I 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6995 
To amend the National Child Protection Act of 1993 to establish a permanent 
background check system. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself and Mr. ROGERS of Michigan) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend the National Child Protection Act of 1993 to 
establish a permanent background check system. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Protection Im-
provements Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) In 2006, 61,200,000 adults (a total of 26.7 
percent of the population) contributed a total of 
8,100,000,000 hours of volunteer service. Of those 
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who volunteer, 27 percent dedicate their service to 
education or youth programs, or a total of 
16,500,000 adults. 
(2) Assuming recent incarceration rates remain 
unchanged, an estimated 6.6 percent of individuals 
in the United States will serve time in prison for a 
crime during their lifetime. The Integrated Auto-
mated Fingerprint Identification System of the Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation maintains fingerprints 
and 
criminal 
history 
records 
on 
more 
than 
47,000,000 individuals, many of whom have been ar-
rested or convicted multiple times. 
(3) A study released in 2002, found that, of in-
dividuals released from prison in 15 States in 1994, 
an estimated 67.5 percent were rearrested for a fel-
ony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years. Three- 
quarters of those new arrests resulted in convictions 
or a new prison sentence. 
(4) Given the large number of individuals with 
criminal history records and the vulnerability of the 
population they work with, human service organiza-
tions that work with children need an effective and 
reliable means of obtaining relevant information 
about criminal histories in order to determine the 
suitability of a potential volunteer or employee. 
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(5) The large majority of Americans (88 per-
cent) favor granting youth-serving organizations ac-
cess to conviction records for screening volunteers 
and 59 percent favored allowing youth-serving orga-
nizations to consider arrest records when screening 
volunteers. This was the only use for which a major-
ity of those surveyed favored granting access to ar-
rest records. 
(6) Congress has previously attempted to en-
sure that States make Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion criminal history background checks available to 
organizations seeking to screen employees and volun-
teers who work with children, the elderly, and indi-
viduals with disabilities, through the National Child 
Protection Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 5119 et seq.) and 
the Volunteers for Children Act (Public Law 105– 
251; 112 Stat. 1885). However, according to a June 
2006 report from the Attorney General, these laws 
‘‘did not have the intended impact of broadening the 
availability of NCPA checks.’’. A 2007 survey con-
ducted by MENTOR/National Mentoring Partner-
ship found that only 18 States allowed youth men-
toring organizations to access nationwide Federal 
Bureau of Investigation background searches. 
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