[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 217 (Thursday, November 8, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 56425-56426]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-28210]


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                         Presidential Documents 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 217 / Thursday, November 8, 2001 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 56425]]

                Proclamation 7493 of November 5, 2001

                
National Adoption Month, 2001

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Children deserve to be raised in loving families with 
                parents who protect and nurture them. For some 
                children, adoption is their best chance for a healthy 
                and happy life. Each year, American families adopt 
                approximately 120,000 newborn or older children, 
                providing them with a loving and supportive 
                environment.

                Despite this substantial number of annual adoptions, 
                more than 134,000 children are currently waiting 
                adoption. While our foster care system can provide a 
                safe, temporary home for these children, adoption would 
                give them the love and stability of a permanent family 
                that would better enable them to develop to their full 
                potential.

                My Administration is working to help states promote and 
                support adoptions. This year, 35 states and the 
                District of Columbia received adoption incentive awards 
                for increasing the number of children they placed from 
                foster care into permanent homes. States have 
                reinvested these bonuses to enhance their adoption and 
                child welfare programs, which has resulted in an 
                unprecedented 79 percent increase in adoptions from 
                28,000 in 1996 to 50,000 in 2000.

                Although we have made dramatic advances in encouraging 
                adoption, we must strengthen our efforts to find a 
                safe, loving, and permanent home for every child 
                awaiting one. One important way to advance towards this 
                goal is to ease the financial burden on families that 
                adopt children. The tax relief bill that I signed into 
                law earlier this year extends and increases the 
                adoption tax credit for qualified expenses from $5,000 
                to $10,000 per child. The new law also increases the 
                tax credit for adoptive parents of children with 
                special needs from $6,000 to $10,000 per child, 
                regardless of expenses. Parents who adopt children with 
                special needs will benefit from this meaningful tax 
                credit because it will help cover unique adoption 
                costs.

                Ensuring the provision of post-adoptive services also 
                plays an important role in facilitating successful 
                adoptions. I support the Promoting Safe and Stable 
                Families proposal, currently before the Congress, which 
                would improve post- adoptive services by prioritizing 
                research and evaluation for these services and 
                establishing systems to ensure that they are available 
                to meet the needs of adoptive families. In addition, 
                this proposal provides for education and training 
                vouchers to children adopted after the age of 15.

                Adoptive parents have a special calling--sharing a 
                loving home with children in need, offering them hope 
                for a brighter future. Federal, state, and local 
                governments must continue supporting these quiet heroes 
                as they make the considerable sacrifices and receive 
                the countless blessings of parenthood that come from 
                providing a child with the chance of a lifetime--an 
                upbringing in a happy and healthy home.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim November 2001, as

[[Page 56426]]

                National Adoption Month. I call on all Americans to 
                observe this month with appropriate programs and 
                activities to honor adoptive families and to 
                participate in efforts to find permanent homes for 
                waiting children.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand one, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)B

[FR Doc. 01-28210
Filed 11-7-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P