INTRODUCTION OF CENTER TO ADVANCE, MONITOR, AND PRESERVE UNIVERSITY SECURITY SAFETY ACT OF 2011

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia: Mr. Speaker, today I rise to introduce the Center to Advance, Monitor and Preserve University Security (''CAMPUS'') Safety Act of 2011. This legislation passed the House in both the 110th and 111th Congresses and I hope to get it signed into law in the 112th Congress. The purpose of the legislation is to enable our institutions of higher education to more easily obtain the best information available on how to keep our campuses safe and how to respond in the event of a campus emergency. The bill creates a National Center for Campus Public Safety (''Center''), which will be administered through the Department of Justice. The Center is designed to train campus public safety agencies in state of the art practices to assure campus safety, encourage research to strengthen college safety and security, and serve as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of relevant campus public safety information. The Director of the Center will have authority to award grants to institutions of higher learning to help them meet their enhanced public safety goals.

Over the past few years we have seen numerous tragedies occur at colleges and universities, including the disastrous events that occurred at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. Unfortunately, because these events were the first of their kind for the nation, our schools had not developed knowledge on how best to prevent such tragedies or on how to respond in their aftermath. Whilethere is growing awareness that such threats are possible anywhere, many schools still have not developed safety protocols that would prepare them to maximize the prospects of preventing such tragedies or to effectively respond to them should they occur despite sound prevention efforts. The recent shooting at Old Dominion University is an unfortunate reminder of the need for this legislation.

Our nation's colleges and universities play a large role in the development of our next generation of leaders and we should assist them in their efforts to keep our campuses and our students safe. The Clery Act already requires schools to have safety plans in order to participate in the Title IV deferral student aid programs, however, currently there is no one place for schools to obtain reliable and useful information. It makes little sense to require the thousands of institutions of higher education to individually go through the cost and effort to develop comprehensive plans. Instead, they ought to be able to obtain guidance and assistance, including best practices, from a ''one stop shop'' like the Center.

The CAMPUS Safety Act will help institutions of higher learning understand how to prevent such tragedies from occurring, and how to respond immediately and effectively in case they do.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor and support this important legislation to ensure that our institutions of higher education have access to the information necessary to keep their schools safe.