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Human Resources Subcommittee: Ranking Member Doggett Opening Statement at Hearing on Child Deaths Due to Maltreatment

July 12, 2011
Committee Statment

[Text of Ranking Member Doggett's remarks as delivered follow below]

Each weekend that my wife and I are back in Texas, we try to devote a little bit of time to our three pre-school granddaughters. The joy of being with them and witnessing their growth, their learning, their creativity, and also their innocence and vulnerability are in such contrast, from homes where they are surrounded by love, compared with what we see played out on national TV, with the abuse and death of too many young children.

Today, we conduct a bipartisan exploration of what we can do about the gap between those children who are surrounded by loving and supportive families, and those who are not. I think we recognize that the death of even one child due to abuse and neglect is just too many.

We are aware that there are so many, many children across the country who lose their lives or are permanently scarred by abuse from a caretaker. We know that there are many reasons why this happens—but the goal of today's hearing must be to improve our understanding of these causes and what we can do to prevent this kind of maltreatment of children; certainly poverty, teenage parenting, substance abuse, and mental health challenges are among the considerations.

We must ensure that we don't make matters worse than they are today by slashing services that are important to ensure child protection—even though there are many gaps in those services. Nor can we afford to slash the wider safety net for our families.

As my neighbor in Austin, Dr. Jane Burstain, eloquently states in her written testimony, "To cut programs that support struggling families in tough economic times is the very definition of penny wise and pound foolish and is a choice our children could pay for with their lives."

Regrettably, the lives of children have not always gotten top priority. They are not necessarily— despite the full house today and the many advocates who are here—the best lobbied force in the country. In my home state of Texas, the legislature just concluded with a more than 40 percent cut in certain child abuse prevention programs, even though my home state of Texas has one of the highest rates of child abuse and neglect deaths in the country.

Here in Washington, I have concerns about the proposal in the House—the House Republican budget—to eliminate the social services block grant program which provides some funding that is very important in child protective services. I am also concerned that the child welfare programs that we studied in our last committee hearings, as well as the TANF program, which is important in so many states for providing assistance to low-income families, are about to expire.

As a result of the work of this committee, I hope we can come up with bipartisan legislation to continue these programs and learn from the experience. I have just recently filed legislation concerning the TANF supplemental grants, which were part of the original 1996 law, that are very important in Texas and 15 other states in providing services.

I hope out of today's hearing, we can gain more insight from our expert witnesses and out of this, can come together with effective legislation to try to respond to some of these matters that concern all of us so deeply.

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