I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4431 

To provide for competitive grants for the establishment and expansion of 

programs that use networks of public, private, and faith-based organizations to recruit and train foster and adoptive parents and provide support 

services to foster children and their families. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 20, 2004 

Mr. COOPER (for himself, Mr. LAMPSON, Mr. CARDOZA, and Mr. DAVIS of 

Tennessee) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To provide for competitive grants for the establishment and 

expansion of programs that use networks of public, private, and faith-based organizations to recruit and train 

foster and adoptive parents and provide support services 

to foster children and their families. 

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 ‘‘One Church, One Child 

5 Act of 2004’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress makes the following findings: 
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1 (1) Many States are facing serious shortages of 

2 qualified foster parents and qualified adoptive par3 ents. 

4 (2) A 2002 report by the National Conference 

5 of State Legislatures found that, while the number 

6 of children in foster care increased by 68 percent be7 tween 1984 and 1995, the number of foster parents 

8 decreased by 4 percent during the same period. 

9 (3) The shortage of adoptive parents is equally 

10 dire—while only 50,000 children were adopted out 

11 of foster care in 2001, as many as 126,000 children 

12 were awaiting adoption. On average, each of these 

13 waiting children had been in foster care for 44 

14 months. 

15 (4) The rapid increase in the annual number of 

16 adoptions from foster care since the enactment of 

17 the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 has cre18 ated a growing need for post-adoption services and 

19 for service providers with the knowledge and skills 

20 required to address the unique issues adoptive fami21 lies and children may face. 

22 (5) One Church, One Child is a national faith 

23 and community-based foster care and adoption min24 istry established in Chicago, Illinois, in 1980 by Fa25 ther George Clements, whose mission is to provide 
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1 comprehensive services that promote the well-being 

2 of at-risk children and the strengthening and em3 powerment of adoptive, foster, and kinship families. 

4 Since its formation, the organization and programs 

5 based on its model have successfully placed more 

6 than 140,000 children in adoptive families nation7 wide. 

8 (6) Despite its success as a model for providing 

9 recruitment, training, and support services for cer10 tified foster and adoptive parents, One Church, One 

11 Child programs and programs based on this concept 

12 have received limited federal funding. 

13 (7) The creation of a federally-funded grant 

14 program to support the establishment and expansion 

15 of programs for the recruitment of foster parents 

16 and adoptive parents which are modeled on the One 

17 Church, One Child concept will benefit the Nation’s 

18 abused and neglected children by increasing the pool 

19 of qualified adoptive parents and qualified foster 

20 parents. 

21 SEC. 3. ONE CHURCH, ONE CHILD GRANTS. 

22 Part E of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 

23 U.S.C. 670–679b) is amended by adding at the end the 

24 following: 
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1 ‘‘SEC. 479B. ONE CHURCH, ONE CHILD GRANTS. 

2 ‘‘(a) COMPETITIVE GRANTS TO ELIGIBLE ENTITIES

3 TO CONDUCT ONE CHURCH, ONE CHILD FOSTER PAR4 ENT AND ADOPTION PARENT RECRUITMENT PRO5 GRAMS.— 

6 ‘‘(1) GRANT AUTHORITY.— 

7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

8 make grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible 

9 entities to support the establishment or expan10 sion of programs that use networks of public, 

11 private and faith-based organizations to recruit 

12 and train qualified foster parents and qualified 

13 adoptive parents and provide support services to 

14 adoptive and foster children and their families. 

15 ‘‘(B) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—In this section, 

16 the term ‘eligible entity’ means a State or local 

17 government, local public agency, community18 based or nonprofit organization, or private enti19 ty, including any charitable or faith-based orga20 nization, that submits to the Secretary, at such 

21 time, in such form, and in such manner as the 

22 Secretary may require, an application that con23 tains such information as the Secretary may re24 quire and the following: 

25 ‘‘(i) PROJECT DESCRIPTION.—A de26 scription of the programs or activities the 
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1 entity intends to carry out with funds pro2 vided under this section, including an esti3 mate of the number of children to be 

4 served under such programs or activities 

5 and a description of the services to be pro6 vided to prospective adoptive and foster 

7 parents, including post-placement sup8 portive services. 

9 ‘‘(ii) COORDINATION OF EFFORTS.—A 

10 description of how the entity will coordi11 nate and cooperate with State and local 

12 entities responsible for carrying out pro13 grams related to the recruitment of foster 

14 parents and adoptive parents, and with the 

15 national clearinghouse established under 

16 section 479C. 

17 ‘‘(iii) RECORDS, REPORTS, AND AU18 DITS.—An agreement to maintain such 

19 records, submit such reports, and cooper20 ate with such reviews and audits as the 

21 Secretary finds necessary for purposes of 

22 oversight. 

23 ‘‘(2) DEFINITION OF STATE.—In this section, 

24 the term ‘State’ means each of the 50 States, the 

25 District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
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1 Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, 

2 American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the 

3 Northern Mariana Islands. 

4 ‘‘(3) LIMITATIONS ON AUTHORIZATION OF AP5 PROPRIATIONS.—To carry out this section, there are 

6 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary not 

7 more than $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2005 

8 through 2009. 

9 ‘‘(4) 3-YEAR AVAILABILITY OF GRANT FUNDS.— 

10 An eligible entity to which a grant is made under 

11 this section for a fiscal year shall remit to the Sec12 retary any part of the grant that is not expended by 

13 the end of the second succeeding fiscal year, to14 gether with any earnings on such unexpended 

15 amount. 

16 ‘‘(5) REDISTRIBUTION OF UNUSED GRANT

17 FUNDS.—The Secretary shall redistribute any funds 

18 remitted under paragraph (4) among eligible entities 

19 that the Secretary determines have a need for addi20 tional funds to carry out the programs and activities 

21 referred to in paragraph (1)(B)(i). 

22 ‘‘(b) PROVISIONS RELATING TO RELIGIOUS ORGANI23 ZATIONS.— 

24 ‘‘(1) NONDISCRIMINATION.—For the purpose of 

25 awarding grants under this section, the Secretary 
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1 shall consider religious organizations on the same 

2 basis as other nongovernmental organizations, so 

3 long as the grant is to be implemented in a manner 

4 consistent with the Establishment Clause of the 

5 First Amendment to the Constitution of the United 

6 States. A State or local government receiving funds 

7 under this section shall not discriminate against an 

8 organization that seeks to participate in a program 

9 funded under this section on the basis that the orga10 nization has a religious character. 

11 ‘‘(2) NONINTERFERENCE.—Neither the Federal 

12 Government nor a State or local government shall 

13 require a religious organization— 

14 ‘‘(A) to alter its form of internal govern15 ance; or 

16 ‘‘(B) to remove from its premises religious 

17 art, icons, scripture, or other symbols, 

18 in order to be eligible to receive a grant under this 

19 section or to participate in a program funded under 

20 this section. 

21 ‘‘(3) LIMITATIONS ON USE OF FUNDS.—Funds 

22 provided directly to a religious organization to carry 

23 out a program funded under this section shall not be 

24 expended for sectarian worship, instruction, or pros25 elytization. 
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1 ‘‘(4) FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY.— 

2 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

3 paragraph (B), a religious organization receiv4 ing funds under this section shall be subject to 

5 the same regulations as other nongovernmental 

6 organizations to account in accord with gen7 erally accepted accounting principles for the use 

8 of such funds. 

9 ‘‘(B) SEPARATION OF FUNDS.—Such an 

10 organization shall keep all funds provided under 

11 this section in an account separate from all 

12 other funds of the organization.’’. 

13 SEC. 4. NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE FOR ADOPTION PRO14 MOTION AND FOSTER PARENT PROGRAMS; 

15 ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

16 Part E of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 

17 U.S.C. 670–679b) is further amended by adding at the 

18 end the following: 

19 ‘‘SEC. 479C. NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE FOR ADOPTION 

20 PROMOTION AND FOSTER PARENT RECRUIT21 MENT PROGRAMS; ANNUAL REPORT TO CON22 GRESS. 

23 ‘‘(a) NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE FOR ADOPTION

24 PROMOTION AND FOSTER PARENT RECRUITMENT PRO25 GRAMS.— 
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1 ‘‘(1) NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE.— 

2 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

3 enter into a contract with a nationally recog4 nized, nonprofit adoption promotion and foster 

5 parent recruitment organization described in 

6 subparagraph (B) to— 

7 ‘‘(i) assist State and local govern8 ments, local public agencies, community9 based organizations, nonprofit organiza10 tions, and private entities, including chari11 table and faith-based organizations in co12 ordinating their activities relating to re13 cruitment of foster parents and adoptive 

14 parents and the provision of post-place15 ment support to foster families and adop16 tive families; 

17 ‘‘(ii) design and provide technical as18 sistance and training for grantees and 

19 identify and disseminate to grantees ‘best 

20 practices’ for recruiting and training pro21 spective foster and adoptive parents and 

22 providing post-placement support to foster 

23 families and adoptive families; 

24 ‘‘(iii) collect information on the effec25 tiveness of the programs funded under sec-
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1 tion 479B, including the number of chil2 dren placed under the programs, the num3 ber of foster parents and adoptive parents 

4 recruited under such programs, and such 

5 other data as the Secretary requires for 

6 evaluating the effectiveness of such pro7 grams; and 

8 ‘‘(iv) assist the Secretary in the prep9 aration of the reports required by sub10 section (b). 

11 ‘‘(B) NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED, NON12 PROFIT ADOPTION PROMOTION AND FOSTER

13 PARENT RECRUITMENT ORGANIZATION DE14 SCRIBED.—The nationally recognized, nonprofit 

15 adoption promotion and foster parent recruit16 ment organization described in this subpara17 graph is an organization, selected by the Sec18 retary on a competitive basis, that— 

19 ‘‘(i) has demonstrated experience in 

20 providing consultation and training to 

21 faith-based and community organizations 

22 interested in adoption promotion and fos23 ter parent recruitment; 

24 ‘‘(ii) has an established national rep25 utation in working with faith-based and 
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1 community organizations to recruit and 

2 train prospective foster and adoptive par3 ents; and 

4 ‘‘(iii) has extensive experience in es5 tablishing and working with programs 

6 based on the One Church, One Child 

7 model. 

8 ‘‘(2) LIMITATIONS ON AUTHORIZATION OF AP9 PROPRIATIONS.—To carry out this subsection, there 

10 are authorized to be appropriated not more than 

11 $1,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2005 through 

12 2009. 

13 ‘‘(b) ANNUAL REPORTS.—Not later than 1 year after 

14 the date a grant is first made under section 479B and 

15 annually thereafter, the Secretary shall prepare and sub16 mit to the Congress a report that includes the following 

17 with respect to the year involved: 

18 ‘‘(1) A specification of the number of entities to 

19 which grants have been made under section 479B. 

20 ‘‘(2) A specification of the number of foster 

21 parents and adoptive families recruited by the pro22 grams which have been supported with the grants. 

23 ‘‘(3) A specification of the number of children 

24 placed with such foster parents and adoptive fami25 lies, and the outcomes of such placements. 
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1 ‘‘(4) Any other information that the Secretary 

2 determines is relevant to the evaluation of the pro3 gram under section 479B.’’. 

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