Remarks by Rep Foley on Preventing Child Abuse

[TayTay]

CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AND ENFORCEMENT ACT -- (House of Representatives - October 05, 1999)
From the Congressional Record. (There is a lot more of this, btw.)

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman and the gentleman from Florida for yielding time to me.

Mr. Chairman, childhood is the time of life that should be treasured and protected. The truth is, many children are robbed of their innocence or even worse at the hands of abuse.

Even while our overall national crime statistics have declined dramatically, child abuse continues to rise. The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect reports that 2000

children die each year as a result of abuse and neglect. In the State of Florida alone, a child is reported abused or neglected every 3 minutes. With these statistics, it is clear our Nation needs to do more to protect our children from abuse. We need to do everything we can to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Child abuse and prevention not only help protect the child, it also helps protect society in the long run, since statistics show that abused children are more likely to commit future acts of child abuse and domestic violence.

Last year the Volunteers for Children Act, a bill that I sponsored, was signed into law by the President. Volunteers for children will help protect children in after-school activities from being in the care of people with dangerous criminal records. This is an important step, but it is certainly not enough. We must attack child abuse at every opportunity, by investigating reported abuse thoroughly, by ensuring that children are not returned to abusive environments they have been taken out of, and by making penalties for convicted abusers much tougher.

Furthermore, we must ensure that children have safe places to go whenever they are in danger. As such, we need to continue empowering those on the State and local level in their efforts to prevent child abuse and treat victims.

That is what the CAPE Act is designed to do, to give local and State officials the flexibility to use law enforcement grants for child abuse prevention. It would increase the earmark, currently $10 million for child abuse victims, out of the Crime Victims Fund. This funding can be used by the States for important things such as training child protective service workers; training court-appointed special advocates; and child advocacy centers, which are one-stop child-friendly places where all parts of an abused child examination and treatment are brought together under one roof.

Among others, the CAPE Act is supported by the National Child Abuse Coalition, which includes the Children's Defense Fund and the Child Welfare League, Prevent Child Abuse America, the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

I urge my colleagues to join these groups in supporting the bill. I thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. JACKSON-LEE), and I thank again the chairman, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. MCCOLLUM), for being part of this great legislation.

I urge adoption by the Members.

[peekaloo]

1. Pokey the Bear.

sorry.

[Philosoraptor]

2. 2 faced son of a bitch

[Digit]

3. and to think they thought a bj was bad.....

sheesh

[TayTay]

4. This guy had six terms in the House

There is a lot more to be found in the Congressional Record about his thoughts on how to derail predators who go after kids on the internet. This is Republican hypocrisy at it's finest and most dangerous.