Danny Davis

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore), a fierce advocate for low- income people.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time. I want to, first of all, commend Mr. Curbelo for his leadership on this issue, and I certainly agree with him that we have found enough common ground to be here this morning with a bill that we can pass, but I also agree with my friend from Texas (Mr. Doggett), that there are many shortcomings to helping individuals actually realize the potential that they have to move beyond poverty to sustainable employment so that they can have a level of living and a level of expectation which gives them the energy that they need to keep moving forward. There are some improvements that we certainly need to make. We can allow greater education and training. Every time witnesses come before us, they always tell us that, no matter whether they are billed as Republican or Democrat, or with no political stripe. We should improve TANF for kinship caregivers. We should remove the lifetime ban on felony drug convictions. Just imagine, that these individuals will never ever have the opportunity to experience the benefits of this program, or of this effort. We should remove the 60-month time limit during recessions, and we should remove the ban to assist unwed teen parents and other youth who are displaced. So clearly, we do have agreement this morning, and I am delighted to be a part of it, but I certainly hope that my colleagues will look at those unmet needs that the legislation does not cover. I urge its support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would require States to collect and report information on whether participants were receiving income-related assistance like health insurance; child care assistance; school lunch; or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits; rental subsidies; or perhaps even the earned income tax credit. The information the amendment requests is not relevant to what we are trying to learn from these demonstration projects, which is whether different approaches improve earnings and employment. Asking for it is an invasion of the privacy of the individuals, with no research benefit. Collecting this information also seems burdensome for States, and would likely require them to ask participating employers to ask their employees inappropriate personal questions that they would not ask of any other employee. Most importantly, I am concerned that requiring States to collect information on these important work supports would make some States think that they are supposed to discourage participants from accessing these supports. Both research and common sense clearly tell us that access to supports like child care assistance, healthcare, and wage supplements that pay for transportation and other work expenses make it more likely that individuals will succeed in work. We should do nothing that might discourage States from providing these supports to help workers succeed. We should do nothing that might cause individuals to not make use of what is available to them. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, on Monday of this week, I was saddened to know of the passing of Cook County Commissioner and President Pro Tem Robert Steele, whom I have known since his childhood days. As a matter of fact, I lived in the same neighborhood with the Steele family from the year that Commissioner Robert Steele was born. I count myself as a Steele family friend and have worked with Bob's mother, Bobbie, since the late 1960s. His father, Robert, was a mentor to my son Stacey. I had the pleasure of watching Commissioner Steele grow from a child into becoming an adult and an outstanding local and national leader. Commissioner Steele was so much more than a man with a title. He was part of the glue which held his community together. He was a big brother to neighborhood boys whom he often took with him to events and activities. He was a mentor and an inspiration to those who came into contact with him. He was a great advocate for organ donation and transplantation. You see, he was a recipient from his sister, who gave him a kidney. He was an Omega man, a great frat brother, and he was a leader of the West Side and countywide Black elected officials. He meant the world to his family and brought great pride and joy to his parents, Robert and former Cook County Board President Bobbie Steele. Robert Steele was an absolute leader who provided leadership and guidance on a regular basis wherever he went. He was active in his church, in his community, in his neighborhood. He was intelligent, astute, and not afraid. Of all the people that I have known who come from the West Side of Chicago as elected officials, none has brought more to the table than Bob, except, perhaps, his mother, Bobbie. Our community will long remember the work of Cook County Commissioner Bobbie Steele. Perhaps the songwriter was correct when he said that ``the good die young.'' Bob was indeed young, but he was a leader among leaders and a man among men. I salute you, Commissioner Robert Steele, and long may your life, your work, and your legacy continue.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Judy Chu).

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. First of all, I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding. I strongly support H.R. 2847, the Improving Services for Older Youth in Foster Care Act. This bill would expand eligibility for the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program services and education for older foster youth, and ensure that all funds and education vouchers are used. I want to commend my colleague, Representative Bass, for her longstanding leadership on this bill. As has been indicated by the ranking member, this important bill, and the other child welfare bills we will consider today, come from the Families First Prevention Services Act. The Families First Prevention Services Act begins a fundamental shift in Federal child welfare policy to preserving families rather than separating them. I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that we enact the larger bill with these important child welfare provisions and as we consider the other bills separately today. I would like to note that there are, indeed, five child welfare bills on the floor this afternoon, which is a real testament to the leadership of Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Neal. So I commend both of them for their leadership in bringing the Ways and Means Committee together to the extent that we can have five bills that have been researched, that have been debated; levels of agreement have been reached. I strongly support the Improving Services for Older Youth in Foster Care Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass), the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield myself the balance of my time. H.R. 2847 would provide important assistance for youth aging out of foster care. In my State of Illinois, 22 percent of the more than 16,000 children placed in foster care in 2015 are aging out. Illinois is widely regarded as a leader among States when it comes to foster youth aging out of care; therefore, it is, indeed, one of the first jurisdictions in which young people who are in foster care on their 18th birthday were able to remain in beyond the age of 18. Research conducted by the University of Chicago found that allowing foster youth to remain in care beyond the age of 18 is associated with an increase in child well-being, including postsecondary educational attainment. Specifically, former foster youth from Illinois are twice as likely to have ever attended college, and more than twice as likely to have completed at least 1 year of college by age 21, compared with foster youth in other States that have not been given the option to stay in care beyond 18 years of age. Due to school mobility issues experienced in high school, only 58 percent of foster youth graduate from high school by age 19, which makes it unlikely that they would be graduated from college by age 21. Extending access to Chafee Independence Act programs to age 23 rather than cutting these young people off at age 21 would ensure these youth are able to be supported beyond their first year of college. We know that when students lose access to critical financial aid resources such as the education training voucher in the middle of their college journey, it forces them to drop out of college in search of employment. Last Saturday, I spent 2 hours with a group of young people who had been organized by a young fellow, Kenneth Bennett's son. His name is Taylor Bennett. Taylor is the younger brother of Chance the Rapper. He is 21 years of age and had organized young people who were transgender, who were homeless, who were out of school, who were in need of assistance and help, and they were pleased to know that we were going to be considering this legislation today, which I strongly support. I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell) for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I strongly support H.R. 2866, the Reducing Unnecessary Barriers for Relative Foster Parents Act. This important bill helps relative caregivers by requiring States to examine whether their licensing standards align with the best practices in licensing family foster homes. In so doing, H.R. 2866 requires States to set reasonable requirements for family homes, standards that consider community norms and cultural differences and standards that remove artificial barriers to family care. I have advocated these provisions within my own bill to improve support for kinship caregivers, and I am proud to support Congresswoman Sewell and Congressman Smucker's bill. More than 25 percent of children in care live with a grandparent or other relative. My congressional district has the highest percentage of children living with grandparent caregivers in the Nation, followed closely by two other congressional districts in Illinois. In Illinois, 37 percent of all children placed in out-of-home care are placed with relatives; however, less than half of these children are placed with relatives in homes that are licensed. The vast majority of relative caregivers are not able to become licensed caregivers because the standards do not make sense with their circumstances, such as requiring a grandmother in an expensive city like Chicago to have one bedroom for each of her three grandbabies or requiring her to take dozens of hours of parent training each year. In 2008, I worked with Congressman Jerry Weller from Illinois to allow States the ability to waive nonsafety licensing standards on a case-by-case basis to help kinship caregivers via the Fostering Connections Act. Unfortunately, many States chose not to exercise this waiver authority to assist kin caregivers. For example, in 2011, although Illinois had more than 3,600 nonlicensed relatives caring for youth, only 72 licensing waivers for relatives were approved. Less than 2 percent received waivers. H.R. 2866 requires States to modernize their licensing standards to align with the best practices in licensing. This is a commonsense and important change. Further, this bill advances our goal of ensuring that States follow the waivers to meet the best interests of the children. To understand the use of waivers, Children's Bureau should collect data on State's granting waivers for nonsafety licensing standards for relatives, including the number of relatives applying for waivers, the number of waivers issued or denied, and the reason for denial. I strongly support H.R. 2866, the Reducing Unnecessary Barriers for Relative Foster Parents Act and urge my colleagues to support it. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell) who is a sponsor of this bill.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass).

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. H.R. 2866 is important because it supports kinship caregivers. Research shows that children placed in kinship care are safer, more stable placements and are more likely to be connected with their siblings and community than children placed in nonrelative placements. In addition to these positive outcomes for children in relative care, research shows that kinship care placements are more cost effective. In Illinois, cost studies estimated an average of $4,778 in savings of title IV-E administrative expenses over an 8-year period compared to a match control group that did not have this option. More than 400,000 children make up our Nation's foster care population with more than one in four of these vulnerable children living with a grandparent or other relative. We should do as much as we can to strengthen these families and children. H.R. 2866 takes an important step forward. Mr. Speaker, I have two facilities in my congressional district that have outstanding programs. They are 45-unit buildings that have been constructed for grandparents raising grandchildren. One is operated by the Sankofa Safe Child Initiative, the other by the Coppin AME Church Community Development Agency. Both of these are tremendous examples of what can happen when children have the opportunity to be nurtured by grandparents. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this legislation. I urge its passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I strongly support H.R. 2742, the Modernizing the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care Act. Cross-State placement of youth in foster care is particularly salient to children living with kinship caregivers. Given that my congressional district has one of the highest percentages of grandparent caregivers in the Nation, I am pleased to join with Congresswoman Walorski in leading this important legislation. This bill helps reduce the barriers and delays that continue to exist when the best new home for a child is in a different State than the unsafe home the child had to leave. Removing barriers that delay or prevent interstate child placement is a longtime bipartisan goal within Congress. This bill addresses an important factor in those delays: the ability of State computer systems to link up to process the paperwork. The current paper-based system is antiquated and slow. As part of an HHS pilot project, seven States, and the District of Columbia, currently participate in the National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise, or NEICE, an online tool that allows State office systems to talk to each other and process interstate placements more quickly. I am, indeed, proud that Illinois is one of those States. An early evaluation found that this system reduced waiting times for affected children by about one-third. Ten of the States have already announced plans to join the exchange over the next 2 years. H.R. 2742 would accelerate the number of participating States in the short run and ensure that all States participate in the long run. The more States that join, the more it speeds up the process for everyone. The director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services often emphasizes that we need to operate in ``kid time'' and not ``adult time,'' meaning that we need to recognize the urgency of restoring permanency for children in child welfare rather than allowing adult bureaucracy to impede permanency. Modernizing the technology to increase efficiencies and quicken placements is common sense and respects the urgency of finding permanent, loving homes for children. This is a good bill, and I thank Congresswoman Walorski and her staff for their excellent work. Our States are joined together, so we join with this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), an outstanding legislator.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass).

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, but I will say that my staff and I have been delightfully pleased to work with Representative Walorski and her staff in preparing this very commonsense, good legislation. I strongly support it and urge its passage. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I strongly support H.R. 2834, the Partnership Grants to Strengthen Families Affected by Parental Substance Abuse Act. I am pleased to join with Congresswoman Noem in leading this bill to strengthen families by addressing parental substance abuse and decreasing the number of children entering foster care. Our bill is common sense. It takes the research lessons from the smaller scale Regional Partnership Grants and expands those efforts to the State level. We know that substance abuse underlies a substantial percentage of child welfare cases, affecting between one-third to two-thirds of children in care. Aside from neglect, alcohol or other drug use is the number one reason for removal from the home. In 2014, over 77,000 youths were removed from their homes due to drug abuse. What is exciting is that we have strong empirical evidence that working with parents experiencing substance abuse significantly helps children and families; specifically, working with these families helps children to experience fewer days in foster care, higher reunification rates, less recurrence of child maltreatment, and better permanency over time. H.R. 2834 provides the opportunity to scale up these successes from smaller, targeted interventions into full State interventions, while building the research to better inform Federal policy overall. My home State of Illinois has led the Nation in addressing substance abuse issues in child welfare. We know that we need to do more to address this problem, but we know what works and we know we can work bipartisanly to support families in addressing substance abuse so that we can increase permanency and safety. When I ask foster youth what policymakers could do to make child welfare better, they almost always say: ``You could have helped my mom and dad.'' That is what we do today. I urge passage of this important legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California, (Ms. Bass).

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, over a decade of research shows the successes of helping families involved in the child welfare system who struggle with substance abuse. Through this research, we know that there are seven common ingredients that help improve families' outcomes: a system of identifying families, earlier access to assessment and treatment services, increased management of recovery services and compliance, increased judicial oversight, responses to participant behavior based on proven contingency management approaches, collaborative approaches across service systems and courts, and improved family-centered services and repair of parent-child relationships. Again, Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure for my staff and I to have the opportunity to work with Mrs. Noem and her staff in preparing this legislation. And I might note that on Saturday of this past week, a group of us in Illinois took two busloads of children to a special program run by the Illinois Department of Corrections at the Sheridan Correctional Center to see their fathers, who were all involved in a special program established for individuals who were incarcerated for crimes dealing with substance and who, themselves, were substance users. This experience was so exciting in terms of these individuals finding help, and their children being able to interact with them, even though they were incarcerated. So someone asked me what was I going to do for Father's Day, and I told them after we returned that I have had my Father's Day experience. If we can help these individuals to rid themselves of the tremendous habits and difficulty that they have of substance use, then Father's Day would be good enough. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Mrs. Noem), and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 2857, the Supporting Families in Substance Abuse Treatment Act. Substance abuse has had a devastating impact on families in the U.S. Between 60 to 80 percent of substantiated child abuse and neglect cases involve substance use by a custodial parent or guardian. Early access to substance use treatment improves parental, family, and child-focused outcomes. However, treatment access can come at the cost of removing a child from their parents' care. This separation disrupts opportunities for mothers and children to develop emotional bonds, increasing the likelihood of childhood emotional and behavior problems. Although research shows that keeping children in a parent's care while they seek treatment has benefits to the parent and the child, access to parent-child treatment centers have been limited. To address this concern, a significant number of programs in Illinois and nationally have led the way in family substance abuse treatment. One example in my congressional district is the Haymarket Center, with a 16-bed pregnant and postpartum program that allows patients to bring up to two children with them. Using evidence-based practices for trauma, family reunification and children's development, the Haymarket Center has demonstrated significant positive outcomes through an independent evaluation. For example, women experienced significant declines in substance use at both 3- and 6-month follow-ups; improvements in mental and physical health; less victimization, homelessness and criminal activity; increased safe and healthy pregnancies, and improved birth outcomes. In addition, the Haymarket Center has expanded its residential treatment center services to include a responsible fatherhood program, which they document as playing a crucial part in achieving strong outcomes. Another example is on what we in Chicago call the South Side of Chicago and the West Side of Chicago and the North Side of Chicago and the East Side of Chicago, but on the South Side of Chicago, the Harriet Tubman Program, which is a 16-bed facility that can accommodate up to 10 children under the age of 5. Women who participate in these programs remain in the program longer and have lower rates of recidivism. There is also The Women's Treatment Center on the West Side. This center has a pregnant and postpartum women's program for up to 12 women and up to 12 children, as well as a residential rehab for up to 14 women and up to 23 children. All of these programs provide real assistance to strengthen real families. H.R. 2857 is common sense. These family-based treatment programs have demonstrated success, lower relapse rates, decreased attachment trauma for children, and they build families and health. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.