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Statement by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton on DC Child and Family Services
May 5, 2000

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STATEMENT OF CONGRESSWOMAN ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON HEARING ON THE STATUS OF D.C. CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES
May 5, 2000

I appreciate the quick action and serious attention of Chairman Tom Davis to problems in receiverships that control three important D.C. functions. When the Chair learned of these problems, he asked me to join him in initiating a GAO study of the District's receiverships, beginning with the Receivership for the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA). We began there because of the tragic and clearly preventable death of the infant, Brianna Blackmond, the confusion and uncertainty in assessing responsibility for the child's death, and evidence of disarray the tragedy brought to public view that could mean other children under the care of the receivership may not be safe. We also will hold hearings and have requested GAO reports on the D.C. Jail Medical Receivership, where there has been evidence of excessive costs and irregular procurement practices, and the Mental Health Receivership, whose problems were so severe that a receiver was recently asked to resign. The Public Housing receivership will end this year, and the agency will be returned to District control. The Receiver, David Gilmore, stands out for the success of his tenure, which took a very complicated agency with the longest history of failure and dysfunction, and reformed all its functions-- operations, social services, physical infrastructure, and public safety. Hearings and action by the Congress on these receiverships are necessary because the courts and not the District government have authority over the functions.
Courts necessarily depend upon the receivers and the monitors of the receivers the courts appoint. The evidence is already clear that receivers in the District often function as independent operators outside of the laws applicable to D.C. elected and appointed officials and personnel, without guidelines concerning appropriate operational, management, and procurement standards, and with little of the accountability of other managers in the District.

The senseless death of a helpless infant and the continuing responsibility for thousands of other children under the care of the CFSA receivership raises the most serious questions about the progress of this receivership in eliminating the problems that necessitated its creation in the first place. As an analytical and policy indicator, neither Chairman Davis nor I would judge a receivership by one tragedy, even one as indisputably unnecessary as the death of the infant, Brianna. At the same time, the failure of literally every adult and every institution responsible for Brianna has provoked understandable outrage from everyone who has heard the tragedy of avoidable errors that led in a straight line to this child's death. Nothing that we have learned since has relieved our fear that a similar tragedy could not occur again. Therefore, even before the final GAO reports are in, we feel compelled by what we already know to move legislation. Chairman Davis has joined me in sponsoring H.R. 3995, the D.C. Receivership Accountability Act of 2000, which we will mark up today. It compels receivers to meet the same standards the public has a right to expect of any official charged with the care of children and other residents and of any official privileged to allocate taxpayer funds.

My concern with the record of these receiverships is increased because they were taken from the District by the courts because of systemic failure by the city. Yet, the receivership agencies apparently have not always been closely and effectively supervised by the receivers and the monitors, and improvement has been tortuously slow. The CFSA Receivership is on its second receiver after the first one brought too little improvement. The continuing failures, culminating in Brianna's death, are particularly troubling considering that the receiver has been given by the Court "all necessary authority to ensure full compliance."

Unlike the receivers, the D.C. government is installing the most rigorous set of management and accountability systems. I applaud Mayor Williams for his initiative in appointing his own Special Counsel to coordinate matters between the receivers and the District and to work on a transition of these functions to the District. Years ago, the city failed the children and other residents these functions serve. Today, we hear whether one receivership has done any better. At the end of these hearings on all the receiverships, we will know whether the right question is would District do better or could the city do any worse.

I thank Chairman Davis for holding this hearing and look forward to hearing from the witnesses today.

Statement by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton on DC Child and Family Services May 5, 2000

STATEMENT OF CONGRESSWOMAN ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON HEARING ON THE STATUS OF D.C. CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES May 5, 2000

Statement by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton on DC Child and Family Services
May 5, 2000

STATEMENT OF CONGRESSWOMAN ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON HEARING ON THE STATUS OF D.C. CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES
May 5, 2000