[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 186 (Wednesday, November 20, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6686-S6688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        National Adoption Month

  Mr. President, I am here today to talk about another topic. I want to 
talk for a few minutes about the importance of November as National 
Adoption Month and to recognize the celebration of National Adoption 
Day, which will take place on Saturday, November 23. I am pleased to 
work with my colleague and Senate cochair of the Congressional 
Coalition For Adoption, Senator Klobuchar, again, to introduce this 
resolution supporting National Adoption Month and National Adoption 
Day. This is the 5th year Senator Klobuchar and I have worked together 
on this legislation and the 5th year where I hope our colleagues will 
unanimously support it and do that this week.
  The Congressional Coalition on Adoption is the largest bipartisan, 
bicameral caucus in all of Congress, and there is a good reason for 
that. In the Senate Subcommittee, where agreement is really too often 
hard to find, the idea that every child deserves to grow up in a safe, 
stable home with a loving family is something that not only everybody 
should be able to agree with, but in the Congress, we have been able to 
agree with that in a broad-based sort of way.
  Right now, there are more than 437,000 children in the foster care 
system in our country. More than 125,000 of those are children who are 
ready and waiting for families who want to get this adoption completed; 
yet the average length of time it takes a child from foster care to 
adoption, once the adoption decision has been made by the adopting 
family, is 19 months. I was in a meeting just last week with the 
administrator of this program in the administration who is doing 
everything I believe they can for the first time in a while to do what 
they can to reduce this wait.
  I would also like to see the State Department, frankly, become for 
vigorous in encouraging foreign adoptions for those kids all over the 
world who are in need of families.
  I don't disagree with the idea that if someone in Ethiopia wants to 
adopt an Ethiopian child or someone in Guatemala wants to adopt a 
Guatemalan child or someone in Russia wants to adopt a Russian child, 
that is all fine. But if they don't have adoptive families in the 
country they were born in, let's open the door in a more effective way 
for American families who want to be part of that.
  There is some good news. For the fourth year in a row, the number of 
children who were adopted increased. Four years in a row, more kids 
were adopted than in the previous year. For the second year in a row, 
the number of children who entered foster families decreased. I don't 
want to say that in a way that takes anything away from people who are 
willing to be foster families, to give that security, that emotional 
embrace to kids who don't have that at home. Foster families serve a 
great purpose, but even foster families often become adoptive families, 
and they do this because they know that is a situation that becomes 
permanent. Knowing that you have a family forever makes a difference.

[[Page S6687]]

  In my home State of Missouri, there are almost 13,000 kids in the 
foster system right now. I want to share a few of their stories.
  Gabe, who is a 10th grader in Missouri, is a big fan of reading and 
big fan of watching movies. He hopes to join the military when he is 
older.
  Natalie is 14. Natalie loves to read. She loves to draw. She loves to 
write. She loves to be outside. If she had a superpower, she says she 
would choose invisibility. This second grader really would like a 
permanent home. She wants to be a veterinarian someday. She is doing 
well in school. The thing she really needs is a home she can always go 
back to.
  Ragan and Haylee are sisters who hope to have pets in their home. 
They don't have pets in their home right now. Ragan is a sixth grader 
who likes to laugh and draw and learn. Haylee is a fifth grader who 
likes to play soccer and spend time with her soccer teammates. Even 
sisters have different ways they look at the world. They would all like 
a family.
  Last week, I had the privilege to meet with three families from 
Missouri who were here to be celebrated at the Angels in Adoption 
activity that occurred last week. This is something we do annually to 
recognize families who have gone above and beyond what you could expect 
in the adoption community. This was the first year there were Angels in 
Adoption being recognized from all 50 States and from Washington, DC. 
Of the three Missouri families I had a chance to spend some time with, 
one included Justin and Kristin Akin from Chesterfield. I actually 
first met Kristin when she came to my office to be an advocate for Be 
The Match. Be The Match is a Federally authorized and funded registry 
program that matches unrelated bone marrow donors with patients 
suffering from leukemia and from 70 other fatal blood cancers.
  Kristin was here advocating for that because she and Justin had lost 
two sons, Andrew and Matthew, who were diagnosed with a rare disease 
and were unable to find matched donors. Kristin and Justin, after 
losing those two sons, adopted William and Christopher.
  Kristin continues to be a volunteer to help other families trying to 
find that match. We are doing better with that program. In fact, we 
increased that program in our proposed budget for this year by $5.4 
million, as we increased the National Cord Blood Inventory Program 
also.
  As important as that constant effort to do what they can so that 
other families didn't have happen to them what happened when they lost 
their two children was their decision to bring two more sons into their 
house and to do that by adopting.
  I also had a chance to meet Zach and Joanna Holden. The Holdens began 
fostering in May of 2010. They were already parents of three young 
girls of their own, but they became foster parents to make an impact on 
the lives of children, knowing it wouldn't be easy for their family but 
it would be an important thing to do for the kids they brought into 
their family. Through their 9 years as foster parents, the Holdens have 
had 30 different foster kids in their house and adopted 2 of those 30 
kids through the foster care relationships they had.
  In early 2012, they began a small ministry out of their garage called 
The Caring Closet, which later merged with Fostering Hope, another 
local foster care ministry. Joanna and that ministry--and the 
partnership now with Fostering Hope--gathered and sorted donations, put 
together packs of clothes, distributed them to local foster families 
wherever there was a need. Fostering Hope now supports children in 
foster care. They help foster families as they help foster kids, and 
they help foster care agencies across several communities in Southwest 
Missouri.
  Jody and Mary Ann Allen-Parker also shared their incredible story 
with me. Nearly two decades ago, Mary Ann witnessed a tragic 
circumstance involving the friends of one of her sons. He explained a 
challenging situation he and his family were in, and he asked Mary Ann 
if he could move in with them. She took this child and, shortly after 
that, his two siblings under her care along with her own two children.
  After going to court, Mary Ann was able to establish custody over 
those three kids as well. The oldest of them has joined the Marines and 
the other two are still at home with Mary Ann. She has given them the 
structure and focus they didn't have in their original home but they 
have through her, and they also have reconnected with their parents on 
a much different level than they ever had before.
  There are lots of stories to be shared. There are lots of families 
who are waiting to adopt. There are lots of families who haven't 
thought about it yet who would be willing to adopt.
  According to one survey, nearly one-quarter of the people in the 
United States who haven't adopted have considered being an adoptive 
parent. There are many concerns about adoption that aren't there once 
you get in, open that door, and look at what can happen when you create 
a forever family for somebody who needs one.
  The same survey showed that over one-third of the participants 
believe that foster care adoption is expensive, and a majority of those 
considering foster care adoption indicated that receiving financial and 
emotional support would make a difference in deciding whether to adopt.
  I will be sponsoring again this year the refundable tax credit for 
adoptive parents. About 50 percent of all the parents who adopt don't 
make enough money to pay income tax, which says a lot about them. It 
also says a lot about the fact that the system we have now--in which 
you get a tax credit, but you get a tax credit only if you pay taxes--
serves to encourage only about 50 percent of the families who are 
willing to stretch in unique ways and adopt kids.
  Senator Klobuchar and I have introduced the Supporting Adoptive 
Families Act to ensure adoptive families have access to pre- and post-
adoption services, including mental and physical and behavioral health 
screenings and assistance. In February, we also introduced the 
Intercountry Adoption Advisory Committee Act to improve the 
intercountry adoption process.
  Since National Adoption Day started in 2000, tens of thousands of 
children have been adopted. If only a few of them are adopted because 
this month and this day draw attention to that, that is certainly worth 
the effort we will make on the Senate floor this week to recognize this 
important month and to recognize next Saturday as National Adoption 
Day.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Lagoa nomination?
  Ms. HASSAN. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
   Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. 
Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from 
Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and 
the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.
   The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). Are there any other Senators 
in the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 80, nays 15, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 360 Ex.]

                                YEAS--80

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hawley
     Heinrich
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     McConnell
     McSally
     Menendez
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Smith
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--15

     Bennet
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cortez Masto
     Gillibrand
     Hirono
     Markey
     Merkley
     Murray
     Rosen
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Stabenow
     Van Hollen
     Wyden

[[Page S6688]]


  


                             NOT VOTING--5

     Booker
     Harris
     Klobuchar
     Sanders
     Warren
   The nomination was confirmed.

                          ____________________