I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 710

To provide grants for demonstration projects to coordinate the administration

of services to needy families with children.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 26, 1995

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mrs. MEEK of Florida, Mr. HILLIARD, Mr.

FROST, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. DELLUMS, and Mr. HASTINGS

of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities

A BILL

To provide grants for demonstration projects to coordinate

the administration of services to needy families with children.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Family Service Center

5 Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS TO COORDINATE THE

2 ADMINISTRATION OF SERVICES TO NEEDY

3 FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN.

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—In order to coordinate the admin5 istration of programs that provide services to needy fami6 lies with children, the Secretary of Health and Human

7 Services (in this section referred to as ‘‘the Secretary’’)

8 may authorize States to conduct demonstration projects

9 in accordance with this section.

10 (b) DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT.—Each State desiring

11 to conduct a demonstration project under this section may

12 submit to the Secretary an application that contains a de13 scription of the measures to be employed to coordinate the

14 administration of—

15 (1) programs for needy families with children

16 that are administered by the Secretary; and

17 (2) programs administered by the State, which

18 offer services for children, youth, or needy families

19 with children, that the State considers appropriate

20 to include in the demonstration project.

21 (c) PROJECTS AIMED AT A DIVERSITY OF CLI22 ENTS.—The Secretary shall ensure that, as a group, the

23 demonstration projects authorized to be conducted under

24 this section serve urban, rural, and linguistically and cul25 turally diverse clients and include the broadest possible

26 range of services.
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1 (d) PROJECT REQUIREMENTS.—Each State author2 ized to conduct a demonstration project under this section

3 shall—

4 (1) ensure that the project provides—

5 (A) each client with a single place and or6 ganization providing access to, and information

7 and counseling about, services for needy fami8 lies with children;

9 (B) access points in clients’ neighborhoods

10 for communication with service providers re11 garding their applications and benefits through

12 electronic data processing and communications

13 technology; and

14 (C) approaches to integrating the adminis15 tration of services that are linguistically and

16 culturally appropriate to the clientele of the

17 project; and

18 (2) conduct the project in accordance with such

19 other requirements as the Secretary may prescribe.

20 (e) GRANTS; DURATION OF PROJECTS.—

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make

22 grants to each State whose application to conduct a

23 demonstration project under this subsection is ap24 proved by the Secretary, to assist the State in carry-
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1 ing out the project for a period of not more than 3

2 years.

3 (2) RENEWAL.—The Secretary may extend for

4 not more than 3 additional years the authority to

5 conduct any demonstration project under this sec6 tion, upon approval by the Secretary based on the

7 effectiveness of the project in achieving the objec8 tives of this section.

9 (3) TIMING OF GRANT PAYMENTS.—The Sec10 retary may pay grants under this section in advance

11 or in installments, as the Secretary determines ap12 propriate.

13 (f) STATE EVALUATION OF PROJECT.—

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each State that conducts a

15 demonstration project under this section shall, as a

16 part of the project—

17 (A) conduct an evaluation of the effective18 ness and outcomes of the project in improving

19 the coordination and delivery, and in reducing

20 the administrative costs, of services to needy

21 families with children; and

22 (B) cooperate with the Secretary in the

23 conduct of national evaluations of the effective24 ness and cost savings of all such demonstration

25 projects.
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1 (2) REPORT.—

2 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each State authorized

3 to conduct a demonstration project under this

4 section shall submit to the Secretary a report

5 on the results of the evaluation described in

6 paragraph (1).

7 (B) TIMING.—The report required by sub8 paragraph (A) with respect to a demonstration

9 project shall be submitted within 6 months

10 after the earlier of—

11 (i) the completion of the project; or

12 (ii) the end of the 3-year period that

13 begins with the commencement of the

14 project.

15 (g) STATE REPORT ON IMPEDIMENTS TO DELIVERY

16 OF SERVICES, AND ON MEASURES TAKEN TO ELIMINATE

17 OR REDUCE SUCH IMPEDIMENTS.—Each State authorized

18 to conduct a demonstration project under this section shall

19 submit to the Secretary at such time as the Secretary may

20 prescribe a report that describes—

21 (1) the administrative policies and laws of the

22 Federal Government and of the State or of a politi23 cal subdivision of the State, that the State has iden24 tified as impediments to the coordination of the de25 livery of services to needy families with children; and
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1 (2) the measures that the State has taken or

2 intends to take to eliminate or reduce the impedi3 ments described in paragraph (1) that are attrib4 utable to administrative policies and laws of the

5 State or of a political subdivision of the State.

6 (h) FEDERAL EVALUATIONS.—

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall conduct

8 evaluations of the implementation and outcomes of

9 the demonstration projects authorized under this

10 section.

11 (2) REPORTS.—Not later than 3 years after the

12 date of the enactment of this section, and annually

13 thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Con14 gress a report the results of the evaluations con15 ducted under paragraph (1) that includes the rec16 ommendations of the Secretary as to any statutory

17 changes that would improve integration of services

18 provided through programs included in the dem19 onstration projects conducted under this section.

20 (3) FUNDING.—The Secretary may reserve up

21 to 5 percent of the amounts appropriated for grants

22 under this section for the purpose of conducting and

23 reporting on evaluations of the demonstration

24 projects authorized under this section.
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1 (i) NO WAIVER AUTHORITY.—This section shall not

2 be construed to authorize the Secretary or appropriate

3 agency head to waive or modify any requirement of any

4 program described in subsection (b).

5 (j) STATE DEFINED.—As used in this section, the

6 term ‘‘State’’ includes the several States, the District of

7 Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Com8 monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the United

9 States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the

10 Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

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