[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 20, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S4372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. LANDRIEU (for herself and Mr. Inhofe):
  S. 3321. A bill to promote permanent families for children, privacy 
and safety for unwed mothers, responsible fatherhood, and security for 
adoptive parents by establishing a National Responsible Father Registry 
and encouraging States to enter into agreements to contribute the 
information contained in the State's Responsible Father Registry to the 
National Responsible Father Registry, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Finance.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I bring to the attention of the body a 
bill called the Protecting Adoption and Promoting Responsible 
Fatherhood Act of 2012. I introduced this bill on behalf of myself and 
Senator Inhofe, with whom I have worked with so closely on many issues 
involving adoption and the protection of children who are outside of 
family care, both here in the United States and abroad. I thank Senator 
Inhofe, the senior Senator from Oklahoma, for being an original 
cosponsor of this legislation. I also thank Congresswoman Laura 
Richardson for introducing a companion piece of this legislation in the 
House today.
  We just celebrated Father's Day this past weekend. I know my father 
and my husband and men all over the country celebrated with their 
children and their families. We honor the extraordinary fathers in the 
world.
  Parenthood is the ultimate gift. It is also an incredible 
responsibility. Many of us have benefited from really wonderful fathers 
who care for and support families and support children through their 
young years, their adult years, and even into their older years. When 
fathers are absent, when they abandon their responsibility to their 
children, they can make the mothers of their children and their 
children more vulnerable. Sometimes women will make a decision to place 
a child for adoption if they are unmarried, unwilling, unable--just at 
a vulnerable time in their life and not able to raise a child. Adoption 
can be a very positive option. There are some Members of our Congress 
who have adopted children and have adopted grandchildren, so we know 
the blessings of adoption.
  This bill will help to facilitate and clear up some legal quagmires 
that occur until many States clear the way for women of any age to make 
a decision for adoption. There are many of us, across party lines, who 
have supported more domestic infant adoption, more domestic adoptions 
for children of all ages, and particularly adoption of special-needs 
children.
  This bill really affects infant adoption. It sets up a voluntary 
registry that tracks what 38 States have already done. Any person, any 
male who has the intention of supporting and raising a child can 
register on this registry, and their will and wishes will be taken into 
consideration. But in the situation that often happens where this man 
is not interested in being the kind of responsible father he should be, 
then this registry helps to expedite, without a lot of legal quagmire 
but with protection to both the father and the mother, to expedite 
adoption.
  It has gone through a vetting process with any number of outside 
organizations. I thank the American Bar Association. I want to 
particularly thank the Association of Adoption Attorneys, which helped 
to draft this important piece of legislation.
  I wanted to come to the floor to introduce it. We will, of course, 
bring it up when the leadership allows us that opportunity. It may have 
to go through a committee process. We may be able to clear it with the 
support of both Republicans and Democrats, as is shown by the support 
of Senator Inhofe and myself. Hopefully we can get it done in a short 
period of time and provide a clear path to promote adoption in the 
United States.
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