Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Second Chance Act Reentry Legislation

On August 2nd, the Senate Judiciary Committee marked up (reviewed) and approved S. 1060, the Second Chance Act of 2007, by a voice vote.  The Second Chance Act, legislation that seeks to help States and localities better address the needs of individuals reentering the community from the criminal justice system, was reintroduced in the Senate on March 30th by Senators Joe Biden (D-DE), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT).   The House version of the Second Chance Act, H.R. 1593, was introduced in the House and approved by the House Judiciary Committee in March.  Chairman Leahy and Committee Ranking Member Arlen Specter led the mark-up session. 

Although Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) offered amendments to the legislation during the mark-up session, all but one of the amendments failed.  Senator Kyl did successfully offer an amendment to exclude individuals convicted of sex offenses from the Second Chance Act’s elderly home detention pilot program.  The amendment passed by a voice vote.  Despite expressing support for the intent of the legislation, Senator Kyl also expressed concern that the funding levels authorized in the Second Chance Act were too high; however, Senator Kyl’s amendment failed and the funding levels were maintained.  Senator Coburn also offered an amendment to change the matching formula to require States to contribute additional funding but this amendment also failed. Senators Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) both stated that they had intended to amend the Second Chance Act by attaching their bills to lessen the disparity in sentencing laws for crack and powder cocaine offenses but that would not and instead urged the Committee to work on the issue following the August recess.  Chairman Leahy agreed that the Committee should consider the issue of sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine sentences in the fall.

A number of Committee members spoke in support of the Second Chance Act during the mark-up session.  Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) began by commending the sponsors of the Second Chance Act for their work and expressed that the issue of helping to reintegrate formerly incarcerated people back into society was enormously important.  Senator Kennedy noted the lack of services for people reentering the community from incarceration and spoke about how law enforcement groups in particular had conveyed to him the need for additional services to help people successfully return to their communities from incarceration. 

In his comments to the Committee, Senator Specter spoke about the Second Chance Act as a modest approach to helping reduce recidivism and foster safer communities.  Characterizing the criminal justice system as needing major reform, Senator Specter praised programs in the Second Chance Act that could offer job training, drug and alcohol addiction treatment services, educational services and access to housing and health care to people reentering the community from incarceration. 

Senator Brownback spoke about the 650,000 people leaving incarceration each year and how the nation’s two-thirds recidivism rate was too high.  In addition, Senator Brownback spoke about children of incarcerated people and the need to provide additional supports for these at-risk youth.  Senator Brownback also spoke about work being done around the country to help people successfully reenter the community and the work of non-profit organizations, including faith-based organizations, employing innovative programs that are effective at reducing recidivism.  Framing the Second Chance Act as a modest but targeted bill, Senator Brownback emphasized that its programs would be effective in reducing crime and criminal justice budgets.

During the mark-up, Senator Coburn and Chairman Leahy discussed the link between crime and drug and alcohol addiction.  Senator Coburn began by expressing his support for the goals of the Second Chance Act, despite having opposed earlier versions of the legislation because of his concern that it included duplicative programs, and his support for the current version.  In addition, Senator Coburn made a number of comments on the intersection of drugs and crime and the need for a revised approach.  Senator Coburn noted the large number of people in the criminal justice system with drug problems and, speaking of the success of drug addiction treatment, Senator Coburn advocated for drug incarceration centers with a focus on addiction treatment instead of incarcerating people with drug problems in prison.  Following these comments, Senator Coburn asked Chairman Leahy to hold hearings on this topic in the fall.

Chairman Leahy responded by thanking Senator Coburn for his comments and expressing that he, too, was very interested in better addressing the treatment needs of people in the criminal justice system with drug and alcohol problems.  Speaking about the intersection between crime and addiction, Chairman Leahy stated that many crimes were committed because of an addiction to alcohol or other drugs and that, by helping individuals get the addiction treatment services they need, less crime would be committed.  Chairman Leahy also stated that he would speak with Senator Biden, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Crime Subcommittee, about this connection and work that the Committee could do. 

Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) also spoke in strong support of the Second Chance Act.  Speaking of the Chicago, Illinois based Safer Foundation and its work helping people obtain safe housing and secure good jobs following release from the criminal justice system, Senator Durbin expressed the need to support organizations and communities doing this work. Senator Sessions (R-AL) acknowledged there is no magic bullet to reducing recidivism but that if programs such as those authorized by the Second Chance Act could reduce recidivism between twenty and twenty-five percent, it would be tremendous progress.  Senator Sessions also said that he hoped the Second Chance Act could focus even more on the deeper, more entrenched causes of crime and that he would work with the bill’s sponsors to possibly offer floor amendments to the legislation that would address these problems.

It is unclear when the full Senate and House will consider their versions of the Second Chance Act.  Congress will return to legislative session during the week of September 3rd.  Currently, there are 92 bi-partisan co-sponsors of H.R. 1593 and 27 bi-partisan co-sponsors of S. 1060.  The text and status of both the House and Senate versions of the Second Chance Act can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/. 

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House and Senate Each Approve Bi-partisan Legislation to Reauthorize

Child Health Insurance Program

This week both the House of Representatives and Senate approved legislation to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  The House bill, the “Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act of 2007” (H.R. 3162), was introduced by Representatives John Dingell (D-MI), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Charles Rangel (D-NY), and Pete Stark (D-CA).  The bill was approved by a vote of 225 to 204, with 220 Democrats and five Republicans voting for the bill, and ten Democrats and 194 Republicans voting against it.  H.R. 3162 would provide coverage for more than four million uninsured children in low-income families by increasing spending by $50 billion over the next five years for a total of $75 billion; under the legislation, this funding increase would be paid for in part by raising the federal cigarette tax 45 cents a pack to 84 cents. An additional provision included in the CHAMP Act seeks to require the program to cover mental health services on an equal basis with other medical services. H.R. 3162 would also reduce federal subsidies paid to insurance companies offering private health plans to Medicare beneficiaries, plans that Democrats have argued are overpaid.

The Senate bill, S. 1893, the “Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007” was introduced by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee. S. 1893 would provide an additional $35 billion over five years, for a total of $60 billion, paid for by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to one dollar.  Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill does not include cuts to the Medicare Advantage program. Eighteen Republicans and 2 Independents voted along with 48 Democrats in support of the legislation. 

The Senate bill also includes language from S. 1337, the “Children's Mental Health Parity Act” introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Pete Domenici (R-NM), and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on May 8th.  S. 1337 seeks to require SCHIP to cover mental health services on an equal basis with any other medical services by eliminating a provision in current law that authorizes States to lower the amount of mental health coverage they provide to children covered by SCHIP to 75 percent of the coverage provided in the benchmark plans listed in statute. S. 1337 would also eliminate any financial or treatment limitations on mental health or addictions services that are more restrictive than those imposed on any other medical services.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has indicated that the Senate bill would cover 3.2 million uninsured children, including 2.7 million children who are currently eligible but not enrolled. According to the CBO, the House bill would cover 4.2 million children, including 3.8 million already eligible for benefits. In addition, both bills would provide money to prevent 800,000 children now on the program from losing coverage.

Critics of the legislation, including President Bush, have argued that the bill is too expensive and would create a new entitlement program; the President has threatened to veto both the House and Senate bills.

Once Congress returns in September from its August recess, the Conference Committee will begin work to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill.  More information about the legislation can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/ and the Kaiser Family Foundation at http://www.kff.org/medicaid/index.cfm.  

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Legislation to Recruit and Retain Public Health Workers, Including Those Working in the Behavioral Sciences, Introduced in the Senate

On July 26th, Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) introduced S. 1882, the “Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2007.”  S. 1882 would create scholarship, loan repayment, and grant programs to recruit and retain public health workers.  Intended to increase the ratio of public health workers to the population, S. 1882 would bring doctors, nurses, researchers, technicians, and other medical workers, including those working in the behavioral sciences, into the public health field.                        

S. 1882 would create a public health workforce scholarship program for individuals enrolled as full-time students in institutions leading to a degree or certificate in laboratory sciences, epidemiology, environmental health, health communications, health education, behavioral sciences, information sciences and public administration.  Scholarships would be open for US citizens who submit applications to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  In order to receive the scholarships, students would need to agree to working in the public health field for either two years, or one year for every year the scholarship was received, whichever was greater.  The scholarship program would cover tuition, tuition and books, or tuition, books, and provide a stipend depending on the scholarship awarded.

The legislation would also create a public health loan repayment program, which would repay up to one-third of the outstanding balance of student loans annually.  To benefit from the repayment program, individuals would either need to be enrolled in an accredited institution or have graduated with a health professions degree within the past ten years from such an institution.  Individuals would need to accept employment in a Federal, State, local or tribal public health agency and be a U.S. citizen to benefit from the program.  Individuals would be required to work for a period of time determined appropriate by the Secretary and the individual, but not for less than three years.  If an individual relocated to a different political jurisdiction as designated by the Secretary, the individual would receive a repayment incentive so long as that incentive does not exceed one-third of the eligible loan balance per year.  To keep the benefits of loan repayment from being offset by taxes, individuals would receive an amount no larger than thirty-nine percent of the total amount of loan repayments made during that year.

Grants for State and local programs would also be authorized under S. 1882 for the purpose of operating State, local, and tribal public health loan repayment programs.  State, local, and tribal governments would be responsible for operating the loan repayment programs if receiving a grant.  Additional grants would be offered to entities offering scholarships to individuals enrolled in degree or professional training programs in infectious diseases, medicine, public health, veterinary medicine, or other disciplines related to bioterrorism.

Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Joseph Biden (D-DE), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) are co-sponsors of the legislation.  S. 1882 was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where it awaits review.  Full text and status of S. 1882 can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/.

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