[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 143 (Thursday, November 20, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH AND NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY

                                  _____
                                 

                             HON. DAVE CAMP

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 20, 2014

  Mr. CAMP. Mr. Speaker, this November, I am proud to celebrate 
National Adoption Month and also National Adoption Day, an important 
time to recognize those wonderful parents who have adopted children in 
need of a permanent, loving home. It's also a time to remind ourselves 
of the thousands of children across the country who still remain in 
foster care, waiting for a family to call their own.
  Earlier this year, I was honored to recognize Midland County Probate 
Judge Dorene Allen as the 2014 Angel in Adoption award recipient from 
my district. In her 14 years as a judge, she has finalized nearly 700 
adoptions, and through this and her prior work she has dedicated her 
career to serving Michigan's most vulnerable children. There are many 
incredible advocates like Judge Allen around the country, and I am 
grateful for their efforts and for the opportunity we have to recognize 
them today.
  Adoption is not something I'm speaking about just today, but 
something I have focused on throughout my career in private practice as 
well as my years in Congress. As an attorney before coming to Congress, 
I worked with parents and children in the foster care system. In 
Congress, I have been privileged to meet many adoption advocates as 
well as youth who have benefitted from adoption. Those sorts of 
experiences provided much of the background for legislation I have 
helped craft that has contributed to the landmark changes in adoption 
policy Congress has approved in recent years.
  In 1997, my colleagues and I on the Ways and Means Committee crafted 
the Adoption and Safe Families Act. That legislation streamlined the 
adoption process to help more children in foster care quickly move into 
permanent adoptive homes. It also, for the first time, offered 
incentives to states to safely increase the number of children adopted 
from foster care.
  It worked. In the decade following that legislation, the number of 
U.S. children adopted from foster care increased by 71 percent. In the 
years since, adoptions have continued to remain higher even as the 
foster care caseload started to decline. Overall, almost 300,000 
children have been adopted as a result of the increase in adoptions 
starting in 1997. One study estimated the federal government saved $1 
billion over eight years by ensuring children were adopted instead of 
remaining in foster care.
  In 2001, I worked with my colleagues to pass the historic 2001 tax 
relief package that expanded the adoption tax credit to $10,000, easing 
the financial burden of adopting a child. In 2012, we made the adoption 
tax credit permanent.
  In 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law my legislation, the 
Adoption Promotion Act, to create new financial incentives for states 
that increase adoptions of older children from foster care.
  In 2008 as part of the Fostering Connections to Success and 
Increasing Adoptions Act, my proposal to provide equitable access to 
foster care and adoption services for Indian children in tribal areas 
became law. This allowed tribal governments to receive funding to 
administer adoption and foster care programs directly.
  And just this year--after many months of hearings, public comment, 
and bipartisan work between the House and Senate--the President signed 
into law the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act. 
This law is designed to reduce child sex trafficking as well as 
increase adoptions, including among the hardest-to-place children.
  Together, these efforts have resulted in more children living in 
loving, adoptive families. I am grateful for the support I have 
received from my colleagues in these efforts during my time in 
Congress, and I am grateful that today we can recognize and honor the 
most important people in this process--the parents who adopt children, 
the children who have been adopted, and those children still searching 
for a loving family.
  Children in foster care deserve a place to call home, not for a few 
months or years, but for good. We have already seen great progress in 
increasing adoptions in recent years, and I hope that we will continue 
to see progress in the years ahead.

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