Marge Roukema on Families & Children Former Republican Representative (NJ-5)

Voted YES on reducing Marriage Tax by $399B over 10 years.

Use tax code to reinforce families.

[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:

The Families Reinforcement Act:
Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children’s education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society.

TV shows should have explicit viewer advisories.

Declares that each of the four major television broadcast networks and their affiliates, independent television stations, the Public Broadcasting System, and cable programmers and operators should:

1. not telecast programming containing dramatized violence;
2. superimpose explicit viewer advisories throughout programming containing dramatized or documentary violence;
3. provide explicit audio and on-screen viewer advisories immediately prior to transmittal of such programming;
4. not transmit programming promotions or advertisements that contain violence;
5. develop a standard scheme for classifying programming on the basis of the amount and type of dramatized violence it contains; and
6. educate and inform viewers about the harmful effects of exposure to television violence.

Supported funding child care, child health, & child housing.

The teams of the Women’s Caucus are charged with advancing action on their designated issues in a bipartisan manner. Legislation from Team 6. CHILDREN’S ISSUES AND CHILD CARE:
• HR206—A bill to provide for greater access to child care services for Federal employees (Morella) [STATUS: enacted as part of the FY2000 Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill]
• HR1112—Kiddie Mac—A bill to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to insure mortgages for the acquisition, construction, or substantial rehabilitation of child care and development facilities and to establish the Children’s Development Commission to certify such facilities for such insurance, and for other purposes. (Maloney/Baker) STATUS: Hearing held, October 8, 1999
• (bipartisan portions of) HR1139, the ACCESS Act on Child Care Affordability (Tauscher)—A bill to expand the dependent care tax credit, to provide grants to business consortia, and to establish a new Model State’s Early Learning Fund to support programs to improve early learning and the quality and safety of child care for children ages 0-5. (Tauscher)
• HR2486—Infant Crib Safety Act—A bill to provide for infant crib safety. (Tauscher/Greenwood)
• HR___ (not yet introduced)—Give a Child a Chance Omnibus Mental Health Bill—A bill to place more mental health and student service personnel (school counselors, social workers, or psychologists, and a school nurse) in the schools. The bill also specifies which academic qualifications are necessary for such professionals to be hired. The mental health personnel in the schools would provide assessment for mental health disorders that may be exhibited by a student. For a student that might require more in-depth treatment for serious disorders, the mental health professional would refer those students to an outside professional, with the permission of a parent or guardian. (Jackson-Lee)