[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 94 (Monday, June 3, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H3577-H3579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 2030
IMPROVING FOSTER CARE OUTCOMES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 9, 2023, the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cherfilus-
McCormick) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority
leader.
General Leave
Mrs. CHERFILUS-McCORMICK. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special
Order hour.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mrs. CHERFILUS-McCORMICK. Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that
I rise today to co-anchor the CBC Special Order hour along with my
distinguished colleagues, Representatives Jonathan Jackson and Gwen
Moore.
For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC have the opportunity to
discuss the importance of foster care and outcomes among Black families
and children involved with child welfare, an issue of great importance
to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the constituents we
represent, and all Americans.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).
Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from
Florida for heading up this Special Order hour.
At this time, we have many Members in the Congressional Black Caucus
who are concerned about this issue. I am so happy this evening that we
have also been joined by not only Jonathan Jackson but by a member of
the Ways and Means Committee, a mentor of mine, Representative Danny
Davis, who has served as a social worker and has kept abreast of those
formal studies by engaging and being passionate about foster youth.
I thank the Congressional Black Caucus for shining a light on this
particular issue. We must face it: These are our children.
There are about 400,000 children currently in foster care, not
counting the ones who are in informal arrangements of foster care. They
are our children. They are children of color, and particularly Black
children are disproportionately in the system.
For example, I live in Wisconsin. While African Americans in
Wisconsin make up only 9 percent of the population, almost a quarter of
the children in foster care are African-American children.
I can tell you that these are the most vulnerable kids in our
country, but my God, they are also the most resilient children. Even
the most resilient need our help and our support. As Congress, we must
support them because, after all, these youth are our future workforce.
They are our workforce, and who will support us if we don't support
them?
We just left May. May, of course, was National Foster Care Month.
This year's theme of National Foster Care Month was ``Engaging Youth.
Building Supports. Strengthening Opportunities.'' I think that that is
a really important theme, as I want to announce happily that we are
going to have another foster youth day, a shadow day. I invite all of
my colleagues to engage in the extraordinary experience of letting one
of these youth shadow you. You will be surprised that while you think
that you are teaching them stuff about your craft as a ranking member
or as a chairman, you will learn so much from these youth. That will be
something that will carry through for the rest of your time serving. It
is a blessing.
June is National Family Reunification Month. We have had a foster
care system in this country for many years. One of the things that we
have learned is that foster care ought to be the last resort and that
if we separate children from their families out of necessity, we ought
to do everything that we can to try to reunify them and to learn what
strategies work toward that effort.
We want to do prevention to make sure that these children don't end
up being separated from their families, but if they are, we need to
prioritize kinship care.
One of the co-chairs of this committee is a Republican,
Representative Don Bacon, and he is adamant about kinship care and
keeping kinship groups together. That is one of his passions, and we
need make sure we support his legislation.
We have another co-chair, a Democrat from California, Representative
Sydney Kamlager-Dove. She has come into this Congress, succeeding the
now-mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and gone headfirst into this
issue and is a passionate supporter of our programming.
Mary Gay Scanlon, an attorney from Pennsylvania before she joined us
in this body, brought those skills and her own experience doing a lot
of pro bono work for children and families caught in the foster care
system. She is a passionate co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional
Caucus on Foster Youth.
Representative Nancy Mace, who we all know as a person who has served
in our Armed Forces, brings her leadership to this task. Representative
Zach Nunn is another Republican in our group. It is a bipartisan group,
and we need to save our children.
In just a few days, we are going to have the Congressional Caucus on
Foster Youth's annual Foster Youth Shadow Day. We want Members to sign
up to pair with a foster youth. I can't explain how impactful it is for
these former foster youth to shadow my colleagues for just a day and
how beneficial it is for us as policymakers. It is a great reminder
that beyond these statistics are real people.
Madam Speaker, I have so much to say, but there are others here who
want to share. I will be happy to get into a dialogue or colloquy with
them.
[[Page H3578]]
Mrs. CHERFILUS-McCORMICK. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Gwen
Moore for her words.
I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, let me commend the chairwoman
and the Congressional Black Caucus for hosting this discussion this
evening on what I consider to be one of the most important issues in
our country and in our society, and that is taking a hard look at what
is happening with our children, especially those who are in need of
care.
I will focus on the adage that I have always believed in, that an
ounce of prevention is worth much more than a pound of cure. It just
reminds me of some of the many things that we have championed in trying
to make sure that not only do our children receive the care and
attention that they need once they are in care but also trying to
prevent them from having to have that experience.
I was thinking of 2023 when Illinois and the Nation benefited from
the reauthorization of the MIECHV program, which I was fortunate to
lead. The MIECHV program funds evidence-based education and services
proven to improve mother and child health, family safety, and child
development. I helped create this program in 2010, and it has brought
over $119 million to Illinois and $5.2 billion to the country to help
make families stronger and try to help them to be able to retain their
children.
I am also reminded that Illinois and the Nation benefited from the
Family First Prevention Services Act, which I helped enact. It made
historic improvements to child welfare, fundamentally shifting policy
from separating families to strengthening them by addressing the key
reasons that families struggle. Illinois has received over $66 million
from the law in prevention funding to strengthen families since it was
enacted almost 6 years ago.
National Family Reunification Month, what does that really mean? I
think it means trying to keep families as connected as we possibly can.
I thank the Illinois Department of Corrections for allowing our
fatherhood initiative every year to take children to correctional
institutions to visit with their fathers. As a matter of fact, we have
done that now for about 10 years. The results are startling in terms of
how fathers and children and the children's mothers, significant
others, or grandparents relate to this experience of, even though their
fathers are away, letting the children know that their fathers still
have meaning and a great deal of meaning to their lives.
As we meander our way through trying to figure out how we really make
our world a better place in which to live and how we provide for those
young people, I think of the laws that we have tried to enact and made
some progress on, such as helping foster youth get driver's licenses so
that they can have transportation services and get from one place to
another.
The thing that I am very proud of is that we are close to providing
opportunity for foster youth who have benefits due to them from Social
Security. Rather than having these benefits go to their payees or go to
States for operational expenses, we are getting close to having these
benefits come to the foster youth themselves and put into a trust fund
or something for them, so when they age out, it helps the older foster
youth.
Think of how meaningful it would be for a young person who is aging
out, reaching adulthood, who has never had any real access to resources
of their own, having a few thousand dollars in a trust fund to help
them transition to adulthood, so that they now can act like an adult,
have their own resources to go to college, have their own resources to
help get an apartment, have their own resources before they get a job
and not struggle during that period.
I commend and thank my colleagues and the Congressional Black Caucus
for raising this issue, providing direction, and giving us an
opportunity to recognize that the needs are great and that we want to
make society a better world.
I end by thinking of one of my favorite expressions that a poet and
blues singer said. That is that:
I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride
If we can do that, then I am confident that America, our Nation, will
become a better place in which to live.
{time} 2045
Mrs. CHERFILUS-McCORMICK. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Davis
for his words.
Madam Speaker, today I rise to discuss the disparities that Black
children and families face within our Nation's foster care system.
Study after study has shown that Black children in the United States
statistically spend more time in foster care and are significantly less
likely to be reunified with their families. We have a moral obligation
to address the glaring disparities that persist within our child
welfare system.
Nationwide, the average number of days for children to exit foster
care is 633 days, yet for Black children, the average number of days
was a staggering 743.
In my home State of Florida, the average number of days for Black
children to exit foster care is 633 days, which is the longest average
number of any racial group. These discrepancies speak volumes about the
systemic barriers that hinder the timely reunification of Black
children with their families.
These numbers represent the extensive damage being done by the child
welfare system to the well-being of Black children in Florida and
throughout our country. These disparities perpetuate a cycle of
instability and trauma and exacerbate existing inequalities,
perpetuating a system that disproportionately affects communities of
color.
We cannot afford to ignore these disparities. Each statistic
represents a child with hopes, dreams, and a future that should not be
determined by the color of their skin or the shortcomings of our
system.
We must commit to addressing the systemic issues that
disproportionately affect Black children in foster care. Together, we
can build a child welfare system that truly supports and nurtures every
child, giving them the foundation they need to succeed.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson),
who is my co-anchor.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, first, I thank the Honorable
Congresswoman from the great State of Florida, the Honorable Sheila
Cherfilus-McCormick, for yielding.
Madam Speaker, today I rise because June is National Reunification
Month, and we owe it to Black families not to be silent about what the
child welfare system has done to them in both tragic and traumatic
ways.
I say to you today, Madam Speaker, the effects have been devastating
and long-lasting on our children. The fact that we even have to have a
National Reunification Month says it all.
How can it even be possible that a system that purports to help Black
families has been so chiefly responsible for the separation of the very
families it supposedly exists to serve?
This kind of morose contradiction cannot be allowed to persist and
linger because whether some people in this country are willing to admit
it or not, families come in all shapes and sizes. Families come in all
colors and configurations. They even come in various economic
conditions and levels of education.
All of them are still families, and all of them deserve our
commitment. All of them are dependent on the work we do in this
Chamber, and the Members of this body cannot just care about the
families that remind them of their own.
No matter the race or configuration of a particular family, we are
here to serve every family in this country. Either we care about all
American families or, in truth, is it that we only care about some,
most, or none?
Black families deserve all the rights and opportunities extended to
every other family in this country. In fact, considering the historical
assault on this country's institutions and policies against Black
families, one might even suggest that Black families deserve to have
more than most. We have been through a lot.
I am honored to be a Member of this congressional body and to
represent
[[Page H3579]]
the First Congressional District of the State of Illinois. When I think
of the life of a young child who was kidnapped from West Africa by the
name of Phillis Wheatley in 1753, who was manumitted from slavery in
1773, our Nation has come a long way, but let us never forget that a
child had been kidnapped who was 8 years of age. They approximated her
age because of the size of her teeth. She had to go up and talk to John
Hancock and others and had to recite poetry that we later came to find
out were anagrams. She was an absolutely brilliant child, and she was
the first person of African ancestry from 1619 to 1753 to have been
manumitted from slavery.
I want us to know that Black families are more valuable simply
because they have been through so much. Black families don't have their
value just because they have been through so much. It is because of the
compassion they have had to grow. Not one family is more valuable than
the others. We all have different experiences, and sometimes they have
had a long-lasting and devastating legacy of neglect that has too often
resulted in outright violence.
We rise tonight to reflect on the role of this tragic system and how
we might strengthen bonds and not just perpetuate historical problems
and systemic norms in the child welfare system that is tearing so many
families apart.
I am convinced now more than ever that we must do whatever we can to
reduce the need for foster care and strengthen families in whichever
configuration they are formed.
Until the system of child welfare can see the value in keeping
families together, we must hold the system accountable for what we know
to be right. What we do, we also have to know is the right thing. We
know that, yes, every child should be protected, and they still need
their mothers and their fathers no matter the frailty and the
conditions that they suffer from.
Yes, children should have their basic needs met, too, but they still
need their grandmothers and grandfathers.
Our child welfare system should not separate children. Our child
fostering system that is supposed to help feed and nourish children
should not separate children in any case.
Every child who has a brother or a sister deserves to have a
relationship with their brother or sister they possess. As much as
children should be protected from whatever seeks to threaten the
integrity of their lives, it is also the case that no child should be
erroneously or permanently separated from people who love them.
We must change the economic conditions and political factors that
make it even possible for Black children to end up not being cared for
by their relatives because of a lack of capacity and their resources.
There is a reason Black families are more likely to be investigated
by child protective services and to have their children removed and
placed in out-of-home care. There is a reason more than 50 percent of
Black children in the U.S. will experience a child welfare
investigation before their 18th birthday and 10 percent of Black
children will be placed into foster care.
These are not accidental occurrences. Rather, they are the
manifestation of a deep and pervasive systemic bias. Black children
spend more time in foster care; Black children have more placements;
and, yes, Black children are less likely to be reunified with their
families.
Somebody needs to stand up for those who cannot stand up for
themselves. Since the children of our community cannot speak on the
floor of this Chamber tonight, we dare to speak for them. Tonight, we
pick up the standard for their cause and declare emphatically on their
behalf: Let these children return home to loving families. Let them be
treated with respect. Let's give them the presumption of innocence and
virtue that they deserve. Let them be reunited with the kindred spirit
that produced them and continues to love them in spite of the
challenges that they face.
This pattern of unjustified investigation and prolonged separation
must be brought to an end, not just for the sake of the children but
also for the sake of this Nation's future.
Unless the children of our community are returned to the loving arms
of their families, no child in this country is safe. No child can sleep
easy tonight, and we will not rest until the circle is restored and
until the village can, once again, decide for itself what is best for
our children.
As we work to keep them safe, let us live to make them free because
the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it
alone.
We thank God for the life, the living, and the legacy of the
Honorable Phillis Wheatley, a child who was separated and was the first
to be manumitted to be free in America, a child who was kidnapped that
God had borne free and who had to have her rights restored as a human
being.
Madam Speaker, I thank the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick from
the great State of Florida for her continued service.
Mrs. CHERFILUS-McCORMICK. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative
Jackson for his passionate speech.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss how historical trauma and
systemic racism have perpetuated cycles of intergenerational poverty
and have disproportionately impacted the welfare of Black children in
America.
We must acknowledge a painful truth: By the age of 18, one out of
every 100 children in America will experience the court-ordered
termination of their parents' rights. This stark statistic is even more
alarming for Black children nationwide, who are 2.4 times more likely
than their White counterparts to endure the devastating loss of
parental rights. In my home State of Florida, Black children are 1.3
times more likely to experience this.
These numbers represent the lives of children torn from their
families, often due to circumstances rooted in historical and
structural inequities. Historical trauma, rooted in centuries of
enslavement, segregation, and discrimination, continues to echo through
generations.
Structural racism further exacerbates these challenges, manifesting
in biased policies and practices that disproportionately affect Black
families in the child welfare system.
Intergenerational poverty is both a cause and a consequence of child
welfare involvement. Families trapped in cycles of poverty face
challenges in providing the necessary resources and support for their
children. This economic instability often leads to increased scrutiny
and intervention from child welfare services, perpetuating a cycle of
disruption and disadvantage.
Children have better outcomes in life when they are nurtured and
cared for by their own families. We need to reimagine and reform our
approach to child welfare to ensure it is fair, equitable, and
supportive of family unity.
Our children's futures and the future of our Nation depend on what we
do here today in Congress to redirect and make sure that most children
get to stay with their families while protecting the children who need
it.
Madam Speaker, you have heard from my distinguished colleagues about
the foster care system and the issues facing the Black community, all
issues of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, our
constituents, Congress, and all Americans tonight.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________