Good afternoon. I would like to welcome each of you to our hearing on "Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Youth: Strengthening the System."

The purpose of today’s hearing is to continue our information gathering efforts to learn how programs under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and the Missing Children’s Assistance Act are currently operating in preparation for the upcoming reauthorization of these two Acts.

The Missing Children’s Assistance Act addresses the needs of missing, abducted, and sexually exploited children. The program was created to coordinate and support various federal missing children’s programs through the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and includes the authorization for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. As the nation’s resource center and clearinghouse for information on missing and exploited children, the Center provides assistance to families and law enforcement agencies in locating and recovering missing and exploited children, both nationally and internationally. The Center does not investigate abducted, runaway, and sexually exploited youth cases, but receives leads and disseminates them to various investigative law enforcement units.

The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act supports three grant programs to meet the needs of runaway and homeless youth. These grants are awarded to local public and private organizations to establish and operate community-based shelters that are outside of the law enforcement, juvenile justice, child welfare and mental health systems.

• Through the Basic Center Program, financial assistance is provided to establish or strengthen community-based programs that provide youth with emergency short-term shelter, food, clothing, counseling, and referrals for health care. The Basic Centers seek to reunite young people with their families, whenever possible, or to locate appropriate alternative placements.
  
  
• The Transitional Living Program (TLP) provides grants to public and private organizations to support projects that provide longer-term residential services. TLPs assist older homeless youth in developing skills and resources to promote their independence and prevent future dependency on social services. These activities include counseling in basic life skills, interpersonal skills, educational advancement, job attainment skills, and physical and mental health care. The TLP includes maternity group homes, which provide a range of coordinated services, such as childcare, education, job training, counseling and advice on parenting, child development and life skills.
  
  
• The Education and Prevention Services To Reduce Sexual Abuse of Runaway, Homeless, and Street Youth Program, also known as the Street Outreach Program, funds local youth service providers to conduct street-based outreach and education and offer emergency shelter and related services to young people who have been, or are at risk of being, sexually abused or exploited.

As was done in 1999 through the Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children Protection Act, our desire is to strengthen these programs in order to address the needs of these at-risk children. We must continue to support the Center and its efforts to locate and recover missing children and help prevent child abductions and sexual exploitation. Additionally, we wish to ensure the protection of runaway and homeless youth by keeping them off the streets, away from criminal activities and out of desperate circumstances. These services and activities help a particularly vulnerable population and today’s hearing will shed light on program successes as well as avenues for improvement.

I would like to thank our distinguished witnesses for appearing before the Subcommittee today – I look forward to hearing your testimony and the perspective that each of you brings to this discussion about the safety and well being of our nation’s children. At this time, I would yield to my colleague from Texas, Mr. Hinojosa, for any opening statement he may have.