H. R. 3443—2
Sec. 212. Computer matches with Medicare and Medicaid institutionalization data.
Sec. 213. Access to information held by financial institutions.
Subtitle B—Benefits For Certain World War II Veterans
Sec. 251. Establishment of program of special benefits for certain World War II
veterans.
Subtitle C—Study
Sec. 261. Study of denial of SSI benefits for family farmers.
TITLE III—CHILD SUPPORT
Sec. 301. Narrowing of hold-harmless provision for State share of distribution of
collected child support.
TITLE IV—TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS
Sec. 401. Technical corrections relating to amendments made by the Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.
TITLE I—IMPROVED INDEPENDENT
LIVING PROGRAM
Subtitle A—Improved Independent Living
Program
SEC. 101. IMPROVED INDEPENDENT LIVING PROGRAM.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) States are required to make reasonable efforts to find
adoptive families for all children, including older children, for
whom reunification with their biological family is not in the
best interests of the child. However, some older children will
continue to live in foster care. These children should be enrolled
in an Independent Living program designed and conducted
by State and local government to help prepare them for employ-
ment, postsecondary education, and successful management of
adult responsibilities.
(2) Older children who continue to be in foster care as
adolescents may become eligible for Independent Living pro-
grams. These Independent Living programs are not an alter-
native to adoption for these children. Enrollment in Inde-
pendent Living programs can occur concurrent with continued
efforts to locate and achieve placement in adoptive families
for older children in foster care.
(3) About 20,000 adolescents leave the Nation’s foster care
system each year because they have reached 18 years of age
and are expected to support themselves.
(4) Congress has received extensive information that
adolescents leaving foster care have significant difficulty
making a successful transition to adulthood; this information
shows that children aging out of foster care show high rates
of homelessness, non-marital childbearing, poverty, and delin-
quent or criminal behavior; they are also frequently the target
of crime and physical assaults.
(5) The Nation’s State and local governments, with financial
support from the Federal Government, should offer an extensive
program of education, training, employment, and financial sup-
port for young adults leaving foster care, with participation
in such program beginning several years before high school
H. R. 3443—3
graduation and continuing, as needed, until the young adults
emancipated from foster care establish independence or reach
21 years of age.
(b) IMPROVED INDEPENDENT LIVING PROGRAM.—Section 477 of
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 677) is amended to read as
follows:
‘‘SEC. 477. JOHN H. CHAFEE FOSTER CARE INDEPENDENCE PROGRAM.
‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to provide States
with flexible funding that will enable programs to be designed
and conducted—
‘‘(1) to identify children who are likely to remain in foster
care until 18 years of age and to help these children make
the transition to self-sufficiency by providing services such as
assistance in obtaining a high school diploma, career explo-
ration, vocational training, job placement and retention,
training in daily living skills, training in budgeting and finan-
cial management skills, substance abuse prevention, and
preventive health activities (including smoking avoidance,
nutrition education, and pregnancy prevention);
‘‘(2) to help children who are likely to remain in foster
care until 18 years of age receive the education, training, and
services necessary to obtain employment;
‘‘(3) to help children who are likely to remain in foster
care until 18 years of age prepare for and enter postsecondary
training and education institutions;
‘‘(4) to provide personal and emotional support to children
aging out of foster care, through mentors and the promotion
of interactions with dedicated adults; and
‘‘(5) to provide financial, housing, counseling, employment,
education, and other appropriate support and services to former
foster care recipients between 18 and 21 years of age to com-
plement their own efforts to achieve self-sufficiency and to
assure that program participants recognize and accept their
personal responsibility for preparing for and then making the
transition from adolescence to adulthood.
‘‘(b) APPLICATIONS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A State may apply for funds from its
allotment under subsection (c) for a period of five consecutive
fiscal years by submitting to the Secretary, in writing, a plan
that meets the requirements of paragraph (2) and the certifi-
cations required by paragraph (3) with respect to the plan.
‘‘(2) STATE PLAN.—A plan meets the requirements of this
paragraph if the plan specifies which State agency or agencies
will administer, supervise, or oversee the programs carried
out under the plan, and describes how the State intends to
do the following:
‘‘(A) Design and deliver programs to achieve the pur-
poses of this section.
‘‘(B) Ensure that all political subdivisions in the State
are served by the program, though not necessarily in a
uniform manner.
‘‘(C) Ensure that the programs serve children of various
ages and at various stages of achieving independence.
‘‘(D) Involve the public and private sectors in helping
adolescents in foster care achieve independence.
H. R. 3443—4
‘‘(E) Use objective criteria for determining eligibility
for benefits and services under the programs, and for
ensuring fair and equitable treatment of benefit recipients.
‘‘(F) Cooperate in national evaluations of the effects
of the programs in achieving the purposes of this section.
‘‘(3) CERTIFICATIONS.—The certifications required by this
paragraph with respect to a plan are the following:
‘‘(A) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that the State will provide assistance and services
to children who have left foster care because they have
attained 18 years of age, and who have not attained 21
years of age.
‘‘(B) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that not more than 30 percent of the amounts
paid to the State from its allotment under subsection (c)
for a fiscal year will be expended for room or board for
children who have left foster care because they have
attained 18 years of age, and who have not attained 21
years of age.
‘‘(C) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that none of the amounts paid to the State
from its allotment under subsection (c) will be expended
for room or board for any child who has not attained
18 years of age.
‘‘(D) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that the State will use training funds provided
under the program of Federal payments for foster care
and adoption assistance to provide training to help foster
parents, adoptive parents, workers in group homes, and
case managers understand and address the issues con-
fronting adolescents preparing for independent living, and
will, to the extent possible, coordinate such training with
the independent living program conducted for adolescents.
‘‘(E) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that the State has consulted widely with public
and private organizations in developing the plan and that
the State has given all interested members of the public
at least 30 days to submit comments on the plan.
‘‘(F) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that the State will make every effort to coordinate
the State programs receiving funds provided from an allot-
ment made to the State under subsection (c) with other
Federal and State programs for youth (especially transi-
tional living youth projects funded under part B of title
III of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Act of 1974), abstinence education programs, local housing
programs, programs for disabled youth (especially sheltered
workshops), and school-to-work programs offered by high
schools or local workforce agencies.
‘‘(G) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that each Indian tribe in the State has been
consulted about the programs to be carried out under the
plan; that there have been efforts to coordinate the pro-
grams with such tribes; and that benefits and services
under the programs will be made available to Indian chil-
dren in the State on the same basis as to other children
in the State.
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‘‘(H) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that the State will ensure that adolescents
participating in the program under this section participate
directly in designing their own program activities that pre-
pare them for independent living and that the adolescents
accept personal responsibility for living up to their part
of the program.
‘‘(I) A certification by the chief executive officer of
the State that the State has established and will enforce
standards and procedures to prevent fraud and abuse in
the programs carried out under the plan.
‘‘(4) APPROVAL.—The Secretary shall approve an application
submitted by a State pursuant to paragraph (1) for a period
if—
‘‘(A) the application is submitted on or before June
30 of the calendar year in which such period begins; and
‘‘(B) the Secretary finds that the application contains
the material required by paragraph (1).
‘‘(5) AUTHORITY
TO
IMPLEMENT
CERTAIN
AMENDMENTS;
NOTIFICATION.—A State with an application approved under
paragraph (4) may implement any amendment to the plan
contained in the application if the application, incorporating
the amendment, would be approvable under paragraph (4).
Within 30 days after a State implements any such amendment,
the State shall notify the Secretary of the amendment.
‘‘(6) AVAILABILITY.—The State shall make available to the
public any application submitted by the State pursuant to
paragraph (1), and a brief summary of the plan contained
in the application.
‘‘(c) ALLOTMENTS TO STATES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—From the amount specified in subsection
(h) that remains after applying subsection (g)(2) for a fiscal
year, the Secretary shall allot to each State with an application
approved under subsection (b) for the fiscal year the amount
which bears the same ratio to such remaining amount as the
number of children in foster care under a program of the
State in the most recent fiscal year for which such information
is available bears to the total number of children in foster
care in all States for such most recent fiscal year, as adjusted
in accordance with paragraph (2).
‘‘(2) HOLD HARMLESS PROVISION.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall allot to each
State whose allotment for a fiscal year under paragraph
(1) is less than the greater of $500,000 or the amount
payable to the State under this section for fiscal year
1998, an additional amount equal to the difference between
such allotment and such greater amount.
‘‘(B) RATABLE REDUCTION OF CERTAIN ALLOTMENTS.—
In the case of a State not described in subparagraph (A)
of this paragraph for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall
reduce the amount allotted to the State for the fiscal year
under paragraph (1) by the amount that bears the same
ratio to the sum of the differences determined under
subparagraph (A) of this paragraph for the fiscal year
as the excess of the amount so allotted over the greater
of $500,000 or the amount payable to the State under