Mr. PLATTS. I appreciate the ranking member for yielding.
I rise in strong support of H.R. 5876, the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act. This legislation will create and enforce safety standards for residential treatment facilities that serve to rehabilitate troubled youth.
While many residential treatment facilities for teens, such as boot camps and substance abuse treatment programs, provide effective rehabilitation services for troubled youth, it is the few bad actors that bring us here today. Families send their teens to residential treatment facilities many times after all other options have been exhausted. Though many of these programs involve extreme physical activities as part of their treatment plans, no child should be forced to endure suffocation, dehydration, or other types of physical abuse that surfaced during hearings that the Committee on Education and Labor held earlier this year.
While I supported the original bill, I believe that this manager's amendment makes the bill even stronger, and I thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for working together on this very important issue.
The substitute places the responsibility of monitoring and enforcement of these safety standards in the hands of each State government, rather than officials here in Washington. In addition, the manager's amendment would ensure that all facilities that provide treatment to children, public or private, are subject to safety standards.
I want to stress that not all residential treatment facilities are abusive or bad actors--in fact, quite the opposite. Through the process of considering this legislation, I have heard from many facilities which are proud of the positive impacts that they have had on the lives of teens. I've also heard from graduates from these programs who believe that they owe their lives to a treatment facility.
This bill, the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act, aims to ensure that all programs are working in good faith to achieve these goals and do not use violence or intimidation under the guise of treatment.
Again, I'd like to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for working together to improve this important piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to support the manager's amendment and ultimately to support H.R. 5876, legislation that is critically important to the safety of our Nation's children.
