[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5432-S5433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Intercountry Adoption

  Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I take to the floor of the Senate this 
afternoon to call Senators' attention to the worsening crisis in 
intercountry adoptions. I must say, it saddens me to have to do this 
because much of the crisis in foreign adoptions--or intercountry 
adoptions--is happening as a result of policies of our own Federal 
Government.
  I am fortunate to have had two loving parents and a loving family. My 
dad is 96 years old. I visited with him yesterday. My mom, sadly, 
passed away several years ago. But I was fortunate. I was among the 
fortunate people on the face of this planet to have two loving parents 
and a loving family. That is not the case all around the world.
  Internationally, in particular, there are countless children who have 
no mom, no dad, no family, no extended family to care for them. They 
reside in the most deplorable conditions, in orphanages, and as wards 
of the state.
  Americans have always been compassionate for these children without a 
forever family, and that compassion extends to children not only 
orphaned in the United States but also outside of our borders. For 
decades, Americans have led the world in welcoming children from around 
the globe to come to the United States and be part of a forever family. 
As a result, more than 150,000 children adopted from foreign countries 
are now growing up in the United States--150,000. These children and 
their adoptive families are examples of America at its best.
  I am here to say to my colleagues today that intercountry adoption is 
in real trouble, and much of the reason that intercountry adoption is 
in trouble is coming from our own Federal policies, from unelected 
bureaucrats, particularly at our own Department of State.
  The number of international children finding an American home has 
plummeted in recent years. Listen to this statistic. In the year 2004, 
Americans adopted 23,000 children from foreign countries--23,000. Last 
year, 2019, that number had fallen below 3,000, an 87-percent drop from 
23,000 only 15 years before to 3,000 in 15 short years.
  Now, people who have been looking into this issue are well aware of 
what is causing the decline, and one of the reasons is Russia. Because 
of foreign policy disagreements, Russia has shut its doors to 
intercountry adoption. We have pleaded with the Russian Government 
about this, and we have not made much progress. That is one of the 
factors--not the only factor and not even the principal factor, but 
that is on the Russian Government. It saddens me that they have done 
that.
  The biggest reason for the decline in intercountry adoptions by 
Americans comes within our own government, our own State Department. 
For years, the State Department and its adoption accrediting entity 
have demonstrated a clear and consistent bias against intercountry 
adoption. It saddens me to say this. It is unbelievable that I have to 
say this, but career bureaucrats in the State Department have 
deliberately obstructed the adoption process with new fees, new 
requirements that amount to redtape, and unrealistic standards on 
foreign governments. These bureaucrats have placed burdensome 
regulations on adoption provider agencies. These regulations make it 
nearly impossible for adoption-providing agencies to maintain 
accreditation.
  This has been done by design, and the results are devastating. In the 
last year and a half, more than 30 adoption-providing agencies have 
left the intercountry adoption space, and we are losing more agencies 
every month. The bias of our Federal Government's State Department 
against intercountry adoptions is unmistakable.
  In 2018, for example, the Department directly intervened to prevent 
three well-respected adoption agencies from being reaccredited. A 
Federal judge dismissed the Department's reasoning as ``quite 
unconvincing'' and ``simply illogical.'' That is what a Federal judge 
had to say about the reasoning of this little part of the State 
Department that seems determined to end foreign adoptions.
  During that same year, 2018, a journalist quoted a State Department 
insider who confirmed that the Office of Children's Issues, the OCI, in 
the State Department is biased against intercountry adoption. Why they 
would take this position is beyond me. Adoption advocates followed up 
by requesting Freedom of Information Act documents about this claim by 
the journalist who quoted the State Department insider, but the 
Department of State has resisted this Freedom of Information Act 
request and has still yet to produce any documents 2 years after the 
statutory FOIA deadline has passed.
  There are plenty more examples. Last year, the State Department 
hosted an adoption symposium that may as well have been called the 
international anti-adoption symposium. This is funded at our State 
Department by our own taxpayer dollars. Our own tax funds funded a 
conference that featured radically anti-adoption speakers who openly 
denounced the practice of international adoptions. It is hard to 
believe, and it is hard to imagine a worse use of taxpayer dollars.
  The adoption community has voiced concerns about the State 
Department's anti-adoption bias, but it seems that government has not 
listened. I will say that this has been a problem in State Departments 
headed by Republican Secretaries and by Democratic Secretaries. When 
adoption providers privately shared their concerns about the 
accrediting agency, the Department responded by issuing a public letter 
threatening the future of intercountry adoption.
  The Office of Children's Issues, OCI, is slamming the door in the 
faces of thousands of orphans who need a family, and they are saying no 
to willing

[[Page S5433]]

American couples who are pleading to give these international children 
a forever family here in our great country.
  It seems that OCI's priorities are out of step with their statutory 
mandate. Also, they are out of step with the values of this country and 
basic morality. We need to change the policy of the State Department in 
this regard, I say to my colleagues.
  I call on my colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee to hold an 
oversight hearing to review the State Department's role in intercountry 
adoption, to examine the allegations of bias against intercountry 
adoption, and to hear from accrediting agencies and other stakeholders 
about their experiences in working with the Department of State and its 
accrediting entity. I think such a hearing would be revealing, and I 
think the results would be troubling to Members of the Congress.
  I also call on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to 
investigate allegations raised against the U.S. accrediting entity in 
the State Department's Office of Children's Issues.
  It is time, actually, to transition the U.S. central authority from 
the Department of State to a more receptive, more compassionate, and 
more understanding home, such as the Department of Health and Human 
Services. This would allow experienced child welfare professionals to 
oversee intercountry adoptions.
  We have a great Secretary of State. I have known Mike Pompeo for 
years. I think he has got all he can preside over, and I don't for a 
minute think that the Secretary of State understands what this small 
entity in his State Department is doing. I think he must have no idea 
that this is going on, but I think the solution is to move this 
function from the State Department.
  I would call on the Secretary of State to put a hold on planned 
changes down in this little agency populated by unelected bureaucrats 
who are hostile to adoption. I think we should put a hold on planned 
changes in the accreditation compliance system until there has been a 
full review of OCI's bias against adoption. The competence of their 
staff needs to be investigated, and we need to look, we need to give an 
open assessment, shining the light of day on the impact that this small 
group of bureaucrats is having on something that I think most Americans 
support.
  The American people believe in adoption. They believe in giving 
orphans anywhere in the world an opportunity to have a forever family. 
They believe in giving couples here in the United States the 
opportunity to provide a home for these children who are less fortunate 
than most of us have been, most of us within the sound of my voice have 
been. I think the American people believe in a change in this 
inexplicably anti-American and anti-family policy.
  Today, I am on the floor of the U.S. Senate to shine a light on this 
tragedy, on this outrage. I ask my colleagues to remember the teaching 
of the Psalmist: ``Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; 
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.''
  I think Americans believe in the sentiments of the Psalmist in that 
regard. I think we are ready to heed the plight of the fatherless. 
Let's not neglect our duty in correcting the situation we find 
ourselves in and, once again, becoming the country that provides 
welcoming, loving outreach to children to be part of a forever American 
family.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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