[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 58 (Thursday, April 10, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5188-S5189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ROCKEFELLER (for himself, Mr. DeWine, Ms. Landrieu, Ms. 
        Collins, Mr. Levin, and Mr. Johnson):
  S. 862. A bill to promote the adoption of children with special 
needs; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the 
Adoption Equality Act of 2003. I am proud to have a bipartisan group of 
cosponsors including Senators DeWine, Landrieu, Collins, Levin and 
Johnson. Work on this legislation is based on the bipartisan work of 
the Senate coalition that supported the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families 
Act, an historic effort to ensure that a child's safety and health are 
paramount, and that every child should have a permanent home.

[[Page S5189]]

  The Adoption and Safe Families Act was the most sweeping and 
comprehensive piece of child welfare legislation passed in over a 
decade, and since its enactment, adoptions from our foster care system 
have nearly doubled. In my State of West Virginia, adoptions have 
nearly tripled. Those adopted children now have a permanent home. But 
there are still 131,000 in foster care nationwide who have the goal of 
adoption but are still waiting. In West Virginia, we have 520 children 
in foster care waiting for adoption, but only 343 children might 
qualify for support. I believe each child with special needs who is 
waiting for adoption deserves help but under current law only some do. 
They are the innocent ones who were victims of abuse and neglect. 
Clearly we must do more for those children.
  Throughout the process of developing the Adoption Act we heard about 
the challenging circumstances facing children described as having 
``special needs''. These include children who are the most difficult to 
place into permanent homes, often due to their age, disability or 
status as part of a group of siblings needing to be placed together.
  One of the most significant provisions of ASFA was the assurance of 
ongoing health care coverage for all children with special needs who 
move from foster care to adoption. Parents willing to adopt such 
children were promised health care coverage in 1997 which is essential.
  While all special needs children that are adopted maintain health 
care coverage, only half are eligible for adoption assistance payments. 
Current law provides for the payment of federal adoption subsidies to 
families who adopt only those special needs children whose biological 
family would have qualified for welfare benefits under the old 1996 
AFDC standards. Federal adoption subsidy payments provide essential 
income support to help families finance the daily basic costs of 
raising these special children, as well as support for special services 
like therapy, tutoring, or special equipment for disabled children. 
Federal adoption subsidies are a vital link in securing adoptive homes 
for special needs children who by definition would not be adopted 
without support.
  Under current law, a child's eligibility for these important benefits 
is dependent on the income of his or her biological parents even though 
these parents' legal rights to the child have been terminated, and 
these are the parents who either abused or neglected the child. This 
is, simply, wrong. The Adoption Equality Act will eliminate this 
anomaly in Federal law by making all special needs children eligible 
for Federal adoption subsidies.
  The Adoption Equality Act is the next logical step to streamline and 
promote adoptions from foster care. The bill is designed to ``level the 
playing field'' by ensuring that all children with special needs, and 
the loving families who adopt them, have the support they need to grow 
and develop.
  First, the bill removes the requirement that an income eligibility 
determination be made in regard to the child's biological parents, whom 
the child is leaving, thereby allowing Federal adoption subsidy to be 
paid to all families who adopt children who meet the definition of 
special needs.
  Second, the bill continues to give states flexibility to determine 
the definition of a child with special needs, but it is clear that 
adoption subsidies should only be provided if the child could not be 
adopted without such assistance.
  Third, the bill requires that States reinvest the monies they save as 
a result of this bill back into their state child abuse and neglect 
programs which should help promote prevention and family support.
  When we talk about how to help abused and neglected children in this 
country, many complex questions are raised about what constitutes best 
policy, and how Federal tax dollars should be spent. Yet, at the heart 
of all the questions are vulnerable children who desperately want a 
safe, permanent home. The lack of modest financial resources to support 
these adoptions is often the only barrier that stands between an abused 
child and a safe, loving and permanent home.
  Federal adoption subsidies are designed to encourage adoption of 
children with special needs--those children who have the hardest time 
finding permanent, adoptive families. It is an absurd policy to 
discriminate against thousands of children with special needs based 
upon the income of their biological, and often abusive, parents. It is 
time to create a Federal policy that levels the playing field and gives 
all children with special needs an equal and fair chance at being 
adopted.
  The Adoption Equality Act will treat every special needs child the 
same. It is designed to encourage adoption and support those admirable 
parents willing to help a child with special needs and a history of 
abuse or neglect. Such children may have physical disabilities, or 
other may have emotional challenges due to past abuse and neglect. Such 
children and families often need special counseling or support 
services, and that is why the adoption assistance payments are key. If 
we want to truly help our most vulnerable children find a permanent 
home, this is a wise investment.
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