[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 7, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SUPPORT THE ADOPTION PROMOTION AND STABILITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Canady] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CANADY of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address an issue of 
great importance to everyone who cares about children. Today, there are 
hundreds of thousands of children who should be thriving in the love 
and care of adoptive parents. Tragically, they are not. Instead they 
are shuttling from foster family to foster family. In fact, this year a 
mere 10 percent of the 500,000 children in State foster care programs 
will move into permanent adoptive homes. This is not something out of 
Charles Dickens. It is happening today--in the United States of 
America.
  We have come to this sorry state of affairs for many reasons, but two 
are paramount. First, the cost of adoption for many moderate-income 
families is prohibitive. Second, liberal social welfare policy has made 
interethnic adoption nearly impossible.
  According to the National Council for Adoption, as many as 2 million 
families could be waiting for a child to adopt. But barriers like cost 
get in the way. Adoption expenses can total us to $20,000. This 
financial burden is a major disincentive for moderate-income families 
wishing to adopt children.
  A second barrier to adoption is the Federal law that permits States 
to use race in the placement of children in foster care and adoption. 
This law has clearly backfired. The use of race-matching has delayed 
the adoption of minority children, who remain in foster care at least 
twice as long as nonminority children. Today, 49 percent of children in 
foster care are minorities. A third of foster children are black.
  I ask my colleagues: Is it fair to these innocent children to trap 
them in the foster care system simply because of the color of their 
skin? The love of a family knows no race. It is unconscionable that any 
child needing the love and care of a family he can call his own would 
be denied that love and care simply because the prospective adoptive 
family is of a different race. That is a grave injustice to the child 
who needs a home and to the family who waits with open arms.
  Mr. Speaker, the Congress can help remove these barriers to adoption 
through swift passage of H.R. 3236, the Adoption Promotion and 
Stability Act. This bill makes two important reforms.
  First, the bill revises the Tax Code to make adoption more affordable 
for families. H.R. 3236 provides a $5,000 tax credit for adoption 
expenses. The bill also provides a $5,000 per child tax exclusion for 
employer-paid adoption assistance. I believe this provision will 
encourage more moderate-income families to adopt children.
  Second, the bill removes barriers to interracial adoption. Currently, 
the law allows placement agencies to use the racial background of the 
child as a criterion in making placement decisions. This bill prohibits 
the use of race to delay or deny placement of a child into a foster or 
adoptive home. I believe this provision will go a long way to end the 
intolerable delay associated with race-matching. It will ensure that 
placement agencies make the best interests of children their top 
priority.
  In addition, I must note that many American Indian children are 
suffering in the current foster care and adoption system. Currently, 
tribes can delay the adoption of a child of American Indian descent 
because of the Indian Child Welfare Act. This law was intended to 
protect the integrity and heritage of American Indian tribes. Yet the 
law allows tribes to interfere with adoption decisions due to its 
ambiguity and broad application. As a result, litigations out of 
control, and Indian children are not being adopted. A provision of H.R. 
3286, which was stripped from the bill in committee, would have 
established safeguards against the arbitrary, retroactive designation 
of children as members of a tribe. This would prevent a tribe from 
invoking the Indian Child Welfare Act to interfere with legitimate, 
voluntary adoptions. Should an amendment be offered to restore this 
provision of the bill, I urge my colleagues to support it.
  Children must be afforded every opportunity to live in a happy, safe, 
secure, and--perhaps most important--permanent family environment. The 
provisions of this bill help to achieve this goal. I want to thank Ms. 
Molinari and Mr. Archer for their leadership on this issue. I also 
commend Mr. Bunning, Ms. Pryce, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Tiahrt, and Mr. Shaw 
for their strong support of this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot take the hundreds of thousands of children 
languishing in foster care and match them with loving parents 
overnight. But with passage of the Adoption Promotion and Stability 
Act, we are taking an important step. I urge my colleagues to meet the 
needs of foster children across the country. I urge you to support this 
bill.

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