I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 477
To amend title V of the Social Security Act to establish a grant program
for community-based maternal mentoring programs.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY24, 2023
Mrs. M
ILLERof West Virginia introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend title V of the Social Security Act to establish
a grant program for community-based maternal men-
toring programs.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Mentors 4
for Moms Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR COMMUNITY-BASED MATERNAL MEN-6
TORING PROGRAMS. 7
Title V of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 701 8
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 9
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‘‘SEC. 514. GRANTS FOR COMMUNITY-BASED MATERNAL 1
MENTORING PROGRAMS. 2
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—In addition to any other pay-3
ments made under this title to a State, the Secretary shall 4
make grants to eligible entities to conduct demonstration 5
projects for, and enable such entities to deliver services 6
under, community-based mentoring programs that satisfy 7
the requirements of subsection (c) to eligible mothers in 8
order to promote improvements in maternal and child well- 9
being, financial stewardship, child development, parenting, 10
and access to social services and other community re-11
sources. 12
‘‘(b) A
PPLICATION.—The Secretary may not award 13
funds made available under this subsection on a non-14
competitive basis, and may not provide any such funds to 15
an entity for the purpose of carrying out a community- 16
based mentoring program unless the entity has submitted 17
an application to the Secretary that includes— 18
‘‘(1) a description of how the programs or ac-19
tivities proposed in the application will improve ma-20
ternal mental and physical health outcomes in a 21
service area identified by the entity, substantially in-22
crease the number of eligible mothers in a service 23
area with access to a community-based mentoring 24
relationship, utilize community volunteer mentors, 25
and supplement, including by avoiding duplication 26
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with, existing social services and community re-1
sources; 2
‘‘(2) a description of how the program will part-3
ner with other community institutions, including pri-4
vate institutions, in identifying eligible mothers in 5
need of a mentor and, as applicable, creating sup-6
port communities among eligible mothers; 7
‘‘(3) a description of the populations to be 8
served by the entity, including specific information 9
on how the entity will serve eligible mothers who be-10
long to high-risk populations as identified in sub-11
section (d); 12
‘‘(4) a description of the maternal and child 13
health indicators, financial well-being, and other 14
needs of populations to be served by the entity as 15
described in paragraph (3), including, to the extent 16
practicable, the prevalence of mentoring opportuni-17
ties for such populations; 18
‘‘(5) the quantifiable benchmarks that will be 19
used to measure program success; 20
‘‘(6) a commitment by the entity to consult 21
with experts with a demonstrated history of men-22
toring and case management success in achieving 23
the outcomes described in subsection (c)(2)(A) in de-24
veloping the programs and activities; and 25
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‘‘(7) such other application information as the 1
Secretary may deem necessary, with the goal of 2
minimizing the application burden on small non-3
governmental organizations that would otherwise 4
qualify for the grant. 5
‘‘(c) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 6
‘‘(1) C
ORE COMPONENTS .—A community ma-7
ternal mentoring program conducted with a grant 8
made under this section shall include the following 9
core components: 10
‘‘(A) Provision of community-based men-11
toring relationships for eligible mothers, which 12
may include dedicated individual mentors and 13
networks of peer and community support 14
groups. 15
‘‘(B) An individualized needs assessment 16
for each eligible mother participating in the 17
program, to be administered at the outset of 18
the program. 19
‘‘(C) Recruitment and utilization of com-20
munity-based, volunteer mentors. 21
‘‘(D) Provision of training to participating 22
mentors to equip them with mentoring best 23
practices and knowledge of public and private 24
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resources available to eligible mothers (includ-1
ing public social services). 2
‘‘(2) M
EASURABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN BENCH -3
MARK AREAS.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The eligible entity 5
shall establish, subject to the approval of the 6
Secretary, quantifiable, measurable 3- and 5- 7
year benchmarks demonstrating the program 8
results in improvements for eligible mothers 9
participating in the program in the following 10
areas: 11
‘‘(i) The number of eligible mothers in 12
the eligible entity’s service area with access 13
to a community-based mentoring relation-14
ship. 15
‘‘(ii) Improved maternal and child 16
health, including mental and behavioral 17
health. 18
‘‘(iii) Improved financial literacy. 19
‘‘(iv) Improved family economic self- 20
sufficiency. 21
‘‘(v) Improved coordination and refer-22
rals for other community resources and 23
supports, including public and private re-24
sources. 25
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‘‘(B) DEMONSTRATION OF IMPROVE -1
MENT.— 2
‘‘(i) R
EPORT TO THE SECRETARY .— 3
Not later than 30 days after the end of the 4
third year in which the eligible entity con-5
ducts the program, the entity shall submit 6
to the Secretary a report describing the 7
program’s results in the areas specified in 8
subparagraph (A). 9
‘‘(ii) I
MPROVEMENT PLAN .—If the re-10
port submitted to the Secretary fails to 11
demonstrate improvements in at least 3 of 12
the areas outlined in subparagraph (A), 13
the eligible entity shall develop and imple-14
ment a plan to improve outcomes in each 15
of the areas specified in subparagraph (A), 16
subject to approval by the Secretary. 17
‘‘(iii) N
O IMPROVEMENT OR FAILURE 18
TO SUBMIT REPORT .—If, 1 year after an 19
eligible entity submits an improvement 20
plan under clause (ii), the Secretary deter-21
mines that the entity has failed to dem-22
onstrate any improvement in the areas 23
specified in subparagraph (A), or if the 24
Secretary determines that an eligible entity 25
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has failed to submit the report required 1
under clause (i), and has not agreed to a 2
reasonable timeline to submit such report 3
under such conditions as may be deter-4
mined by the Secretary, the Secretary shall 5
terminate the entity’s grant and may re-6
allocate any unpaid grant funds toward fu-7
ture grants provided under this section. 8
‘‘(3) I
MPROVEMENTS IN PARTICIPANT OUT -9
COMES.— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The program is de-11
signed, with respect to an eligible mother par-12
ticipating in the program, to result in the par-13
ticipant outcomes described in subparagraph 14
(B) that are relevant to the mother (as deter-15
mined pursuant to an individualized needs as-16
sessment administered to the mother). 17
‘‘(B) P
ARTICIPANT OUTCOMES .—The par-18
ticipant outcomes described in this subpara-19
graph are the following: 20
‘‘(i) Improvements in prenatal and 21
maternal health, including mental and be-22
havioral health and improved pregnancy 23
outcomes. 24
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‘‘(ii) Improvements in child health 1
and development, including the prevention 2
of child injuries and maltreatment. 3
‘‘(iii) Higher levels of engagement be-4
tween mothers, children, and their health 5
providers. 6
‘‘(iv) Reductions in mother’s stress 7
and anxiety. 8
‘‘(v) Improvements in parenting skills. 9
‘‘(vi) Improvement in financial literacy 10
skills. 11
‘‘(vii) Improvements in child’s school 12
readiness and academic achievement. 13
‘‘(viii) Improvements in family eco-14
nomic self-sufficiency. 15
‘‘(ix) Improvements in the coordina-16
tion of referrals for, and the provision of, 17
other community resources, including pri-18
vate and public resources, and supports for 19
eligible families. 20
‘‘(d) P
RIORITIZATION.—An eligible entity receiving a 21
grant under this section shall identify and prioritize high- 22
risk populations in provision of services, including— 23
‘‘(1) low-income eligible mothers; 24
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‘‘(2) eligible mothers who are pregnant women 1
who have not attained the age of 21; 2
‘‘(3) eligible mothers from populations with a 3
high risk of maternal morbidity; 4
‘‘(4) eligible mothers with a history of sub-5
stance abuse or victims of domestic abuse; 6
‘‘(5) eligible mothers with children with develop-7
mental disabilities; and 8
‘‘(6) eligible mothers residing in a qualified op-9
portunity zone, as designated under section 1400Z– 10
1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 11
‘‘(e) M
AINTENANCE OFEFFORT.—Funds provided to 12
an eligible entity under a grant awarded under subsection 13
(a) shall supplement, and not supplant, funds from other 14
sources for maternal mentorship or case management 15
services. 16
‘‘(f)(1) E
VALUATION.—The Secretary shall engage in 17
ongoing research and evaluation activities in order to in-18
crease knowledge about the implementation and effective-19
ness of community maternal mentoring programs. The 20
Secretary may carry out such activities directly, or 21
through grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts, and 22
shall submit a report to Congress not less than annually 23
on the research and evaluation steps being taken to meas-24
ure the impact and effectiveness of programs funded 25
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under this subchapter, as well as any interim outcomes 1
that may be available. 2
‘‘(2) R
EPORTREQUIREMENT.—Not later than 3 3
years after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec-4
retary shall submit a report to Congress on the effective-5
ness of programs funded with grants under subsection (a) 6
in producing the outcomes described in subsection 7
(c)(3)(B), which shall include recommendations for im-8
proving program design and implementation. 9
‘‘(g) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 10
provide an eligible entity required to develop and imple-11
ment an improvement plan under clause (c)(2)(B) with 12
technical assistance to develop and implement the plan. 13
The Secretary may provide the technical assistance di-14
rectly or through grants, contracts, or cooperative agree-15
ments. 16
‘‘(h) N
OFUNDS TOPROHIBITEDENTITIES.—No 17
prohibited entity shall be eligible to receive a grant under 18
subsection (a), or any other funds made available by this 19
section. 20
‘‘(i) P
ROTECTIONS FOR PARTICIPATINGRELIGIOUS 21
O
RGANIZATIONS.—A religious organization shall be eligi-22
ble to apply for and receive funding for a program under 23
this section on the same basis as a nonreligious organiza-24
tion, and a religious organization’s exemptions, in title VII 25
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of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (including exemption from 1
prohibitions in employment discrimination in section 2
702(a) of that Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e–1(a))), title VIII of 3
the Civil Rights Act of 1968, title IX of the Educational 4
Amendments of 1987, the Americans with Disabilities Act, 5
the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Religious 6
Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or any other 7
provision in law providing an exemption for a religious or-8
ganization, shall not be waived by its participation in, or 9
receipt of funds from, a grant provided by this section. 10
‘‘(j) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For 11
purposes of carrying out this section, there are authorized 12
to be appropriated $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 13
2024 through 2026. 14
‘‘(1) R
ESERVATIONS.—Of the amounts appro-15
priated under this subsection for a fiscal year (or 16
portion of a fiscal year), the Secretary shall reserve 17
3 percent for purposes of carrying out subsections 18
(f) and (g). 19
‘‘(2) A
VAILABILITY.—Funds made available to 20
an eligible entity under this section for a fiscal year 21
(or portion of a fiscal year) shall remain available 22
for expenditure by the eligible entity through the end 23
of the third succeeding fiscal year after award. 24
‘‘(k) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 25
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‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en-1
tity’ means a local government, Indian Tribe (or a 2
consortium of Indian Tribes), Tribal Organization, 3
Urban Indian Organization, or nonprofit organiza-4
tion, including religious organizations, with a dem-5
onstrated history of serving eligible mothers. 6
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBLE MOTHER.—The term ‘eligible 7
mother’ means— 8
‘‘(A) a woman who is pregnant; or 9
‘‘(B) a woman who has primary caregiving 10
responsibilities for a child under the age of 6. 11
‘‘(3) P
ROHIBITED ENTITY.—The term ‘prohib-12
ited entity’ means an entity, including its affiliates, 13
subsidiaries, successors, and clinics that, as of the 14
date of enactment of this section, performs, induces, 15
refers for, or counsels in favor of abortions, or pro-16
vides financial support to any other organization 17
that conducts such activities. 18
‘‘(4) C
OMMUNITY-BASED MENTORING RELA -19
TIONSHIP.—The term ‘community-based mentoring 20
relationship’ means a dedicated mentor and, as ap-21
plicable, group of mentors or a peer support group, 22
that meet regularly with an eligible mother and help 23
that mother address barriers to care, mental, behav-24
ioral, and physical well-being, and economic mobility 25
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by providing support services and linkages to com-1
munity resources. A community-based mentoring re-2
lationship should, to the extent practicable, have an 3
understanding of the barriers and lived experience of 4
that community, which may include shared lived ex-5
perience.’’. 6
Æ
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