[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.

                          ____________________