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.