[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6893]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       NATIONAL FOSTER CARE MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, as a foster parent, a father of two adopted 
children, and a cochairman of the bipartisan Congressional Foster Youth 
Caucus, I rise today to recognize May as National Foster Care Month.
  There are currently over 107,000 foster youth eligible and waiting 
for adoption and more than 400,000 youth in the foster care system. In 
an effort to raise awareness about the needs and the experience of 
these youth, I am honored to join my colleagues in a bipartisan manner 
to acknowledge the importance of this special month.
  Through increased understanding and dedicated caregivers, we can and 
must continue to make important advances in providing more stable and 
caring environments for all foster youth. We must focus on learning 
from State and local child welfare providers, advocates, and foster 
children to better know how we can help. The needs of these youth are 
urgent and real. And while there are many alarming facts and figures 
that reflect the challenges these children face, the resiliency of 
foster youth remains strong; and we must all continue to do our part. 
Together, we can make National Foster Care Month a success.

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