Testimony on HB 5984 — Child Abuse Reporting
Written Testimony of Michigan Catholic Conference
7 May 2002
House Bill 5984
House Committee on Family and Children Services
Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Paul Long and I am the vice president for public policy with the Michigan Catholic Conference. I want to thank you for providing this opportunity to offer our reflections on House Bill 5984.
As you know, the Michigan Catholic Conference is the public policy voice for the Catholic Church in this state. We are grateful to Representative DeWeese for providing us the opportunity to offer comments as the bill was being drafted. In a perfect world, this amendment to the Child Protection Law would be unnecessary. Unfortunately, the last several months have shown that we do not live in a perfect world.
It is our belief that House Bill 5984 will do three things. It will provide added protection to children from abuse, it will make those who would abuse children responsible to the appropriate officials; and, it will protect religious freedom as provided by the First Amendment.
We recommend approval of the bill.
Thank you.
