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The Promoting Safe and Stable Families program provides grants to states and Indian tribes to help vulnerable families stay together. The program supports services to build healthy marriages and improve parenting skills to prevent child abuse and neglect while also promoting timely family reunification when children must be separated from their parents for their own safety. When children cannot be safely reunited with their families, the program works with state child welfare agencies to remove barriers that stand in the way of adoptions into loving homes.

The new law authorizes $67 million for one of the administration's priority programs - competitive grants for projects that mentor children of prisoners. More than 2 million children in America have a parent in prison. These children suffer from far more behavioral, health and educational problems than other children and are at increased risk of becoming criminals themselves. By enabling caring adults to serve as role models and positive influences to these at-risk children, we can build happier, healthier lives for them today and in years to come.

Finally, the new law will expand HHS' Independent Living Program to extend benefits and services to young adults who have grown up in and aged out of foster care to give them the support they need to transition to adulthood and self-sufficiency. An additional $60 million of annual funding to states is authorized to fund educational and training vouchers for youths between the ages of 16 and 23 to help them acquire the knowledge they'll need to build careers of their own.

Families have always been the cornerstone of American society. I commend Congress for passing the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001, which will further improve the lives of vulnerable children and parents and help our nation as a whole.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Overview: On January 17, 2002, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2873, the "Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001," implementing many of the administration's proposals to expand services to strengthen families, create and expand mentoring programs for children whose parents are in prison, and enhance educational opportunities for children leaving foster care.

CURRENT LAW

The Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program provides grants to states and Indian tribes for family support, family preservation, family reunification, and adoption promotion and support services. The program is one of the few federally supported programs designed to help families to stay together, avoid removal of children from their homes, and support timely reunification where temporary removal has been necessary as long as these measures can be taken while ensuring children's safety. Available funding for the program in fiscal year 2001 was $305 million. States are allocated funds remaining after set-asides for Indian tribes (currently 1 percent) and research and technical assistance (currently $6 million).

The Court Improvement Program (CIP) provides grants to help state courts improve their handling of foster care and adoption proceedings. Fiscal year 2001 funding was $10 million. The Chafee Foster Care Independence Program offers assistance to help current and former foster care youths achieve self-sufficiency. Fiscal year 2001 authorization for the Chafee program was $140 million.

CHANGES MADE BY H.R. 2873

Promoting Safe and Stable Families

• The bill adds a findings statement to the PSSF legislation to indicate the need for family preservation, family support, time-limited reunification and adoption promotion and support programs. The bill amends the purpose statement to emphasize the importance of coordination of the four service programs.

• H.R. 2873 amends the definition of family support services in the original PSSF legislation to include strengthening parental relationships and promoting healthy marriages. It also amends the definition of family preservation services to allow states to support infant safe haven programs. Although states could always use the funds for these services, the amendment clarifies the flexibility to do so.

• The bill allows HHS to reallot unneeded portions of state allotments to other states, so that the total appropriation remains available for program purposes.

• The bill requires the Secretary to give priority consideration to certain research areas and to provide technical assistance to states.

• The amendments reauthorize mandatory funding of $305 million for fiscal year 2002 through 2006 with current set-asides. The bill also authorizes an additional discretionary funding of $200 million for PSSF for fiscal years 2002 through 2006.

Court Improvement Program

• The bill strengthens the statement of program purposes to 1) promote more timely court actions that provide for safety of children in foster care and expedite their placement in appropriate permanent settings, and 2) implement a child and family services review corrective action plan.

• The amendments reauthorize mandatory funding at $10 million annually and authorize an additional 3.3 percent of any discretionary funding for the court improvement program.

Mentoring Children of Prisoners

• The bill adds a new program to provide federal grants to programs for mentoring children of prisoners. The number of children with parents in prison has grown substantially over the past decade, currently numbering more than 2 million children. As a group, these children have far more behavioral, health and educational problems than the population at large; their prospects are dimmer for a future as well-adjusted and productive adult members of society; and they are at an increased risk of becoming criminals themselves.

• The program is authorized at $67 million for fiscal years 2002 and 2003, and such sums that are necessary for fiscal years 2004 through 2006. The bill reserves 2.5 percent of the funds for research, technical assistance and evaluation.

• State and local governments, Indian tribes and consortia, and community and faith-based organizations can apply for grants of up to $5 million. Grantees will need to become gradually more self-sufficient through public-private partnerships. A grant for a program shall be available to pay a share of program costs equal to up to 75 percent in the first two fiscal years of program funding and up to 50 percent in the subsequent fiscal years.

Educational and Training Vouchers

• The bill adds provisions to the Chafee program to provide for state programs of education and training vouchers for youths who age out of foster care. The Independent Living Program enables states to extend a safety net of benefits and services to young adults who grew up in foster care and were never adopted to ease their transition to adulthood and self-sufficiency. Currently, too many of the 16,000 youths who annually age out of foster care are not able to pursue education or vocational training for want of sufficient resources.

• The bill allows vouchers to be available to: 1) youth aged 18 to 21 who have aged out of foster care; 2) youth adopted from foster care after attaining age 16; and 3) youth between 21 and age 23 who are enrolled in a full-time course of study and making satisfactory progress toward completion.

• The bill authorizes $60 million annually for educational and training vouchers under the Chafee program. Vouchers for individual youths could total up to $5,000 annually and would be disregarded for purposes of determining eligibility and benefits under other federal or federally supported assistance programs.

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