Legislative History

$450 Million for Mentoring

In the 2003 State of the Union address and at a January 30, 2003 event, President George W. Bush called on Congress to provide $450 million over three years to recruit and train one million mentors for disadvantaged middle-school children and children whose parents are incarcerated. This proposal represents a three-fold increase over FY2003 funding.

Specifically, the President recommended $100 million annually for the Department of Education's Mentoring for Success and $50 million per year for the Department of Health and Human Service's Mentoring for Children of Prisoners program that provides mentors to middle-school children whose parents are incarcerated. The history of these two programs is discussed in detail below.

The President also urged Americans to volunteer as mentors. The government agency USA Freedom Corps now maintains a searchable database of volunteer opportunities that includes all programs registered on MENTOR’s website.

2003-05 Advocacy Effort

In partnership with the grassroots mentoring community and other national and state mentoring organizations, MENTOR advocated throughout 2003 for the President’s proposed $150 million in funding for mentoring. Many strategies were used to build support in Congress for this substantial increase, in a time where most programs were facing minimal increases, level funding or even cuts.

MENTOR conducted meetings with key Congressional offices to inform them about the need for mentoring funding, MENTOR’s Public Policy Council wrote official letters to Congress requesting support, and several mentoring supporters submitted testimony to the Appropriations Committee making the case for increased funding. Grassroots mentoring supporters were periodically asked to contact their legislators at key times throughout the appropriations process.

Congressional supporters were critical allies during this process. In April 2003, 65 Members of Congress signed a letter to the Appropriations Committee in support of the President’s proposed $150 million for mentoring. In September 2003, five Senators -- Chairman Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), Ranking Member Tom Harkin (Iowa), George Allen (Virginia), Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), and Ben Nelson (Nebraska) – discussed mentoring funding on the Senate floor. During their exchange, called a colloquy, they agreed to work together to reach the House funding level of $75 million in the Conference Committee.

As the culmination of these efforts, the final FY2004 omnibus appropriations bill, which was signed into law on January 23, 2004, included $100 million in funding for 2004 ($50 million for Mentoring Programs and $50 million for Mentoring for Children of Prisoners).

These advocacy efforts continued in 2004 and 2005 for the FY2005 and FY2006 appropriations process. The ultimate outcome of these efforts was level funding, $100 million, for mentoring.

2006-08 Advocacy Effort

In FY2007, MENTOR worked with the mentoring community to advocate on behalf of $80 million for mentoring. The President's FY2007 budget proposed $59 million for mentoring, thus assuring that no new grants could be awarded. The $80 million funding level for mentoring -- $40 million for Mentoring Programs and $40 million for Mentoring Children of Prisoners -- would ensure that funding would be continued for existing grant recipients as well as making funding available for new grants.

During the FY2007 process, MENTOR contacted key Members of Congress to ask for their support of $80 million for mentoring, and asked members of the mentoring community to contact their Representatives and Senators during key points of the appropriations process as well. Fortunately, the FY2007 final spending bill funds both programs at FY2006 levels, ensuring a $100 million funding level for mentoring.

FY2008 posed a new funding challenge for mentoring. The President's budget proposed eliminating all funding for ED's Mentoring Programs grants, a cut of $50 million. The President's budget did propose continuing to fund Mentoring for Children of Prisoners at $50 million. MENTOR worked with Congress to sustain mentoring funding at $100 million, and was successful in doing so through the FY2008 omnibus appropriations package.

History of Mentoring Programs

In 2001, MENTOR worked with Congressman Tom Osborne of Nebraska on the Mentoring for Success Act (H.R. 1501). This bill authorized the creation of a new federal, competitive grant program for local mentoring organizations that would be flexible and available to mentoring programs all around the country. Through bipartisan support, the Mentoring for Success Act was included in the No Child Left Behind Act (H.R. 1). The new grant program was renamed “Mentoring Programs” and given a home in the US Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities.

Mentoring Programs provides grants to local, direct-service mentoring organizations to establish or expand their mentoring program. The grants can support recruiting, screening, and training of mentors, as well as hiring and professional development of mentoring coordinators and support staff. Community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and schools are eligible to apply for funding.

Mentoring Programs were funded in FY2002 and FY2003 at $17.5 million. In FY2004, Congress appropriated $50 million for this program, and in FY2005 - FY2007 Mentoring for Success received level funding. This program faced elimination in FY2008 and again in FY2009, as the President’s budget requests no funding for this program. Fortunately, Congress continued to fund the program at $50 million in FY2008. The FY2009 appropriations process is currently ongoing.

This program is the perfect example of what is possible through grassroots advocacy. Without the grassroots support of the mentoring community, this new grant program would never have been created or funded! Now we need the grassroots support of the mentoring community to save this important program from elimination!

History of Mentoring for Children of Prisoners

The Mentoring for Children of Prisoners program was created through the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001. The goal of the program is to help more than 100,000 children of incarcerated parents between the ages of 10 and 14 find an adult mentor. Grants are awarded to nationally-affiliated youth serving programs and independent community and faith-based organizations to support school and community-based mentoring programs. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families oversees the program.