**Pending Legislation**

**Health**

**\
*State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)***

**S. 1052, Healthy Children and Families Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Ken
Salazar (D-CO) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). A bill to amend titles XIX and
XXI of the Social Security Act to provide states with the option to
provide nurse home visitation services under Medicaid and the State
Children\'s Health Insurance Program.

**S. 1364, Healthy Kids Act of 2007.** Sponsor: Richard Durbin (D-IL). A
bill to amend titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act to extend
the State Children\'s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and streamline
enrollment under SCHIP and Medicaid.

**S. 1224, Children\'s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization
Act of 2007.** Sponsors: John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and 14 bipartisan
cosponsors. A bill to amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to
reauthorize the State Children\'s Health Insurance Program.

**S. 1337, Children\'s Mental Health Parity Act.** Sponsors: John F.
Kerry (D-MA) and eight bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to amend title XXI
of the Social Security Act to provide for equal coverage of mental
health services under the State Children\'s Health Insurance Program.

***Mental Health***

**H.R. 2073, Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act of 2007.** Sponsors:
Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
(R-FL). A bill to increase the number of well-trained mental health
service professionals (including those based in schools) providing
clinical mental health care to children and adolescents.

**S. 1332, Mental Health in Schools Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Edward M.
Kennedy (D-MA) and nine bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to amend the
Public Health Service Act to revise and extend projects relating to
children and violence to provide access to school-based comprehensive
mental health programs.

**S. 382, Keeping Families Together Act.** Sponsors: Susan Collins
(R-ME) and 18 bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to amend the Public Health
Service Act to establish a state family support grant program to end the
practice of parents relinquishing legal custody of their seriously
emotionally disturbed children to state agencies for the purpose of
obtaining mental health services for those children.

**H.R. 687, Keeping Families Together Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Jim
Ramstad (R-MN) and 35 bipartisan cosponsors. The House bill has only
minor variations from its Senate counterpart (S. 382).

***Other Health-Related Bills***

**S. 667, Education Begins at Home Act.** Sponsors: Christopher Bond
(R-MO) and 17 bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to expand programs of early
childhood home visitation that increase school readiness, child abuse
and neglect prevention, and early identification of developmental and
health delays, including potential mental health concerns.

**S. 600, School-Based Health Clinic Establishment Act of 2007.**
Sponsors: Gordon Smith (R-OR) and 14 bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to
fund the development and operation of school-based health clinics to
provide comprehensive and accessible primary health care services to
medically underserved children, youth, and families; improve the
physical health, emotional well-being, and academic performance of
medically underserved children, youth, and families; and work in
collaboration with the school to integrate health into the overall
school environment.

**Education**

**S. 1302, Keeping Parents and Communities Engaged Act.** Sponsors:
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and John Kerry (D-MA). A bill to amend title V
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to encourage and
support parent, family, and community involvement in schools; to provide
needed integrated services and comprehensive supports to children; and
to ensure that schools are centers of communities, for the ultimate goal
of assisting students to stay in school, become successful learners, and
improve academic achievement.

**S. 1194, No Child Left Behind Reform Act.** Sponsors: Christopher J.
Dodd (D-CT) and Ken Salazar (D-CO). A bill to improve the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001.

**H.R. 1429, Improving Head Start Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Dale E.
Kildee (D-MI) and 26 bipartisan cosponsors. An act to reauthorize the
Head Start Act, to improve program quality, and to expand access.
(Passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, May 2, 2007).

**S. 1185, Graduation Promise Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Jeff Bingaman
(D-NM) and five bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to provide grants to
states to improve high schools and raise graduation rates while ensuring
rigorous standards, to develop and implement effective school models for
struggling students and dropouts, and to improve state policies to raise
graduation rates.

**Immigration**

**S. 1348, Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007.** Sponsor:
Harry Reid (D-NV). A bill to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform. Amendment 1146 (proposed by Diane Feinstein, D-CA) would add the
Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2007 (S. 844) to the bill.

**S. 844, Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2007.** Sponsor:
Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and 11 bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to provide
for the protection of unaccompanied alien children. Among other things,
the bill addresses appropriate conditions for detention of unaccompanied
alien children.

**H.R. 1221, Education Access for Rightful Noncitizens Act.** Sponsor:
Paul E. Gillmor (R-OH). A bill to provide for cancellation of removal
and adjustment of status for certain long-term residents who entered the
United States as children.

**H.R. 1176. To provide discretionary authority to an immigration judge
to determine that an alien parent of a United States citizen child
should not be ordered removed, deported, or excluded from the United
States.** Sponsors: José E. Serrano (D-NY) and 26 cosponsors. Under the
bill, a judge could decline to order an alien who is the parent of a
child who is a U.S. citizen to be removed, deported, or excluded from
the United States if the judge determines that such an action is clearly
against the best interests of the child.

**H.R. 133, Citizenship Reform Act of 2007.** Sponsor: Elton Gallegly
(R-CA) and five cosponsors. A bill to amend the Immigration and
Nationality Act to deny citizenship at birth to children born in the
United States of parents who are not citizens or permanent resident
aliens.

**H.R. 1308, Legal Immigrant Children\'s Health Improvement Act of
2007.** Sponsors: Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and 15 bipartisan
cosponsors. To amend titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act to
permit states the option of coverage of legal immigrants under the
Medicaid Program and the State Children\'s Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP).

**Gangs and Youth Violence**

**S. 456, Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Dianne
Feinstein (D-CA) and 20 bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to increase and
enhance law enforcement resources committed to investigation and
prosecution of violent gangs, to deter and punish violent gang crime, to
protect law-abiding citizens and communities from violent criminals, to
revise and enhance criminal penalties for violent crimes, and to expand
and improve gang prevention programs.

**H.R. 1582, Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2007. Sponsors:** Adan
Schiff (D-CA) and Mary Bono (R-CA). Identical to S. 456.

**Juvenile Justice**

**H.R. 1593, Second Chance Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Danny Davis (D-IL)
and 93 bipartisan cosponsors. Authorizes assistance to states and
localities to develop and implement strategic plans for providing and
coordinating comprehensive efforts to enable ex-offenders to
successfully reenter their communities.

**S. 1060, Second Chance Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Joe Biden (D-DE), Sam
Brownback (R-KS, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Arlen Spector (R-PA). The
Senate bill is nearly identical to its House counterpart (H.R. 1593).

**H.R. 854, City Youth Violence Recovery Act.** Sponsors: John Larson
(D-CT) and 43 cosponsors. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Health
and Human Services to award grants to eligible entities to prevent or
alleviate the effects of youth violence in eligible urban communities by
providing violence-prevention education, mentoring, counseling, and
mental health services to children and adolescents in such communities.

**Child Welfare, Adoption, Foster Care**

**S. 627, Safe Babies Act of 2007.** Sponsors: Tom Harkin (D-IA) and
eight bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to amend the Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to improve the health and well-being
of maltreated infants and toddlers through the creation of a National
Court Teams Resource Center and to assist local Court Teams.

**S. 379, Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2007.** Sponsor: Mary Landrieu
(D-LA). A bill to support the establishment or expansion and operation
of programs using a network of public and private community entities to
provide mentoring for children in foster care. The bill would amend
Title IV-B of the Social Security Act to authorize the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services to award grants to states and political
subdivisions to carry out foster care mentor networking programs.

**H.R. 1104, Foster Children Self-Support Act.** Sponsors: Pete Stark
(D-CA) and 11 cosponsors. A bill to ensure that eligible foster children
are able to use their Social Security and Supplemental Security Income
benefits to address their needs and improve their lives.

**S. 661, Kinship Caregiver Support Act.** Sponsors: Hillary Clinton and
11 bipartisan cosponsors. A bill to authorize a grant program for
kinship navigator programs to connect caregivers with state, local, and
tribal organizations and resources, authorize states to provide kinship
guardianship assistance payments on behalf of children to grandparents
and other relatives who have assumed legal guardianship of children, and
authorize kinship guardianship demonstration projects.

**H.R. 2188, Kinship Caregiver Support Act.** Sponsor: Danny Davis
(D-IL). House counterpart to S. 661.