Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, while this legislation would be a step to improve prevention, awareness, and reporting of child sexual abuse in schools, it woefully falls short of a comprehensive reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA. CAPTA was last reauthorized over a decade ago in 2010, and a timely reauthorization is an appropriate solution to prevent child abuse and neglect from happening in the first place and provide better evidence- based treatments to address child maltreatment. In both the 116th and the 117th Congresses, when I was chairman of the committee, the House passed a bipartisan CAPTA reauthorization bill called Stronger CAPTA. Regrettably, a CAPTA reauthorization has not yet become law despite a mutual understanding that Congress must do more to support children and families. If the bipartisan Stronger CAPTA bill had been signed into law, it would have already provided States with necessary resources to expand locally driven prevention strategies, which strengthen families and invest in child protective services agencies. Unfortunately, the bill we are considering today does not provide any additional funding to implement its proposed grant program on child sexual abuse prevention and awareness. In contrast, Stronger CAPTA would actually provide States with the resources to strengthen prevention programs.…”