Hank Johnson: “Mr. Speaker, S. 2950, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2009, will extend the national Child…”

“Mr. Speaker, S. 2950, the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2009, will extend the national Child Safety Pilot Program for another 14 months. Passed in 2003 as part of the PROTECT Act, the national Child Safety Pilot Program assists organizations in checking the criminal records of volunteers before placing them as mentors with our children. Every year, millions of Americans generously give their time and energy to volunteer and mentor children throughout the country. While the vast majority of these volunteers act out of purely benevolent intentions, it is important that we are able to identify those who may seek to do harm. Since 2003, the national Child Safety Pilot Program has enabled youth-serving organizations to work with the State governments to access the FBI's national fingerprint-based background checks system. By providing access to the more comprehensive data in the FBI's database, the pilot program has helped prevent child predators and sex offenders from getting access to children through legitimate mentoring programs. Notably, 6 percent of checks came back with serious criminal records. This is a noncontroversial, fee-based program that we have authorized twice before, Mr. Speaker. It's been extremely successful in providing invaluable information to mentoring organizations, and it's at no cost to the taxpayers.”