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<BillSummaries>
<item congress="113" measure-type="hr" measure-number="4143" measure-id="id113hr4143" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2014-03-04" update-date="2014-03-10">
<title>Children in Families First Act of 2014</title>
<summary summary-id="id113hr4143v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2014-03-10">
<action-date>2014-03-04</action-date>
<action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[<p>Children in Families First Act of 2014 - Establishes within the Department of State the Bureau of Vulnerable Children and Family Security which shall: (1) support the implementation in foreign countries of child welfare laws and policies; and (2) establish within the Bureau a Senior Coordinator for Permanence who shall lead the implementation of policies to ensure permanent family care for children living without families, including refugee and stateless children.</p> <p>States that the Bureau shall be headed by an Assistant Secretary and have lead responsibility for representing the U.S. government in diplomatic contacts pertaining to intercountry adoptions.</p> <p>Amends the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), to carry out the functions prescribed by the Convention regarding the accreditation of U.S. adoption services providers. </p> <p>Establishes data bases for: (1) internationally adopted children, and (2) adoption service providers.</p> <p>Transfers from the Secretary of State to the Field Operations Directorate of USCIS specified adoption-related functions, including accreditation of agencies and approval of persons to provide adoption services and oversight of provider investigations. </p> <p>Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), through USCIS, to: (1) be responsible for processing and case-specific decision making on all intercountry adoption cases, (2) ensure that all intercountry adoption suitability and eligibility determinations of prospective adoptive parents are made in accordance with criteria that comply with the Hague Adoption Convention, (3) ensure that all non-Convention adoption cases undergo specified preprocessing, and (4) be responsible for all case processing steps in Convention and non-Convention adoption petitions on behalf of children whom U.S. parents propose to immigrate to the United States.</p>  <p>Establishes within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) a Center of Excellence on Children in Adversity.</p> <p>Authorizes the President to provide assistance for programs in developing countries for nutrition, education, care, and protection of children.</p> <p>Requires USAID to carry out a priority country demonstration program implementing the (December 2012) Action Plan for Children in Adversity over a period of five years in at least six countries. </p> <p>Prohibits: (1) the authorization of appropriations to carry out this Act, and (2) funds from being awarded to the United Nations (U.N.) or any of its subsidiaries.</p>]]></summary-text>
</summary>
</item>
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<dc:language>EN</dc:language>
<dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
<dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
<dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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