II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 659
To establish a grant program within the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention to award grants to States that require the re-
cording of all child welfare interviews with children and adults, and
for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY20, 2025
Mrs. B
LACKBURNintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To establish a grant program within the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention to award grants to
States that require the recording of all child welfare
interviews with children and adults, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Generate Recordings 4
of All Child protective Interviews Everywhere Act’’ or the 5
‘‘GRACIE Act of 2025’’. 6
VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:39 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•S 659 IS
SEC. 2. CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE INTERVIEW RECORD-1
ING GRANTS. 2
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) C
HILD WELFARE INTERVIEW .—The term 4
‘‘child welfare interview’’ means a documented inter-5
view with all relevant parties, including a child and 6
an adult, conducted by a child protective services 7
agency of a State in order to elicit information re-8
garding concerns of abuse, neglect, or exposure to 9
violence. 10
(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 11
the Director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and 12
Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Jus-13
tice. 14
(3) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-15
ty’’ means a child protective services agency of a 16
State that has in effect a statute, ordinance, policy, 17
or practice that requires— 18
(A) any child welfare interview conducted 19
by a child protective services agency of the 20
State to be recorded through— 21
(i) electronic audio recording; 22
(ii) body camera video; or 23
(iii) any other reasonable means of re-24
cording; and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:39 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•S 659 IS
(B) the retention and storage of a record-1
ing described in subparagraph (A)— 2
(i) for not less than 5 years; and 3
(ii) in a manner consistent with the 4
protocols established by the State for such 5
recordings, which shall include that— 6
(I) a copy of such a recording— 7
(aa) subject to item (bb), 8
may only be released to those in-9
vestigating an allegation; and 10
(bb) upon a request by a 11
caregiver or guardian in connec-12
tion with a judicial proceeding, 13
shall be made available to the 14
caregiver or guardian, unless the 15
court orders otherwise; 16
(II) a penalty is imposed for a 17
violation of a limitation described in 18
subclause (I); and 19
(III) the retention systems of the 20
child protective services agency se-21
curely manage the storage and dis-22
tribution of such a recording with ac-23
cess controls and role-based permis-24
sion management. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:39 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•S 659 IS
(4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means— 1
(A) each of the several States; 2
(B) the District of Columbia; 3
(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 4
and 5
(D) any territory or possession of the 6
United States. 7
(b) G
RANTS.—The Director may award a grant to 8
an eligible entity for the purpose of recording and storing 9
all child welfare interviews conducted by the eligible entity. 10
(c) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible entity seeking a grant 11
under this section shall submit to the Director an applica-12
tion at such time, in such manner, and containing such 13
information as the Director may require. 14
(d) U
SE OFFUNDS.—Amounts received under a 15
grant under this section shall be used exclusively for costs 16
directly associated with conducting and retaining for 5 17
years the recording of all child welfare interviews by a 18
child protective services agency of a State, including initial 19
interviews conducted during a family assessment. 20
(e) F
UNDING.—The Director shall carry out this sec-21
tion using amounts otherwise available to the Director. 22
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:39 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB