Date: 2016-05-11
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H.R. 4843. the "Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act." approved by the Education and the Workforce Committee. In the past decade and a half. the growth in the number of physicians prescribing opioids to help patients deal with pain from surgeries. dental work and chronic conditions has resulted in an increasing number of patients becoming dependent on the powerful and highly addictive painkillerswith patients not only abusing the use of those painkillers but often turning to heroin once their opioid prescription ended. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 259 million opioid prescriptions were written in 2012. more than enough for every adult in the United States. and it is estimated that in 2013 nearly 4.5 million people in the United States without a valid medical need were using prescription painkillers. The Health and Human Services Department estimates that the number of unintentional overdose deaths from prescription painkillers almost quadrupled between 1999 and 2013 and that abuse of prescription opioids now kills nearly 30.000 Americans each year. The "Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act" (CAPTA. PL 93247) was enacted in 1974 to coordinate federal and state efforts to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect. The law provides states with federal funds to improve their child protective services systems. however. to receive the funds. states are supposed to implement certain child welfare policies. CAPTA was amended in 2003 by the "Keeping Children and Families Safe Act." (PL 10836) that requires health care providers to notify child protective services agencies when a child is born with prenatal substance exposure or addiction. The protective services agencies are supposed to develop a "safe care plan" to protect the babies. The law explicitly states that it is meant to protect drugdependent newborns and not to punish mothers who are dealing with addiction. In December 2015. Reuters published the first in a series of articles documenting the failure of health care providers and state child protective services to help these infants. Based on information from 2013. the latest year for which data are available. there were 27.000 cases of drugdependent babies born that year. up from 5.000 in 2003 when CAPTAs notification requirements were enacted. However. more than 30 states do not require doctors to report cases of infants born with addictions. Some states have interpreted the law to mean that only addiction to illegal substances need be reported. This means that if the mother is taking prescribed drugs. even if the infant is born with an addiction. they do not require that the addiction be reported. In addition. even in states where infants born with drug dependencies must be reported to child protective services agencies. these agencies often take no steps toward developing a safe care plan for these infants. As a result. infants die because of neglect or abuse in their homes. Reuters identified 110 fatalities since 2010 of babies and toddlers whose mother used opioids during pregnancy and who later died from causes that could have been prevented. I recognize that infant mortality is at unprecedentedly high rates in our nation. Seeking to right the same wrongs as H.R. 4843. the "Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act." I introduced the "Stop Infant Mortality and Recidivism Reduction Act of 2016." or the "SIMARRA Act." which will help the Federal Bureau of Prisons to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Federal prison system for pregnant offenders. by establishing a pilot program of criticalstage. developmental nurseries in Federal prisons for children born to inmates. It is time that our nation recognizes a longpersistent need to break the cycle of generational. institutional incarceration amongst mothers serving time for nonviolent crimes and the children they birth behind prison bars. H.R. 5130. the "SIMARRA Act of 2016." gives those infants born to incarcerated mothers a chance to succeed in life. "SIMARRA" is not merely yet another second chance program. demanding leniency from the criminal justice system. Instead. H.R. 5130 asks our national criminal justice system what it can do for those young Americans born and relegated to a life of nearly impossible odds of survival. "SIMARRA" provides that first chancea first chance for American infantsthat many of their mothers. born themselves to mothers behind bars. never received. H.R. 4843 requires the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to review and confirm that states have enacted and implemented the child protection policies required by the Child Abuse and Treatment Act. including the requirement that addicted newborns are cared for. Specifically. in order to receive a grant for its child protective services system. a state must certify that it has a law or statewide program for child abuse and neglect that includes a safe care plan for an infant born with substance addiction after the infant is released from the care of health care providers. HHS must monitor the compliance of each state that receives a grant. Under the measure. states must also develop and implement monitoring systems to follow the safe care plans and determine whether local entities are providing referrals to. and delivery of. appropriate services for the infant and the affected family or caregiver. States must include in their annual data reports the total number of affected infants for whom a safe care plan was developed and for whom there were referrals to appropriate services. including services for the affected family or caregiver. The bill requires HHS to maintain and disseminate information regarding the requirements and best practices relating to the development of safe care plans for infants born with substance addiction. H.R. 4843. the "Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act." is a valuable piece of legislation that I encourage my colleagues to support. Additionally. I urge my colleagues to join me in sponsoring and supporting all legislation targeting the improvement of care for the prevention of infant abuse and neglect. such as H.R. 5130. the "Stop Infant Mortality and Recidivism Reduction Act of 2016" or the "SIMARRA Act."