ACTION ALERT: Congress considers bills (Affecting Registered Sex Offenders) behind closed doors without advising the public of content of bills

3-27-2012 Washington DC:

Nary a day goes by that I do not learn some new hidden facet of Congressional procedure used to keep the Public from knowing what they are doing. Openness is not in their dictionary. Then again, maybe this is just me learning what many others already know.. OK here goes..most folks know I search the Thomas website for any bill affecting sex offenders or their families and let folks know about them.

Well, I was alerted of a bill a while back that would affect many former sex offenders and was told it is in the works in Congress. Accordingly I scanned the Thomas site till my face was blue and could not find anything referencing what I was told.

I found it, but at the same time I found a procedure used by Congress which prevents the general Public from knowing what they are working on. That Comes First! Apparently they are allowed to work on a bill "WITHOUT ASSIGNING a BILL a NUMBER," and by not assigning it a number there is no way the Public will ever know the bill exists. No number means its not entered into Thomas website; that website is the Public's way of knowing and following whats going to ultimately affect them. Congress is then allowed to do whatever with the bill without being troubled by Public Opinion or Public input, until the last second and the result is the Public is blindsided and does not have time to PROPERLY respond or shape the bill fairly.

OK, so much for Congressional trickery! Today, this news article "Section 8 bill roils housing reform debate," is discussing Public Housing Reform; what I had been looking for. TWO Lawmakers are mentioned, each of which have supposedly authored bills affecting Section 8 Housing (Public Housing for folks who cannot afford today's average rental costs.)

Now if you were to search Thomas for bill by Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio you will find HR 4145 Section 8 Reform, Responsibility, and Accountability Act of 2012. But if you search for bills by Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill. there is nothing affecting Section 8 Housing.

But the article also says Rep. Biggert's bill was approved by the Committee she is Chairman of; The House Financial Services subcommittee (Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity). With that clue I went to that committee website, and under "Hearings/Legislation" > "Markups" I found the following, notice two bills have no number and a third one does, those with no number do not appear in the Thomas website! CLICK to see for yourself.

The one affecting CERTAIN former sex offenders is "Affordable Housing and Self-Sufficiency Improvement Act of 2012" which contains the following:

SEC. 108. SCREENING OF APPLICANTS.

(c) REMOVAL OF SEX OFFENDERS.—Section 578 of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 13663) is amended by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following new subsection:

a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an owner of federally assisted housing—

(1) shall prohibit admission to such housing for any household that includes an individual who is subject to a lifetime registration requirement under a State sex offender registration program; and

(2) shall terminate assistance to, and any lease or right to occupancy of such housing by, any household that includes any individual who is subject to a lifetime registration requirement under a State sex offender registration program.

Now before we go further we need to understand what 42 USC 13663 is, Title says: "Ineligibility of dangerous sex offenders for admission to public housing." Under that law Public Housing was supposed to prohibit ADMISSION of an application if anyone in the Household was required to register for a "Lifetime." However, it does not require anyone who is already in public housing to be EVICTED.

This new bill will change that and also EVICT folks who fit the criteria, and are living there already. Today, under HUD, anyone required to register for a "LIFETIME" is automatically, without any form of hearing, considered a "DANGEROUS SEX OFFENDER."

Background on HUD use of "Lifetime Requirement" and "Dangerousness" label: Honestly I do not know an exact date when HUD began using the "Lifetime Registration" requirement nor when they attached a "dangerousness" to those folks, but I have studied and commented on this for several years now. And, the obvious problem is, in the past, lifetime registration was found by some assessment of the facts of a person's case; a hypothetical projection of further recidivism, using a tool of some sort, etc.. In other words, the person was reasonably assessed in some fashion before attaching a "lifetime requirement" and the hypothetical "dangerousness" belief; effectively due process was employed.

And, if you look closer at the current version of 42 USC 13663(d)

42 USC 13663(d) Opportunity to dispute: Before an adverse action is taken with respect to an applicant for federally assisted housing on the basis that an individual is subject to a lifetime registration requirement under a State sex offender registration program, the public housing agency obtaining the record shall provide the tenant or applicant with a copy of the registration information and an opportunity to dispute the accuracy and relevance of that information.

Currently lifetime registrants are allowed to present rebuttal evidence for consideration, to thwart eviction process, before a final decision (due process). All this disappears if this 2012 bill becomes law; and remember, the bill evicts the registrant and any HOUSEHOLD members. Not only is the registrant further punished based on past crime, so is any family. Clearly FAMILY rights are at issue!

Evolution of State Registries: As states enacted registry laws (early-mid 1990s), many states had some form of assessing registrants and assigning levels; those levels represented a hypothetical risk of further recidivism. And all states only required certain former offenders to register. As time went by more and more offense types were required to register. States also increased the term of registration, and some went to lifetime for everyone required to register, in that state. In essence, with no further registrant conduct, formerly convicted were being scooped under the registration umbrella. The giant legislative octopus was in action, based on the same high profile cases. Today's number of registrants (unverifiable) over 700,000 (NCMEC); with many states including those still in prison.

Enter the Adam Walsh Act (AWA) in 2006: While there is nothing in this 2012 bill which even mentions AWA, there is something in AWA that comes into play with the affected HUD registrants. These folks WILL BE EVICTED and forced to live on the streets or otherwise fend for themselves; Big Brother in action. One more disaster caused by AWA.

How, you ask? AWA retroactively applies its own legislative created classification system; AWA effectively turns back the clock and assigns a level (I-II-III) based on the crime committed, at the point the crime was committed. AWA throws away any rehabilitation the registrant may have had through prison programming, treatment and other community and programming.

AWA forces the world to think registrants are TODAY as bad as they WERE when they first committed their crime; 5-10-15-20-30 years ago. Lawmakers designed AWA to hide any rehabilitation that registrants may have had. Any assessments that had been done by Professionals are also tossed; AWA starts the clock over as if the crimes were committed yesterday.

The effect of the AWA re-classification system in this 2012 bill is this, many registrants' levels have been raised (which previously had been reduced by their years of rehabilitation [prison time, programming and treatment]). A significant number of registrants are now (clocked backwards in time) to level III which also requires "Lifetime Registration." The very thing that triggers the EVICTION provision of this 2012 bill.

Who are the affected registrants: These are folks who are most in need of assistance, generally older folks whose working years are past or because of today's registry laws, prevented from working. They legally completed Public Housing applications and were assessed needy of these services, and with no further conduct on their part, are to be evicted. Look in the mirror, is this you, or is it your parents, who will support them if evicted? Right, most will end up homeless and on Welfare Rolls with society paying for a far greater portion of their support than if they were allowed to stay in Public Housing.

Does this make sense?

Today we need every former offender and their families to be contacting their representatives in Congress, asking them to vote NO when this comes before them for a vote. And to those who feel, this is not my fight, well, it is a issue which all will face someday! Vote NO, tell your in Washington DC reps; VOTE NO!

For now have a great day and a better tomorrow.
eAdvocate

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