[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1931-E1932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         INTRODUCTION OF THE INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 22, 1999

  Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join with Chairman Gilman 
and over 30 of our colleagues in introducing the Intercountry Adoption 
Act of 1999.
  This bipartisan legislation will implement the Hague Convention on 
Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry 
Adoption (the ``Hague Convention''), which the President transmitted to 
the Senate for its advice and consent on June 11, 1999.
  Prompt U.S. ratification and implementation of the Hague Convention 
is of enormous importance to many thousands of needy children 
throughout the world and the American families who adopt them. The 
Convention establishes a legal framework for protecting these children 
and families by ensuring that agencies and individuals involved in the 
intercountry adoption process meet standards of competence, financial 
soundness, and ethical behavior. It creates a structure to strengthen 
international cooperation in adoption cases, and to ease the burdens of 
what can be an expensive, time-consuming and stressful process.
  As the adoptive parent of a child born overseas, I know what the 
Convention will mean to countless families like mine.
  The Intercountry Adoption Act provides a blueprint that will enable 
the United States to carry out its obligations under the Convention, 
ensuring reciprocal recognition of adoptions by the United States and 
other Convention countries, eliminating much current paperwork 
connected with the legalization of documents, and creating legally 
enforceable safeguards for adoptive children and their families.
  The bill designates the Department of State as the ``central 
authority'' for the United States, with responsibility for liaison with 
the

[[Page E1932]]

central authorities of other Convention countries and the coordination 
of Convention activities by persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
  The bill also assigns certain key functions to various domestic 
agencies, to be carried out in consultation with the Secretary of 
State. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is given 
responsibility for overseeing the accreditation and approval of 
organizations and individuals providing adoption services in the United 
States in connection with Convention adoptions. To the Attorney General 
are given various duties related to immigration, record keeping and 
privacy requirements.
  This legislation is the culmination of many months of hard work, and 
is the result of extensive consultation with many parties, including 
the administration and the U.S. adoption community.
  We have taken a ``minimalist'' approach to our task, deferring, 
wherever possible, to the state laws by which we have always regulated 
adoption in this country, and resisting attempts to use the bill as a 
vehicle for carrying out changes to domestic adoption practices at the 
federal level that are not required to bring our laws into compliance 
with the Convention.
  Our goal throughout this process has been to put adoptive children 
first, through the prompt ratification and implementation of the 
Convention. We have done our utmost to steer clear of extraneous issues 
that might delay or derail that objective
  The International Relations Committee and the Committee on Ways and 
Means will shortly begin consideration of this legislation, and it is 
my sincere hope that the bill will move forward expeditiously in the 
same spirit of cooperation that has enabled us to reach this milestone.

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