, especially when partnered with all of the other legislation that we have been talking about today. It is a holistic approach, and it touches on almost every one of the intricate issues surrounding protecting young children from being victims of human trafficking.
After we are done today, there will still be another bill, presented by Mr. Smith, that will add to the power of the movement that we are making today and that will add to the voice that we are expressing today in support of young children, in support of families--in support of protecting lives. We are going to save lives.
With these bills today, somebody does care. As I said in my opening statement, when I was 31 years old and was on the banks of the rivers, collecting the bodies of teenage girls, I wondered if anybody cared, and their families wondered.
Today, that question has been answered. We care. All the way to the United States Capitol, we care. We can make a difference. Our daughters are not for sale, and the time is now.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4058, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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