[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 142 (Wednesday, November 19, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6112-S6115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise in recognition of National
Adoption Month, and I know our great colleague Senator Landrieu will be
here to also address this important month. She has been such a great
leader in fighting for this cause. She has literally gone to Guatemala
to make sure that children who are awaiting loving homes in our country
get to come to those homes. She literally knows the names of those kids
and is hands-on every step of the way and has been the leader in
Congress.
She established the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, which has
brought together Senators and Members of Congress on behalf of children
who need loving homes and families who want to welcome them home. We
are very pleased with her leadership.
Senator Landrieu is joining us right now, and I will be able to flip
it over to my friend at any time it is appropriate. But I do wish to
speak about National Adoption Month. It is especially important in my
home State of Minnesota.
Many people don't know this, but Minnesota actually has the highest
rate of international adoptions in the country. Minnesota families have
opened their homes and their hearts to children from all over the
world--from
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Vietnam to Guatemala to Nepal to Haiti.
I have had the opportunity to witness the power of adoption
firsthand. Before being elected to the Senate, I spent 8 years as
Hennepin County attorney, the largest county in Minnesota. We had
jurisdiction over foster care and adoption. I actually worked to speed
up those adoptions. I remember saying we need to eliminate this delay
and reduce the time it takes for a child who has been going from foster
care home to foster care home in half, and we were able to do that
because people understood the need for children to have a permanent
home.
I know Senator Landrieu is here right now and has a busy schedule,
and I will turn it over to her as soon as I finish.
In the United States, nearly 400,000 children are living without
permanent families in the foster care system. Over 100,000 of these
children are eligible for adoption, but too many of them will wait for
years and years to be adopted. Some will not be adopted at all.
Last night I attended an event called Kidsave. It is about children
who are older and in other countries. This group has actually set up an
incredible system where the kids come to our country for a few weeks
and many of them end up being adopted. As the kids get older, it
becomes harder and harder for them to become adopted.
Senator Landrieu and I are aware that as some of these countries,
such as Russia, completely close their doors to adoption, there will
actually be more and more children who are older that will need to be
adopted. We hope the system changes and they do eventually open up
their doors.
Around the world it is estimated that nearly 18 million orphans who
have lost parents are living in orphanages or are on the streets and
lack the care and attention required for healthy development. As a
nation, we must open our arms to these children. Just last night at
this event, I had the opportunity to hear the story of Jennifer
Baumann, a 17-year-old girl from Colombia. She spent years in a broken
home and then in a broken foster care system in that country. She was
exposed to violence. She would go to bed hungry.
At age 14, she was still in foster care and had lost hope for her
future. She was considered too old to be adopted. As she said in her
own words, she ``cried for a year.''
But then, miraculously, she had the chance to visit a family here in
America as part of the program that Kidsave organized. The family fell
in love with her, she fell in love with them, and in 2011 she was
adopted into a loving home. We have seen this time and time again in my
State, and that is why I got involved in legislation with my mentor,
Mary Landrieu.
One of the things we found out is--we had a family called the
Makorises, and they were adopting nine children from the Philippines
who had first lost their father, and their mother kept them together,
and then their mother died, and it was the two oldest children who held
those kids together. When they turned 16 and 17, they couldn't be
adopted. The Makorises of Cambridge, MN, had to make a decision: Were
they going to strand those two kids who held the family together, leave
them in the Philippines, and take the other children? It was like
Sophie's choice. That was their choice.
They decided there was a better way. They came to Congress. I led the
bill in the Senate with the help of Senator Landrieu, Senator Sessions,
Senator Inhofe, as well as House Members, and we were able to pass a
bill that allowed kids who had reached an age where they were not
legally allowed to be adopted, to be adopted if a younger sibling had
been adopted. That means that retroactively, thanks to the work of
Senator Landrieu, 10 million children all across the world were allowed
to be adopted into loving families. And how fun was it to be in the
Makorises' living room and see all nine children, like some Minnesota
version of ``The Sound of Music,'' with a place for all of their winter
boots and their coats. They came from the Philippines in the middle of
the winter to Minnesota; yet they were still as happy and as warm as
can be because now they have parents who love them.
The Senator from Maine understands how important adoption is because
it has touched his own family. This has touched every Member of the
Senate.
As we focus on National Adoption Month, we have to continue to look
at policies and changes we can make to our laws to make them better. We
passed that law to allow those older siblings to be adopted. We passed
a law to allow vaccinations to be allowed in our country to make sure
they are safe and that they are actually done. But there is more work
to do with these intercountry adoptions, and I can think of no one
better to lead that charge than the Senator from Louisiana, Ms.
Landrieu.
So I am here to acknowledge the work we have done with the adoption
tax credit, which we have gotten into law, and the work we have done to
make sure it is easier for these international adoptions. Every single
family out there knows there are problems right now with international
adoptions. A lot of them stem from people such as Vladimir Putin. By
the way, the reason Senator Landrieu was banned from going to Russia is
because of the work she is doing for kids, being willing to take Putin
on because of the fact that he was closing the doors to kids and using
them as pawns for political gain. That is an amazing story, and that
shows a fighter.
(Mr. KING assumed the Chair.)
I thank the Presiding Officer for his work with adoption and his
personal story, as well as all the Members on both sides of the aisle
who have devoted themselves to looking out for these kids who have no
one else to look out for them.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, yesterday we had a very different
topic--the Keystone XL Pipeline--on the floor of the Senate. That fight
is over for now, but the fight for adoption, foster care children, and
all children in the world who are in desperate need of parents to love
them and to nurture them goes on.
I could not be surrounded with a better team than Senator Grassley,
who has been fighting for this in the Senate since before I arrived--
and 18 years ago when I got here, I quickly joined with him to continue
the fight--and then Amy Klobuchar joined us a few years ago and has
become an extraordinary, effective, and willing soldier to go to the
frontlines of this battle. I can't thank the Senator from Minnesota
enough. She brings tremendous experience as a former prosecutor, which
I didn't have and I don't think Senator Grassley had, and she really
understands the inner workings of the court systems in a way that has
brought a lot of value to our coalition.
In addition, as she said, we are so proud of Minnesota as the State
in our Union that has the highest per capita rate of international
adoptions. So the leaders in Minnesota of all political parties and
stripes as well as the faith-based community really understand this
issue and have stood up time and time again. I wish to recognize
Minnesota's leadership and particularly Senator Klobuchar.
This month is November. It is a great month. It is Thanksgiving
month. We give thanks for so many things in our country. It is a
wonderful celebration--I think in some ways even better than Christmas
because we are not so much focused on gifts; we are focused on really
understanding the blessings we have received. One of those great
blessings is a family.
I am so fortunate to have been born into one of the most remarkable
families--not rich when I was born into my family and still not rich,
and when I was born into my family we were not at all famous either,
but we have two extraordinary parents, and to this day they continue to
teach all 9 of us, 37 grandchildren, and now 5 great-grandchildren the
value of family.
I have said many times, and Senator Klobuchar has shared this with
me, governments do a lot of things well, but raising children isn't one
of them. I will repeat that. Governments do a lot of things well, but
raising children isn't one of them. Actually, we were created and wired
for one human to raise another. It just doesn't happen any other way.
Our faith tells us that.
But now, interestingly, some really extraordinary science is being
done by some of the most brilliant scientists in the world and
sociologists, and one of
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them is from my State, Dr. Charlie Zeanah. I want to give him a shout-
out. When the terrible tragedy happened in Romania and Ceausescu fell--
that crazy man who starved his country and put millions of children in
orphanages--Charlie was one of the Americans who got on the plane with
me and went to Romania, and he has never left. He stayed--not
physically the whole time, but his colleagues stayed and did the most
extraordinary science on the planet of what happens to a child who is
detached from their birth parent or from a loving caregiver--just
detached.
They also did the leading study in the world on institutionalization.
The findings are remarkable in such a way that if they can't make us
change the way we think--group homes are not sufficient. No matter how
well run, they are not sufficient. No institution, no matter how
beautifully it is run, no orphanage in the world, no matter how
magnificently it is run, how clean and brightly painted--nothing can
substitute for what an infant and a toddler and a young child and a
teenager and an adult, amazingly, but particularly an infant need when
they are born. They actually need it before they are born, and that is
a whole other story. But when they are born, it says that the brain
literally reacts physically to the fact that there is no caregiver who
is consistent, and that is what happens when a child is abandoned. They
go through what they are calling now this toxic stress.
The way I like to describe it--and I know maybe I only have 10
minutes, but it is worth talking about. Every adult in this world
within the listening of my voice knows what stress is to an adult. We
can literally feel it. Some people go out for a run. Some people have a
couple of glasses of wine. Some people have long talks with their
friends. We can feel that we have to do something. An infant feels that
but in multiples, and an infant can't go out for a run, and a toddler
doesn't know what to do. So that toxic stress goes right inside of them
and they cannot release it. They don't know how. So it begins to affect
the development of their brain.
These scientists are saying that when a child doesn't have, from the
moment it is born, a constant, caring, confident touch and talk the way
that loving parents demonstrate--as we know, as we hold our infant
children in our arms, we give them strength. I used to think they just
needed food and warmth, but that is not what the science says. The
science says it is so much beyond that. We should have known this by
our faith, but sometimes we doubt. So now the science is stepping up
and saying exactly what we know by faith, which is that it is
imperative that children have a loving, safe place.
I have been to orphanages all over this world, and I will never
forget some of the visions I have seen. This is the most common vision
we will see in an orphanage anywhere, particularly an orphanage where
they have infants who are in cribs who are let's say around 1 year old.
We walk into a room as big as this--sometimes smaller, but I have been
in ones as large as this--with cribs everywhere, and the infants just
sit there, those who can sit up, and they stare into space and they
just rock themselves. The scientists say that is their last desperate
attempt to console an inconsolable emptiness. So they just rock and
they stare. They don't cry. The reason they don't cry is because they
cried incessantly for the first 30 or 60 days of their lives, and then
when no one came they just stopped because little babies are really
smart. Contrary to popular belief, they are literally born with an
exceedingly brilliant brain, but the more toxic, the more distorted it
gets. So by the time a child is 3--not 13, not 30, but 3--their brain
is like a muscle that kind of--it just doesn't function. It doesn't
form correctly. And we can see this on this new imaging.
I know there are those who think this is a soft issue. People look at
Amy and they look at me and they look at Chuck Grassley and think, why
do these people keep talking about this? It is like nothing. Well, it
is a lot. It is not nothing. It is very serious science, and it is very
serious community development, and it is very important for this world
to get this and get it quickly.
We wonder why prisons are filled. We wonder why psychiatric wards are
filled. It is not because people are born bad because even though--I
won't even go into mortal sin and my Catholic background. Let's just
say forget that. Children are actually born beautifully made because
God made them, and it is what we do to them in the time of their birth
and the few years after that really shapes what they are going to be.
So, in my view, as a leader, that is why I have spent a great deal of
my time on this subject. It is not a soft issue. It is as hard and as
important as any Army or any trade policy, and I am never going to stop
talking about it because it is so clearly the truth that I just can't
stop talking about it.
So, again, this is National Adoption Month. We have put a resolution
on the floor. We always get a remarkable amount of support from our
Members.
I want to also give a special shout-out to Senator Blunt, who has a
child and who is very engaged in this issue, and he has really stepped
up. He has a child who was adopted, as do I and as do other Members who
have adopted children or grandchildren. Rosa DeLauro has been a
remarkable leader in the House. Her grandchild was adopted from
Guatemala. She has become an extraordinary voice. Susan Bonamici, the
Congresswoman from Oregon, has also been a great leader. And I just
can't say again how happy I am that Amy Klobuchar has been here to
help.
I have some amazing photographs to share, and I thank the Huffington
Post because that is where they came from. This is National Adoption
Month. The Huffington Post has a great picture--and my colleagues can
go online and see this--of many of the most remarkable adoption stories
on Adoption Day.
These are all children I am going to show you, and I am going to tell
you a little bit about them. This is a domestic adoption out of foster
care. This is the Michael family. The parents are Tiffanie and Adebayo
Michael from New York. The couple fostered two siblings, a boy and a
girl who are pictured here. After 2 years and 4 months, the couple
adopted these two children out of foster care on National Adoption Day.
You can see the smiles.
It is so amazing to see these stories that happen all over the
country. On National Adoption Day, this Saturday, many of the judges--
this was started by a judge in California. I want to give him credit.
His name is Judge Nash.
Judge Nash started this 20 years ago because he was in his courtroom.
He was so frustrated--as Amy has been as a prosecutor--that no one was
processing these adoption cases that he decided. This was how simple
this was. He said: You know what. I am tired of the backlog. I am going
to come in on Saturday. That is what he did. He said: I am just tired
of it. So staff, we are coming in on Saturday. We are going to process
25 adoptions, 30 adoptions when we are not distracted and where we can
get people in.
This is how National Adoption Day started. Judge Nash is my hero.
National Adoption Day was started 20 years ago by one judge in one
courtroom, and then lots of other organizations joined in. Now it is
really a big movement.
This is a happy picture. This is a picture of parents from Baltimore
who adopted an infant with a cleft palate from China in 2012. When this
little infant was born--I know something about what happens in China
and many countries. If an infant is born in almost any country in the
nondeveloped world and they have anything wrong with them like a finger
is missing or they have a cleft palate or, particularly, if they have
something like spina bifida or a leg missing, in some countries they
are literally put in rooms called dying rooms. They just leave them
because they don't have the same understanding that we do in the United
States about A, the dignity of every life, which our faith in this
country teaches us; and B, in some countries they actually think it is
a curse by God if a child is born with a defect, so they just sort of
take it as if God never meant for this child to have a life.
I don't know what would have happened to this little boy. Trust me;
it would not have been happy. The only little problem with him is he
had a cleft palate.
This couple traveled a long distance. Under the law now, they would
probably have to go back two or three
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times because we have made it harder, not easier, for these parents. I
don't know how many times they traveled, but they probably took their
own money, borrowed money--unless they are super rich--from their
relatives and went twice to get this little boy and finally brought him
home.
The next picture is the Haden family. This is my favorite picture.
They have two adopted children. Crew is a 1-year-old. He was adopted
from Niger in 2013. Shepherd was 2 years old and was adopted from the
DRC in 2012.
The most amazing thing is the biological children, which you can see,
were the ones who received the children when they came. I have hardly
seen a more beautiful picture than this that represents what the future
could be if we would do our jobs.
The fourth picture is the Williams family. Jeff and Kelley Williams
are from Nashville, Tennessee. Their faith called them to adopt in
2012. They brought daughter Haley home to Nashville from an orphanage
in Ethiopia. This is how many relatives gathered to meet her. The most
amazing thing about this picture is how tightly her father is holding
her.
The fifth is a picture of the Hardbarger family. They are angels this
year. They are from Shreveport. They are an amazing family from
Louisiana. Chad is a pastor of a church. He is the senior pastor at
Emmanuel Baptist Church in Shreveport. They formed an adoption ministry
because they became so moved by their own experience in adopting.
They adopted all of these children. Monique is 19, Chris is 14, Bryce
is 11, Jordan is 9, Bailey is 8, and Gavin is 7. He is a pastor of a
really wonderful church. They have now taken this as a ministry and are
developing--I see the leader on the floor.
I will wrap up in 2 minutes.
They are developing a wonderful ministry in Shreveport, and many of
our churches in Louisiana are really stepping up to do this.
You may not believe this because this is a very famous family. They
are admired--or otherwise--depending on what circles, so I have a lot
of respect for the ``Duck Dynasty'' family in this area of what they
have done. Willie and Korie Robinson have five children, three
biological, one adopted, and one fostered. The couple adopted Willie,
often called little Will, through a private adoption agency when he was
born. They have a foster daughter from Taiwan named Rebecca. Since
becoming rich and famous, which they weren't always--just a little
simple family making duck calls, but now they are one of the most
famous families in the world. They were our national angel 2 years ago,
and they have continued to promote adoption, both domestic and
international.
I wanted to just show a few of the most extraordinary families, both
famous and not so famous, who are doing this great work.
I want to thank my colleagues for supporting this resolution, calling
on us all in every elective office--Governors, Presidents, Members of
Congress, and then at home in our districts, our courts, our judges,
our prosecutors--to do everything we can to help.
I want to show you the last picture because this is our challenge.
Domestic adoption--I am very proud to have moved this line. I want to
give Secretary Hillary Clinton a shout-out--Senator Clinton--who helped
to move this line. She really did remarkable work since 1999--basically
2000 to 2014. We now have more children being adopted domestically than
ever before at all ages--infants, teenagers, et cetera.
Our challenge is international adoptions have dropped precipitously.
I am going to come back to the floor and give a speech about why this
is happening and what we have tried to do--a few of us--to turn it
around, but our voices are hitting the wall and bouncing off because
the State Department is not listening. We will continue the fight. This
number is going down dramatically.
There are children such as that little boy in China with a cleft
palate who will rot for the rest of their lives. If you want to wonder
where terrorists come from, I will tell you where they come from. They
come from families that are dysfunctional, and they come from places
where there is no hope, no love, and no faith. That is where terrorists
come from. If you want to stop it, I would suggest we start turning
this line the other way.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp). The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, a lot of these adoptions wouldn't
have happened without Senator Landrieu. When we go anywhere in this
country on the adoption issue and mention her name, we see nodding of
heads of so many parents because they actually know what she has done
to fight for domestic adoptions and foster kids and also on the
international level. There is so much more work to be done.
Thank you so much. I will be there when you give your speech.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, let me add my voice in this chorus
because it is true. Senator Landrieu, more than any Member of the
Congress, has made adoption her cause. We are reminded by Senator
Landrieu what a difference it makes in the lives of children and their
families and the world. I want to commend her. Senator Landrieu is the
best.
As the grandfather of an adopted child, I know the difference, the
joy, the importance of that moment in our family life. I thank her for
continuing this battle to make certain that we understand the
importance of adoption.
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