>> commerce secretary -- >> good morning, everybody. morning for our policy insiders event. we are very pleased to welcome john bryson, the new secretary of the u.s. department of commerce. secretary bryson was appointed by president obama to be the 37th secretary of commerce. he was sworn in in october of october 2011. prior to the commerce department, he served as president and chief executive officer of edison international in california for 18 years. before the private sector, mr. bryson served as president of the california public utilities and chairman of the california state water resources control board.

he was also a partner in the law firm of marsen and foerster. at the commerce department, secretary bryson will play an extremely important role in president obama's economic team and will work to implement policies to address to the administration's economic priorities, including job creation. this morning, secretary bryson will discuss his agenda for the department of commerce, including issues related to international trade and manufacturing, increasing investment in the u.s., and, of course, job growth. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming secretary of commerce john bryson. [applause] >> good morning to all of you.

it is such a pleasure to be here. many thanks to the chamber of commerce. it is a pleasure to look across the room and see so many wonderful friends, business people. i will name only one business person in the room, but it is kind of a special case. greg bachman. he served on our manufacturing council. most significantly, he was recently named the connecticut small business person of the year. greg, where are you? >> right here. [applause] >> i want to recognize a very special person who makes a real difference for us. he is the house ranking member. without you, the commerce

department could not do the great work we do. thank you very, very much for that support. [applause] and i want to acknowledge an extraordinary person, our deputy secretary at the commerce department, dr. becky blank. and along with becky, and our bureau heads, substantially home are here today. this is an extraordinary group of people. i have not been there for long, but i know. really smart, really hard working and doing everything they can to make a difference. would all of you who are here please stand up? one quick stand. [applause]

let's see if we can find a way to get this a little higher. >> as we gather here this morning, one challenge stands above the rest -- putting americans back to work. this has been president obama's focus since the first financial crisis since the great depression. it will be our focus everyday at the commerce department. americans cannot find work when they cannot find a career path. it ruins lives. nearly every american has a family member or a friend who is without a job.

they know how hard it is. high unemployment is not just that for individuals. it is bad for business. high employment will damage to the profitability and even the viability of many businesses, large and small. we as a country must act now to maintain america's hard position as the strongest economy in the world. the challenge to this urgent requires leaders in washington to put aside business as usual. that is what the american people expect and it is what they deserve. the world that i just left, the world that all of you business people are in, is about results. business leaders are judged by their ability to manage challenges and to take reasonable tough-minded risk to

grow their business. i remember well the biggest challenge i face as ceo at edison international. that was the energy crisis of the years 2000-2001. market manipulation reduced the supply of electricity. the electricity prices jumped as much as 800%. california is expected their utility to fix the problem. they did not want to hear whose fault it was. they did not want to hear excuses. it was not easy. but we worked day and night to keep the lights on. the availability of power in that year and half literally changed every single hour. if we did not succeed in keeping the lights on, businesses would close and we would fail our customers.

we acted with the urgency because that is what our customers and our shareholders rightfully demanded of us. when i hear business people express their frustration about washington, it is the lack of urgency and the lack of focus on results that bothers them the most. as you and i know, business people are generally pragmatic, not partisan. what they care about, what gets you all, all of us up in the morning is finding new opportunities to strengthen and grow businesses and to solve problems. business people do not see the same intensely focused practical results in washington. they get frustrated. i get this frustration. so does the president. that is why president obama has

recently taken a series of actions to get people back to work and back on their feet. the president knows, as every american knows, that we cannot just do nothing for this congress to act. the president is not giving up on the congress either. he will keep urging congress to pass critical elements of the american jobs act, including the extension of the payroll tax cut. and he will also continue to push the important priorities for the business community, including building a tax code that is more competitive internationally. we need to get rid of the loopholes and use those savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years. at the commerce department, we are not waiting to act either.

we have a major role to play at this critical time to spur job creation in america. we have an array of tools to make our business is more innovative, more efficient, and more competitive around the world. and if you, as business people, have questions or concerns that need to be addressed, my door will be open and i will advocate on your behalf. i have been speaking almost daily to owners of businesses large and small since taking my new position. i want to know how this administration and the commerce department can best help you. some of these conversations, my discussions with the president and my own personal experience, i will prioritize one simple imperative. here it is.

we need to help american businesses build it here and sell it everywhere. [applause] you know that building it here and selling it everywhere is the way the united states became the greatest economic power in the 20th-century. in the 21st century, the competition has changed. the circumstances have changed. and america itself has changed. but the ingredients for a strong economy, the basic ingredients that create good jobs have not. we must be able to build things and we must be able to sell them competitively, not only

here at home, but in markets all around the world. help american businesses build it here and sell it everywhere. the commerce department will be focused on this in the months ahead. support advanced manufacturing, increasing u.s. exports, and attracting more investments to america from all over the world. let me say just a few words about each of those. first, i will begin with manufacturing and simple statement about why it matters. without a strong manufacturing base, we cannot create enough good jobs to sustain a strong middle class. and without a strong middle class, we cannot be a strong country. many people have misconceptions about manufacturing.

they hear the word and they think of the old assembly lines. but today, and when we say manufacturing, we are often talking about the cutting edge industries of advanced manufacturing, like composite materials, specialty chemicals, or those incredible life saving machines that you see in the hospitals. that is manufacturing today and it is the manufacturing of the future. over 11 million americans have manufacturing jobs. these are good paying jobs and every job inside a factory creates at least two more outside of it. any large manufacturer is supported by extensive supply chain. here is something more. manufacturing has also the biggest source of innovation in our economy.

67% of all the business are in the in our country is done by manufacturing companies -- 67% of all the business r&d in our country is done by manufacturing companies. implementing the new cut reform legislation will help strengthen america's leadership in manufacturing. as long as we are building things here in america, we will be inventing things here, too. but if american businesses stopped building things here, it will not be long before the actual innovating happens elsewhere. that has already happened in some industries. the president and i are determined to reverse the tide and to revive manufacturing here. this week, the president named me co-chair of the white house office of manufacturing policy.

we are not wasting time. today, i am announcing a national program office. it is housed at the commerce department. it is to turn the president's vision for manufacturing into action. it will support the president's advanced manufacturing partnership that is bringing together industry, universities and the federal government to drive investments in emerging industries like and nanotech. in the last two years, the administration has invested in 68 innovative projects across the country to support manufacturing. next year, our national

institutes of standards and technology will invest nearly $90 million in advanced manufacturing, much of it in your research areas like smart manufacturing technology and new materials discovery. the next step is selling those things to the 90% of people outside of the u.s. businesses are not exporting nearly as much as they could. only 1% of our u.s. businesses export at all. of those that do, that 1%, only 50% sold to one market and one market only. that is typically canada and

mexico. that is why helping more companies export will continue to be a major priority for the commerce department. many companies would like to export. they have great products to sell. but they are just not sure how to get started. small businesses in particular often face big challenges getting export financing, building relationships with foreign suppliers or dealing with unfamiliar foreign rules and regulations. president obama's national mission is designed to help businesses overcome these hurdles. the initiative has already helped u.s. businesses expand exports 17% in the year 2010. 16% so far this year. meetr, we're on track to the president's a goal of doubling exports by 2014.

but giving the worldwide economic conditions we now face, we will simply have to greatly intensify our efforts to achieve that goal. that is why the president recently signed the free trade agreements that will significantly boost exports as well as support tens of thousands of good paying american jobs. and the commerce department international trade administration will continue to find creative ways to connect u.s. businesses with opportunities abroad. one quick example -- as part of the nei, the commerce has been working with usps and fedex, the national association of manufacturers, those groups that help u.s. exporters and help them into new markets. building on this success, we

recently, just three weeks ago, launched a new effort with fedex who will work with the u.s. foreign commercial service at the commerce department to match their foreign customers -- fedex foreign customers -- with u.s. suppliers. in the months ahead, we are doing more. we will restructure our foreign commercial service to intensify their focus on strong export growth markets, including china, brazil, and india. the commerce department will also be working hard to build on the progress we have made reforming our dated export control laws. finally, we will see -- we will pay special attention to trade barriers to make sure our companies are competing on a truly level playing field. in particular, we will be

focused on non-tariff barriers, the overly-narrow technical standards, onerous procedures, and other techniques that countries use to shut out competition. that is a particular concern in the case of china. the u.s.-china relationship is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. in the past few decades, china has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and into a thriving middle-class. increasinglyonomy opened to the world, we supported them, joining the wto exactly a decade ago. that was a landmark forward step and a really positive one. as the president has said, our economic relationship with china should be mutually

beneficial if china abides with its global trade obligations. the united states has now reached the point where we cannot accept china ignoring trade rules. it continues to subsidize its own countries, discriminates against foreign countries, and has four intellectual property protections. recent trade negotiations, a chinese counterparts made what were truly promising commitments in some of these areas. but we must see a follow- through. we cannot rely just on words. we need time frames and concrete results.

anything short of that will be unacceptable. [applause] we american business people just one trading partners to open their markets. businesses should succeed or fail based on the quality and the cost of their goods and services. this administration is deeply committed to ensuring the united states remains the most open economy in the world. that leaves now to my final priority. we want more investment coming into the united states. it is a simple equation. more investment equals more jobs. that is why we want everyone in the world to hear this message loud and clear. the united states is open for business. [applause]

you all know that america is the number one destination for foreign direct investment in the world. it is not hard to see why. we have the biggest economy, the best workers, the most outstanding universities, and the strongest ip protection. foreign companies already support more than 1 million jobs right here in america. and they employ workers in every single one of our 50 states. japanese carmakers, british banks, and german and chinese manufacturers, indian energy companies -- they come from all over the world to invest here. and there's plenty more we can attract here.

but in recent years, the united states has been losing ground to our foreign competitors. some of this was likely inevitable. companies want to move closer to their competitors and to fast- growing economies. until recently, we were the only major economy without a robust national investment program. we were the only one. although we have a strong climate overall, there are plenty of space for improvement. it is too hard to navigate local, state, and federal bureaucracies and they can i get timely answers on regulatory or permitting questions. we have heard these concerns and we have acted now by launching a new initiative called select usa. housed in the commerce department as the first coordinated federal effort to

pursue and win new business investments here in the united states from both foreign and domestic companies. we are working with every relevant federal agency as well as state and local governments to cut through red tape. this will make it easier and faster for companies to invest here. and we're training our foreign service officers to promote investment in america as a key part of their job. now is the time to be pushing for more investment in america. with the cost of business rising in emerging countries like china, we have recently seen u.s.-based firms such as ncr, ford motor co., coleman bring jobs back to the united states. we hope that select usa will help companies stay here at home while opening new

investment as well. in my time with you today, i have talked about three areas. ultimately, it is the businesses themselves that have to do the building and the selling. everyone's job is to create the conditions that allow both workers and businesses to succeed and to create sensible rules of the road that strengthen the integrity of the financial system and our economy. together, we made progress digging out of an unprecedented economic crisis. the private sector has created just for the past 21 straight

month for a total of about 3 million private-sector jobs. but do not lose sight of this. we lost almost 8 million jobs during the recent recession. so we have a long, long way to go. only a reenergize private- sector can get our economy back to full strength. that is why i would like to close these remarks with a very direct appeal to my colleagues in the business community. america needs you to invest here now. america needs you to put people back to work. i know you have reasons not to do that and now is uncertain. there is a financial crisis in europe. let's not forget the dysfunction in washington. having run a large business, i

understand that, if you have cash available, it can be tempting just to sit on it. i get that. it seems sometimes like the prudent thing to do. but let me give you two reasons to question that. first, while it is true that u.s. companies consistently make great products and some great profits, even those companies and our economy as a whole cannot succeed with so many americans out of work. it hurts us in the near term. and it hurts us in the long term. efficiency and cost cutting only get you so far. consumer demand will never rebound until more americans have good jobs, the kind of jobs that build the skills and will let them keep learning and earning for a lifetime.

>> the second compelling reason for businesses to act on jobs and investments is because that is what our economic competitors, all our big economic competitors around the world, are doing right now. and places like china, brazil, and india, businesses are investing in new industries, in new growth opportunities, looking to grab market share whenever they can. they are part of the same global economy we are. but they are not backing down at all. neither are their governments. these businesses are supported by governments with a very clear competitive strategy for economic strength. governments that have been educating their people in science and math, they have been investing in infrastructure to

make their businesses more competitive. i'm here to tell you that the obama administration and the commerce department will provide energetic, tireless, and effective support to help american businesses compete. but competitiveness in itself is only the means to an end. when you root for your favorite team, you do not want them just to compete. you want them to win. and i want the united states to win. [applause]

what does that mean? winning means the best jobs in the world are found right here in america. winning means that the most cutting edge industries not only do their r&d here, but they also build their products in america. winning means that opportunity and prosperity are widely shared in america. that to me is what it means to win. the commerce department should be judged, we should be judged, by how well we help american businesses and achieve these goals. i know the problems we face are big and complex. i also know that, as a nation, we are up to the task. people knock washington for a lot of good reasons. i am really happy to be here because i see a real opportunity to make a difference. i see an opportunity for the commerce department to help american businesses build it here and sell it everywhere. it is our time to shine. and it is a great time to be the secretary of commerce.

thank you very much. [applause] thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> with the iowa caucuses next week when an new hampshire, south carolina, and florida primaries later in the month, we look back at 14 candidates who ran for president and loss, but had a long-lasting impact on american politics. tonight, adlai stevenson, wednesday, barry goldwater, thursday, hubert humphrey, friday, for time governor of alabama, george wallace, and on saturday, george mcgovern, followed by at billionaire businessman ross perot. "the contenders," every night

at 7 -- 10:00 p.m. eastern on c- span. at 8 eastern, donald rumsfeld on his memoir, "known and unknown." then it detainee on his book, " -- then it dick cheney on his book, "in my time." >> now through friday, american history tv. tonight, a look at the presidency. we'll hear from one house photographers from the administrations of gerald ford, bill clinton, and of president bush. also the unveiling of the ronald reagan statue at national airport just assad washington. a discussion on lbj's 1964 ad showing a girl picking petals

from a daisy, followed by nuclear explosion. a tour from the watergate exhibit at the richard nixon presidential library. >> have you tried this -- a free c-span radio at? >> it is fast, easy-to-use, and visually appealing, and the audio quality is convincingly clear. and all some application. it took me about 10 seconds to learn how to use it. -- an awesome application. >> you can listen to our interview programs. c-span, available wherever you are. at c-span.org.ac >> for this year's studentcam video competition, we want you to tell us what part of the constitution as meaning to you,

and why. get it to c-span by january 20, 2012. that is less than a month away, for your chance to win the grand prize of $5,000. there is $50,000 in total prices. the competition is open to students' grades 6 and well. for complete details, go online. >> i was presidential caucus is a week from today, january 3. on tomorrow's "washington journal," two guests live from iowa. bob vander plaats, and an organizer with "occupied des moines." were get the actors time as british prime minister. -- margaret thatcher's time as british prime minister.

like every morning on c-span at 7:00 a.m. eastern. live "road to the white house coverage tomorrow from iowa at 11:30 a.m. eastern, newt gingrich holding a town hall meeting at 1:20 p.m. eastern, mitt romney talking of jobs in the economy, and at 8:00 p.m. eastern, ron paul at a salute to veterans campaign rally at the state fair grounds in the morning. -- in des moines. >> there is a hearing on federal rules for reporting child abuse. pennsylvania senator bob casey called for better reporting requirements in the aftermath of the child sex abuse allegations at penn state. this is almost two and a half hours.

>> good morning, everybody. the subcommittee will now come to order. today we have the very powerful and poignant hearing. we will be addressing one of the most difficult issues to raise in child welfare policy. that is, that we protect the children in our communities and in our country, if they are victims of child abuse. particularly if they are victims of child abuse either within their own home or when they are somewhere that the children have been placed in the care of a trusted adult. the focus on this hearing, the topic will be breaking the silence in child abuse, how we can protect children when they are being abused, how we can intervene and protect them, and

then what policies should we put in place to achieve deterrence of this vile and repugnant act against children. it's sad we have to have this hearing, but the reality is just in our society. it's -- this hearing will not we one of sensationalism and will not be sensationa. our hearings focus not only the sensational but on solutions, again, rooted in prevention, intervention, and deterrence. this hearing is a result of a letter from senator bob casey who had a tragic, tragic incident in pennsylvania. this hearing will not focus on pennsylvania. it will focus on the broad issues because it goes on in every state, and regretably in every community. i also want to thank my ranking

member, senator burr of north carolina, for his active participation in developing the framework and the witnesses for this. senator burs hat a long-standing and persistent reputation for standing up for vulnerable populations, and we have worked together on a variety of these issues, including the protection of children in day-care centers. we also want to note the long-standing advocacy of senator barbara boxer for her role and her open ideas. i want to give a brief opening statement here but i want to welcome all of you who are here and all of you watching in your home and in the locker room and in the dugout and all over our country. we've got to dedicate ourselves now to the right policy, the right legislation, to really protect our children. while many have been shocked by the recent child sexual abuse,

unfortunately i'm not surprised. many, many years ago i work as a child neglect social worker in baltimore. i saw the danger to children up close and person. i was with them in the er, in the courtroom, with them when i had to remove them from their own homes and i was with them is a tried to put them on the road to recovery and rehabilitation. from what had been done to them. because i saw the permanent and indelible scars this leaves on a child for all of their lives. for me, that experience as a young social worker, so many years ago, was a searing, searing experience. i learned from it. i grew up while i was working in it. and now, as a senator, i continue to devote my life to being able to work on this. this is why i'm so determined we're going to take what we hear today and turn it into an action

plan, and we have been putting in programs with the center for missing and exploited children, working with the fbi, the marshal services and others. again, our focus is really on prevention -- protection, prevention, and deterrence. there's nothing more troubling than a child who has been physically, sexually or emotional abused. then abused again because of the failure for adults they turn to, who either don't listen and rebuff and reject them, or who do listen but in order to protect the brand of an institution, where the reputation of a team, don't report it. they abide by a coverup of silence. a conspiracy of silence so the child is doubly victimized. those who abuse them, and then the system that turns their back on them. we're going to hear about some

of this today. one from mr. sheldon kennedy. a former professional hockey player, who stated for -- skated for the united states of america. abused by a minor league hockey coach, and someone with -- by a coach, his parents had come to trust. what was additionally troubling about mr. kennedy and his experience, is that the abuse was allowed to continue despite the red flags. so, we want to talk about that because we want to break that code of silence for preventing not only the first abuse, but the second abuse. >> mr. kennedy's story is not the first. there have been many examples in our history where children have been subjected to this second abuse. victimized a second time, where they have been overlooked, ignored, or covered up. well, this senator takes the position that no institution should ever be too big to report

or too famous to report, and no adult should ever feel that they're protected because of the brand they represent. my hope is this hearing will point out what we need to do to help our children. our job is to ensure we have the right legislative scram the -- legislative program and the right prevention. there's currently laws on the books passed on a bipartisan basis, the child abuse treatment act, in 1974, to provide funds to states for prevention and investigation and prosecution. we need to examine that is sufficient or whether it needs to be amended. my own view is that in recent years, whether congress should look at reform, and it's my belief that every adult has a responsibility for a child. it takes a village to raise a child and it takes a village to protect a child. and i believe, regardless of who

you are, if you see something, if you know something, then report it. if you see something, do something. so, we're going to listen to that. and now i want to turn to my colleague, senator burr, my ranking member, who has done such a great job, and then senator casey, who questioned this hearing, staunch advocate of children, then senator boxer and her own advocacy. >> madam charge is thank you for holding this hearing and i want to thank you for your passion for children. that clearly comes across in your openings statement and actions in congress. nothing is more important than the safety and the well-being of our nation's children. no child should ever have to suffer the pain or shame of abuse at the hands of an adult, be it that a parent, teacher, coach, or a stranger met in the

park or on the internet. i also want to thank all of our witnesses for their time and dedication to our shared goal of ensuring that children are free from abuse and neglect. and in those horrific instances where a child is abused, i thank today's witnesses for their commitment to ensuring we intervene quickly and provide those children with the support and the treatment that they need to heal and recover. over the years, senator mikulski and i have worked together on legislation that would require criminal background checks for individuals working in child care or volunteering with vulnerable populations like kids, the disabled and the elderly. when parents leave their children with an adult, in an entrusted organization, day car,

schools, sports activity, after-school care, summer camp, they shouldn't have to worry they might be dropping their child off to be cared by someone who has been convicted of a violent crime, especially a crime against children. the use of criminal background checks for keeping criminals and violent offenders away from children is but one important piece for keeping children safe. criminal background check will only weed out the offenders known in the criminal justice system or another government agency such as the child protective services. today we'll be hearing a lot about the offenders known to children and often known to be suspected by adults within a community, who remain unknown to the judicial authorities due to the silence of their victims and the silence of the adult bystanders. to truly ensure our children are safe, both children and the adults must break the silence of

abuse. however, since children who are being abused live a life of fear and shame and are thus least able and likely to come forward, it is adults with whom the greatest responsibility for breaking the silence of abuse rest. as one of our witnesses said in her testimony today, child abuse is a grownup problem. although crimes against children through such means as sex trafficking or internet, often tend to gain the greatest air time on able news, it's important for us to remember that most instances of abuse against kid, sexual and physical, are occurring not across the statelines or on the internet but in our own neighborhood communities and by folks we know. sense the vast majority of abuse is occurring so close to home, it's critical we train and empower adults to know the signs

of abuse and to know what to do when they see or suspect it. there's no quick fix. there's no single piece of legislation that will make the problem of child abuse magically go away. however, the adults returning to a collective sense of responsibility for all the children of their community, can, from the grassroots level, begin to break the silence for benefits for all kids. i look forward to working with chairman mikulski and all of my senate colleagues to better understand and respond the issues of child abuse in this nation today. we often hear that children are our nation's future. how we as adults treat and how we respond to the ill treatment of our nation's children will determine what that future looks like. i thank my colleagues. i thank the chair. >> i'd like to turn now to

senator bob casey, who requested this hearing and this committee was already contemplating it, but who has been such a long-standing advocate. we know he has legislation. we're going to be focusing on the broad policy. senator casey, let's hear from you and proceed. >> madam chair, thank you very much. i want to commend you and senator burr for bringing us together today, and i'm grateful for that. not only on behalf of the people of the commonwealth of pennsylvania but the whole country. we're grateful. and i want to say to senator mikulski that your work, if i can use an old phrase, laboring in the vineyard, goes back long before you remember -- a member of the united states house of representatives and the united states senate, helping children as an advocate. so we're grateful you spent so many years working hard to protect our kids.

child abuse is the ultimate betrayal, isn't it? the ultimate betrayal of a child, and what every child should have a -- has and should have a reasonable expectation of safety and security. it's almost hard to begin to comprehend the horror that a child must feel when they're the victim of abuse, but maybe especially when they're the victim of abuse by someone they know or trust or maybe even someone they love. i can't even begin -- i can think of it for years and can't even begin to comprehend how horrific that it is. so it happens because adults fail, not because children do anything wrong. we can't just blame it upon systems. we're all adults and we all have to take some measure of responsibility. and what has to come from a hearing like this, maybe not today, maybe not in the next few

days, but when we come to a consensus about what to do, it's as basic as we could imagine. at it about protecting children no matter what the cost, no matter what the impediment, no matter what the obstacle. so that what we're here to today, and i think it's about holding adults accountable. ... this is much broader than one bill and more than one incident or one scandal or one news item. we have seen several in the last couple of months.

but again, it is getting back to that basic obligation that every public official has to protect our kids, and to do everything we can to fight against and to push back and to deal with that betrayal that we all know in our hearts is at the root of this. ts is at the root of this and also no longer statement for the record butch chairwoman, we appreciate your work on this, you and senator byrd have made service to the country today. >> i want to say to my colleague i would like to turn to senator boxer whose done incredible due diligence in child protection. to others i would hope he would leave your opening statement part of that in your question period. after senator boxer we are going to move to an excellent panel. senator boxer, we want to welcome you. you have over the years really been remarkable in your advocacy for children and to do diligence

you've put in in recommending several pieces of legislation, some with us, some with judiciary but it doesn't matter. we need to be in it together and for the kids. please proceed. >> thank you. gloor also eloquent. what i think you privately for this. were you were doing today. i want to 4-d new publicly. not enough kennedys are doing in my opinion the diligence that should be done and i am so appreciative of you and of course senator kec for requesting this hearing. i speak to you today as a mother and grandmother and senator from the largest state in the union believing their must be tolerance for crimes against kids. zero tolerance. i think's senator byrd referred to that and we get it from the heart, soul in our own community. so we need a new ethic in this country, and as much as we need to strengthen fell all.

now if this ethic were in place, the zero tolerance, this sensibility about the fact we need to protect kids we are in place. many crimes against children would be committed and those that commit such acts would be called before the crimes are repeated and repeated and repeated, and the innocence were damaged for life. so i'm going to give you the facts because sometimes weeklies over this issue because there's so many numbers thrown at us so i'm going to give you two of them that we have. several hundred thousand cases reported every year. think about it. several hundred thousand. some of the states have fewer than several hundred thousand people living in them. several hundred thousand reported cases of child abuse every year and reported in that, 80,000 reported cases of child sexual abuse every year and the

other percentage of want to give you is that 71% of all sex crimes, sex crimes victims are children. 71% are the victims are children. i don't believe congress has done enough to prevent these atrocities and i want to do my own involvement. i've worked closely with all of you on so many issues. senator isaacson and i worked together to prevent violence in the peace corps and all of you support us in that endeavor. so a lot of our involvement stems from something. he had a constituent and he took that issue to heart. in may of 1997, a california 7-year-old from los angeles was molested and killed in a nevada casino bathroom. the assailant's friend witnessed

the molestation and learned of the murder. he didn't do one thing to stop it and he never reported it. so that moved me in 98 to introduce legislation that deals with reporting requirements. nothing happened. in the meantime, unreported cases of child abuse occurred at educational institutions, religious institutions, day care centers, and interestingly on federal land and property. the worst part of the failure to report these horrific crimes is allowed the serial killers to go on and on and on to pray on more and more defenseless children. so it is time to protect children nationwide. in '94 we can together to pass the violence against children act. sorry. slip. i want that to happen next. the violence against women act. it's worked successful. we work across party lines. it's time to pass the violence

against children act which would be an all encompassing way to bring about this new ethic of this evil tolerance. but today because i've been told by the chairman and the ranking member don't talk about a specific bill. i won't do that. i am for so many bills and i've written some of them. ibm for all of them. but i do want to make one point. i don't think anyone is aware of and this is critical. today on federal property if there is a crime in this building or in a national park or in a military base, we do not have reporting requirements other benefit is a professional that sees the person after the fact. so in our own house so to speak we have work to do. we are going to want to tell the states will to do but we better look at our own of law. so i'm going to close now with a

final thought. after 9/11, our nation reached a consensus. that consensus was no one would ever sit passively on an airplane as a terrorist tried to take it over. i don't care if you were under 5 feet tall as i am. we will get up out of our seat and we will do what it takes, all of us. now our nation needs to reach a consensus that we will never, ever turn a blind eye towards the crime of an innocent child. we have to defend our kids otherwise we are failing as human beings. and we are failing as legislators. thank you. i know you share this passion and i am so grateful to all of you. thank you para >> thank you, senator boxer. we look forward to working with you on your legislation. we would like to now call our

panel mr. sheldon kennedy, former hockey player, michele collins, vice president of the center for exploited and missing children, and frank from pennsylvania who heads up the support center for the child of the kids. while they are coming to the witness stand i will also like to acknowledge as we get ready to turn to mr. kennedy someone else who was a victim of terrible sexual abuse at the hands of her nanny brought to elbra attention by a colleague and we want to welcome you. we thank you for taking your personal tragedy and turning it into an organization called lawrence kids. we look forward to your advice and counsel on moving this bill. >> we had such enormous outpouring from the people who wanted to testify to come

forward to bring to the national attention the def and breakfast of this horrific problem. we could not accommodate everybody at the table. what we want to company is the legislative table and we look forward to your benefitting from your experience not only what happened to you but your thoughtful work and prevention. >> i would like to turn now -- i'm going to comment on everybody. mr. sheldon kennedy. mr. sheldon kennedy was a professional hockey player. he skated for the united states of america. during his career, he was terribly abused and then he was abused a second time because people were more at protecting the coach and the brand.

mr. kennedy we want to hear not only your story but all of your recommendations about that. then we also want to turn to michele collins, who represents the group established by congress, the national center for missing and exploited children. she comes to us with a tremendous background and experience. she oversees the cyberattack line. i say to my colleagues we already have a congressionally authorized recipient report with child sexual exploitation. she has and then also the child victim identification program. so we need to know again from a policy level. and then a senator casey, did you want to introduce your representative from pennsylvania? >> yes. i will be brief. we can go on for awhile. i've known frank along time and i'm grateful he's with us. frank is the executive director of the support center for child

advocates which is a pro bono program that provides legal counsel to the abused and neglected children. he's also share of the pennsylvania children's trust fund which funds programs to prevent child abuse and neglect. frank has a distinguished record of working to protect kids in pennsylvania. a few people i know, if any, have their record and the commitment frank house and he's a graduate of the university of pennsylvania and the school of law and he has a master's degree in theology and ministry. we are grateful you are here as well. thank you. >> mr. kennedy, we want to welcome you coming and we so appreciate this. ps2 then to proceed with your testimony any thoughts or recommendations were in sight you would like to provide the

united states senate. >> thank you. good morning, senator mikulski, ranking member and members of the subcommittee. thank you for inviting me as a witness today. for many canadians, hockey is everything. it's our passion, our culture, our national pride. like most boys growing up on the prairie i joined of playing in the national hockey league. unfortunately for me, the dream came true. i played for the detroit red wings, the boston, the calgary flames but it's not my dream i'm known for. it's my nightmare is a junior hockey player i suffered years of abuse and harassment at the hands of my coach, gramm james. despite the nature of the abuse, the hurt i experienced and the fact i knew what was being done to me was wrong it took me over ten years to come forward to the authorities. why i didn't say anything. this is a question i asked

myself again and again and again. it's the question i know everyone else was asking, and it's the question that plagues the millions of sexually abused victims around the world. even though i wrote a whole book on the subject, the answer is quite simple colin coke because i didn't think anyone would believe me. in my case, my abuser was in international hockey man of the year. in canada that gave him almost godlike status. sound familiar? the man who preyed on the took advantage of his position as a coach to look for children who were especially vulnerable. single-parent households, families with drinking problems, boys who needed a father figure, etc.. these kids and often their parents, too, looked up to him as a hero. this was someone who could make their dreams come true and they used that trust to hurt them. the imbalance of power and authority creates a deeper problem and it's the one i think

that this subcommittee has to deal with if you truly want to prevent child abuse. in every case of child abuse, certainly in my own, there are people who had a gut feeling something was wrong but they didn't do anything about it. their attitude was i don't want to get involved. it's not my problem. he couldn't possibly be doing that. the authorities will take care of it and that's what pedophiles are counting on. counting on public ignorance or worse yet, there in difference. that's what keeps child abusers and business and that is what we have to address. from my experience a child who has been abused has to tell an average of seven people before the story is taken seriously. seven. that is completely unacceptable. when my story became public in 1997, there were people who refuse to believe it. many were angry that i exposed an ugly side of their beloved

sport. fortunately, hockey canada responded seriously to my situation and made abuse prevention education mandatory for the 70,000 coaches and this is the positive message and want to leave you with this morning. seven years ago i co-founded respect group and in partnership with the canadian red cross internationally recognized experts in the prevention of child abuse. together we want launched the program for sports leaders called respect in sport. it focuses on educating all adult leaders on of use, bullying and harassment prevention including a sound understanding of the legal and moral responsibilities. our belief and respected group is that we may never fully eliminate child abuse but by and powering the 99% of the attention adults working with you if we can greatly reduce it. i'm proud to say that the respected support we've

certified for 150,000 youth leaders that represents a high percentage of coaches. denise sports organizations have mandated the program and the list continues to grow. hockey canada, gymnastics canada, the entire province of manitoba, school boards and some early adopters. the united states including usa, triathlon, in addition organizations like hockey canada and gymnastics canada have implemented their respective sports programs designed specifically for parents. we're also seeking productive initiatives by the canadian government to combat child pretreatment not just tougher legislation and minimum sentences for perpetrators but a federal approach headed by the minister ron lambros to introduce prevention education that spans the multiple ministries that touch the most vulnerable canadian youth. we've learned the social change takes time and has to occur at the grass-roots level and from

the government down. i'm pleased to say that is exactly what's happening in canada and i hope it is what will happen here, too. over the years through my work at respect group, i've learned that educating people 99% of the population is the best defense to prevent abuse. training must be mandatory to ensure full compliance and reduced liability. the education has to be simple and consistent. all forms of abuse lead the same emotional scars some training has to be comprehensive. education is best deliver online to ensure consistency, safety of the learned, convenience and the greatest reach. finally, training must be ongoing. it's not a one time thing. too often society's response to child abuse is to focus on punishing the criminal. the teacher caprice or coaches sent to jail for a long time we feel we've done our job was as citizens or politicians punishing the bad guy makes us

feel good but it doesn't fully solve the problem. senators coming in to get all adults working with youth and parents the tools to recognize and respond to abuse when it first arises. i am under no illusion such an approach will eliminate child abuse but i do know mandatory education creates a platform with and all organizations, the conversation to happen. empowered by standards and you will be taking an important first step for breaking the silence on child abuse thank you and i would be happy to take any questions. ms. collins, to get the perspective for the missing and exploited children. >> madame chairwoman and members of the committee i welcome the opportunity to appear before you talk about the important issue of child sexual abuse. senator mikulski, the first and experience working in these types of cases gives you an valuable insight and we appreciate your leadership on these issues. with your permission i will urge my testimony in the interest of

time. as you know, the national center for missing and exploited children is a not-for-profit corporation organized by congress and working in partnership with the purpose of justice we are a private public partnerships and for 27 years we'll serve as the national resource center and clearing house on missing and exploited children. one of our programs is the cyber to point of a national clearing house for crimes against children on the internet and operated a partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. we've received reports in eight categories of crimes against children including possession, manufacturing and distribution of child pornography child sexual molestation. the reports are made by the public as well as by electronic service providers required by law to report a parent or child pornography to law enforcement by the cyberattack line. reviewed by analysts and then referred to the appropriate agency to read as we all know recent events highlighted the problem of child sexual abuse

but what are the facts? we've come a long way since 1974 when congress passed the act states made significant progress in the reporting investigation and treatment of the cases. all 50 states have laws requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse. lester the 506 credit child advocacy centers in the united states served more than 270,000 abused children but despite the progress the problem persists. according to the department of health and human services in 2009 state child protective agencies reported 543,000 substantiated incidence of neglect, 123 goals and substantiated incidents of physical abuse and 66,000 substantiated incidence of child sexual abuse. however the data comes from the state child protective agencies and is generally limited to the abuse committed by caretakers. the dod data indicates there are more incidents of child sexual

abuse than assault each year. a doj study estimated to wonder 85,400 children were victims of a sexual assault in that year. what are we learning about child sexual abuse? we don't hear about it from the child victim. in fact they found only one-third of these incidents were reported to the law enforcement. we hear about abuse from those were designated as mandatory reporters under the state law and other concerned adults to report allegations of abuse. the mandatory reporters are specified by professionals in most states including health care professionals call law enforcement officers, educators and child care providers. in addition, 18 states require all adults to report abuse. we also learn what child sexual abuse for the investigation for child pornography on the internet. law enforcement investigation for crimes against children in the online world often lead to the discovery victims and the offline world. individuals who possess and distribute child pornography may be sexually abusing a child or

they may be communicating in treating images of somebody else who is sexually abusing a child and because very few child victims tell anyone about their abuse, it's only through the great work of the federal, state and local law enforcement of these abusers are caught and the children get the help they desperately need. who are abusing these children? the majority of child victims are victimized by somebody that they know and somebody they should be able to trust. according to the survey, 81% of child sexual assaults were committed when somebody with legitimate access to the child to read of the child pornography victims' identified by law enforcement, 70% or abused by a parent or guardian, relatives, neighbors, family friend, baby sitter, coach or guardian park near. the good news is regardless of the abuses reported many of the victims today are getting the help they need. however, there is room for improvement in the system. mandatory reporters should also be required to report sexual abuse directly to law

enforcement and although they may be required to report to their supervisors within an organization, child sexual abuse is a crime in all states and will enforcement must be involved at the outset. once the report is made, law enforcement will involve the appropriate child protection authority. another recommendation is to require training of mandatory reporters and how to better recognize the sexual abuse said they will be better equipped to respond to the warning signs. the most important change we can make is to encourage all adults to speak up for the victims of sexual abuse. we should teach people what to look for and to build momentum for combating sexual abuse. i recognize people are afraid of getting involved or of making a mistake and allocation based on suspicion that we are the only ones who can act on the suspicions and help stop the abuse. i'm confident we can work together to better protect children. thank you. >> thank you, ms. collins.

mr. servone. >> thank you chairwoman mikulski and senator casey and other members of the committee for this opportunity to testify today and thank you, senator casey, in particular for calling for this hearing, for continued leadership in this area. we know that you are a great friend for children and health care in early education and health care and all the ways we know we can turn to you. thank you very much. the support center for child advocates is still a volunteer lawyer program for abused and neglected children. we are a big shot for kids and represent about 850 children each year in court in various times of the victimization cases. i insisted today in this presentation by the work of kathleen and our colleagues in the protect our children committee which has spent the statewide coalition about tickets and physicians and service providers. i'd like to put some of the events of the recent days and

weeks into context reflecting the reality that many more children are physically and sexually abused but garner no attention from the policy makers or from the people who should be caring for them. sadly, it seems, this is not just a penn state or syracuse, but sadly, we need the scandals. we've needed even these bad actors to bring this discussion forward. we welcome to speak up to protect every abused child act introduced by senator casey. the legislation helps shift child protection strategies from where the children are required to protect themselves. from abuse and victimization and highlights and transfers to adults the responsibility to step up for kids and for the mandated reporters it calls for better knowledge and dador informed policies. it represents a solid starting point to a critical discussion. we know that families sometimes

keep secrets. last week in our office we opened to cases representing child victims and the prosecution of their alleged abusers. it's a very important aspect of the work to be in the criminal courts on behalf of the child victims. one was an 11-year-old girl sexually as abused by her father for years, and her mother was not be leaving her. she knew, apparently knew, but failed to believe her. the other come a boy of ten and used by his mother's boyfriend and now the mother is failing to bring the child to court for interviews and for prosecution of the abuser to read for these cases, like the more notable ones we're hearing about, we should ask where were the adults in the lives of for all of the years that they were carrying this out secrets? this is what is difficult that for many left wondering what was missing in their lives and wholesome adults whom they might have trusted, knowledgeable adults who might have noticed the warning signs.

while it's hard to know the extent of the reporting we know that many cases come forward with the long history of secrecy and nondisclosure. the days were years that passed suggest someone new and should have known and there is another theme in that encase state law that shouldn't go unnoticed the children were protected because a couple of mom's listened to that and believe their children and now they are standing with them. it would be a gut wrenching court process there could be no better child protection tools than ensuring every child is connected to the adults who've pledged to nurture and listen to them and speak up for the child. witold victims and the abuse come forward? violations of trust are the hardest to endure. the abusers are trusted parents and and or an uncle or pastore parent or coach and the violation of the trust are tremendously confusing to read the defenses are compromised. in the beginning with a blooming

behavior's and in the end by threats of embarrassment at harped. in our work we hear all the time that the child or adult sought reluctance to disclose and then suffered the pain of keeping the secret. why don't people intervene? this is the question we are all asking gaining all this attention but again the story, the understanding of it belongs to us. why are we adults reluctant to report? undoubtably we've all experienced the feelings of indifference of isolation about the opportunity. we say things like it's not my job. someone else will respond. or if i stand here it will be worse for the child, to which i say how can it get worse? we fool ourselves if we think stopping a crime is not the west solution. i can tell you i've heard from the kids, they want the abuse to stop. feelings of loyalty to the institution did in the way. aversion to scandal, the survival of the institution is what becomes parallel.

people respond to cultures of power in the families and small towns and big institutions. there's often a heavy price to pay for speaking out. we must help the victims to reporters coming. everyone has a statute literally taught at my whole career. people are confused of their duty to report. a remarkably large number of mandated reporters i'm betting a lot of people in this room, people who come into contact with children and their work have never been trained on the duty to report or would sell wall is in their state. the speegap legislation would require states to mandate the reporting of the known or suspected incidents. the standard articulates the duty that we should all know and feel. we know that the mechanics of the mechanism have to be worked out. what we have is a laboratory because the states are doing it

both ways and we should be studying those. a word about capacity, increasing the numbers of reports of suspected abuse without increasing the resources of the system's capacity to respond may be noble but may be dangerous to kids who are meeting the system's attention. kids get removed an abundance of caution. that's what we do. we pull them out of the fire or so we think. but the removal of the foster care is not always beneficial or even the mind. a child can be traumatized. school can be interrupted. the investigation can get it wrong. the findings of becoming a child abuser have all sorts of implications for the future employment of that child's parent. for these reasons we have to get it right. and need we remember that our jails are filled with adults. we are not doing so well at this year it finally come a word about intervention. not every family needs a hammer. some of them need a velvet

glove. one of the hard tasks of working as the distinguished cases that need the hammer from those that need the helping hand. we call this differential response. but differentials response takes capacity, science common knowledge about the differences. and this is a hard game. we need knowledge and research to make this happen. finally, senator pcs's legislation opens a door of understanding and invites serious discussion of who should be considered a perpetrator of child abuse. i've had dozens of conversations in recent weeks with knowledgeable professionals about which if any of the penn state officials were mandated reporters. this ought to be clear to everyone. it certainly should be clear to the prosecutors and other professionals and even they are. we are a curious moment. the attention of the moment to the commission is upon child protection as it should be. it seems attractive to be as protected as kids as children as

we possibly can, yet it would be prudent to be aware of unintended consequences. we can be healthier community tomorrow with the victims of yesterday and today to get help. sadly some of today's victims will become of users and themselves to read not to mention drinkers come angry family members come espouses you cannot trust. they are harmed eating away their ability to be healthy and safe. we must get the message out to victims who have not yet disclosed. if you've been abused, tell someone. get help. the healing will come. we can change the stories of these lives. let's do it right. thank you. >> we are going to move on now to the questions. i'm going to take my time at the end of the panel. i wanted to acknowledge the presence of the two republican colleagues, senator lamar alexander.

do you have to go? >> i really want to acknowledge the role of senator alexander and isaacson. senator alexander is a valuable member of this community and the committee as a former governor in tennessee, the president of the university. he has firsthand knowledge in terms of how did you run states and universities to prevent this kind of stuff? so i want to thank him and senator isaacson as a longstanding advocacy in this area and has worked with senator boxer and their aggressive wait a step forward when we knew that the peace corps volunteers had been accused and then were abused by the peace corps for the failure to take action to protect them. sounds familiar. so you've got a good panel here

and one of the best is senator let me turn to you for your question and then senator kc-10 satchel blumenthal and then i will wrapup. >> thank you, chairman. very quickly, and i'm going to repeat something i heard you say but i want to make sure that i'm right. if greater had laws had been in place, that wouldn't necessarily solve your problem, what it? >> not necessarily. greater law. i look at my situation, and i look at all of the adults, all of the trusted adults that we're in the system and i look at the victims of this and not only are they being victimized by the perpetrator but they are being victimized by the institution, by the adults that are around them, the trusted adults because they again are reminded that it must be their fault if none of these adults are standing up for them. so what we have learned is that

we need to give our adults the confidence and the courage through education to recognize and respond to these issues. >> i think all of you touched on education to some degree you were very specific. my question is pretty simple. we have an opportunity as we begin to shape legislation that we cast a wide net where we try to cover potentially everybody or we cast a narrow niche and meet the target to individuals that have the contact with kids where an intense education program, public acknowledgment of what we are doing might have an impact. if you recommended to this committee whether it be to initially start or a narrow network, what would it be? >> welcome you don't have to guess. 25 states are doing the wide net

and we should be finding out from them how they are doing. we ought to compare the two types of approaches. we are all about this very confusing question it seems attractive to cast a wide net. we know that there is a higher degree of reliability from the reports that come from professionals involved in the work. so there is something attractive about both approaches. we are all wondering what is the right approach. clearly all of us ought to feel the duty to protect our kids. we all ought to be informed about how to respond. it's quite unclear to me whether the approach is the professionals should report or every person should have this legal duty with some penalty. and i think it is a mistake to jump in to try to answer that without asking of the data which is the right approach which is

working today. >> let me just say to that, i was specifically talking about where we focus the educational component because i think all three of you said education is absolutely crucial. i said in my opening statement on not sure if there is a single piece of legislation that is a magic bullet that solves this problem, but education over a generation starts to affect change and clearly statistically to you know any individuals that abuse children were in fact it used as children themselves, and so, it is a generational attempt. >> now we do not have a federal lease sponsored mandatory reporting from work. we don't have mandatory training for those of us who are in the business of caring for kids. so, where do we approach it from a training perspective for educational perspective that approach seems to be very compelling. we need to inoculate the entire community.

in the business we call this primary prevention. bus cards and the like. to inoculate the entire community but there's clearly a front line of folks we want to be particularly well-trained and well versed on the subject. >> ms. collins, you were very emphatic in the recommendations that child sexual reports always the first to law enforcement. have there been instances or issues where reports have been made first in places like child protective services? and then bought immediately referred to the appropriate places? >> across the state the of different reports to the institutional report to the law enforcement. when the discussion as revolving a sweeping all adults are mandated to reporters and then when you were dealing of really in approaching the various types

of abuse whether it be neglect, maltreatment, of physical abuse, emotional or sexual abuse the sexual abuse component has a crime in every single state that law enforcement would be able to respond and involve the appropriate charnel protection agency's but we were trying to narrow it down to one that would go to law enforcement. >> great. i thank the chair. >> thank you. i wanted to start with mr. mr. servone and some of this is in your testimony already but kind of a basic question of if you had the opportunity to enact a federal law today that did three things, what are the most important elements of the of the legislation in terms of what we can do to prevent this from happening again?

>> as i mentioned, i believe that the mandatory training, federally sponsored mandatory training for reporters of abuse for those of us who are considered the man did reporters is essential that we don't have the federal framework and many states quite literally tens of thousands who come into contact are not aware of their obligation and that we ought to make that clear as you know we've been working on the creation of the children's ombudsman's in pennsylvania that each state wants to have a mechanism whereby the person who feels like the system is not responding, the caregiver, the professional might have an independent place to go so that in the sense of bureaucracy does not victimize them as senator mikulski mentioned earlier. there are services in the system

that want to be expanded, the victim's act collects money that provides victims' services and, chris caps those dollars, releases those dollars. they've released to the streets to provide services and so-called forensic interviewing services you will hear later about and the expertise needed to do the investigations. the services are almost nonexistent for the physical abuse cases in many communities. we would like to see that change. let's do it right as i said. >> and you made the point in your testimony -- i will try to get to it in a minute. in a very strong point of the urgency of doing the study now. is that -- >> all over the land i can tell you if had conversations with legislators and their staff and dozens of people in the general assembly in pennsylvania,

legislators want to act. you want to respond yet it would be in a sense on why is and imprudent to proceed without information. this is an area we have knowledge but we are not tapping it. yesterday the national child abuse statistics cannot and suggested it's down thankfully. what we know about that, what is the telling of the duty to report? would appear in our reporting statutes are working and we are getting out some of this and i believe our treatment is working. abused kids grow up to be abusers themselves sadly for many of them but if they get help they turn that around. it appears treatment is working. we ought not turn away from that approach but we don't need to do it blindly. we can study this work now. >> we will be sending a letter to the department of health and human services to conduct that kind of analysis, states that

have the mandatory reporting for all adults to give to further inform us about that, so we can talk more with members of the committee about that. finally, i wanted to ask if we have a brief second to get to questions for the other witnesses but i did want to ask as well about this question of training and what's the best model for that in terms of not just the type of training that the frequency or the degree to which even folks that have some expertise are trained but half a more so if they are not people that have personal experience or expertise. can you outline what would be the model training program but also the regimen that under which it operates.

>> the first is we should rely on the construct we have for the licensor certification. we don't have to create a regulatory structure for every person in the world. there are tens of thousands of professionals who are required to engage in trading to keep their license. if we recognize that part of their profession is to engage kids it seems a small step to say that any requirement of your license is that you learned your responsibility to care for kids to come before you so we should build it into the certification programs. second, the programs don't have to be extensive. fothen providing this kind of transfer years and we daniel level of knowledge and job retention with several hours of programming. mr. kanaby suggests we might use on-line programming. obviously this is the way the world is going to make it more

expensive the available and it makes sense we use distance learning devices where we can. lastly, i know we are aware of and mcconnell program that focuses on the experiential slide that puts the story in the context of the experience of these professionals, so you have a child, she's in your classroom and she's acting out in this particular way. what might you ask of the situation and to engage the professional in the kind of dialogue that teaches them to be analytical on their own. >> thanks very much. >> i would turn to senator frank in who worked very hard on this issue. before the congressman i want to acknowledge you've been here all morning. the congressman of california is a longstanding and as of advocate for children. we know you have a parallel bill in the house and want to note

the fact you've been here to listen to the testimony was going to acknowledge you but i know you have to get to a vote. we welcome your presence today working across a few so think you for your advocacy and attendance today. >> senator blumenthal, excuse me, senator franken. >> thank you. the title of this hearing is breaking a silence on child abuse protection intervention and deterrence and i know we are talking about this legislation on prevention and intervention on, but you mentioned a couple times when that a number of the abusers were were victims

themselves so i think the treatment is obviously -- and you mentioned treatment yourself a number of times -- there's one thing we need to add to this. what percentage of abusers were abused themselves? we have an idea of that? anybody? >> we can get that kind of information for you. >> but i think that we really have to focus on the treatment of these children who are abused. that is vitally important because whether they become abusers or not, this is something that will stick with them for the rest of their lives unless they get treated and they can go other places as you mentioned. they can turn to drugs or

alcohol or they can become unhappy people who are not good parents etc.. >> the business is using the phrase whole child representation that however the child comes to you that you recognize this is a whole package of a human being and we have to think holistically about what he or she needs so the child that comes in is going to testify, the case isn't over that way. really in the way it just began because after she's done if the abuse occurred and the abuser is convicted now she gets on with her life and part of getting on with her life is to get that healing. sometimes it's hard for her to shield essentially before the trial. >> absolutely. >> mr. kevin become a talk about 150,000 liters being trained. there's a lot of people around this country who want to serve

you for and become mentors and volunteers but when you have 150,000 of them coming you've seen in these high-profile cases that a number of the people who are victimizing these children are children that have injected themselves into the rules of the mentors etc come and as a result in the past we have to protect acted the was authorized in 2003 as a pilot program for non-profit youth organizations to obtain fbi background checks volunteers and employees, and i support that program. we've renewed every year usually by unanimous consent. this year it's been different. the program was allowed to

expire. do you agree that background checks are a good investment? >> shortly after the act was passed our office implemented a protocol for all of our volunteer attorneys. all of the big volunteer programs and mentor programs like big brothers and big sisters and others are using it is absolutely a good investment. it's another of those thresholds we should take it vantage of. we are collecting this information. we have it out there. we should connect the dots. >> this year unfortunately was the first year that this hasn't been reauthorize and i'm -- don't you think we should do everything we can to equate the youth serving the organizations with fist will? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> i would underscore that myself and this is something i think we need to get done. i know that senator schumer has proposed a bill to make sure that becomes permanent.

and i -- this is something i'm not sure has gotten a much attention as it should, but of this is because in the past few use this service, you know that there's like a 6% to count of people who have background checks to have something where you say we can have this person be a mentor or a youth adviser, and unless these organizations, these nonprofit organizations are able to reduce the service, we may not be able to have the mentors. we may not be able to protect the kids at the same time. >> i think sometimes the background checks give the organization a false sense of security and we rely too much on

them. i do believe that we need to reach all the members whether they be volunteer based on off and because they may be the best big brother and big sister we have, we are in a position of power and have all of our kids coming to us and disclosing what might have happened to us because we are not in that position. swain to educate ourselves if we have a disclosure we need to know how to handle that. i think they go hand in hand not only the background checks but that educating in power warning message has to happen and this has to happen to every person that works with our youth. >> you would agree these background checks are necessary but not sufficient, but they are necessary. ceramica absolutely. >> thank you. >> before i go to senator blumenthal, senator frank and, was the will you just cited is

that just not reauthorize? >> this is the first year it wasn't reauthorize. usually on a renewed every year and by unanimous consent. >> again, if it isn't sun said it still exists. this is a real problem i've had people who run the mentoring programs say that this has become a problem because they don't have the funding to do the background checks and they've had it every year. it's not that much. it's like $20 per -- >> but it would save a lot if you were in a little group. estimate it is absolutely essential, and as i say, usually it is renewed every year by unanimous consent but this year wasn't. i'm quite sure of that. >> let's take a look at it. >> --

>> okay. senator blumenthal? >> cementer blumenthal comes to us also as an attorney general who -- everybody comes to the table not only with their experience and a vote but tour insights are being very welcomed. >> thank you very much, madame chair. and i can't think you enough for having this hearing which is not only timely, but to use senator kay c.'s word, urgent, given the magnitude and the severity of the problem in this country, and i come to it with the perspective of a law enforcer for 20 years in the state of connecticut but familiar with the law enforcement systems and connell law. but i want to particularly thank senator casey to cause he's focused on an area that's critical for law enforcement which is the reporting. you cannot prosecute where you don't know. often as we've heard from this

panel and as we know from experience, enormous courage and fortitude is required for reporting and training and services, but i want to make sure on that law enforcement aspect because the reporting is certainly a lot less meaningful unless there is effective law enforcement, that is punishment or at least response of some kind commensurate with some of the severity and really the morality of the crime and it is a crime in most state. ms. collins, do you think that the law enforcement are adequately supported financially and otherwise to do the job that's required here. >> when we are looking at the numbers, you know, that not all of these are the types being

reported. of law enforcement is basically a swimming and reports regarding sexual child exploitation being related and certainly many of them not. cooperation has been key, and most states by having a law enforcement officers working specifically with child abuse, child -- if they have someone in the region to draw upon law enforcement, medical and the child services to work together given the short resources that were out there trying to do everything they possibly can and bring together a successful prosecution. but law enforcement certainly needs everything they can get. >> so you should really provide more support to the state and local law enforcement in that

regard. >> training and also to these types of crimes. >> and i am struck by the fact that many of these offenses of child abuse really occur across state lines and the difficulty of law enforcement is amplify by the fact a father in virginia may be abusing a child from a mother living in connecticut and the occurrence probably is not a speculative someone. someone met with me literally this morning about such obligations and maybe it's time we have stronger federal criminal law like we adopted in the wake of the kidnapping and killing that applies specifically to kidnapping, crimes across the state lines. maybe it's time that type of the

of child abuse as well. criminalizing it, federal the in some respects to create a greater support for law enforcement. would you agree? >> on a state and local internet, it is to have primary task forces of law enforcement to respond exclusively while i guess not exclusively but primarily to the internet facilitated. with the internet of course being just one subset of the tools that can be used in the exploitation of children but to your point, senator, also can help facilitate individuals across state lines who have similar interest in sexually abusing a child. there has been great cooperation between the federal law enforcement, the fbi, the u.s. postal inspection service to work with the task force's recognizing that in depending upon the type of crime the jurisdiction may be more appropriate the federal than the state level and certainly

there's room for improvement if it exists. >> do you think that the internet and i think i know the answer to the question because as attorney-general i worked on internet child abuse and some were stocking and so forth presents a growing threat to children? >> is certainly does. the more children online the more have cameras on their cell phones, the more individuals going on line broadband are certainly giving greater opportunity to many people within the united states have access to the more people online and the more technology tools developed certainly there are risks along with the opportunity >> i want to thank the panel for the testimony. thank you, madame chair. i hope we will have an opportunity to continue to work together in developing support not only for senator kcci proposal but for other kinds of better protection focusing on

deterrence which is one of the subject here. i am also told that the project act of 2003 was a pilot program and it was non-product free vote this year which resulted in its expiration so it wasn't a sunset as much as being a pilot program and so i think senator frank and's suggestion and your support is very well taken. >> sure, let's work together is the main point to minimize and see if we can't get that out. >> we are both on the judiciary zone. >> thank you. ..

of the number of children who were physically or sexually abused, what percentage of that comes from the stranger danger? but that is an excellent question, and i think the number would be difficult to put your finger on because we do not know how many instances are not being reported. >> tell us what you know. >> i would have to look that up and get that to you later. >> they said 10% but let's get

the delegation. -- of the validation. the other and goes to this issue that we discussed in a very poignant way, why don't children come forward? well, it is fear. they are sometimes tied to the abuser in some way -- a step father. it is not like reporting a crime where you've been mugged or your pocket has been picked. they know it will cause a big disruption. but when a child is able to do that, and perhaps mr. kennedy, you could comment on this as well. the data that i have heard -- and tell me if it is so -- is that a child often tells the 7 to 10 adults before they are taken seriously. do you have it on that?

ms. collins? ms. collins? >> i'm very sorry. in terms of the children who are not disclosing for the reasons you are saying, not believing they're going to be believed. the abused and not have been so settled that the child doesn't know it a point that this is wrong or there was somebody who is going to listen. >> when they ask you how to perpetrate the addendum and then desperation, fear, finite because usually it's not once incident. they are often confused about what happened and hurt and ashamed. but then after repeated behavior, usually from the same predator cover a much used the term predator here. stocking predatory act dvd, then the child gets them together and comes forward and people react in a way that is not helpful to

the child. do we have data on not? >> i do not have data regarding today's children. we do know from the department of justice study that only one third as individuals who indicate they were abused actually reported it. >> mr. kennedy? to your thoughts on not? we are going to go to mandatory reporting. if you say something, say something. if you know something, do something. it's kind of the policy position i would like to take. but i'm trying to get in on the ground reality. >> well, i think we brought that stat in. we can forward that on to your colleagues. i think that the people -- the kids are telling. there's lots of education in the schools about rolling, views, et cetera. we've never been given the tools

to recognize the staff. rau expected to do the right thing. how can you expect adults to understand the abuse is? if we went around her mama down the street to penn state and i see adults that are in a leadership position, can you give the addition coming you get the radiotherapy or do we expect them to report it. so that's why we say that mass education we have to give people the tools so they can report it. these issues kerry fear. if we can eliminate fear and give people confidence to act on a gut feeling will get a lot more of these parents and coaches and leaders reporting and listening to our kids. >> well, mr. kennedy, that takes me to my next question for your recommendations. repeatedly in the face you said, we need the tools. hey, i am for that.

what would those tools via? because consistently, each one of you talked about training and education. two different things, education and training. tell us these tools does she feel so passionate would have a big impact. >> the first time we started trying to do this since we started education and catch the bad guy. get your back up against the law will find out who is a or perpetrator in here. so what we've are we going to youth serving organizations, all volunteers, every adult with her he schools, say the whole national youth football situation and so forth. it's not what you're different a college coach or little league coach, if you have power of the players. >> what are the tools? >> the tools are brought based education on all abuse,

bullying, harassment, education, believing very good person and position of power and give them tools to recognize them and to act on them. when we go into the organization it's mandatory. first and foremost we must create a standard with an organization that if you want to be a part of the organization you need to take this program and so for three database the whole thing and off the individual is taken appropriate peer they really becomes the risk liability to on the backend. so what we are doing is saying that because we are out there creating posters, policies, procedures around all these issues up in all these organizations have not stopped there. our goal is to deliver on the posters. we're a permanent fun, safe. but take care of johnny and jodi. but the reality is if you walked around the schools and teachers could you give me definition in which you need to look out for that all these parents trust you

with coming up with the answer very good. senator, and there's reporting tools, investigative tools, treatment tools. at the profession, as a discipline, we have skills in each of these areas. this community a child serving professionals knows how to do this. we know how to investigate cases. we are not fasting or providing sufficient is. we know how to treat trauma, but across the land would only begin to make and roads and getting treatment to be trauma bays. at the front end we are reporting. we've talked a lot today that he professionals who come in contact with kids need to know about it. they need to know what the pack radios. we need to make those pathways were. we need to get the system's capacity to do it. our hotline and pennsylvania drops 9% of its calls. as a colleague recently set up you are one and one in 10 oppose

and makes a report and your call gets dropped, how do you feel? you feel unprotected. we know how to do this. >> well, my own time is expired and we want to go to panel two. this is a very, very excellent piano. i'm going to send each and every one of you for your experience, your expertise. and now it's you hear a if you want to submit additional recommend nation or fine-tuned and amplify what you yourself said in her testimony, we really will welcome it and we will come not from you. so this panel is excused away are going to move to panel two. thank you so much. we are now going to turn to the assistant commissioner for children and families from minnesota who senator franken will introduce.

that or block, president of the american academy of pediatrics and to reset huizar come executive or of the national children's alliance, an excellent advocacy organization. senator franken, do you want to introduce? >> yes, thank you madam chair. thank you for your leadership and for holding this hearing on this very important issue. it is my pleasure to introduce aaron sullivan sutton, commissioner for children and families at the minnesota department of human services. as an attorney, social worker and instruct tour, ms. sutton has dedicated her career to public service and in her position she is responsible for developing policies and administering programs that promote child safety. she previously served as minnesota's director chose

safety and permanency, where she oversaw adoption, foster care and other children's services. she also serves on the executive committee for the national association of child welfare at illustrators and as a past president of that organization. in all, assistant commissioner sutton has spent nearly 30 years in the child welfare feeling i spent more than 20 years with the minnesota department of hamas services. thank you for your service and for all you do to keep minnesota's children safe. i look forward to hearing your testimony. >> we also want to welcome.or robert block of pediatrics, a respected organization as 60,000 pediatricians committed to improving shareholders whole. in addition to some talented pediatrics, he has an additional

specialty in the child-abuse pediatrician, unique one, board-certified in this unique subspecialty. we thought it would help to get a clinical. and from essentially the doctor either in the er or the doctor in the examining room, sometimes first here's a story we can benefit from their experience, both in prevention and intervention and protection and then also perhaps the one of these treatment things that will come out. we're so glad to have you. and i may want to recognize therese huizar. who is the executive director of the national children's alliance, which is the accrediting body for 700 child

advocacy centers. remember, this is where it gets child-abuse of the comprehensive service from forensic interviews, which is different than a medical interview. but it did give medical evaluation for mental health treatment. the senators and social service and the courts. she comes with a great deal of experience programming or dishonor us and is an international wreck last taxpayer. we really think it's great that you could come here and we look forward to your testimony and we look forward to advice and recommendations as you hear this hearing unfold. work with us so that we can not at the end of the day, not just feel good that we listen, but that we do good with what we've heard. so ms. sutton, one that you start.

wilco two dr. block from the air. >> thank you, members of the committee. i am erin sullivan sutton, commissioner of family children services. i'm here today representing the american public human services association and its affiliate at the national says niche in a public busker administrators as well as state of minnesota. we have learned a lot about preventing child abuse and neglect over the years and what interventions result in positive outcomes for children and their families. with your help we can do even better. i would've spent some time talking about the work we've done in minnesota and the work that we have done to recognize to state child protection systems. we talked about horrific crimes committed against children who come to the attention of child protective services online for a snack, but also to the thousands who are struggling to provide

adequate care for the children that we have recognized the need to have a different response system to help them safely care for the system. our recommendation that all three areas. immigration services, mandatory requirements and chat busker finance reform. the conditions that led to the development of the regional capital legislation in 1974 had changed significantly in the intervening years. 40 years ago the reality of parents or other children were underrecognized by public insistence of interventions were not prepared to respond. since then three or work in the work of state and local communities, there've been sustained efforts to educate the public and develop a child protection infrastructure to respond quickly to report of child abuse and neglect. one of the issues that we must address is the capacity of states to respond to the reports coming in a way that works for children and their families.

although captain addresses treatment of children, doctors limited to support to fully carry out our requirements and does not adequately account for expenditures to each requirement. our basic state grant receives $445,000 to help us develop an infrastructure for child protection. we very much appreciate that. however, support to recognize or state uses approximately $20 million simply to conduct assessments and reports of ill-treatment. in addition to assessments, it's absolutely imperative that we have the capacity to provide other services to children and parents, keeping children safe and well cared for. because of the total distribution of funds, public health childbirth regencies often have federal funding sources, state funding of local resources to provide the care and summit of a patchwork manner. 90% of all federal funds are used in child welfare for foster care or adoption assistance and

the remaining 10% have prevention programs. the imbalance in offending structure indicates the need for a stronger federal role in providing adequate resources for preventing and teaching child-abuse neglect. in minnesota and the past decade we have learned that by investing resources earlier and more flexible ways to meet individual needs of families, were able to keep children safe or sooner, reduce mistreatment and the need for out of home care. over the past decade, minnesota has made changes in how we address child maltreatment. the majority of our reports in minnesota are driven by poverty come mostly child treatment involving child neglect. we have learned that the situations are more responsive to services that help families address the needs and provide constant education and connections to community support rather than adversarial approaches to families. we need aggressive law

enforcement interventions in situations of child endangerment and horrific crimes against children. however, we also know when he prevention and intervention efforts in minnesota to focus on engagement of families focused on keeping children safely with their families whenever possible. minnesota has been a leader in the development of differential response. we retain a forensic investigation for reports alleging substantial child endangerment, but on minnesota more than 70% of our child reports receive an alternative families and this sets aside investigative activity and focuses on ensuring child safety by engaging the family and the services and resources they need to keep the children safe. they're structured assessments of safety rest and is connected with families and partnerships in those assessments form the basis of service delivery

planning. a random clinical trial in minnesota follett outcomes for a period of five years from 2,002,005. using this approach were able to demonstrate children or made safer by quickly engaging parents and constructive conversations involving child safety that results in lower child maltreatment reporting rates and decreased need for out of home placement, which is one outcome we did not expect to see. we saw the families and child welfare workers identify this approach is creating cooperation and greater satisfaction and we also learn that this approach to family assessment in a series of cases as much or costly in the long run. minnesota has used that experience to employ further strengthening family approaches in the subsequent years. from 2006 until 2010, introducing a number of programs we have seen a 10% reduction in

child maltreatment reports in minnesota facility 24% reduction in the number of children reporting out of home places. in those communities where we have both early intervention services as well as the family assessment services, we have seen it after reduction in the need for reports coming in the first instance. to assure greater well-being for children, federal and state law should invest in a variety of prevention and early intervention activities to support stable families. early intervention programs by child protection agencies have proven to be very effective. for example, minnesota parent support pilot programs in the practice of engaging families and providers for services to parents needing support before there is a need for child protection investigation. limits are identified as having at risk reporting to the agency and on that given day are not yet meeting criteria of maltreatment. if we intervened, they avail themselves of services and again we've made a difference in being

able to prevent maltreatment from occurring. i recommendation and improvements to capping should be lined with reform efforts in both federal state by using holistic approach that cuts across historical barriers such as departments, congressional committees or jurisdictions to provide an effect is, efficient service array that focuses on positive outcomes as well as accountability. and mentioned earlier the need for finance reform in the imbalance of federal funding for state to provide child welfare services. the recommendations on how to protect, preventing intervened moving forward. it is critical that congress and states work together to keep kids safe or sooner, particularly when we know who mayonnaise avarice kids are. in order to do that is the same

flexibility to use federal funds in a manner that had needs of families coming to her attention. financing should promote flexibility while maintaining an appropriate framework for accountability. we need to be accountable for the work we are doing. because nocturne has many causes stomach internet services needs to include a broader range of community-based emergency programs and support for families that provide treatment for children and promote the general well-being of children who come to our attention. importantly, we need to prevent the incidence of maltreatment as well as maltreatment and improve the conditions that lead to families being involved in the child welfare system. so we encourage you as you look at changes to also look at federal finance reform, particularly how federal 40 funds are used and are very limited and based on eligibility standards for parents from 1996. and also would encourage you to

maintain or increase current levels. nowhere does not exempt from the sequestration under the budget. i'm also work to pressure congress to reduce funding. it is of paramount concern however that this committee to all that you can do to help ensure that the sequestration occurs that programs are not reduced to a level where we can no longer adequately serve the most vulnerable children are your children at risk deserve better than to be placed in harms way for reduction of funding in these very limited resources are critical to our capacity to serve families. thank you. >> thank you free much for that really content rich testimony. we will go forward with our questions. dr. block the >> thank you, chairperson kolsky and children and families for inviting me to speak today on behalf of myself and the over 60,000 members of the american

academy of pediatrics. the abridgment comments and hope you find value in my written testimony. one important point, not all children will become adult. but it is certainly true that each adult was once a child. experiences and opportunities afforded to each of us in our early years of a long-term impact on our health and development and may create a substantial imprint on the adults that would one day become. in order to get the health and well-being of her entire society, we must not be children and their welfare as isolated individuals were assigned, but instead recognize children's physical and mental health must be addressed at the beginning of hope across the entire lake course. for this reason, i became interested in child maltreatment during residency training 40 years ago. throughout my experience

evaluating child abuse cases and testifying in court on behalf of abused children, the question i am most frequently asked is, how can you do this work? the answer is, how can you not? we now recognize the child abuse and neglect not only damage an individual short-term health, but also alter a child's neurophysiology and long-term well-being. children who have suffered abuse or neglect may develop a variety of behavior and psychological issues, including combat disorders, decreased functioning and community impairments and emotional instability and posttraumatic stress disorder and others. the landmark adverse childhood experiences or studies. also demonstrated between childhood trauma and the presence of adult diseases, including heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and liver disease as well as unintended day, transmitted diseases and

alcoholism. based on the study, childhood trauma may be the leading cause of poor health among adult in the united states. pediatricians are an excellent position to detect and prevent abuse because of their unique relationship with families and experience in child development. pediatricians are trained to identify injuries and behavioral changes resulting from abuse or neglect and to understand the physician's role in treating or reporting abuse. however, there were inconsistencies with what is considered suspicious and sometimes limited understanding of the child abuse reporting process, even within the medical community. as president of the american academy of pediatrics, i can assure you provided the necessary specialized education and training to report abuse in a cloud in serve these children appropriately is embraced at the very highest levels of leadership within our organization.

the academy respectfully submits the following recommendations. every one half to report maltreatment to proper authorities could support as you've heard and training is crucial and every adult has his or her responsibility to report and to protect children who may be children of abuse. one common reason mandatory reporters do not report suspected abuse is fear of legal retribution. it was police captain of reauthorization did require secretary of health and human services to recommend potential changes needed to address this issue in the academy looks forward to that report. health care financing must provide payment to professions for the more complex and lengthy visit that are typical and very, very necessary for children who have been abused. in addition, child welfare workers and mental health confessionals are crucial to identifying treaty and

preventing child abuse. it would be important for congress to take steps to support these professions and training programs. we have a new child-abuse pediatrics subspecialty, which has the potential to expand the number of positions with expertise in this important field. more financial support is necessary to ensure every physician with interest and passion to pursue child-abuse pediatrics is able to do so. the aap has proposed the health child-abuse research education and services or health care network that serve as regional consortium centers of excellence to bring the medical profession into full partnership in the prevention and diagnosis, treatment and research about child abuse and neglect. funding and support for this network is needed. the federal government can create better coordination

across agencies and increase funding for home visitation another unfunded -- underfunded programs. at the state level, child-abuse definitions reporting requirements and exemptions differ really good the report of suspected or substantiated abuse in one state may not follow a child if he or she moves to another state, allowing neglect of children to slip through the cracks. more attention must be paid to interstate reporting and investigation. so as a pediatrician, a child-abuse specialists and father and grandfather, i will remind the committee that early experiences matter for the rest of our lives. every one of the sinister and has an application to insure every child in america has the opportunity to live free from fear from harm so that he or she will grow into a protective, happy adult. it's an honor to provide testimony on behalf of myself

and i look forward to your questions. >> ms. huizar. >> thank you. thank you for what in this important subset appear in a on the problem of child abuse. national children's alliance and the national association of credit and body for 750 children at b.c. centers. those centers serve more than 267,000 abuse children i shared. children's advocacy centers courtney to multidisciplinary team approach to the investigation, prosecution and treatment of childhood abuse. in so doing were close with law enforcement and prosecutors and protective services, victim advocates, medical and mental-health professionals. colleagues have spoken on the need for improved mechanism can i join them in their car before training for mandated reporters. recent events have asked why

individuals to support child abuse. and we know what 95% of americans express deep concern about abuse, only one third contacted the authorities when actually confronted with the view. adults do not report because they don't know the kinds of abuse and they worry what will happen when they do and because they don't know how to report. all these problems can be addressed by widespread training and public awareness campaign to 240 million americans adults who should be reporting abuse if they suspect it. and that is something uniquely the federal government's role to do, given the scale of that task. but we can't forget that perhaps the most important and concerning underreporting occurs among the most vulnerable. that is abuse children themselves. research tell us that only one third of adults who say they were abused as children ever

told anyone. many children are reluctant to report the infinite thought must take the approach and children must be trained and body safety information and abuse prevention. children's advocacy center said that the forefront forefront of that word, training nearly 400,000 schoolchildren last year. but this work must be extended and expanded to america's 17 million children. emma barriers report abuse are finally receiving well wanted attention, reducing these alone will not save children. improve child-abuse reporting must be paired with equally strong intervention in order for a abuse children to receive the hope in that they so desperately need. children's fantasy centers play a key role in that response. this model of comprehensive care has been proven to prove investigation while ensuring

that abuse children receive needed medical in all the while saving on average $1000 per child abuse case. sadly, this effective response is not available to all of america's children. there are still more than 1000 copies for the u.s. and abuse children have no access to the services. many of those in counties represented by states that serve on this committee. we call in congress to finish good work established a creation of the victims of child abuse that in 1990 by expanding services to america's children. unless someone thinks on primus to report in an intervention of child abuse are complicated or difficult to achieve in these tight budget times, it's important to be reminded that many are at the door at no cost. improved data collection about the scope of the problem, modify and confidentiality laws to encourage information sharing

for those that investigate and treat child-abuse and the adoption of model protocols for civil and criminal case court nation take more political will and funds to achieve. finally, child abuse investigations erick a way to services for vick jones. research tells us that the best long-term predictor of recovery views as a political outcome of the case. it is whether the child refused treatment and support. on treatment child abuse has terrible lifelong effects and the maladies that are result of the trauma of abuse. fortunately over the past decade and through the work of the national child germanic stress network, we now know a great deal about successfully treating trauma in children. evidence supported, focus treatment is remarkably affect that reducing trauma and child victims of helping them to begin to heal the return of who's a

victim of abuse deserves access to it. children's abuse depend on proven treatments for recovery treatment in society having failed to protect children from abuse in the first place can certainly work to restore them to wholeness after the fact. if we invest in the treatment outcome that will save ourselves from having to pay for the cost of their compromise physical and emotional health later. it is our collective responsibility to protect children from abuse. when that fails to report it and ensure that those receive services they need to heal and lead productive lives. the health and well-being of our great nation's children depend upon it and they certainly depend upon you, senators, as well. thank you. >> ms. huizar, let me follow up if they can to devise an effect

to prevention and intervention strategies and to know how best to address resources. it is important that we know the full scope of the problem of abuse in children. what is needed to improve the current data collection and reporting across child protective services and law enforcement to claim that data we need to make the right decisions? >> i'm so glad you asked that, senator byrd come in because this at the heart of understanding the abuse. currently they did it turn into a state child because intense data and that does not include information from law enforcement. in many states, line force and ideally individuals that investigate third-party abuse. that is abuse that occurs by individuals outside the family and of itself.

collect the data so that we have a fuller, richer understanding of the problem. >> thank you for that. ms. sutton, on the ground and working with kids who have been abused, can you talk more about the confidentiality restriction

that capped a and hip both children to not to get the best of for the most informed assistance that they need? or do we have restrictions that don't allow the information sharing we need? >> the confidentiality statutes are intended to protect identity people abused or neglected although there is provision that allows states to authorize disclosure to other entities that they need the information in order to do this work with children. i'm not sure how many states have gone to far surpass that. we also see issues with respect to hit the ensuring information back and forth between child protective service agencies, health care agencies, company l.

achieve and for the bastion for the cares of difficulty getting information between education systems and child protection and other service providers that we absolutely need to be talking together could sleep kit and it's our responsibility to make sure they have good education outcomes as well. >> thank you. i want to thank the chairman for designing the year and the way she did when we talked about detection of abuses and now treatments necessary and i hope everybody heard exactly what was said. we've got some stovepipes between law enforcement and child protective services and stovepipes within -- that limit our ability to share the vital medical information with those making decisions about intervention. i would suggest all of those

contribute to maybe not the best decisions about prevention. so i hope the chair will work with me. i know she will issue a with other members to figure out where we can modify those possibly an out wait for all the states to figure out how they can wait for those current requirements. i think the chair. >> excellent comments. senator casey. >> thank you, madam chair. dr., i'd like to ask a couple questions. one relates directly to your testimony. the first with regard to education and training. he made that a central part of your written testimony associate presentation. you also talk about the chronic underfunding of the child abuse and prevention and treatment

act. so-called captcha. i'm looking at pages 18 and 19 of your written testimony about prevention. you go into some link providing examples of strategies to implement a stronger prevention program. can you walk through some of those? >> yeah, senator, thank you. prevention is still an area that we are learning about as we go. sometimes by trial and error. it is difficult to collect evidence across broad populations to demonstrate a certain program works. i think in the area of child abuse which has been the focus of the hearing, we are trying to do two things. by week, everyone involved. but we are trying to educate children about the privacy of their minds and bodies, but more

importantly since relying on them to protect themselves is not the way to go, we are trying to teach adults in two ways. number one, and make them aware this problem exists. one of our big problems is nobody must talk about child abuse or admit the society allows this to happen at the rate it's happening. so we have it continue holding hearings to emphasize the fact that leaders recognize this is an issue not only for children, but as i mentioned for the adult they will become later on. we need to train adults to recognize that might be abuse and that requires some pretty careful education because we also need them to understand that is not abuse. as an oil, our member now at the end of every day my third grade teacher, ms. casino gave each of us a hug as for the classroom. that would be held and questioned today and yet her heart was in no way predatory or abusive. it was a signal and bodily touch do we know is part of communicating between adults and

other adults as well as adults and children. so we need to define things that we don't mend up making mandatory porters report rings that are not abuse. how do we reach people to educate them about that is a major question. there are programs around the country aimed at anyone who will come to some sessions to understand how this adults can protect children by some common sense things. for example, if you are the last teacher to leave the school of the afternoon after teacher conferences or a meeting and there is -- i don't want to pick on one person, so a janitor or coach or another teacher who is still in the building and there's a little girl sitting on the steps waiting for a late parrot to pick her up, it's a good idea not to leave the building and perhaps sit down next to her or help her call for assistance. that's assuming you're suspecting everyone around you is abusive. it just means that it's a good idea to be alert to possible situations. that's a long-winded answer, but

would attack about prevention efforts with it for some things that were. and physical abuse one of our biggest problems is abusive head trauma and shaken baby syndrome and we know today. it the programs that if we can educate parents to the normalcy of their and they're crying to the fact that they are not bad parents if their infant doesn't quiet when asked them to, that we can protect those babies from people losing their temper and inflicting harm on children. so that might give a couple examples. >> finally, with regard to the training you focus in particular on the mandated reporters. can you talk a little bit about that in the best approach their? one of the problems we have is not just the debate about who is a mandated reporter and whether that should be broadened. i think it should. but even mandated reporters not

having enough training and experience. we ascribe experience and knowledge to expertise to not have the proper training. >> i come from the state of oklahoma that does have a mandatory reporting for everyone phrase at the end result which mentions teachers, health professionals and others is mandatory porters and every other citizen. i think that's a good idea. on the other hand, it is important for us to acknowledge even among my fellow physicians we don't always report abuse the way it should be reported. some of the reasons for that are unique to us particularly in medical liability issues and now that is expanded into civil rights litigation. we got funny protection for reporters not only for making a report, the perhaps participating in the process later on process later on if the case goes on to prosecution or some other adjudication. we need to as i mentioned people understand what is child abuse? what does it look like?

what does it sound like? what you do when you suspect it is happening? how could we work to her various disciplines to create interdisciplinary approach? when i talk to physicians, one of the leading reasons that they have a suspicious case, they are not quick to report because they have concerns about the system. what will happen in their particular locale with children's protective services? availability in working the case. bubble happened with prosecution? and what will happen to them in terms of their time doubled taken not only indicate the report, but in the fond du lac. we can take care of that within the medical profession if we continue to need cheap to create the talent two medical schools and communities to help teach about that. we need to learn how to work together across disciplines. we are doing a good job of that right now in centers and are playing a legal rule and not,

but we can do better. we need to have more opportunity to teach each other about what are disciplines are all about them we need to learn to hold each other accountable for a piece of the puzzle. >> thank you. >> first of all, you want to thank all three of you for your testimony. you are cassation represent and recessional c. represent. i have about four questions. the first is about deterrence. i just need a short answer remiss because the answers will be longer policy questions. there is this hope that mandatory reporting acts as a deterrent to people who are predators, that if they feared discovery through others who would train them in or report them, that that acts as a deterrent or a chilling effect of abusive behavior.

i wonder if they did demonstrates the mandatory reporting, which i happen to be an advocate of, actually as a deterrent. blushes go down. ms. sutton, what you think? >> to be honest i never thought of the kidnappers did. i think all too often the predatory offenders that we are talking about are not thinking about and dated reporting. i do think mandated reporting over the years has provided a tremendous amount of education across our country's sli was first passed in 1974 and in that respect has made us all that much more aware of the abuse and neglect and hopefully that has resulted in the prevention as well. >> i think mandatory reporting by itself is not a primary determining, but it is a secondary deterrent. if we have people reporting that they suspect, we are going to

avoid the second, third, fourth, 20 episodes, particularly in abuse, predators don't limit themselves to one victim losses in the family and they only have access to one victim. it's a yes or no. notice that a primary deterrent, but it is important to get things stop before it gets even more out of hand. >> out completely concur with transcendence comments about that. >> the question is who should report. and we have kind of a consensus on the so-called mandate reporter reporting, but then what is the next circle out, although it to anybody who sees them thing, do some thing can see something, say something. there were contemplating and our legislative work, expanding reporting to everybody and

masking states tend to develop legislation to implement that. do you think we should keep it limited? and do concentrated training? do you think we should expand it to everybody? do you think we should include everybody, but do extensive education and training to those who need certification and licensing because of their access to a child? we have a core group of people. ms. sutton, what do you think? >> senator -- >> who do you think we should require to report? >> i think i tend to agree with testimony research. i like to know more about the states for everyone is required to report in minnesota we require certain professionals that encourage everyone to report. i am concerned about and see an increase in false reports as

well as with the impact may be on the system and our capacity to respond. without an increase in the availability to respond to more reports, i would be concerned -- >> not get to the kids that could be in danger. >> senator, i agree with your comments in with yours as well. we have a system already in child welfare that is totally overburden. have a daughter who survived four years as a permanency placer worker for chaucer care what should have been 24-ish was 53 with an on call that was constant, including a call issues on the turnpike from oklahoma city to tulsa a night of of her wedding rehearsal. but she had to respond to. we have to support these programs. we have at any given time, 50, 60, 70% of workers in the field in their first year of

experience. even though invest in training them, if they can survive the system, we have not got a a good return on investments. we can encourage are going to be reporters, but do we have to shore up the system first and educate to minimize reports that really are your minimal kinds of observations. >> so there is the required -- ms. sutton sexpot language, which was require a certain body or population, but then encourage the rest of the population on what to do. i think dr. block company made an important point. if you're going to do this work and those who are child protective workers, in some specialties such as yours, they themselves did not only education and training, but support because of what they see and experience to prevent burnout with the excessive burden of fear.

i just recall for myself that if you proved and someone could die i mean, the fear of screwing up the mountain professionals doing this air base is pretty significant. so tell me who you think should report and the support that needs to go to those charged with responsibilities. [inaudible] >> anyone can a professional contact which will fully required to do so. i think it is important to start retraining and then move on to expansion of reporting requirements as opposed to the other way around. in other words, if we spread the

word about these things to the largest body, then you could pacemen based on research you do, other groups you might like to additionally be legally required to report. but in the absence of the research and training, i think those would be problematic. and i also think that any increase in expanding the circle of those legally required to report absolutely has to be paired with increased resources. increased resources for state and local one person sent most of my be prosecuted or investigated federally, increase resources in terms of treatment, in terms of medical treatment and mental health treatment in the services of children advocacy centers. >> that takes me to should investigate. if you're going to report, one of the things that emerges from reporting is the hesitancy of people to report because some people don't know where they go, the second they don't want to be

mixed up or they think i really don't want to go to the cops about this. and i don't use that -- i use it and the best sense of the word. and i think u.s. professionals would agree the investigation that a child protect its service worker does come at the inquiry that a physician or nurse practitioner does, et cetera, is very different than law enforcement. this gathering evidence for the commission of a crime, where you are trying to gather information for the protection of the child, two different things. so my question goes that if we had mandatory requirement, knowing the child abuse is a crime -- i don't minimize that. but should the first line of reporting the child protective services or should we go directly to the cops and the cops get the children to protective services? ms. sutton, you ran a pretty big

agency. >> in minnesota, or that requires press reporting within 24 hours so an individual -- >> could you see what that is click >> papers can choose report to enforcement of child protection. they are required to report within 24 hours a minute the allegation involves violation of a criminal statute commensurately what would happen if the joint investigation by law enforcement in the agency, the cops doing their role in the agency doing facts gathered to look at service plans and delivery. in certain circumstances, law-enforcement man chad protection not to do an assessment that there would be something that could interfere with the one person investigation. but they do go hand-in-hand. >> a few report come you choose which one you do, do you feel comfortable, therefore you know about. but then they talk to each other. because they are highly trained,

we cannot forget that there's no cost and what we're we're talking about here. then they determine what is the best way to proceed in the interest of the child. is that the foremost question in mind? interest of the child or the interest in that case. the interest in something called the case. >> the interest is in first assuring whether a child is safe. and once we can assure you chad two-phase is doing the investigation or assessment of what has occurred. and also for us, it was really distinguishing between the situations that may involve criminal attachments or children the situations where families are struggling to take care of children. having a punitive investigated approach was not serving as families well. so we needed to develop a balance of those so that we can respond most appropriately given the particular situation that came to our attention.

>> in our center, we applaud the disciplines housed under one roof, including medicine and on the other components. so we are able -- >> is that where or usual and customary? >> i think it's becoming more and more customary. they are limited in number. >> very true. the example i want to give this an optimal way to approach that because regardless of who has received a report, the report comes to the multidisciplinary team to see who should be doing that, including the children need for extensive evaluation, and investigation of what have you. so i think supporting interdisciplinary centers and interdisciplinary teams, whether they be housing communities might be a solution. >> i certainly agree that every child abuse case should he

investigated by a multiple of multidisciplinary team. wayne and i was going to go on criminally with that as well as was going to protect the child and insurance simultaneously they're getting treatment. i think tennessee has a nice hole in which in the way that child abuse reports come in, when they come in through cps can also press portents immediately to enforcement, the a-alpha for other children's advocacy for the state and tracking database. he enjoys the cases involve democrats. they don't see that within a day or two. it gives them the ability to call on horseback child protective services and say whatever happened to john smith? is that his command and it's one that should have been screaming to the advocacy center in we

haven't seen a child yet. thursday's doing innovative things about that. what they brought in the response would be very helpful. >> well, we also have to think legislatively, are we talking about mandatory reporting, encouraging reporting for child maltreatment because literally we talked about different categories. one is the klatch. now back in my day and from when i was discussing it with child protective agencies, the data says that the majority of people who come to the attention i miss not showing up in schools and don't seem like they've had a good meal. they will need to see a dentist lake we had, et cetera. and that's different what

there's physical abuse, all things that show up either in the classroom, the battered child, dr. block spoke about the crying, shaking, et cetera. but then we called it the b. word, in the bad old, bruised, burns, broken initially comes into madness and in some way. and one is by reporting and then there's psychological. the child lock in the closet. there's no ethics of physical abuse or just other kinds of horrific things i don't want to elaborate on the you could give examples. and then there is abuse. and those are different things. ..

it is as simple as possible so people know what to the port. and they do not parceled it out. they make sure they do it

before the physical abuse, sexual abuse and injuries. this is what they have coverage. this has the ability of the system working together. i mean that across the medical community. it is a look at what is most appropriate based on it. this is one of the hardest lessons we learn in minnesota. lieber treating more damage -- we were treating it with more damage. it needed to be individualized. >> one thing they believe in is the family center homes. or family center medical home. not only the medical physician but other professionals working as a health care team are going

to be able to see aberrations and development or physical appearance in a treasure whether it is under or over. so we have places like the medical home where we can do a lot of prevention and a lot of intervention before neglect, emotional abuse come poor parenting. not every child has access to those homes particularly if they are supported by medicaid or are not in church whatsoever. but places like that where a children come regularly, schools for nexium will can be targets of training to identify behavioral issues that are not translated into this is a bad child but rather translated into we should look at what is happening in this child's life. >> i don't think we can ask them to be assessors of the responses

that should happen. they make the report. i am in agreement keeping the reporting symbol and how they go about this and i think what happens after that interprets differential response is critically important for a simple we know while differential response has been enormously beneficial and neglect cases and physical abuse cases not sexual abuse cases so that is something we should expect mandated a reporter to know and our job this child. >> i could sit and talk all day with you. i really want to thank each and every one of you being with us today. the work you do to protect and prevent child abuse, in the house and in the senate to those

in the judiciary committee to develop a bipartisan legislative framework to address things we've discussed today. there are so many people wanted to submit testimony i will ask unanimous consent nine pieces of the testimony be submitted to the record and again i want to thank warren who was here all day today and her advocacy every day and secretary sebelius, the baltimore child abuse center, the american psychological association, the committee for children, stop it now and in child welfare submitted their testimony. we are going to leave their record open for questions and the congress will be reassessing but upon the return we will be examining all of the proposals to see healthy move forward.

listening to the four of you take a back many years ago to my own work. doctor you we and i began at just about the same time, and the body of knowledge that's been developed in the financial expertise and all of the main site has been stunning. i fear that in the audience today women who believed in me and the work and they would be so pleased to year to come to protect our children a and cutting across the red tape. we survived new thinking and the protection of children. focus on the children, not the bureaucracy she trained and

encouraged me to go to graduate school. those in america that arf sweating the details and how to do a great job and how they can make sure children are safe and secure. as we have to put our sweat equity and come up with of the right policy. as we look forward to a conversation with you and thank you and say god bless you for what you do. god bless our children and protect them and god bless america. the committee is adjourned [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] cable satellite corp. 2011]