07.14.06

Cantwell Applauds Senate Passage of Much-Needed Help for Children Found at Meth Sites

Legislation supported by Cantwell calls for $40 million to aid children, families harmed by meth

WASHINGTON, DC – Late Thursday night, the Senate unanimously approved $40 million in new annual funding to help children harmed by meth. Earlier this month, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) visited Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery in Spokane to highlight the need for this new funding, which would support drug prevention and treatment, training, counseling, and parenting skills development. Cantwell also wrote to Senate leadership asking that the legislation be brought up for consideration on the Senate floor as soon as possible.

“This is a big step toward curbing the harmful effects of meth on children and will help keep meth from destroying even more lives,” said Cantwell, co-chair of the U.S. Senate Anti-Meth Caucus. “We’ve fought long and hard to confront this raging epidemic, but we need to do more to aid meth’s most vulnerable victims and prevent a parent’s meth use from holding children back. This new funding will help give these kids a fighting chance.”

The bipartisan Improving Outcomes for Children Affected by Meth Act authorizes $40 million annually through 2011 in competitive grants for public and private agencies.

Between 2000 and 2005, meth arrests and seizures affected approximately 15,000 children nationwide. Over the past decade, there has been a 62 percent increase in children going into foster care because of an increase in meth-using parents. Last year, Spokane law enforcement made approximately 75 arrests involving drug endangered children and referred approximately 125 children to Child Protective Services. In Benton and Franklin Counties, 160 of the 250 kids in foster care are there because their parents use meth.

In addition to helping meth-affected children, Cantwell has also worked tirelessly to increase funding for other anti-meth initiatives. Earlier this year, Cantwell worked with her colleagues to include the Combat Meth Act and other anti-meth measures in legislation to re-authorize the Patriot Act. This new law restricts the sale of products used to produce meth, provides funds to help those affected by meth use, and gives new tools to states, law enforcement, and prosecutors working to combat meth. The legislation also authorizes $99 million for the Meth Hot Spots program, which provides grants to states and communities to clean up meth labs, purchase equipment, and train state and local law enforcement officials to investigate and convict meth offenders.

Cantwell has sponsored the Arrest Methamphetamine Act to curb meth trafficking across the U.S.-Canadian border into Washington, as well as legislation to investigate the link between meth crimes and other criminal activity such as identity theft. In May, she won Senate approval of legislation to create a national Meth Prevention Week.

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