[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 160 (Tuesday, December 7, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H8062-H8064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CRIMINAL HISTORY BACKGROUND CHECKS PILOT EXTENSION ACT OF 2010
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (S. 3998) to extend the Child Safety Pilot Program.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 3998
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 ``Criminal History Background
Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2010''.
SEC. 2. EXTENSION.
Section 108(a)(3)(A) of the PROTECT Act (42 U.S.C. 5119a
note) is amended by striking ``92-month'' and inserting
``104-month''.
[[Page H8063]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Scott) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Daniel E.
Lungren) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
General Leave
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, S. 3998, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot
Extension Act of 2010, will extend the national child safety pilot
program for an additional 12 months.
Many Americans across the country graciously give their time and
energy to volunteer and mentor children. While most of these volunteers
act with good intentions, it is important that we are able to identify
those who may misuse these opportunities to harm children.
The national child safety pilot program was passed in 2003 as part of
the PROTECT Act. This program assists organizations in checking the
criminal records of volunteers before placing them as mentors with
children.
Since 2003, the national child safety pilot project has enabled State
governments to work with youth-serving organizations to access FBI's
national fingerprint-based background checks system. The pilot program
has helped prevent child predators and sex offenders from getting
access to children through legitimate mentoring programs by providing
access to the more comprehensive data in the FBI's database. We have
authorized this noncontroversial fee-based program on three other
occasions in anticipation of creating a permanent program. This pilot
program has provided extremely important information to mentoring
organizations--at no cost to taxpayers. We hope that this 12-month
extension will give us more time to work with the Senate and the
Department of Justice to permanently authorize this program.
I would like to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) for
his leadership in this legislation and his commitment to keeping
children safe. I urge my colleagues to support this important
legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such
time as I may consume.
Today, the House considers S. 3998, the Criminal History Background
Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2010. This bill was introduced by Senator
Schumer of New York and recently passed the Senate by unanimous
consent. I might just say parenthetically it makes me feel good that I
finally found a bill sponsored by the gentleman from New York that I
could support.
This bill extends the child safety pilot program, which provides
background checks for volunteer organizations that work with children,
for an additional year. Originally created, as the gentleman from
Virginia said, in 2003 under the PROTECT Act, the child safety pilot
program has proven itself to be an effective resource for protecting
our children. Through the pilot project, nonprofit organizations that
provide youth-based care may request criminal history background checks
from the FBI on applicants for volunteer or employee positions that
involve working with children.
A study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
provided data that underscores the importance of the pilot program. The
National Center found that of almost 90,000 background checks
performed through the pilot program, 6 percent of volunteer applicants
were found to have a criminal history of concern. These included
serious offenses such as sexual abuse of minors, assault, child
cruelty, drug offenses and even murder. Further, over 42 percent of
those with criminal histories had convictions in a State other than the
State in which they then were applying to volunteer. If the volunteer
group had performed a search only of the in-state records, many
relevant criminal convictions would not have been identified. One
youth-serving organization that received 1600 applications for
volunteer positions found that over 50 percent of the applicants lied
about having a criminal history, even though they knew it would be
subjected to a background check. Of the applicants with criminal
records, 23 percent had a different name reflected on their record than
the one used to apply to volunteer. Without access to the national
criminal database, many of these dangerous individuals may have slipped
through the cracks.
Mr. Speaker, volunteer and other child-serving organizations across
the country are working hard to provide safe learning and growing
environments for our children. That means hiring professional and
responsible employees. This bill will help and continues to help these
groups to do just that, by extending the pilot program.
The child safety pilot program is supported by the Boys and Girls
Clubs of America; the YMCA; the Salvation Army; Big Brothers, Big
Sisters of America; and Volunteers of America as well as many other
important organizations. Many Members of this body are parents first
and Members of Congress second. This legislation is critical to keeping
our children safe from criminals.
If just a single child does not become a victim of crime because of
this program, then obviously it will have been successful. I urge my
colleagues to join me in supporting this important legislation.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the
gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the manager of this bill for his
continuing leadership on issues of ensuring the safety of our children.
To the manager for our friends on the other side of the aisle, I
likewise thank him for his long record in law enforcement and for
supporting this legislation, which I rise to support, S. 3998, the
Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act.
Mr. Speaker, our children permeate our lives and our society. Not
only are children engaged in what we call organized activities such as
the Boys and Girls Clubs which permeate all of our communities and
districts, or little league baseball, football, soccer and basketball,
in schools and after-school clubs; but they also do ad hoc things such
as doing their own volunteer work and working with organizations that
ask for young people to volunteer. I rise enthusiastically to support
the opportunity for nonprofits and others to be able to access these
criminal background checks and applaud the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children that I've worked with over the years.
We are always saddened when we hear of a missing child, an abused
child, or a child that has been murdered. Over the last couple of
months and in the last year, we have seen children that have been
dismembered, we have seen children that have been lost, we have seen
children that have been brutally abused; certainly some at the hands of
their relatives or parents. But if we can protect these children when
they leave our home to ensure that they do have the safety of the adult
leadership that is working with them, we will have made a giant step
forward. Our children are our most precious resource. If we look at the
crime statistics, we will see that they represent a sizable proportion
of those children that have either been sexually abused or in fact
suffered a violent act. So I think that this expansion is extremely
important.
I would also commend to my colleagues my interest in seeing my
legislation on the DNA data bank on sexual predators to be accessible
all over the country to law enforcement and particularly isolated to
those who are sexual predators as relates to children. I have spoken to
many law enforcement officers who believe that this would be another
expedited source of assistance to them. Obviously this would be a grim
set of circumstances because it means that they would have in their
possession a case that either a child was sexually molested and lived
or a child was sexually molested and did not live. But anything that we
can do
[[Page H8064]]
to ensure that law enforcement within the guidelines of our own
Constitution and beliefs have all the resources that they need to
protect our children I believe is extremely important.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to move this
legislation, to hold hearings on this legislation, and to ensure that
we give every tool to law enforcement to protect our children.
{time} 1700
But in the instance of this legislation, this is, in fact, a very
important statement about our commitment to protecting our children.
I congratulate Senator Schumer. And to all of the organizations that
every day encounter adults that work with children, this gives you an
added extra tool that I know that you will use to be able to ensure
that our children have a full and complete quality of life, enjoy the
activities that you provide for them, and, yes, have the opportunity to
volunteer themselves and work with adults who they know are concerned
about their best interests and not those who may have a record that
would undermine the purpose and goals of the organization in which they
work.
So, in conclusion, let me thank those who have supported this
legislation and ask my colleagues to enthusiastically support S. 3998,
the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act.
Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I reiterate my
support for this piece of legislation and yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, S. 3998.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the
ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a
quorum is not present.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.
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