IB 
Union Calendar No. 311 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5640 
[Report No. 109–555] 
To amend part B of title IV of the Social Security Act to reauthorize 
the safe and stable families program, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 20, 2006 
Mr. HERGER (for himself and Mr. MCDERMOTT) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
JULY 12, 2006 
Additional sponsors: Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, Ms. HART, Mr. FOLEY, 
Mr. CAMP of Michigan, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. STARK, Mr. BECERRA, Mr. 
DOGGETT, Mr. EMANUEL, and Mr. CARDIN 
JULY 12, 2006 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on June 20, 2006] 
A BILL 
To amend part B of title IV of the Social Security Act 
to reauthorize the safe and stable families program, and 
for other purposes. 
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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 and Family Serv-
ices Improvement Act of 2006’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) For Federal fiscal year 2004, child protective 
services (CPS) staff nationwide reported investigating 
or assessing an estimated 3,000,000 allegations of 
child maltreatment, and determined that 872,000 
children had been abused or neglected by their parents 
or other caregivers. 
(2) Combined, the Child Welfare Services (CWS) 
and Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) 
programs provide States about $700,000,000 per year 
for services intended to ensure the safety, permanency, 
and well-being of children. These programs are con-
sidered the largest source of targeted Federal funding 
in the child protection system for prevention—that is, 
for services to ensure that children are not abused or 
neglected and, whenever possible, help children re-
main safely with their families. 
(3) States have broad flexibility in directing 
CWS dollars to protect children from abuse and ne-
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glect. Under the PSSF program, States must invest 
significant portions of program funds in family pres-
ervation services, family support services, time-lim-
ited reunification services, and post-adoption support 
services. 
(4) However, a 2003 report by the Government 
Accountability Office (GAO) reported that little re-
search is available on the effectiveness of activities 
supported by CWS funds—evaluations of services sup-
ported by PSSF funds have generally shown little or 
no effect. 
(5) Further, the Department of Health and 
Human Services recently completed initial Child and 
Family Service Reviews (CFSRs) in each State. No 
State was in full compliance with all measures of the 
CFSRs. The CFSRs also revealed that States need to 
work to prevent repeat abuse and neglect of children, 
improve services provided to families to reduce the 
risk of future harm (including by better monitoring 
the participation of families in services), and 
strengthen upfront services provided to families to 
prevent unnecessary family break-up and protect chil-
dren who remain at home. 
(6) Federal policy should ensure that States are 
appropriately targeting CWS and PSSF funds to as-
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sist at-risk families and protect abused and neglected 
children to address issues found in the CFSRs. En-
couraging States to invest their CWS and PSSF 
funds in services that promote and protect the welfare 
of children, support strong, healthy families, and re-
duce the reliance on out-of-home care, will help ensure 
all children are raised in safe, loving families. 
(7) CFSRs also found a strong correlation be-
tween frequent caseworker visits with children and 
positive outcomes for these children, such as timely 
achievement of permanency and other indicators of 
child well-being. 
(8) However, a December 2005 report by the De-
partment of Health and Human Services Office of In-
spector General found that only 20 States were able 
to produce reports to show whether caseworkers actu-
ally visited children in foster care on at least a 
monthly basis, despite the fact that nearly all States 
had written standards suggesting monthly visits were 
State policy. In fact, 7 of these 20 States indicated 
that fewer than half of the children in foster care were 
visited on a monthly basis. 
(9) The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 provided 
$40,000,000 in fiscal year 2006 for the PSSF pro-
gram which this Act ensures will be available and 
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which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will 
increase mandatory budget authority by $40,000,000 
each year from 2006 through 2015, for a total of 
$400,000,000. 
(10) A 2003 GAO report found that the average 
tenure for a child welfare caseworker is less than 2 
years and this level of turnover negatively affects safe-
ty and permanency for children. 
(11) Targeting additional PSSF funds to ensure 
children in foster care are visited on at least a month-
ly basis will promote better outcomes for vulnerable 
children, including by preventing further abuse and 
neglect. 
SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE SAFE AND STABLE FAM-
ILIES PROGRAM. 
(a) ELIMINATION OF FINDINGS.—Section 430 of the 
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 629) is amended by striking 
all through ‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose’’ and inserting 
the following: 
‘‘SEC. 430. PURPOSE. 
‘‘The purpose’’. 
(b) LIMITATION
ON ADMINISTRATIVE COST REIM-
BURSEMENT.—Section 434 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 629d) is 
amended— 
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