CONGRESS NEEDS TO HEAR FROM YOU!

[dasuberding]

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings. ... ew&id=4947

ADVISORY
FROM THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2006
HR-9 CONTACT: (202) 225-1025
Herger Announces Hearing to Review Proposals to Improve Child Protective
Services
Herger Announces Hearing to Review Proposals to Improve Child Protective
Services
Congressman Wally Herger (R-CA), Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources
of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee
will hold a hearing to review proposals to improve child protective
services. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, May 23, 2006, in room B
318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 2:00 p.m.
Oral testimony at this hearing will be from both invited and public
witnesses. Invited witnesses will include a representative from the U.S.
Government Accountability Office and other experts in how States use Federal
funds for child protective services. Any individual or organization not
scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for
consideration by the Subcommittee and for possible inclusion in the printed
record of the hearing.
BACKGROUND:
The Child Welfare Services (CWS) program and the Promoting Safe and Stable
Families (PSSF) program (both authorized under Title IV-B of the Social
Security Act) provide approximately $700 million in annual Federal funds to
support services to ensure children are raised in safe, loving families.
Combined, this is the largest source of Federal funds provided to States to
assist at-risk families, further protect children from abuse and neglect,
and prevent the unnecessary separation of children from their parents.
Since the program’s inception in the 1930s, States have had considerable
flexibility in the use of CWS funds. However, concern that few States were
spending CWS funds for targeted services to help at-risk families resulted
in Congress creating the PSSF program in 1993 (P.L. 103-66). Funds from the
PSSF program must be spent for family support services, family preservation
services, time-limited reunification services, or post-adoption services.
While the CWS program is indefinitely authorized, the authorization of the
PSSF program expires at the end of fiscal year 2006, requiring Congressional
action this year to extend or otherwise improve the PSSF program.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently completed initial
Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSRs) in each State. The CFSRs are
designed to assess each State’s child protection program to ensure the
program promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, such as
through services supported by CWS and PSSF funds. Significantly, as
established in a May 13, 2004 Subcommittee hearing, no State was in full
compliance with all measures of the CFSRs. The CFSRs revealed States need
to work to prevent repeat abuse and neglect of children; improve services
provided to families to reduce the risk of future harm, including better
monitoring of families’ participation in services; strengthen upfront
services provided to families to prevent unnecessary family break-up and
protect children who remain at home; improve ways States assess the needs of
family members and provide services; and better engage parents and children
when developing case plans outlining necessary services to assist families.
In light of these findings, there is considerable interest in
ensuring States utilize CWS and PSSF funds to improve child protection
programs and ensure at-risk families receive appropriate services. In the
course of considering potential PSSF reauthorization legislation, the
Committee is interested in learning about: (1) services provided to families
that have been evaluated and shown to achieve improved child outcomes; (2)
how families have been assisted by these programs; and (3) what additional
steps Congress should take to ensure Federal funds support local services
that allow children to safely remain in their own communities. The
Committee is especially interested in hearing from families or former foster
youth who have direct experience with such services.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Herger stated, “It is important that we
do all we can to help families receive services to prevent child abuse and
neglect. I look forward to learning about how Federal funds have been used
to provide services to protect children, whether those services are
effective, and what else we can do to improve how we protect vulnerable
children from harm. Based on the record to date, much more work needs to be
done.”
FOCUS OF THE HEARING:
The focus of this hearing will be to review proposals to improve child
protective services.
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSIONS OF REQUESTS TO BE HEARD:
Requests to be heard at the hearing must be made by telephone to Matthew
Turkstra or Cooper Smith at (202) 225-1721 no later than the close of
business, Wednesday, May 17, 2006. The telephone request should be followed
by a formal written request faxed to Allison Giles, Chief of Staff,
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth
House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515, at (202) 225-2610. The staff
of the Committee will notify by telephone those scheduled to appear as soon
as possible after the filing deadline. Any questions concerning a scheduled
appearance should be directed to the Committee staff at (202) 225 1721.
In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, the Committee may
not be able to accommodate all requests to be heard. Those persons and
organizations not scheduled for an oral appearance are encouraged to submit
written statements for the record of the hearing in lieu of a personal
appearance. All persons requesting to be heard, whether they are scheduled
for oral testimony or not, will be notified as soon as possible after the
filing deadline.
Witnesses scheduled to present oral testimony are required to summarize
briefly their written statements in no more than five minutes. THE
FIVE-MINUTE RULE WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED. The full written statement of
each witness will be included in the printed record, in accordance with
House Rules.
In order to assure the most productive use of the limited amount of time
available to question witnesses, all witnesses scheduled to appear before
the Committee are required to submit 100 copies, along with an IBM
compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, of their
prepared statement for review by Members prior to the hearing. Testimony
should arrive at the Subcommittee office, B-318 Rayburn House Office
Building, no later than close of business on Friday, May 19, 2006. The 100
copies can be delivered to the Subcommittee staff in one of two ways: (1)
Government agency employees can deliver their copies to B-318 Rayburn House
Office Building in an open and searchable box, but must carry with them
their respective government issued identification to show the U.S. Capitol
Police, or (2) for non-government officials, the copies must be sent to the
new Congressional Courier Acceptance Site at the location of 2nd and D
Streets, N.E., at least 48 hours prior to the hearing date. Please ensure
that you have the address of the Subcommittee, B-318 Rayburn House Office
Building, on your package, and contact the staff of the Subcommittee at
(202) 225 1025 of its impending arrival. Due to new House mailing
procedures, please avoid using mail couriers such as the U.S. Postal
Service, UPS, and FedEx. When a couriered item arrives at this facility, it
will be opened, screened, and then delivered to the Committee office, within
one of the following two time frames: (1) expected or confirmed deliveries
will be delivered in approximately 2 to 3 hours, and (2) unexpected items,
or items not approved by the Committee office, will be delivered the morning
of the next business day. The U.S. Capitol Police will refuse all
non-governmental courier deliveries to all House Office Buildings.
WRITTEN STATEMENTS IN LIEU OF PERSONAL APPEARANCE:
Please Note: Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit for the
hearing record must follow the appropriate link on the hearing page of the
Committee website and complete the informational forms. From the Committee
homepage, http://waysandmeans.house.gov, select “109th Congress” from the
menu entitled, “Hearing Archives”
(http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Hearings.asp?congress=17). Select the
hearing for which you would like to submit, and click on the link entitled,
“Click here to provide a submission for the record.” Once you have followed
the online instructions, completing all informational forms and clicking
“submit” on the final page, an email will be sent to the address which you
supply confirming your interest in providing a submission for the record.
You MUST REPLY to the email and ATTACH your submission as a Word or
WordPerfect document, in compliance with the formatting requirements listed
below, by close of business Tuesday, June 6, 2006. Finally, please note
that due to the change in House mail policy, the U.S. Capitol Police will
refuse sealed-package deliveries to all House Office Buildings. Those
filing written statements who wish to have their statements distributed to
the press and interested public at the hearing can follow the same procedure
listed above for those who are testifying and making an oral presentation.
For questions, or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202)
225-1721.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
The Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the
official hearing record. As always, submissions will be included in the
record according to the discretion of the Committee. The Committee will not
alter the content of your submission, but we reserve the right to format it
according to our guidelines. Any submission provided to the Committee by a
witness, any supplementary materials submitted for the printed record, and
any written comments in response to a request for written comments must
conform to the guidelines listed below. Any submission or supplementary item
not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be
maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All submissions and supplementary materials must be
provided in Word or WordPerfect format and MUST NOT exceed a total of 10
pages, including attachments. Witnesses and submitters are advised that the
Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing
record.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material
will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be
referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting
these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review
and use by the Committee.
3. All submissions must include a list of all clients,
persons, and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears. A
supplemental sheet must accompany each submission listing the name, company,
address, telephone and fax numbers of each witness.
Note: All Committee advisories and news releases are available on the World
Wide Web at http://waysandmeans.house.gov.
*****
The Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with
disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please call
202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four business
days notice is requested). Questions with regard to special accommodation
needs in general (including availability of Committee materials in
alternative formats) may be directed to the Committee as noted above.


[/b]

[gideonmacleish]

Thank you for this valuable information. While my representative is not on the Ways and Means Committee, I have asked him to forward my concerns to some of the Representatives who are. I have a fairly good working relationship with my Rep, so I'm hoping he will respond.

[Frustrated]

How are we going to know for sure that the Congress are going to listen to our Concerns when it is regarding to poor Services in CPS and needs reform????

Surely, I would be happy if they would step in and JUST LISTEN to what's happening in our Nation!

[gideonmacleish]

Frustrated,

This is why I finally decided to run for office myself...too tired of lousy choices, and after I'm a perennial candidate for awhile, I'll get the ear of a few of them.

I tell people in my district: if everyone who says they're tired of not having someone to vote for would turn out and vote for me, I'd win in a landslide.

[Frustrated]

That's GREAT! I do wish we would have more People like you, the more people like you, the more Odds we will have everything in our Favour!

I happen to think that People out there that were victimized by CPS should run for office............

then it will be interesting indeed.

People who stand up against the Government will have more Power than CPS ever will........

That day shall come some day.

[Bob_Lynn]

We've been down this road so many times before (see LIFE site home page "SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION" at http://www.life-vs-cps.com ) it seems to me these hearings are only for show (political decor). How many hearings does the Ways & Means Committee need where CPS is lambasted by testifiers before they act to try to reform it? Correct me if I'm wrong but the first hearings to repeal or reform CAPTA were held 20 years ago and I thought the testimony of Dr. Richard A. Gardner, M.D. was right on the money. His predictions were pretty accurate without a crystal ball. Then fast forward to Representative Joe Baca's testimony about 3 years ago and things went from bad to ridiculously awful.

So what do they want to know now? Maybe they're waiting for someone to tell them CPS cleaned up their act so they can breathe a sigh of relief? Totally useless bunch!

[dasuberding]

"How many hearings does the Ways & Means Committee need ".
Yes, Congress is a useless bunch but it's not time to give up yet. If every family that has been effected by CPS wrote testimony for this Committee, if every person showed up in front of the White House to protest, someone is bound to notice. The problem is that the majority of the people effected by CPS are uneducated in their civil and parental rights and don't fight it, thinking that common sense will prevail. We all know that CPS lives in Wonderland. I would suggest everybody who posts on this site, write a short testimony and send it in via email. It's not going to hurt.

[sob900]

"How many hearings does the Ways & Means Committee need ".
Yes, Congress is a useless bunch but it's not time to give up yet. If every family that has been effected by CPS wrote testimony for this Committee, if every person showed up in front of the White House to protest, someone is bound to notice.

What do the people do who can not show up for these things, then what?
Dano

[Bob_Lynn]

What do the people do who can not show up for these things, then what?

You can send in up to 10 pages of testimony in MS Word or MS Works WP format.

[Bob_Lynn]

From the AFRA site:

AFRA President Bill Tower will be going to Washington to address The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Foster Care on May 23, 2006... Bill has made several trips to the capitol to meet and speak before this committee since we first sent the delegation two years ago... Bill has absorbed the cost of these trips and is again shouldering the $1000 cost of this trip... If anybody can step up to the plate and help cover part of the trip I'm sure Bill would be greatly appreciative... You can contact Bill direct via email at [email protected]

Dennis M. Hinger
Executive Vice President
American Family Rights Association

[gideonmacleish]

Bob,

I agree, too many times it seems like the same song, second verse. What we need to do as activists is to be in this for the long haul. We need to pound away and pound away until we can't pound anymore, and then keep pounding.

I have seen attitudes slowly change on the individual level; we CAN and SHOULD keep at it. While this meeting will probably not affect us in any positive way immediately, we should nonetheless do what we can to get our message out.