Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB659 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 659
5	5	To establish a grant program within the Office of Juvenile Justice and
6	6	Delinquency Prevention to award grants to States that require the re-
7	7	cording of all child welfare interviews with children and adults, and
8	8	for other purposes.
9	9	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
10	10	FEBRUARY20, 2025
11	11	Mrs. B
12	12	LACKBURNintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
13	13	referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
14	14	A BILL
15	15	To establish a grant program within the Office of Juvenile
16	16	Justice and Delinquency Prevention to award grants to
17	17	States that require the recording of all child welfare
18	18	interviews with children and adults, and for other pur-
19	19	poses.
20	20	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
21	21	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
22	22	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
23	23	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Generate Recordings 4
24	24	of All Child protective Interviews Everywhere Act’’ or the 5
25	25	‘‘GRACIE Act of 2025’’. 6
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28	28	•S 659 IS
29	29	SEC. 2. CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE INTERVIEW RECORD-1
30	30	ING GRANTS. 2
31	31	(a) D
32	32	EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
33	33	(1) C
34	34	HILD WELFARE INTERVIEW .—The term 4
35	35	‘‘child welfare interview’’ means a documented inter-5
36	36	view with all relevant parties, including a child and 6
37	37	an adult, conducted by a child protective services 7
38	38	agency of a State in order to elicit information re-8
39	39	garding concerns of abuse, neglect, or exposure to 9
40	40	violence. 10
41	41	(2) D
42	42	IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 11
43	43	the Director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and 12
44	44	Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Jus-13
45	45	tice. 14
46	46	(3) E
47	47	LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-15
48	48	ty’’ means a child protective services agency of a 16
49	49	State that has in effect a statute, ordinance, policy, 17
50	50	or practice that requires— 18
51	51	(A) any child welfare interview conducted 19
52	52	by a child protective services agency of the 20
53	53	State to be recorded through— 21
54	54	(i) electronic audio recording; 22
55	55	(ii) body camera video; or 23
56	56	(iii) any other reasonable means of re-24
57	57	cording; and 25
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60	60	•S 659 IS
61	61	(B) the retention and storage of a record-1
62	62	ing described in subparagraph (A)— 2
63	63	(i) for not less than 5 years; and 3
64	64	(ii) in a manner consistent with the 4
65	65	protocols established by the State for such 5
66	66	recordings, which shall include that— 6
67	67	(I) a copy of such a recording— 7
68	68	(aa) subject to item (bb), 8
69	69	may only be released to those in-9
70	70	vestigating an allegation; and 10
71	71	(bb) upon a request by a 11
72	72	caregiver or guardian in connec-12
73	73	tion with a judicial proceeding, 13
74	74	shall be made available to the 14
75	75	caregiver or guardian, unless the 15
76	76	court orders otherwise; 16
77	77	(II) a penalty is imposed for a 17
78	78	violation of a limitation described in 18
79	79	subclause (I); and 19
80	80	(III) the retention systems of the 20
81	81	child protective services agency se-21
82	82	curely manage the storage and dis-22
83	83	tribution of such a recording with ac-23
84	84	cess controls and role-based permis-24
85	85	sion management. 25
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88	88	•S 659 IS
89	89	(4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means— 1
90	90	(A) each of the several States; 2
91	91	(B) the District of Columbia; 3
92	92	(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 4
93	93	and 5
94	94	(D) any territory or possession of the 6
95	95	United States. 7
96	96	(b) G
97	97	RANTS.—The Director may award a grant to 8
98	98	an eligible entity for the purpose of recording and storing 9
99	99	all child welfare interviews conducted by the eligible entity. 10
100	100	(c) A
101	101	PPLICATION.—An eligible entity seeking a grant 11
102	102	under this section shall submit to the Director an applica-12
103	103	tion at such time, in such manner, and containing such 13
104	104	information as the Director may require. 14
105	105	(d) U
106	106	SE OFFUNDS.—Amounts received under a 15
107	107	grant under this section shall be used exclusively for costs 16
108	108	directly associated with conducting and retaining for 5 17
109	109	years the recording of all child welfare interviews by a 18
110	110	child protective services agency of a State, including initial 19
111	111	interviews conducted during a family assessment. 20
112	112	(e) F
113	113	UNDING.—The Director shall carry out this sec-21
114	114	tion using amounts otherwise available to the Director. 22
115	115	Æ
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