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Senate Committee Advances Child Protection Bill

On September 13, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved, by voice vote, the Child Protection Improvement Act (S. 645).

Sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the Child Protection Improvement Act would amend the National Child Protection Act (P.L. 103-209) to establish a system of national criminal history background checks for child-serving organizations. The system would provide participating entities – businesses and organizations that “provide care, supervision, treatment, education, training, instruction, or recreation for children” – with reliable and accurate information about whether an individual has been convicted of, or has an open arrest or pending charges for, a crime that bears upon his or her fitness to protect children.

The system would enter into agreements with states to conduct background checks, handle inquiries from participating entities, provide access to such background checks, and help convert paper records of fingerprints into electronic forms that would be transmitted to the national system. Procedures for securely receiving criminal history records from the FBI and state-authorized agencies would be established, as well as criteria by which such records would be reviewed.

During consideration of the bill, the committee adopted, by voice vote, a substitute amendment by Sen. Schumer that removed from the underlying bill a provision that directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to compile demographic data on individuals subject to the background checks. In addition, the amendment removed language that granted nonprofit organizations preference in using the national system and required DOJ to assess state agencies that process criminal history information.

The committee also adopted, by voice vote, an amendment by Sen. Schumer to establish a similar background check system for businesses that install and monitor security systems.