Cassie Guzik- Child Abuse

H.R.911 (Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009)

Background (What circumstances necessitate Congressional action?/What happened to the Bill in Congress? Did it pass, or die in committee?):
Some Covered Programs, a public or private entity that (1) provides a residential environment; and (2) operates with a focus on serving children with emotional, behavioral, or mental health problems or disorders, or problems with alcohol or substance abuse, are not working as well as they should. This bill was referred to Senate committee: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Feb. 24, 2009.

Goal of Action:
The goal of this bill is to improve public and private covered programs dealing with child abuse by requiring them to meet a minimum standard if individually or together with other locations it has an effect on interstate commerce.

Specifics/Means of Goal:
If passed, this bill will “(1) implement an ongoing review process for investigating and evaluating reports of child abuse and neglect; (2) establish public websites with information about each covered program, as well as a national toll-free telephone hotline to receive complaints; (3) establish civil penalties for violations of standards; and (4) establish a process to ensure that complaints received by the hotline are promptly reviewed by persons with appropriate expertise... [5] Requires the Assistant Secretary to refer any violation of such standards to the Attorney General for appropriate action. Authorizes the Attorney General to file such a complaint on his or her own initiative regardless of whether such a referral has been made... [6] Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014... [7] Amends the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to establish additional eligibility requirements for grants to states to prevent child abuse and neglect at residential programs. Require such states to develop policies and procedures to prevent child abuse and neglect at covered programs consistent with the standards specified by this Act... [8] Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to study and report to Congress on outcomes for children in both private and public covered programs under this Act encompassing a broad representation of treatment facilities and geographic regions”.

Type of Power (Is Congress acting according to an expressed or implied power? If it is implied, what expressed power grants it? - Check the Constitution to figure this out!):
It is an implied power. First because congress can regulate commerce they are able to set standards to any organization that affects commerce. Second, Congress’ ability to tax allows them to spend the money where they need to which allows them to establish additional eligibility requirements for grants.

Analysis (Do you think Congress should do this according to its Constitutional powers?)
While I believe using the ability to regulate interstate commerce is stretching their powers a bit too much, I think the ability to increase the eligibility requirements for grants is within their power. Child abuse is a serious problem and any method that could improve the safety and security of children should be taken.