[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 58 (Wednesday, March 29, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


             GOP WELFARE PLAN WEAKENS FOSTER CARE POLICIES

                                 ______


                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 28, 1995
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, in 1980 I was the principal 
House author of P.L. 96-272, the landmark law that reformed Federal 
foster care and adoption laws, and established both a priority for 
preventive service and legal protections for foster children to assure 
them access to services and an appropriate foster placement. In 
addition, this important law provided Federal supports for adoption of 
children who could not be returned to their natural families.
  The Republican welfare reform bill passed narrowly by the House last 
week is unfair to many, but none more so than the foster children who 
have no one to turn to but government for essential care. By 
eviscerating P.L. 96-272, the Republican bill will return us to the 
sorry situation prior to its enactment when States and even the Federal 
Government were unable even to tell us the number of children in foster 
placement, let alone the appropriateness of those placements, what 
services were being offered to the child and the natural parents, and 
what the long-term plan was for that child.
  Foster children today enjoy far better legal protection than prior to 
1980, but many States still need to be pressured to comply with the 
law's safeguards for these most vulnerable of children. In fact, nearly 
half of the States are today under court order, or have been sued, for 
violating the law.
  Yet despite the general sympathy for moving programs back to the 
local government, many of these entities recognize they cannot manage a 
foster care program on their own or without the support and guidance 
provided by P.L. 96-272. Indeed, organizations like the National 
Association of State Legislators and the National Association of 
Counties are on record as opposing the way the Republican welfare bill 
undermines the foster care policies of the last 15 years and places 
children at risk.
  It took 5 years of hard effort, working with States, children's 
organizations, the courts, and many others to achieve the major reform 
of 96-272. Yet foster children were barely recognized in the debate 
over the welfare bill of 1995.
  Let us not make foster children again the forgotten children. Let us 
not throw out important and valuable reforms based on some half-baked 
ideological crusade. I am hopeful that the Senate, which played a key 
role in the development of 96-272, will again intervene to save the 
safeguards that have improved the foster care system, and helped 
hundreds of thousands of children have a better chance at permanency 
and success.


                          ____________________