[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PROMOTING PERMANENT FAMILY CARE FOR CHILDREN

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 378, which was submitted 
earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 378) expressing the sense of the 
     Senate that children should have a safe, loving, nurturing, 
     and permanent family and that it is the policy of the United 
     States that family reunification, kinship care, or domestic 
     and inter-country adoption promotes permanency and stability 
     to a greater degree than long-term institutionalization and 
     long-term, continually disrupted foster care.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I further ask that the resolution be 
agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid 
upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any 
statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 378) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 378

       Whereas the family is the basic unit of society and 
     contributes to the emotional, financial, and material support 
     essential for the healthy growth and development of children;
       Whereas children without a family or connections to 
     siblings and relatives or a permanent relationship with a 
     caring adult are at risk of being homeless, growing up in 
     substandard institutional care, and are vulnerable to sexual 
     and labor exploitation and abuse;
       Whereas research has shown that children who are abandoned, 
     abused, or severely neglected can face significant risks that 
     are costly to society, including lower individual lifetime 
     earnings, poorer educational achievement, and higher 
     consumption of health services, which in turn could lead to a 
     greater risk of criminal activity and greater risk of 
     incarceration;
       Whereas there is scientific evidence that children deprived 
     of a family, including connections with siblings, often 
     experience trauma, which can have a detrimental impact on the 
     development of a child;
       Whereas some estimates show that there are approximately 18 
     million children in the world who have lost both parents and 
     at least 2 million children in the world who are in 
     institutional care;
       Whereas there are approximately 408,000 children in the 
     United States foster-care system and 107,000 of them are 
     awaiting adoption;
       Whereas within the current foster-care system, many 
     children are overmedicated, housed in inadequate group homes, 
     denied the ability to engage in age-appropriate activities, 
     such as afterschool activities, and often denied access to 
     their siblings or placement with a relative guardian due to 
     insufficient efforts to locate family members;
       Whereas thousands of children who ``age out'' of the 
     foster-care system in the United States every year lack the 
     security or support of a biological or adoptive family, 
     connections with siblings and relatives, or a permanent 
     relationship with a caring adult and struggle to secure 
     affordable housing, health insurance, higher education, and 
     adequate employment;
       Whereas current governmental efforts to assist these highly 
     vulnerable children in the United States and around the world 
     do not include an effective strategy for securing a 
     protective family, connections with siblings and relatives, 
     or a permanent relationship with a caring adult for every 
     child; and
       Whereas while there have been several bipartisan laws 
     enacted in the past several years that have made progress on 
     a number of needed child-welfare reforms, much remains to be 
     done to ensure that all children have a safe, loving, 
     nurturing, and permanent family, regardless of age or special 
     needs: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That--
       (1) the Senate--
       (A) affirms that all children in the world, including those 
     with special needs, deserve a safe, loving, nurturing, and 
     permanent family, connections with siblings and relatives, or 
     a permanent relationship with a caring adult;
       (B) acknowledges that the United States Government can and 
     should do more by working with the private sector, nonprofit 
     organizations, and faith-based communities to implement cost 
     effective strategies that connect children living outside of 
     family care with a permanent, supportive family, or 
     connections with siblings and relatives, or a permanent 
     relationship with a caring adult;
       (C) encourages States, counties, cities, and to the extent 
     appropriate, other governments to invest resources in family 
     preservation, reunification services, services to help older 
     youth transition out of care with a connection to siblings, 
     relatives or a caring adult, kinship adoption, domestic 
     adoption, and intercountry adoption and post adoption 
     strategies to ensure that more children in the United States 
     are provided with safe, loving, and permanent family 
     placements or a permanent relationship with a caring adult; 
     and
       (D) recognizes the United States Agency for International 
     Development and the Department of State for recent efforts to 
     develop a strategy for meeting the unique needs of children 
     living outside of family care;
       (2) it is the sense of the Senate that children should have 
     a safe, loving, nurturing, and permanent family; and
       (3) it is the policy of the United States that family 
     reunification, kinship care, or domestic and intercountry 
     adoption promotes permanency and stability to a greater 
     degree than long-term institutionalization and long-term, 
     continually disrupted foster care.

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