Senators Leahy and Collins Introduce the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act

On January 27th, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) (42 U.S.C. 5701 et seq.). Senator Ayotte (R-NH) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) joined this important bipartisan effort as original bill cosponsors. The National Network for Youth (NN4Y) has been leading the reauthorization of RHYA with its partners and convened a group of 35 experts who collaborated and developed recommendations for critical updates to the legislation. The Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act (S.262) introduced Tuesday in the Senate includes similar updates that H.R. 468 made, but also includes provisions for collecting data on victims of human trafficking, adds a nondiscrimination clause that brings the Act into accordance with the federal regulations that most runaway and homeless youth programs currently follow, and increases the allowable length of stay for Basic Center Programs from 21 to 30 days to give young people and their families more time to access reunification services when needed. The Senate bill also extends family intervention and reunification services to Transitional Living Programs when it is safe and appropriate for the youth. NN4Y describes S 262 as “a stronger and more comprehensive bill than H.R.468”.