House Approves Background Check Bill for Child-Centric Workers

The House of Representatives approved by an overwhelming 413-4 margin legislation that would make it easier for employers to conduct background checks on employees who supervise, educate, or otherwise provide care for children. The Child Protection Improvements Act (H.R. 1469) would, among other things, make permanent the Child Safety Pilot Program created in 2004 by the PROTECT Act. This program established a nationally accessible fingerprint-based criminal history background check system for volunteers and employees of youth-serving organizations.

Entities covered by the measure include all businesses or organizations, whether public, private, for-profit, nonprofit, or voluntary that provide care, care placement, supervision, treatment, education, training, instruction, or recreation to children, including a business or organization that licenses, certifies, or coordinates individuals or organizations to provide care, care placement, supervision, treatment, education, training, instruction, or recreation to children. The terms of the legislation would require the Attorney General to establish a program to streamline the process of obtaining nationwide criminal background checks and facilitate access to such screens by participating entities. The Attorney General, who administers the program, would not be permitted to charge more than $25 plus FBI processing fee per background check.

The Senate has introduced a companion bill (S. 1598) that has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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