Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2006

CONTACT:  John Bray
(202) 226-4637

WASHINGTON – Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) today secured the inclusion of $5 million for drug endangered children through the passage of an amendment to H.R. 5672, a bill that funds the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies. The amendment, introduced by Cardoza and co-sponsored by Reps. Darlene Hooley (WA) and Rick Larsen (OR), provides grants to local law enforcement and social service agencies through the drug endangered children grant program, which was authorized under the Patriot Act

“Tragically, innocent children are suffer terribly as a result of meth and other drugs,” said Cardoza. “This amendment is an important step towards providing hope for children endangered by drugs at home. These grants would provide much needed funds to improve coordination between government organizations that deal with children found in homes made unsafe by drugs.”

The grants will be primarily focused on (1) funding coordination efforts among law enforcement, child protective services, social services, and health care services to help affected children and (2) funding efforts to assist the transition of children from toxic or drug-endangering environments to appropriate residential environments.

“Children are too often the silent victims of drug abuse,” said Rep. Rick Larsen (WA). “As co-chair of the House Meth Caucus, I have talked to many social service workers and treatment professionals about the risks that drug-endangered children face. I want to thank Congressman Cardoza for his leadership on this issue.”

Background:

The purpose of the Drug Endangered Children grants is to aid children who are living in a home in which methamphetamine or other controlled substances are unlawfully manufactured, distributed, dispensed, or used.

This Amendment provides $5 million in funding for the Drug Endangered Children grant program which is administered by the Attorney General. This amount was authorized in the PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005. Funding was not included in the SSJC Appropriations bill for this authorized program.

According to a survey released last year by the National Association of Counties, 69% of responding officials from county social service agencies indicate that their counties have had to provide additional and special training for their welfare system workers and have had to develop new and special protocols for workers to address the special needs of these children displaced by parental meth use. 

According to the same survey 67% to 75% of the foster care cases in Merced County are meth-related.

The Drug Enforcement Administration reported last year that 15,000 children have been found at meth labs over the previous five years.