[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 148 (Wednesday, September 17, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H8319-H8324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY AND NATIONAL 
                             ADOPTION MONTH

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree 
to the resolution (H. Res. 1432) supporting the goals and ideals of 
National Adoption Day and National Adoption Month by promoting national 
awareness of adoption and the children in foster care awaiting 
families, celebrating children and families involved in adoption, 
recognizing current programs and efforts designed to promote adoption, 
and encouraging people in the United States to seek improved safety, 
permanency, and well-being for all children.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 1432

       Whereas there are nearly 500,000 children in the foster 
     care system in the United States, approximately 130,000 of 
     whom are waiting for families to adopt them;
       Whereas nearly 54 percent of the children in foster care 
     are age 10 or younger;
       Whereas the average length of time a child spends in foster 
     care is more than 2 years;
       Whereas, for many foster children, the wait for a 
     permanent, adoptive, ``forever'' family in which they are 
     loved, nurtured, comforted, and protected seems endless;
       Whereas the number of youth who ``age out'' of the foster 
     care system by reaching adulthood without being placed in a 
     permanent home has increased by more than 58 percent since 
     1998, as nearly 27,000 foster youth ``aged out'' of foster 
     care during 2007;
       Whereas every day loving and nurturing families are 
     strengthened and expanded when committed and dedicated 
     individuals make an important difference in the life of a 
     child through adoption;
       Whereas, while 3 in 10 people in the United States have 
     considered adoption, a majority of them have misconceptions 
     about the process of adopting children from foster care and 
     the children who are eligible for adoption;
       Whereas 71 percent of those who have considered adoption 
     consider adopting children from foster care above other forms 
     of adoption;
       Whereas 45 percent of people in the United States believe 
     that children enter the foster care system because of 
     juvenile delinquency, when in reality the vast majority of 
     children in the foster care system were victims of neglect, 
     abandonment, or abuse;
       Whereas 46 percent of people in the United States believe 
     that foster care adoption is expensive, when in reality there 
     is no substantial cost for adopting from foster care, and 
     financial support in the form of an adoption assistance 
     subsidy is available to adoptive families of eligible 
     children adopted from foster care and continues after the 
     adoption is finalized until the child is 18, so that income 
     will not be a barrier to becoming a parent to a foster child 
     who needs to belong to a family;
       Whereas significant tax credits are available to families 
     who adopt children with special needs;
       Whereas the Department of Health and Human Services, 
     Administration for Children and Families, in a partnership 
     with the Ad Council, supports a national recruitment campaign 
     for adoptive parents;
       Whereas the Collaboration to AdoptUsKids features a 
     photolisting Website for waiting foster children and 
     prospective adoptive families at www.adoptuskids.org, and in 
     Spanish at www.adopte1.org;
       Whereas National Adoption Day is a collective national 
     effort to find permanent, loving families for children in the 
     foster care system;
       Whereas, since the first National Adoption Day in 2000, 
     20,000 children have joined forever families during National 
     Adoption Day;
       Whereas in 2006, adoptions were finalized for over 3,300 
     children through more than 250 National Adoption Day events 
     in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico;
       Whereas National Adoption Month celebrates the gift of 
     adoption, recognizing the adoptive and foster families who 
     share their hearts and homes with children in need, and 
     raises awareness of the need for families for the many 
     waiting children, particularly older children and teens, 
     children of color, members of sibling groups, and children 
     with physical and emotional challenges; and
       Whereas November 2008 is National Adoption Month, and 
     November 15, 2008, is National Adoption Day, and activities 
     and information about both are available at 
     www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/nam/activities.cfm: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) supports the goals and ideals of National Adoption Day 
     and National Adoption Month;
       (2) recognizes that every child in foster care deserves a 
     permanent and loving family;
       (3) recognizes the significant commitment of taxpayers to 
     support adoption, including the $1,900,000,000 provided to 
     support adoption through the Title IV-E Adoption Assistance 
     program, as well as the assistance provided through the Title 
     IV-E Foster Care program to 130,000 children waiting for 
     adoptive families, among other important programs; and
       (4) encourages the citizens of the United States to 
     consider adoption of children in foster care who are waiting 
     for a permanent, loving family.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. McDermott) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I would yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter), the resolution's 
chief sponsor.


                             General Leave

  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and 
include therein extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Nevada?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I am here today as an honored Member of 
the United States Congress, and I appreciate, Madam Speaker, your 
leadership and that of our chairman and our ranking member on an issue 
I think is very important to every family in this great country, but 
most important for those families that are trying to adopt a child or 
those in foster care.
  Today, we're recognizing National Adoption Day, which is November 15, 
2008. It's for continued awareness of adoption and foster issues.
  Madam Speaker, can you imagine that there are children today sitting 
in a living room somewhere across America, possibly watching 
television, maybe reading a book or playing cards with their friends or 
another sibling. But imagine if you're that child and a car pulls up in 
front of your house, and out of it comes one or two individuals that 
come and knock at your door and tell you that you have to move. You may 
have been there for a week. You may have been there for a month. You 
may have been there for a year with this particular foster family. 
Imagine the pain of that child, realizing that two strangers are coming 
to the door to take them to another place to reside.

                              {time}  1315

  Now, most children in our country are blessed they don't face that 
particular challenge. Again, can you imagine if that same child then is 
removed from that home and moved to another home, without even a 
medical record, they may have to have additional inoculation, they may 
not have their glasses, they may not have all their personal 
belongings.
  Madam Speaker, this is why we are recognizing Adoption Day and 
recognizing foster families across the country, because of the 
important role that they play in the well-being of our children.
  Currently, there are 500,000 children in the foster care system 
around the United States, and there's 130,000 children just waiting for 
adoption. At firsthand knowledge, in the State of Nevada, we have about 
4,000 children a year that enter into the foster care

[[Page H8320]]

system, and last year, many of those children were blessed to find a 
home; 444 children were adopted.
  I have a family that I recognize this week. The Congressional 
Coalition on Adoption has provided for us as Members to recognize 
individuals for their help in fostering homes and creating adoptions, 
and that's Scott and Kathleen Greenberg of Las Vegas, Nevada. They are 
proud parents of a 15-month-old son, Evan.
  They, of course, found it rewarding but also challenging because it 
took close to 5 years for this loving family to be able to adopt a 
child. They started in Tennessee. They then worked through Georgia, 
through different adoption agencies. They now are working through 
Nevada, but it took 5 years, and each time they had to start over. They 
had challenges of arranged adoptions; they had challenges of the public 
system.
  Madam Speaker, the reason we're here today is to encourage families 
to adopt these children, to be patient, but also, the legislation, with 
the leadership of our chairman and our ranking member, should make it 
easier now for families like the Greenbergs to adopt children.
  In Nevada, I've worked closely with the foster care program, and I 
think, like most of us, our children keep coming back no matter what 
age, but for foster kids, at the age of 18, as they move on from the 
foster care system, many of them do not have a home to come back to. So 
in the Nevada legislature we passed legislation to create a program for 
foster children between the ages of 18 and 21, and we created a fund to 
help these children with education, with training, with housing, with 
health care. It's funded through a copying of documents in the county 
of Clark, and we're raising about $1 million a year right now to help 
these children in transition.
  Madam Speaker, I'm here today to ask not only for our colleagues to 
support this legislation, but in our own districts across the country, 
remind these moms and dads and these individuals that want to adopt 
children that we want to make it as easy and safe and a wonderful 
experience that it can be, and that's why we're recognizing this 
program today.
  My great appreciation goes out to Scott and Kathleen Greenberg as the 
proud parents and to all those other families in Nevada that are part 
of the foster program, to all the professionals across the country that 
are working hard to make sure that our children have safe homes.
  Today, I ask for your support and that of the rest of this body in 
supporting our resolution which recognizes National Adoption Day for 
November 15, 2008.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, taking the lead of my 
chairman, I will close on this important resolution, but before I move 
to that, I have two speakers on our side who want to address this 
resolution which has been authored by my friend Jon Porter of Nevada, 
who's a strong advocate for adoption and foster children, while serving 
on the Ways and Means Committee, and I commend him for taking the lead 
on the National Adoption Month resolution that's before us.
  With that, Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
  Mr. GINGREY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois for 
yielding.
  As a proud member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, I rise 
in strong support of H. Res. 1432. This important resolution recognizes 
the goals and ideals of National Adoption Day and National Adoption 
Month by promoting and raising national awareness of adoption and 
children in foster care, as my colleague from Nevada was just 
explaining. I commend him, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter), for 
working in a bipartisan matter to bring this important resolution to 
the floor, a resolution that celebrates the children and the families 
involved in adoption, as well as the current programs and efforts 
designed to promote adoption.
  As was said by my colleague in Illinois, I was an OB/GYN physician 
for nearly 30 years before coming to the Congress back in 2003, and I 
am especially passionate, Madam Speaker, about protecting children and 
their right to life by encouraging adoption.
  Madam Speaker, adoption brings joy to many loving families who cannot 
have children of their own or who simply wish to welcome even more 
children into their homes and into their hearts. Both National Adoption 
Day and National Adoption Month, which will be recognized on November 
15 and, indeed, throughout the entire month of November, raise 
awareness nationally for the more than 129,000 children who are 
currently in foster care and looking, almost begging, for those 
permanent homes.
  I wholeheartedly believe that raising awareness for adoption, as this 
resolution does so well, will help place more children in those loving 
homes. However, I believe that we should spend more than just 1 day, or 
even 1 month, during the year raising awareness on this issue. Both 
children and parents greatly benefit from adoption, and I want to 
applaud all individuals in my home State of Georgia and across this 
country who work so tirelessly to bring joy to these families who 
sometimes have very little joy.
  Madam Speaker, I want to urge all my colleagues, and I'm sure they 
will, to support H. Res. 1432.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, far too many of our Nation's most 
vulnerable children long for nothing more than a safe and permanent 
place to call home.
  As the de facto parents of foster children, it's our responsibility 
to ensure that each child who is unable to safely return home to their 
biological parents has the ability to achieve permanency through 
adoption. Sadly, too many children are languishing in the foster care 
system for far too long as they wait to be adopted.
  There are currently 129,000 children who are waiting to be adopted 
out of foster care. These children, on average, will have to wait 
nearly two-and-a-half years in the foster care system before they are 
adopted by the family. A minute can be a lifetime in the eyes of a 
child. Imagine how a child feels as they wait nearly two-and-a-half 
years for a family to pick them.
  Representative Weller and I introduced bipartisan legislation, which 
just passed the House, which would provide a variety of policy 
initiatives aimed at increasing the number of children who are adopted 
from the foster care system. The Fostering Connections to Success and 
Increasing Adoptions Act extends, expands, and improves the Adoption 
Incentives Program. This successful program provides financial bonuses 
to States that increase the number of children adopted out of foster 
care.
  I have to add that, sort of parenthetically, I started the subsidized 
adoption program in the Washington State legislature in 1971. There has 
been a very uneven spread of that concept across the States in this 
United States. So it's important that we at the Federal level set the 
standard and say to States, here's some money if you will think about 
doing subsidized adoptions for these kids.
  Since the inception of this program, nearly 440,000 children have 
been adopted out of the foster care system.
  The bill also would provide additional incentives for States to 
continue to increase the number of children who leave the foster care 
system for permanency through adoption or through guardianship 
placement with a grandparent or a relative caregiver.
  Additionally, the legislation would provide adoption subsidy 
assistance to all special-needs kids--these are the ones that are the 
hardest to get adopted--rather than those children whose birth parents 
were eligible for welfare under rules that were in place in 1996.
  The bill expands Federal adoption assistance by delinking eligibility 
for assistance from the now defunct AFDC program and by phasing in 
adoption subsidy to children by their age and their length of time in 
foster care.
  And finally, the legislation would provide direct Federal adoption 
assistance to tribal governments who run their own child welfare 
programs. Tribal governments would be able to access the same service 
that is now available to the States. Such services will allow tribal 
governments to increase the number of Native American children that are 
adopted out of the tribal foster care systems.
  The month of November marks National Adoption Month, and that's what 
this resolution is really all about.

[[Page H8321]]

As we celebrate the countless families who have opened their homes and 
their hearts to children who are in need of a home, I ask my colleagues 
to join us in supporting the goals and the ideals of National Adoption 
Month.
  Every child deserves nothing less than a safe and loving place to 
call home. By working together in a bipartisan fashion, we can do our 
part to ensure permanency and success for all the children.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, how much time remains on each 
side?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Illinois has 17 minutes 
remaining. The gentleman from Washington has 11 minutes remaining.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, at this time, it's my 
privilege to yield 12 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).
  Ms. FOXX. I thank my colleague from Illinois for yielding this time.
  I certainly am in very, very strong support of this resolution. I 
think that it is very important that we pass this bill, goals and 
ideals of National Adoption Month. I, too, have seen the impact of 
children having to be in foster care for long periods of time.
  And as a grandparent of two and reminded on a constant basis of the 
fragility of children, and particularly their self-concept and how they 
interact with other people and their need to be in loving homes, with 
parents who really want them and make them feel accepted and help them 
succeed from birth through adulthood, it makes a huge difference in the 
life of a child to be in a stable environment instead of being moved 
from foster home to foster home.
  I admire tremendously the people who open their homes and open their 
hearts to children who are not their birth children, and I commend them 
for being willing to do that and want us to pass this resolution and 
acknowledge those people.
  But I think one of the most important things that we could do for all 
families in this country, not just those who are good foster parents, 
not just those who open their homes to become adoptive parents, but 
those who are struggling every day with their own children, is to do 
what we possibly can to bring down the price of gasoline and fuel oil.
  We are facing a major problem in this country. Families are facing 
major problems in this country because of the high price of gasoline.
  I received a letter from a Boy Scout recently who said to me, ``I'm 
afraid we're going to not be able to continue to go to church on 
Sundays because of the high price of gasoline.'' Those are the kinds of 
things that tear at any person's heart because you know that that's 
coming from the heart of a child who has heard his parents talking 
about how the high price of gasoline is affecting their family, and 
it's certainly affecting everyone in this country. And yet we have a 
do-nothing Congress that has not been willing to take up that issue.
  I am, again, very happy that we're dealing with talking about the 
needs of foster parents, talking about promoting adoptions. However, 
what we could be doing is some real action to bring down the price of 
gasoline and truly, truly help American families.
  Instead, when given the options of doing that, this Democrat majority 
refuses to do it. What they do is they bring up sham bills, bills that 
are hoaxes and illusions to the American people and say, well, yes, we 
have been asked all summer long to drill, to create more supply, and 
then they bring up bills that don't do that, that in fact make it more 
of a problem to be able to create additional supply. And that's what 
happened on this floor yesterday.

                              {time}  1330

  We started out last year by trying to compare the promises that were 
made by the Speaker--who was then minority leader--and the majority 
leader in terms of the promises that they made and what they were 
doing. Well, all along the way it's been promises made, promises 
broken.
  They said they would have the most open, most bipartisan Congress 
ever in the history of this country, and what do they do? They start 
out immediately by bringing bills to the floor that haven't gone to 
committee and that are not allowed to be amended. They continue to do 
that. They did that again yesterday.
  The bill that they brought up did not go through the committee 
structure. In fact, I read the bill last night, and I meant to count 
how many committees but there must have been eight or 10 committees 
that this bill was supposed to go through. It went through none of 
them. It was written in the Speaker's office. Nobody got a chance to 
see it until about 12 hours before we were going to vote on it. It was 
290 pages long. It was brought to the floor with no opportunity to 
amend it.
  The Republicans had one opportunity to have an impact on the bill, 
and that was in a motion to recommit. And in that motion to recommit, 
we offered a bipartisan bill, a bill called the Peterson-Abercrombie 
bill put together by Democrats and Republicans, and we offered that as 
an option to the bill that was being brought up because the bill that 
was voted on last night is going to lock up over 90 percent of the oil 
reserves off the coasts of this country and put them out of reach for 
us permanently.
  And I want to talk about how it's not been only the people in charge 
of this Congress--the Speaker and the majority leader, they're the ones 
who are in charge; they've broken every promise that they have made. 
They even promised in 2006 that we would have a commonsense energy plan 
that would bring down the price of gasoline. Well, we've been here 
almost 2 years. Not until last night did we get a bill, and we know 
that's not going to bring down the price of gas--but even the rank-and-
file Democrats who promised their constituents that they would vote for 
bills, even sponsored bills, that they then would not vote on.
  I want to mention some of those and quote them. Many of them also say 
they want to stimulate the economy, but almost every single one of them 
voted against this bipartisan bill authored by Representatives John 
Peterson of Pennsylvania and Neil Abercrombie from Hawaii. Mr. Peterson 
is a Republican; Mr. Abercrombie is a Democrat. Their bill would lower 
gas prices on behalf of working families and small businesses.
  There were 24 Democrats who were cosponsors of the Peterson-
Abercrombie bill who voted against that bill last night after they said 
they would vote for it. Many of them promised their constituents that 
they would vote for it. And I want to give some examples of that.
  Representative Nancy Boyda, Democrat from Kansas, who was a cosponsor 
of the Peterson-Abercrombie bill, voted against it when given an 
opportunity. However, earlier in the month, she issued a press release 
that promised that she would work to get this bill passed. She said, 
``I have been working with a large, bipartisan group of Representatives 
to develop a comprehensive, commonsense energy bill. Our [Peterson-
Abercrombie] bill would provide sorely needed relief for Kansas 
families. It will help create energy independence for America and 
millions of jobs to help stabilize our struggling economy.'' 
Representative Nancy Boyda, Democrat, Kansas, press release, 9/04/08.
  She issued that press release and then voted against the very same 
bill she had told her constituents she was working to get passed.
  Representative Baron Hill, Democrat of Indiana, a cosponsor of the 
Peterson-Abercrombie bill, once said, ``I hope this bipartisan bill 
will indeed be brought to the floor.'' But when given a chance, he 
voted against it.
  Again, in a press release dated August 14, 2008, he said, ``I hope 
this bipartisan bill will indeed be brought to the floor for a vote 
when we return to Washington in September.'' Hill said, ``It would 
provide immediate relief, while also bolstering development of new 
energy sources in order to move this country closer to energy 
independence.'' Again, Representative Baron Hill, Democrat, Indiana, 
press release August 14, 2008.
  These press releases show that what the press here in Washington is 
reporting is that the bill that was brought up last night by the 
Democrats was only brought up to provide cover for Democrats who are in 
vulnerable seats this fall. There was never any intention of that bill 
becoming law. They wanted to

[[Page H8322]]

give them a chance to say they voted for drilling when in fact the bill 
doesn't provide for additional gas and oil.
  It's never going to be passed by the Senate. The Senators, even 
Democratic Senators, have said the bill is dead on arrival in the 
Senate.
  Another Democrat who was a cosponsor of the Peterson-Abercrombie bill 
who also voted against it was Representative Steve Kagen, Democrat from 
Wisconsin.
  Here is a quote from the Herald Times in Wisconsin, 9/13/08. ``Kagen, 
who signed onto the bill Tuesday, said the Abercrombie-Peterson bill 
'really is a comprehensive energy policy and a roadmap forward. That 
bill has the balance in investing in renewable sources. It raises 
royalty (fees) from those who are drilling and it doesn't limit 
drilling to four or five States,' Kagen said.''
  The headline on that story was ``Congress Sitting on An Energy Hot 
Seat.''
  Speaker Pelosi has said over and over again that they're going to 
create an energy strategy that's going to make it look like vulnerable 
Democrats are voting on real energy reform without actually doing it. 
She stated that herself. But they went a step further than that. These 
people cosponsored a bill and pledged to support it and then voted 
against it when given a chance to do it.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to include in the Congressional Record 
today the list of all 24 Democrats who were for this bill before they 
were against it.
  Again, yesterday, though, the House Democrats in charge denied 
Republicans the opportunity to a full debate, an honest vote on the 
American Energy Act, the Republican bill that does do all of the above 
to help working families and small businesses dealing with record fuel 
costs.
  But this fight is not over. We are going to continue to bring this 
message to the American people. It's important that the American people 
know that the Democrats are in charge, they are the ones responsible 
for the high gas prices, and I hope the American people will hold them 
responsible this fall.
       Speaker Pelosi and her leadership team have made no bones 
     about their elaborate strategy of making it look like 
     vulnerable Democrats are voting on real energy reform without 
     actually doing it. But these Democrats took it a step 
     further: They cosponsored a bill and pledged to support it 
     and then rejected it when given an up-or-down vote. Here is a 
     list of all 24 Democrats who were for it before they were 
     against it: Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Rep. Sanford Bishop 
     (D-GA), Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS), Rep. 
     Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), Rep. Bud Cramer 
     (D-AL), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL), 
     Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN), Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Rep. Gene 
     Green (D-TX), Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL), Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN), 
     Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. William Jefferson (D-
     LA), Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI), Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), 
     Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), 
     Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Rep. 
     Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR).
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I believe I have 5 remaining 
minutes; is that correct?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 5 minutes remaining.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the 
distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
  Mr. GINGREY. Madam Speaker, I'd like to thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  As I spoke earlier in regard to this bill in support of adoption and 
adoption week, certainly it's a great resolution that our colleague, 
Representative Porter from Nevada, brings forward.
  But I, too, wanted to take the opportunity in my few minutes to talk 
a little bit more about this energy situation.
  I think that the problem is that a lot of people in this country--and 
certainly it would appear that the leadership of this House, Ms. 
Pelosi, the Speaker, and the leadership of the Senate, the Majority 
Leader, Mr. Reid of Nevada--are completely convinced that fossil fuel 
is a bad thing and it needs to be stamped out, eliminated; kill that 
sucker dead as soon as possible.
  The quotes that I have heard, I think Senator Reid said, ``Fossil 
fuel,'' which includes, of course, coal and petroleum and natural gas, 
``Fossil fuel is poison, and we need to get rid of all fossil fuel in 
the good old U.S.A. by the year 2020.''
  Madam Speaker, when I asked during the August recess about whether or 
not she would come back and allow some drilling to obtain our own 
domestic sources of fossil fuel, she said, ``I want to save the 
planet.'' She hit her fist on the table and said again, for emphasis, 
``I want to save the planet.''
  A spokesperson for the Sierra Club, maybe it was the president of the 
Sierra Club, Madam Speaker, said it's a good thing that American people 
are now having to pay these astronomical prices for petroleum.
  In other words, the idea is this is such a horrible thing, this 
burning of coal, which, by the way, generates 65 percent of our 
electricity, this driving cars and trucks and using gasoline and diesel 
fuel in our trains. Literally, our transportation system couldn't 
function without fossil fuels.
  Now there may come a day, and hopefully there will come a day, when 
we will be able to wean ourselves off of fossil fuel and come up with 
some other alternatives, alternatives like wind and solar and bio-
products and ethanol that absolutely give us great efficiency for our 
needs, electricity and transportation, and cause us absolutely no harm 
and that we have a tremendous abundance of all of these alternatives 
and renewables so that we're not dependent on anybody. That is kind of 
a euphoria, and hopefully it will one day occur. But we don't know for 
sure that it might not be opening up Pandora's box, Madam Speaker. We 
don't know that.
  While it's true that greenhouse gases probably do cause a little bit 
of global warming--
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an 
additional 15 seconds.
  Mr. GINGREY. I mean, these things might cause some harm, but how do 
we know that eventually we might create a country of alcoholics by 
burning all of this ethanol in our automobiles? People today are 
starving to death because they don't have jobs, and I think that's the 
first priority.
  Let's get this economy back on track, and let's get a decent energy 
bill and do it right now.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. I continue to reserve.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I have no additional speakers, 
so I will take this opportunity to close.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today in favor of this resolution authored by 
my friend, Jon Porter, who is a strong advocate for adoption and foster 
children while serving on the House Ways and Means Committee.
  Of course this resolution promotes awareness of adoption and of the 
children in foster care awaiting loving, adoptive families. I want to 
recognize all of those parents who have opened their hearts and homes 
to provide a loving foster home or adopted home for children.
  In my home State of Illinois, 1,740 children were adopted from foster 
care in 2006. Nationwide, 51,000 children moved from foster care to 
adoption this past year. However, with nearly 500,000 children in the 
foster care system and approximately 130,000 of these children waiting 
for a family to adopt them, we have much more work to do.
  That's why I'm so pleased that this House is ready to pass this 
resolution marking National Adoption Day and National Adoption Month, 
but it's also paired with the important bipartisan legislation this 
House just considered and just voted unanimously to approve which 
provides greater incentives to provide loving homes to children in need 
of adoption as well as foster children in need of a loving home. Again, 
I want to commend my colleagues for that bipartisan effort.
  I urge all Members to support this resolution, to work with the many 
dedicated faith-based and other groups in their districts who promote 
adoption, not only in November but every month of the year. There can 
be no greater gift to a child who has been removed from his or her own 
parents than to find new, loving, adoptive parents who want to care for 
him or her as their own.
  Madam Speaker, I urge bipartisan support for this important 
resolution offered by my friend and colleague, Jon Porter of Nevada.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

[[Page H8323]]

                              {time}  1345

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is 
remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Washington has 11 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, it has been a pleasure to work with Mr. 
Weller on these two bills and this resolution through the Congress. And 
certainly I have enjoyed working with him and have never felt that any 
courtesy I've extended him has been anything but reciprocal in our 
dealings. However, there has been on the floor here some discussion of 
some extraneous material that I struggle to hear how the connection was 
to adoption subsidies or options or foster kids, but I'm sure there was 
one someplace there--all the speakers at least mentioned it sort of in 
passing and then went on to talk about energy.
  Now, as these adoptive parents, many of them ordinary folks, want to 
drive down to get the child at the adoption agency, they're going to 
have to buy gasoline. And gasoline has gotten out of control. Lots of 
people want to blame oil companies or speculators or a lot of other 
things. And the question is, do you really want to help those people?
  Now, there is going to be a stimulus package coming out. And if we 
put gas stamps in it--the average person under 300 percent of poverty 
will spend $1,000 more a year for gasoline, so if we gave them gas 
stamps like we give them food stamps for $500, we could cut that price 
in half. And I hope that all my colleagues on the other side, if that 
happens to be in the stimulus package, will consider voting for it this 
time.
  There is a question in my mind, however, about the description of 
what went on last night. It's as though the Democrats didn't propose 
anything. It's as though we just sort of walked around and fiddled 
around and looked at the sky. But, in fact, there was a very good 
proposal here on the floor. There was money for renewable energy 
standards. There was money for strategic energy reserve to be invested 
in renewable energy. There was royalty reform. Can you believe that the 
oil companies never give any money to the Federal Government?
  And this bill last night said, look, we want to repeal the tax 
subsidies and make the oil companies pay their fair share for drilling 
on public lands. Now, that's land that belongs to you and me and the 
foster kids and the children who are being adopted. But the oil 
companies have some idea that they don't think they should have to pay 
any royalty when they suck the oil out and then sell it to us at four 
bucks a gallon. Now, that seems like a good proposal.
  We also paid for the bill last night by taking $18 billion that was 
allowed in a loophole several years ago. We closed that loophole and 
said we're going to use it to do the future development of renewable 
energy in this country that needs to be done.
  Now, by contrast, the Boehner bill that was brought out here had no 
payment for anything, just increase the national debt. That is the 
Republican plan for this country: Do whatever you want, spend whatever 
you want, drive up the national debt, and leave it for these foster 
kids and these adopted kids. They're going to pay for it. Most of the 
Members in here will be dead before we get anywhere near paying for the 
debt that's been driven up by this Congress. And yesterday's oil bill 
was just more of the same.
  Now, the other part of it that's really sort of interesting, our bill 
required actually using the leases that they already have, sort of 
``use it or lose it.'' They have millions of acres under lease, but 
they want to get something more out there somewhere, I don't know. If 
you go out 50 miles off the coast of California and Washington State, 
you're at about 10,000 feet. If you think you're going to drill for oil 
out there, you have never been on the West coast of this country and 
looked at what we have for an ocean.
  So, this business about ``drill, drill, drill, oh, good, drill, 
drill, drill,'' it makes a nice slogan, probably goes on a bumper strip 
pretty well, but the basic assumption behind that bumper strip is that 
the American people are stupid. It seems like the Republican Party 
thinks that the American people are stupid, and if they can just get 
into chanting, ``drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill,'' that 
somehow the price of gasoline will come down. I don't know if that is 
some kind of a mantra, maybe it's some kind of magical thing they got 
from a witch doctor somewhere. But drilling everywhere is not going to 
bring down the price of gasoline.
  We've seen in the last month gasoline go from $150 a barrel down to 
wherever it is today, somewhere below $100. And has gasoline dropped by 
33 percent? Is gasoline down to $3 or down to $2.70? And why did it 
come down? Because we drilled? No. Because the speculators got worried. 
The speculators got worried that Americans were getting smart and they 
were figuring ways to get around without using gasoline. And so 
consumption has come down in this country, and suddenly the speculators 
are really worried.
  What if the American people don't do what we expect them to do? What 
if they don't buy big gas guzzlers anymore? They buy cars that get 35-
40 miles per gallon. I drove from my house in Seattle to Spokane for 
the State convention, over the Cascade Mountains, over 5,000-foot 
peaks, and you know what? I got 49.5 miles per gallon.
  Now, the oil companies are really worried that a lot of people are 
going to start doing that, and so the speculation on where the price of 
oil is going to be started coming down. But it didn't affect anything 
at the pump--maybe 10 cents, maybe five cents, who knows. But we didn't 
drill a single bit, and yet the gasoline prices came down. So what is 
it that makes them go up and what makes them go down?
  Nothing in this bill from Mr. Boehner has anything whatsoever to say 
about speculation or about oil company profits, not one single word. 
All he says is, open it up, let them drill anywhere they want. Let them 
go and sink a drill. In fact, we got some votes out of the Republicans 
because they actually were drilling in places where the military said 
this kind of creates a problem, please don't drill there; don't let 
that area be open for drilling.
  And so when people come out here and stand out here and say over and 
over again, ``we have to drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, that's 
going to fix it all,'' they haven't looked at our bill.
  Now, the Senate is over there, and they're going to send us over a 
bill here shortly to extend the tax credits on wind and on solar and on 
geothermal because they know that renewable energy is the way this 
country has to go. We are not going to solve our problem by drilling 
inside the Continental Shelf of the United States.
  If the President wanted to bring gas prices down, all he would have 
to do is release some of the oil out of the oil reserve. We've got 
millions of gallons of gasoline sitting out there. And if the market 
truly is what we say it is, if there is more supply, then the price 
should come down. Well, dump some of that reserve out onto the market. 
It was done once before and gasoline dropped about 15 cents a gallon, 
but not under this President. They want to keep it up there and keep 
talking about drilling because this administration has been an oil 
administration from the very first week. When the Vice President of the 
United States had in his office a great conference with all the oil 
people in this country and has kept secret for 8 solid years what was 
decided there, you have to wonder about what's happened to this country 
and the average taxpayer and the average person in this society.
  So we're here today to deal with a few problems of some kids. And I 
really appreciate the efforts that have gone in by the bipartisan 
support on the committee. And I don't really like to get out here and 
talk like this, but you just can't stand here or sit here and listen to 
that baloney without ultimately saying, do they really care, or is it 
just about winning an election? Is it looking for a bumper strip that 
will work and that the American people will hear ``drill, drill, 
drill''?
  They're going to do it all day long. Every single suspension bill has 
20 minutes on each side. So on the Republican side, we're going to be 
treated to the same litany. It will be different people, I hope. I 
mean, I don't want the same person coming out here. They're probably 
lined up somewhere back in the cloak room getting ready to come out on 
the next bill. But the fact is the American people aren't stupid.

[[Page H8324]]

  I was saying to my staff as we were listening to this, can you 
imagine grandma or mom or a father who is out of work? I mean, 
unemployment in this country is now over 6 percent; it's gone up. 
You've got banks crashing all over the place; you've got the Federal 
Government putting $85 billion into trying to save AIG, and you're 
talking about ``drill, drill, drill.''
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I stand here today in 
support of H.R. 1432, ``Supporting the Goals and Ideals of National 
Adoption Day and National Adoption Month by Promoting National 
Awareness of Adoption and the Children in Foster Care Awaiting 
Families, Celebrating Children and Families Involved in Adoption, 
Recognizing Current Programs and Efforts Designed to Promote Adoption, 
and Encouraging People in the United States to Seek Improved Safety, 
Permanency, and Well-Being for All Children'' introduced by Congressman 
Porter. 
  The fundamental purpose of adoption is to serve the best interests of 
children. It does so by providing loving, responsible, and legally 
permanent parents when their biological parents cannot or will not 
parent them. Serving the best interests of children should be paramount 
in deciding all issues of adoption policy and practice.
  Adoption is healthy, satisfying, and good for children, not an 
enduring challenge to identity and wholeness. The children may have 
additional questions and curiosities to sort out, but adoption is not a 
psychological burden or pathology as some theorists treat it. Adoption 
is the way one joined one's family, not a defining characteristic or 
lifelong process. Persons adopted as infants grow up as healthy and 
productive as people raised in their biological families. To the extent 
there can be a greater risk of emotional or behavioral problems for 
children adopted out of foster care at later ages, the correlation is 
not the result of being adopted, but rather of difficulties experienced 
prior to adoption, such as neglect or abuse. The vast majority of 
foster children make the transition into their adoptive families and 
grow up very successfully.
  Today, in the United States there are 500,000 children in the foster 
care system and of those children, there are 129,000 waiting for 
families to adopt them. The number of youth who ``age out'' of the 
foster care system by reaching adulthood without being placed in a 
permanent home has increased by more than 58 percent since 1998, as 
nearly 27,000 foster youth ``aged out'' of foster care during 2007 
which is appalling and unacceptable. In addition, 3 in 10 people in the 
United States have considered adoption; a majority of them have 
misconceptions about the process of adopting children from foster care. 
Many Americans, approximately 45 percent believe that children enter 
the foster care system because of juvenile delinquency. The reality of 
the matter is that the vast majority of children in the foster care 
system were victims of neglect, abandonment, or abuse. Furthermore, 
almost half of the American population believes that foster care 
adoption is expensive and are not aware of the fact that there is no 
substantial cost for adopting children from foster care. Moreover, 
financial support in the form of an adoption assistance subsidy is 
available to adoptive families of eligible children adopted from foster 
care and continues after the adoption is finalized until the child is 
18, so that income will not be a barrier to becoming a parent to a 
foster child who needs to belong to a family.
  Passing H.R. 1432 is essential for Congress to demonstrate their 
support for placing children in safe and positive family environments. 
The first National Adoption Day was in the year 2000; since then, 
20,000 children have joined families during National Adoption Day, and 
in 2006, adoptions were finalized for over 3,300 children through more 
than 250 National Adoption Day events in all 50 States, the District of 
Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
  We must continue to take stride to reach out and do our best to 
encourage safe, positive environment for the children of the United 
States. This resolution will enhance the support for successful 
adoptions and their support for National Adoption Month in November. 
When orphaned children are placed in a positive, encouraging, and 
permanent family environment, they are in a situation where they can 
grow and experience life in a non-threatening way. Adoption is 
something that benefits the entire Nation as our children are given 
places where they can feel secure.
  I firmly believe that we must pass this legislation to demonstrate 
our support for Adoption and National Adoption month. This legislation 
will enable us to promote healthy and safe adoptions and celebrate the 
successful adoptions that ensure the well-being of children.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this 
resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) that the House suspend the 
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1432.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the 
ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a 
quorum is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

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