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America's Most Vulnerable Children Are Not Merely
Left Behind, They Are Left Without "Fair Access"
House of Representatives - November 8, 2005

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.

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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 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.