subcommittee hearing on the neglected children in foster care, testimonies from the deputy assistant director of the fbi. you are watching live coverage on c-span3. >> eight months ago, the subcommittee opened a bipartisan probe into the safety human rights and short children in foster care in cross the united states. protecting america's most vulnerable children from abuse and neglect is a moral imperative. we are talking about the most vulnerable children of the united states. children that have been abused and neglected, children that have the trafficked. these children, state foster agencies, they aren't mentioned to be a safe haven and sanctuary. often, a last resort. naturally, i take the greatest interest and have the highest obligation in and two children

in my home state of georgia. and, as a result, the subcommittee, as part of the inquiry, has undertaken a deep dive case study into the safety of foster care in georgia. we have found significant evidence that children have been left vulnerable to abuse and neglect, where children have been trafficked, harmed, after being placed with unfit caregivers, placed in isolation, conditions and, consolidating confinement. the subcommittee recognizes that these represent national dynamics and trends and challenges, that impact the safety and welfare of vulnerable children across the country. today, we will dive deeper into

the federal government's efforts and responsibilities. the ones that protect children into foster care and abuse, trafficking, neglect, hearing from witnesses representing the department of health and human services, and the fbi. we will hear first from rebecca jones gaston. she is the commissioner of hhs administration for children and families. the previous director of child welfare for the state of oregon. commissioner, we have other commitments this afternoon, we will work to accommodate your schedule and we appreciate your attendance. we will also hear from jose perez, the federal bureau of investigation disability director, who operates across the country who accommodates 200 victims of trafficking, many of them, children, who have gone missing.

if the witnesses would please rise and raise your right hands, so you can be sworn in. do you solemnly swear that the testimony that you are about to give before the subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? let the record reflect that you have answered the affirmative, please take your seats, and commissioner, jones gaston, begin with your opening statement, with your opening statement. please ensure that the red light under your microphone is illuminated when that you wish to speak. thank you. >>'s chairman, ranking members, blackburn, and established members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear today on behalf of the u.s. department of health and human services. i'm rebecca jones gaston, commissioner for the ministration of four children

abuse of families, and the ministration for children and families. thank you also for the years of strong bipartisan support of partnerships, on child welfare prevention efforts which provided the foundation for and enabled the passage of the family first services act. a cys is committed to supporting parents and caregivers to holistic and proactive approaches that focus on keeping families together and preventing unnecessary involvement with the foster care system. i hear routinely from young people and families that have experienced the child welfare system that many families could have stayed safely together if support for their conference needs have been met. as part of the commitment to advance prevention and family preservation of the experience of families who encounter the system it will continue to be informing our policies and our programs. we are working with states and

tribes to shift the focus of the child welfare system, helping them implement family first and promoting them across the system collaborations that wrecking is the child welfare system alone, cannot support family well-being. this effort can be taking time and cannot be done solely as the federal level. the president fiscal year at 2024 budget, including proposals to reauthorize increase funding for and amended promoting safe and stable families act, social security act, and the runaway homeless sheet act, would expand and provide incentives for the use of the title for incentive program, and provide additional support for scribes and support use for our risk for victims of commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking. the children's bureau would provide leadership to improve the safety permanency and well- being of well-being and families. we partner with federal state

and local agencies as well as tribal nations. directing we implement sediment and implementation of them and ensure tribes states in the courts meet established standards, and outcomes for the federal child protection adoption and foster care guardianship program. we participate in a variety of activities to carry out the vision, such as funding essential services, sharing research, offering training and technical assistance, and monitoring it child welfare assistance. working with state, tribes, territories to improve child welfare delivery, achieve positive outcomes for children and families and ensure that every child has a family and permanency. the children's bureau regional offices conduct ongoing joint planning with states and tribes with the

development of a strategic five- year child and family services plan. the update through the annual progress and services report. further, regional offices provide direct technical assistance to grant recipients, and in partnership with other physicians conducting the child in review. title for eligibility, under the social security act, and other reviews. one of the most impactful means in which we assist the states and ensuring the safety permanency and well-being of children and families that they serve, for regulatory action. through september 2023 the biden harrison ministration issued a final kinship rule that proposed once implemented, will profound impact on child well-being in the child welfare system in america. these three rules are designed to remove barriers keeping families together. where eligible legal

representation is allowed to stabilize families and reduce the need for more formal child welfare system involvement including fairness of the child welfare system and included a safe and appropriate placement for all youth. collectively, along with the family first act, these rulemaking these represent perhaps the most substantial advances in the child welfare industry. thank you for the opportunity to discuss the program's mission and work. i look forward to working with congress as part of the shared collective effort to ensure the safety permanency and well- being of children and families across the country and i am happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. we will not hear from you, deputy assistant director, jose perez. >> thank you. thank you for the opportunity to come to you be here today, to speak about eight important topic. sexual explanation of children

and trafficking. under my investigative responsibilities i have the violent prime program, and specifically today, the crimes against children program. we at the fbi have no more important mission than protecting the most vulnerable amongst us, especially children. the work is a priority with all of our programs around the country. we cannot stop human trafficking alone so we have partnered with state federal and local law enforcement agencies as well as nongovernmental and nonprofit agencies on the front lines to address the threat across all angles and provide valuable victim assistance is one coordinated team. human trafficking in person is a crime in which a person is exploited for labor, services or commercial acts, occurring in every region of the united states throughout the world, and is perpetrated by the array of actors frigid of criminals,

or organizations. often trafficking, with other criminal conduct, such as financial crimes and narcotics trafficking, online sexual exploitation of children, extortion, and violence. six trafficking of adults includes the recruitment and solicitation and transportation of a person for the purpose of commercial , facilitated through force, fraud, or coercion. exploitation of a minor threes commercial is human trafficking and child drive trafficking does not need to be evolving any type of proof's physical force or proven. harboring and transportation of a person, but for the purposes of objection for the forced labor or involuntary servitude. labor traffic can be happening in any agriculture industry, construction, landscaping, factories and manufacturing. traffickers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and demographic categories, they

are facilitated by criminal enterprises and transnational organizations. criminal enterprises often operate in plain sight if they go undetected for decades. affecting victims before being identified by law enforcement. victims do not leave their situations because they feel traffickers will have a distrust towards law enforcement. where lack of understanding with the basic rights. traffic can affect anybody regardless of age, race, or the city. vulnerable possible nations are at higher risks. traffickers can and will identify and exploit vulnerabilities, they often control victims resources, safeties, living and working conditions. traffickers can access services that can exert power over their victims. the fbi investigates all forms of human trafficking including trial sets trafficking regardless of age or nationality. we cannot do it alone. we work with external partners, primarily national center for exploited children, we have personnel installed to locate

victims and help these victims and hold the subjects of victims. i've defined trafficking schemes as well. we collaborate with these different entities working together to coordinate forensic interviews and medical exams, counseling and other services. additionally, we combat human trafficking and child exploitation by working together with federal state and local partners. the fbi is more than 85 child exploitation human trafficking past forces spread out across 56 field offices consisting of hundreds of fbi agents and over 100 task force officers. it many positive results were witnessed. in los angeles, man was sent to life in prison for recruiting teenage girls and an adult for commercial work. the subject advise victims for a commercial website and

facilitated responses to online advertisements by arranging in person meetings with the victims. they victimize at least three minor girls and threats and coercion, trafficking young adults, all for young profits. human trafficking passports keynoted with the. we are looking to build more relationships to private organizations, and the problem is not contained. each of the fbi's 56 field offices receives regular complaints regarding child exploitation and human trafficking. we are also part of the working groups aimed at executing the white house's national action plan to combat human trafficking. we have a division devoted to victim services, integrating victims in the federal investigations. members of the subcommittee, thank you for your support, in this round, thank you for so

much to speak. >> thank you mr. perez. i will yield a moment, to blackburn, for her opening statement. i want to say before i do, that, i have observed few members of the senate who have demonstrated a more sustained commitment to child protection and the prevention of child trafficking then sen. blackburn. and we identified earlier in this congress that the protection of the vulnerable children was the important priority that we've also collaborated on, the introduction of the public safety vacancies asked to empower local law enforcement with the resources they need and are now working to get rid of the report act, which, as you alluded to, empower the program to provide law enforcement agencies with foreign veteran information to prosecute online child exportation. i think blackburn, she will be

collaborating with them, and i thanked her for her effort. >> thank you for that. and the report act is scheduled to go on the hotline. and, it already has a house sponsor. i want to thank each of you for being here. and, mr. chairman, thank you for the hearing and filling this out a little bit. mr. perez, i am so appreciated, for your remarks. and, we are doing this at a time, that so many people of lost sight of how important it is to protect children until you say, how important it is, to go after these traffickers. and, they are out there. did you know they exist. they are social media. and, they are trying to go after them, and it is a vitally important part that we go after these traffickers.

in these people that are making a profit off of going after the most vulnerable amongst us. and, i know that the chairman knows, some of you may know, for the last several weeks, i have been trying to figure out and to subpoena the record for jeffrey epstein, to find out who was on the plane. i have been so disappointed that chairman durbin has been continuing to block this, because jeffrey epstein had probably what is the most high profile six trafficking ring that we have ever seen. it was high profile, high dollar people, that was predators, on these young girls. and, i do not know why that

there is a push to block these records. we need to have access to them. we need to know, who was on the plane. who was participating? they rejected the records in the delaine maxwell trial. but, getting to the bottom of this is important. and as we talk about protecting our children, and providing for them, and the role of the federal government in this, for goodness sakes, let's try to figure out what hhs has done with 85,000 migrant children. and where exactly they are. whose hands are they in? the labor trafficking that you talked about. i find it unconscionable that 85,000 children, we cannot find, it's unconscionable that chairman durbin would have continued to block by request,

the subpoena, of the flight logs. we appreciate so much that you are here today, mr. chairman, your leadership on these issues, thank you. >> thank you sen. blackburn and we will certainly ensure that our witnesses have the opportunity, to respond to those points. i want to begin, commissioner jones gaston, discussing the role that hhs plays in protecting foster children across the country. the child abuse protection and treatment act requires child welfare agencies to have procedures to screen and investigate and reports of child abuse and neglect and requires the states to include child trafficking and their definition of abuse and neglect. how does hhs ensure that state child welfare agencies screened victims of child trafficking in practice? and not as a matter of policy on paper.

>> the oversight, of child welfare agencies, across the country, for the agencies, receiving federal funds from the children's bureau, we have an oversight process called the child and family services review. that process is involving case review, data review, and interviews with young people, community members, parents, that are involved in the cases that are being reviewed. that is the primary mechanism for oversight in the long-term. states are also required to have a title 4 plan that they submit, that includes the policies and procedures that they have been placing in, that you follow federal law and regulation in those plans are reviewed and approved at the children's bureau.

>> i appreciate that. where i want to press a little bit further here, having a plan for a policy document, on paper, it is an important start. if there are failures to implement those plans or policies. if it is policy without effective practice, then, the objective ensuring that vulnerable children are protected may not be achieved. are there tools and statutes, or practices that hhs either has or lacks to ensure, for example, that this requirement that child abuse cases be screened in and not screened out? upon the report or allegation that these policies are implemented. you need more tools there to ensure that these policies are incremented? >> when the requirement came out, that child abuse the cult

of the out hotline, and efforts were made with providing federal persistence with jurisdiction to understand what the law is. and make plans for how they were going to implement the practice. some required state legislative action, some required action of the state level. acf has the over arcing federal rules and regulations. each state runs the child welfare system and has their definition of what child abuse and neglect are. i want to make sure that is clear. through the review that i spoke about, that's one mechanism for review. we have regional offices. they alter joint planning with agencies, in regards to how they are implementing the

requirements that exist federally and technical assistance mechanisms that are available and provided to state agencies regarding workforce training, ability to connect with others that have already made changes in regards to those rules and regulations. and again, through the review process, if the issue gets raised up to us, the process of possibly doing partial reviews, we are going in and we are seeing the case review process, if the federal rules and regulations are being followed and the actual practice on the ground. >> we will dig a little bit more on that in a moment. first, let's talk about children who were reported missing or to run away or recovered. federal law recovers policies procedures in place which train

children who were recovered after running away, and the purpose is to determine whether they were victims of trafficking and to provide appropriate services. 820 22 hhs inspector general audit examining the records of children who recovered after going missing from care across five states found that in most cases reviewed, there was no evidence that these children had received the required screening. my question for you is how does hhs work with states to comply with compliance with those screening requirements? >> the safety of children is our priority. and we are working very closely with our partners with the offense of trafficking. and we last year issued a information referendum that identify the requirements that exists but also resources for chafee. and technical assistance through the regional offices to ensure

that they have the appropriate policies and practices in place. identifying technical assistance , and the development of the various success tools that they have and working in close partnership with our partners in regards to continuing to provide training and learning opportunities for the agencies that we serve. >> let's talk about the program, and we will talk about the fbi as well. under federal law, state foster care agencies are required to report children missing from care to the national center for missing and exploited children as well as to the national crime information center. but, hhs oig audit from march 2023, reviewing data, collected from 46 state child welfare agencies across the country, found that 45% of the missing

child episodes in the review sample were never reported by states to neck back. so, how can hhs work with the state agencies to improve the compliance with the requirement that they are reporting to the program of children with care? >> some of the mechanisms that we have done, issuing the miranda rights and program guidance in regards to the requirements. through the regional offices and during reviews, to make sure that the agencies have the appropriate processes in place and offering the technical assistance in areas that they identify that they need assistance and improving practice with regards to their workforce. and again, working very closely with our partners, and making sure that we are providing assistance, technical assistance, and awareness out

to the agencies regarding of the tools that are available, and the technical assistance that are available so they can be working on improving their practice. >> let's talk about the medication of children, with foster care. to receive federal funding for child welfare services, states are required to have a plan for the oversight of scripture meditation, including opioid and psychotropic medication that is prescribed to children in foster care. a 2018 hhs oig review for a sample of foster children in five states found that one in three children in foster care that words treated with medication did not receive the required treatment planning or medication, monitoring. it what is hhs doing, what can hhs do, to appropriately and adequately

monitor the use of psychotropic medication within the state policy, and the practices governing in the ordinance and medication of psychotropic drugs of children. >> the five-year plan that we do joint planning with, the agencies, it is one place that they are required to report what they are planning on with managing the care of the children, that they are overseeing. and they are our annual progress review reports that are submitted. through that and the relationship with the regional offices and the technical assistance we provide in addition to the child and family services review, which is a periodic review, the opportunity for us to have conversations and dig in with jurisdictions about what the practices look like, how they are doing and what assistances look like they need to do, or if they need assistance in

identifying examples of policies or procedures that they need to implement at the state level. >> the sub committee has heard the substantial committee, about over medication and the appropriate use of opioids and psychotropic medication. so come i want to dig a little bit more detail. at this time, we can yield to ranking member blackburn for questions. >> think you so much, mr. chairman. thank you for bringing up the sponsors, because this is something that causes a tremendous amount of concern and it is something that the news reports have covered. and periodically, we will read about people who are improperly embedded and the issue that we have right now, the 80,000 migrant children who cannot be found, and much of that, we've seen reports of these children

working, and factories. we have seen reports of these children being in processing plants, food processing plants, and so, they are being used for labor. so, misses gaston, is a little bit too much to do. and, the hearing of the five- minute questioning. but, what i would like to do, for you to submit to the record, what you sent to the state, as best practices, for setting up these individuals, and, also, the amount of time that it generally is spent on vetting these people who are going to be sponsors. these are vulnerable children. it and, they are expecting somebody to take care of them. and, the fact of the matter is, it is a check the box process, at has been reported, with some instances, i think that we

should all hope of that we should do better than that before these children. so if you will submit that for the record. i would appreciate that. >> so, acf is absolutely looking to the safety and children that are served through our programs. acf has the prove year of the child welfare system, and, the office's resettlement program have peer review over the sponsors. i will be working with them to make sure the information that you are requesting is submitted. >> we need to have that for the record. there should be best practices. and, we should not read more reports about children who are being used for child labor.

children that are being put in trafficking rings. children that have sponsors who are improperly vetted and abused. we can do better than that! thank you. mr. perez, let me come to you. let me come to you for a moment. i have talked a little bit about the need for us to have more transparency, more accountability. more common sense solutions. and, as we look at the persistence of trafficking, and especially, the trafficking that takes place of children, and, the tennessee bureau of investigations gave me a stat. once every two minutes, a child, in this country, is purchased or sold for . once every two minutes. these are little ones. so, when we are talking about the things that are wrong, whether it is the migrant children, whether it is the foster children, whether it is the children that are being

recruited and groomed. if you were on this side of the desk, and you said, "here are some immediate things that you could do". what will you encourage it? where would you encourage it to go first? >> thank you for the question. i would say, number one, when we are talking about resources, there is a few lanes with that. we can always do more with more resources. we can always want to be strategic with what we have and make sure we are month commencing the resources processing. one of the biggest challenges that we talk about, i talked about transnational organized crime and more sophisticated criminal actors operating an organized fashion, the biggest challenge across the board is the ability to defeat end to end encryption. traditionally, the recipe for success defeating and criminal actors across the board historically, lawfully

identifying the organizations, identifying ways to exploit communications and money movements, and through lawful access, the legal process for the court, obtaining proper information from communications and those kinds of things. ability to move and to end encryption does not require that much level of sophistication. many off-the-shelf obligations are added to and encrypted. the inability to obtain the information to identify proper means and methodology of a criminal organization so they they are defeated are greatly hampered by the encryptions. >> having the report act passed , which would require -- it would enable you to hold things that come in, cyber tip line longer. with that helper, would that be helpful? >> typically, ma'am, we cannot comment on pending litigation.

>> that sounds good. but, when you talk about transnational crime, identifying organizations, i have to bring this forward again. i asked director ray about this a couple of weeks ago, when he was before us. and, we got one of the biggest, most well known, most high profile trafficking rings ever. we have this jeffrey epstein case. and director ray did not give me a complete answer when i asked about transparency around the case, and releasing the flight logs. so we cannot really know who else is involved in this. and, we talk about the need to get information from these organizations, and the information from the court. why would you not release these flight logs?

why would there be a protection, of not going after releasing this information to the public? why would you not make public, that information? how can you not make public all of the video that has been captured from jeffrey epstein's palm beach townhouse, which the fbi has? >> ma'am, i am aware of the interaction with the director from two weeks ago. we are happy to work on formal responses. i am not any aware of any subpoenas. >> there are no subpoenas because the chairman ended up adjourning twice before i could do to bring forward my request for a subpoena. but, you were talking about the need, the need, to get this information from these groups.

and, here, you have a group, an organization, and we cannot get the information. and, it is just ridiculous, that we are sitting here, we have laws on the books, we have expectations of agencies, and we have a need for information. you've got it, we cannot get to it. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, ranking member sen. blackburn. i would like to continue with mr. perez, in the discussion about the national center and exploited children. as well as the national crime information center. according to data from the website, in 2022, there were 359,000 entries into the nci database for missing children.

359,000. how does the fbi does track and prioritize which missing child cases are federally investigated, what is the burden sharing between local and state and local federal agencies when those reports come in. and, how do you decide what gets escalated, what gets referred, and who the lead agency is for a particular case? >> thank you. we receive information, or allegations, if you will, of a kidnapping of a variety of different elements. it can be from local law enforcement or our program. reports of missing children might not necessarily equate with something that gives you statutory authority to investigate. normally, how we prioritize that would be investigations, if there is an indication of a child 12 and under being exploited or is going missing,

with some indication that it was volunteer or they were being held against their will or they were again taken for environment against their will being held, that is something that we would immediately deploy resources two. usually in these instances, local police are usually the first responders in this instance where family members or a victim of the child might probably call local law enforcement. we immediately engage in that situation, we have regularly been a part of number of those. and when it is a child with regardless of it is an immediate identification, of some type of suspicious circumstances, we will launch resources to go with local police to make that determination. often times this is a runaway situation, if we want to put that out and look at with local partners. as far as the lead agency, that can ebb and flow. we will work with our local partners, through the taskforces and otherwise, to determine the best avenues, ultimately come from a for prosecution.

when a child has gone missing, believing it was a kidnapping, that is the all hands on deck situation for the entire fbi field division. we are going to put our backs aside, the regardless of the department. secondarily making sure we identify the subject is held accountable. >> i appreciate the breakdown. i would note that last months, and we testified before the subcommittee that children who go missing from foster care are especially vulnerable. and, we've heard from experts, advocates, attorneys, will represent victims of child exploitation and trafficking, will testified, particular vulnerability, foster children. trafficking. you testified in the opening statement that each of the fbi's 56 field offices have

received complaints about human trafficking, and that the fbi is working to build more relationships and awareness. tell us about what that means. how are relationships and awareness, enforcement of in the investigation process? >> it goes across all of our programs and violations, if you will. we look to engage with federal state local law enforcement partners to identify violations, a variety of threats, if you will, that we get offer assistance on. whether there is a immediate nexus or not, we are looking to provide resources and support to local law enforcement. he also engaged the private sector's outreach and, and interactions with nongovernment agencies and organizations that might have access to that information and might be able to refer to it as a tripwire.

where someone can provide real- time notice of some type of threat. we do that to the field offices, we do that with a section of partner engagement. we have a number of and entities throughout field offices and headquarters that drives interaction with private sector entities. our division spent a lot of time looking to work with local police departments to build that relationship. when we identify victims, we will provide victim services. that is the regular engagement on the human trafficking piece. we are also looking to share best practices on prosecutions on investigation so we can be better at investigations, holding people accountable, prosecuting these cases, providing the necessary services to the victims. we do that the communications and collaborations. >> commissioner jones gaston, we discussed earlier in the urine, some of the requirement standards and conditions of receiving federal support for

state governments and agencies. so, hhs provides many millions of dollars each year. two state foster care systems nationwide as a condition of receiving federal funding. the state foster care agencies are subject to monitoring by hhs with the discussion of some of that. he described an testimony, one of the primary ways that hhs monitors foster care performance is the child and family services review process. amongst other things, the process, the cfs process, measures whether states are adequately assessing and managing safety threats to children. whether they are making concerted efforts, properly, to address reports of abuse and neglect to assess risk, and manage safety. first of all, why is it

important that hhs monitors states performance in this area? >> safety for children is paramount. and, our oversights, of the application and implementation of federal requirements and child welfare agencies is a piece of that. the ability to have appropriate responses and timeliness is critical, and again, as been stated, for vulnerable children, and being able to provide protections for children that need it. the cfr process, as stated, is the primary monitoring tool that we have. however, i do want to just let you know that we also have the ongoing relationship with the regional

offices, the ones that they do with the state agencies, and during that monitoring process, but also, as issuers arise and the ability to talk about things being implemented and questions we might have about the outcomes that children are experiencing. >> for states that are not insubstantial conformity, with those federal standards, we discussed adequately assessing the risk and managing safety threats. what does hhs have with their role, and performing? >> it involves a sampling of cases, where there is a deep dive into the following of the procedures and requirements of the federal level conversations and interviews with young people , parents, foster parents, community members. partners as well, all involved, in family and children's lives. and then it is assessed whether or not they are in compliance

or not in conformity. with the expected major. if there is nonconformity, then there is a process that plays out around building a program improvement plan. in this one is done with our team, and the state agencies team, and identifying what strategies are going to be employed, what is the benchmark that they are working towards improving too. and having ongoing conversations and check in is, and at the end of that program improvement plan, the state still has not successfully met the set measure in the plan, then there is a financial penalty that is applied. >> am i correct in assuming that georgia is one of those

state child welfare programs that was penalized because it did not complete the program improvement plan? >> every state that has been through a child and family services review has been involved in a program improvement plan. georgia, for example, at the end of the third round of the cfs, did not successfully meet the marker in the program improvement plan and was issued a penalty. >> in addition to monitoring by hhs, federal law requires states to establish citizen review panels, comprised of members with expertise in child welfare to evaluate and issue annual reports on the state's efforts to fulfill the child protection obligation. why is it important to have these panels in place? >> child welfare cannot do its work alone. the work of protecting children and working with families, impact in the communities with societal responsibilities. so, having as systems in the community, as part of the

assessment process, and doing case reviews and giving a nonagency perspective on what is happening around a particular case, or overall, in regards to the agencies practices, is important to deal with the diverse perspective. and, inside, into what is happening, in order to be able to really fully continue to focus on the continued improvement in practice and striving for better outcomes. >> thank you, commissioner. i want to take a moment, there has been some lively discussions and criticism earlier. the full committee's engagement on these issues, that, protecting children from sexual exploitation has been one of the committees, i mean the full senate judiciary committee, the top priority of this and the

last congress. the full committee held a hearing on safety online, i expect with next month, there will be a hearing with big tech ceos to discuss their failures to protect children from online explication, and a chair durbin and randy member graham have issued ceos. this year, they have been protecting child safety online with the six bipartisan bills and one of those, for example, ranking member blackburn's report at act. and in the previous congress, durbin and blackburn led legislation that was signed into law, limiting statutes of limitation for federal civil suits by survivors and child abuse. i also have a note here, from chair durbin, making clear of

his intention, and willingness to work with sen. blackburn, on a bipartisan basis to obtain records relevant to the jeffrey epstein case that ranking member blackburn noted, i want to make sure that this was made clear for the records, since chairman durbin has another engagement at this time this year. i want to continue with the fbi, mr. perez, and commended in further from the efforts that are being made to prosecute the trafficking and exploitation of children. in august of this year, the fbi reported that during operation cross country, you were intimately involved with this operation, 200 victims of trafficking, many of them who were children and gone missing were recovered, were all the children who were reported missing, all the children that were found to have gone missing, have they been reported properly to nci, as

the missing child? at the time that they were recovered by law enforcement? >> i do not have an answer for you. when we encounter a few things, we identify locations of victims, and also at times, surrendered to vacation, sometimes, that could be online cases, we have identified a victim that has been exploited, and we physically locate a child that has been exploited. i did not have information that speak specifically to those individual children. >> thank you, mr. perez. you familiar with child advocacy centers? these are the national regional and local organizations that coordinate the investigation of the prosecution of child abuse. in your view, why are these child advocacy centers valuable for the fbi? to help her cover missing and trafficked children.

>> when it comes to a explicated in children and adults, beyond holding the perpetrators accountable, we want to make sure we are providing the proper care and techniques when discussing the abuse with victims, ensuring we do not continue a pattern of abuse. we have taken steps in the fbi, internally, every time we encounter a child victim, we have trained personnel who are fully dedicated to have this communication and make sure we have property medication. and make sure we are not victimizing a child. we seek to do that across the country, there is often times where, resources are limited, and we augment the resources through the child advocacy centers. we partner up with them, depending if our resources are not available or provide a venue for the interview. they are valuable partners, and

it augments our ability to treat victims in an informed way. >> thank you, mr. perez. commissioner, we have six minutes left. then we have to depart. we talked about the cfr process. we talked about the program improvement plans that are developed, issued to the states that are insubstantial nonconformity with the federal standards, assessing risks, and managing safety threats with children. you noted that penalties can be accessed, with the plan, and it is not fully properly successfully implemented. earlier, when we were talking about, for example, the requirements under the state program, that they include trafficking of their state abuse and neglect definition, or the requirement that they

screen victims of child trafficking in practice and not just in policy. that's an important distinction. putting something in a manual is not always the same thing as in lamenting the policy and practice. we are talking about child welfare and foster care agencies here. in the case of the cfs are, you have a remedy. you have penalties associated with noncompliance, and before we get into remedies, my first question is, is that driving and working, the improvement and compliance with federal standards, bistate foster basis? i ask this, because, as we contemplate legislative coalitions, to strengthen the protection of vulnerable children, we need to understand or whether the tools in which we already empower to our suspicion, as you are lamenting them.

>> thank you, chairman. we are in our fourth round, it has been in place since the early 2000's. and i had mentioned earlier to you, that every state, when they go to the review, it ends up in some form of an improvement plan. many jurisdictions have successfully exited their program improvement plans without a penalty. to that end, i would say that the review process does work, in the instance of being able to hone in and identify strategies and partnership with the states. i think continue to quality improvements is something that we are continually working on, with the levers that we do have, and the technical assistance that we can provide. the oversight of the child welfare system, rather, i will correct that. the oversight of the federal implementation and the federal

rules, with acs. the actual implementation of the child welfare system and the running of the child welfare system is at the local and state level. it does require partnerships, and working really closely with the jurisdiction in the balance between practice and policy as you are indicating >> so, in the other conditions, the sub requirements and standards, you have the improvement plan process. there are penalties where there is failure to implement the program improvement plan. it sounds to me, that you think those incentives are driving states, not in all cases, but in some, georgia, facing the penalty, for not successfully completing the program, but other states, many states are, according to your testimony, completing those program improvement plans successfully.

and you have a sense that this is working? and, for federal standards that are not captured directly for the cfs, asked you earlier for example, if a state does not successfully implement policies and procedures to screen children who are recovered after they have been missing, or trafficking. and, this oig report, with the five states, found in most cases, there was no evidence that they were appropriately exposed, by the state, not by hhs, to be clear, but by the state agency. when we discussed this problem, what i heard was, we can provide technical assistance. you can provide best practices. you can remind states of the federal standards, but, do you have a remedy, a kin to the program improvement plan and

the penalties associated with it. are there sticks and carrots, or are there just best practices that you communicate to the best of your ability, within the confines of your relationship with the state agencies? >> the other mechanisms that we have, to do partial reviews. if there is an issue that comes to our attention, we can go in and do a partial review, in many ways, this would mirror to see if it is our process but around a particular issue. and the issue corrective action plan, depending on the area in which the legislative expiratory driver would be depending on what the mechanism is. mechanism is and whether or not there is a significant financial penalty that can be employed or not. >> i forgot you for a few more

minutes. let's drill down on those reviews as precisely as you can, what the action plans and tell and what happens if states don't implement them. >> the partial reviews would be looking at whatever the particular issue is. they usually come about because an issue has been raised or there is concern about following a particular requirement. the reviews would include talking with individuals, the case review, similar processes as we would do in the cfsr and working with regard to jurisdictions and what they have --. and then, regarding the penalties and the actions beyond that, it would depend on

what the circumstance was and wasn't tied to a cfsr review and those sorts of things. i am happy to be able to work with my team around the various funding streams and the mechanisms that we have related to penalties, penalties related to the sending streams. >> we are going to adjourn in a a moment to let you attend to that engagement but i would like your commitment at this hearing that you and your colleague will be responsive, as you have this far, and provide the assistance of the subcommittee may need house statutes might change so that you have the tools that you need to hold the state agencies accountable. the reason that we are looking so intensely at this issue, and i believe that both you, commissioner, that you share

this commitment based upon this testimony is because what is happening to foster children across the united states is unacceptable. the placements in homes where they caregivers are not appropriately vetted, and this subcommittee has heard testimony from the mother of a child who was murdered by an unvented caregiver -- it is unacceptable. the number of children who were going missing from foster care across the united states and the number of children who are then likely -- according to statistics, victims of sex trafficking, is unacceptable. the reports that this subcommittee has received about congregate care settings, they sound comparable to detention.

and they drive some of these children, according to the testimony, for them to run away. because in a state foster agency that is meant to be there sanctuary, they are treated like prisoners. and then find themselves preyed upon by traffickers and the reason that we are holding these hearings is to understand in a large part, what congress can do about it. your testimony here today has helped to inform us but we need to go deeper, commissioner, on whether the tools that are at your disposal are sufficient to drive the kind of change that is urgent because, as ranking member blackmon said, --

blackburn said, as often as a child is sold or bought or trafficked, there is absolute urgency every day. we will continue to press you and i hope continue to work with you. thank you for your testimony here today. please, i just want to a one- word commitment that you will timely and fully respond with additional information we may require moving forward. commissioner. >> we would be happy to do that. >> yes cough syrup. >> thank you for being here. we will adjourn. the record will remain open for one week and questions for the record may be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on thursday, december 21. this hearing is adjourned.