[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6655 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
H.R.6655
One Hundred Twelfth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the third day of January, two thousand and twelve
An Act
To establish a commission to develop a national strategy and
recommendations for reducing fatalities resulting from child abuse and
neglect.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

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This Act may be cited as the ``Protect our Kids Act of 2012''.

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Congress finds that--
(1) deaths from child abuse and neglect are preventable;
(2) deaths from child abuse and neglect are significantly
underreported and there is no national standard for reporting such
deaths;
(3) according to the Child Maltreatment Report of 2011, in
fiscal year 2011, 1,545 children in the United States are reported
to have died from child abuse and neglect, and many experts believe
that the actual number may be significantly more;
(4) over 42 percent of the number of children in the United
States who die from abuse are under the age of 1, and almost 82
percent are under the age of 4;
(5) of the children who died in fiscal year 2011, 70 percent
suffered neglect either exclusively or in combination with another
maltreatment type and 48 percent suffered physical abuse either
exclusively or in combination;
(6) increased understanding of deaths from child abuse and
neglect can lead to improvement in agency systems and practices to
protect children and prevent child abuse and neglect; and
(7) Congress in recent years has taken a number of steps to
reduce child fatalities from abuse and neglect, such as--
(A) providing States with flexibility through the Child and
Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act of 2011 to
operate child welfare demonstration projects to test services
focused on preventing abuse and neglect and ensuring that
children remain safely in their own homes;
(B) providing funding through the Child and Family Services
Improvement Act of 2006 for services and activities to enhance
the safety of children who are at risk of being placed in
foster care as a result of a parent's substance abuse;
(C) providing funding through the Fostering Connections to
Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 for grants to
facilitate activities such as family group decisionmaking
meetings and residential family treatment programs to support
parents in caring for their children; and
(D) requiring States through the Child and Family Services
Improvement and Innovation Act of 2011 to describe how they
will improve the quality of data collected on fatalities from
child abuse and neglect.

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(a) Establishment.--There is established the Commission to
Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (in this Act referred to
as the ``Commission'').
(b) Membership.--
(1) Composition.--
(A) Members.--The Commission shall be composed of 12
members, of whom--
(i) 6 shall be appointed by the President;
(ii) 2 shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House
of Representatives;
(iii) 1 shall be appointed by the minority leader of
the House of Representatives;
(iv) 2 shall be appointed by the majority leader of the
Senate; and
(v) 1 shall be appointed by the minority leader of the
Senate.
(B) Qualifications.--Each member appointed under
subparagraph (A) shall have experience in one or more of the
following areas:
(i) child welfare administration;
(ii) child welfare research;
(iii) child development;
(iv) legislation, including legislation involving child
welfare matters;
(v) trauma and crisis intervention;
(vi) pediatrics;
(vii) psychology and mental health;
(viii) emergency medicine;
(ix) forensic pathology or medical investigation of
injury and fatality;
(x) social work with field experience;
(xi) academia at an institution of higher education, as
that term is defined in section 101 of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001), with a focus on one or more
of the other areas listed under this subparagraph;
(xii) law enforcement, with experience handling child
abuse and neglect matters;
(xiii) civil law, with experience handling child abuse
and neglect matters;
(xiv) criminal law, with experience handling child
abuse and neglect matters;
(xv) substance abuse treatment;
(xvi) education at an elementary school or secondary
school, as those terms are defined in section 9101 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
7801);
(xvii) epidemiology; and
(xviii) computer science or software engineering with a
background in interoperability standards.
(C) Diversity of qualifications.--In making appointments to
the Commission under subparagraph (A), the President and the
congressional leaders shall make every effort to select
individuals whose qualifications are not already represented by
other members of the Commission.
(2) Date.--The appointments of the members of the Commission
shall be made not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of
this Act.
(c) Period of Appointment; Vacancies.--Members shall be appointed
for the life of the Commission. Any vacancy in the Commission shall not
affect its powers, but shall be filled in the same manner as the
original appointment.
(d) Initial Meeting.--Not later than 60 days after the date on
which a majority of the members of the Commission have been appointed,
the Commission shall hold its first meeting.
(e) Meetings.--The Commission shall meet at the call of the
Chairperson.
(f) Quorum.--A majority of the members of the Commission shall
constitute a quorum, but a lesser number of members may hold hearings.
(g) Chairperson.--The President shall select a Chairperson for the
Commission from among its members.

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(a) Study.--
(1) In general.--The Commission shall conduct a thorough study
on the use of child protective services and child welfare services
funded under title IV and subtitle A of title XX of the Social
Security Act to reduce fatalities from child abuse and neglect.
(2) Matters studied.--The matters studied by the Commission
shall include--
(A) the effectiveness of the services described in
paragraph (1) and best practices in preventing child and youth
fatalities that are intentionally caused or that occur due to
negligence, neglect, or a failure to exercise proper care;
(B) the effectiveness of Federal, State, and local policies
and systems within such services aimed at collecting accurate,
uniform data on child fatalities in a coordinated fashion,
including the identification of the most and least effective
policies and systems in practice;
(C) the current (as of the date of the study) barriers to
preventing fatalities from child abuse and neglect, and how to
improve efficiency to improve child welfare outcomes;
(D) trends in demographic and other risk factors that are
predictive of or correlated with child maltreatment, such as
age of the child, child behavior, family structure, parental
stress, and poverty;
(E) methods of prioritizing child abuse and neglect
prevention within such services for families with the highest
need; and
(F) methods of improving data collection and utilization,
such as increasing interoperability among State and local and
other data systems.
(3) Materials studied.--The Commission shall review--
(A) all current (as of the date of the study) research and
documentation, including the National Survey of Child and
Adolescent Well-Being and research and recommendations from the
Government Accountability Office, to identify lessons,
solutions, and needed improvements related to reducing
fatalities from child abuse and neglect; and
(B) recommendations from the Advisory Board on Child Abuse
and Neglect.
(b) Coordination.--The Commission shall provide opportunities for
graduate and doctoral students to coordinate research with the
Commission.
(c) Recommendations.--The Commission shall--
(1) develop recommendations to reduce fatalities from child
abuse and neglect for Federal, State, and local agencies, and
private sector and nonprofit organizations, including
recommendations to implement a comprehensive national strategy for
such purpose; and
(2) develop guidelines for the type of information that should
be tracked to improve interventions to prevent fatalities from
child abuse and neglect.
(d) Report.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the date on which
a majority of the members of the Commission have been appointed,
the Commission shall submit a report to the President and Congress,
which shall contain a detailed statement of the findings and
conclusions of the Commission, together with its recommendations
for such legislation and administrative actions as it considers
appropriate.
(2) Extension.--The President may extend the date on which the
report described in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by an
additional 1 year.
(3) Online access.--The Commission shall make the report under
paragraph (1) available on the publicly available Internet Web site
of the Department of Health and Human Services.

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(a) Hearings.--
(1) In general.--The Commission may hold such hearings, sit and
act at such times and places, take such testimony, and receive such
evidence as the Commission considers advisable to carry out this
Act.
(2) Location.--The location of hearings under paragraph (1)
shall include--
(A) areas with high fatality rates from child abuse and
neglect; and
(B) areas that have shown a decrease in fatalities from
child abuse and neglect.
(3) Subject.--The Commission shall hold hearings under
paragraph (1)--
(A) to examine the Federal, State, and local policies and
available resources that affect fatalities from child abuse and
neglect; and
(B) to explore the matters studied under section 4(a)(2).
(b) Information From Federal Agencies.--The Commission may secure
directly from any Federal department or agency such information as the
Commission considers necessary to carry out this Act. Upon request of
the Chairperson of the Commission, the head of such department or
agency shall furnish such information to the Commission.
(c) Postal Services.--The Commission may use the United States
mails in the same manner and under the same conditions as other
departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
(d) Gifts.--The Commission may accept, use, and dispose of gifts or
donations of services or property.

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(a) Travel Expenses.--The members of the Commission shall be
allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, at
rates authorized for employees of agencies under subchapter I of
chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code, while away from their homes
or regular places of business in the performance of services for the
Commission.
(b) Staff.--
(1) In general.--The Chairperson of the Commission may, without
regard to the civil service laws and regulations, appoint and
terminate an executive director and such other additional personnel
as may be necessary to enable the Commission to perform its duties.
The employment of an executive director shall be subject to
confirmation by the Commission.
(2) Compensation.--The Chairperson of the Commission may fix
the compensation of the executive director and other personnel
without regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of
title 5, United States Code, relating to classification of
positions and General Schedule pay rates, except that the rate of
pay for the executive director and other personnel may not exceed
the rate payable for level V of the Executive Schedule under
section 5316 of such title.
(c) Detail of Government Employees.--At the discretion of the
relevant agency, any Federal Government employee may be detailed to the
Commission without reimbursement, and such detail shall be without
interruption or loss of civil service status or privilege.
(d) Procurement of Temporary and Intermittent Services.--The
Chairperson of the Commission may procure temporary and intermittent
services under section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, at rates
for individuals that do not exceed the daily equivalent of the annual
rate of basic pay prescribed for level V of the Executive Schedule
under section 5316 of such title.

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The Commission shall terminate on the earlier of--
(1) the 30th day after the date on which the Commission submits
its report under section 4(d); or
(2) the date that is 3 years after the initial meeting under
section 3(d).

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Not later than 6 months after the submission of the report required
under section 4(d), any Federal agency that is affected by a
recommendation described in the report shall submit to Congress a
report containing the response of the Federal agency to the
recommendation and the plans of the Federal agency to address the
recommendation.

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PROGRAMS.
(a) In General.--Section 403(b)(2) of the Social Security Act (42
U.S.C. 603(b)(2)) is amended by striking ``for fiscal years 2011 and
2012'' and all that follows through the end of the paragraph and
inserting ``for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 such sums as are necessary
for payment to the Fund in a total amount not to exceed $612,000,000
for each fiscal year, of which $2,000,000 shall be reserved for
carrying out the activities of the commission established by the
Protect our Kids Act of 2012 to reduce fatalities resulting from child
abuse and neglect.''
(b) Prevention of Duplicate Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2013.--
Expenditures made pursuant to section 148 of the Continuing
Appropriations Resolution, 2013, for fiscal year 2013, shall be charged
to the applicable appropriation provided by the amendments made by this
section for such fiscal year.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.

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Protect our Kids Act of 2012 — HR. 6655

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