[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[September 20, 2000]
[Pages 1880-1881]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement on Awarding Adoption Bonuses to States
September 20, 2000

    Today's award of nearly $20 million in adoption bonuses to States 
demonstrates the dramatic success of our efforts to move more children 
from the foster care system to loving homes they can call their own. 
With this second round of awards by the U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services, all 50 States, as well as the District of Columbia and 
Puerto Rico, have now earned bonuses for increasing the number of 
children adopted from public foster care. Last year alone, 46,000 foster 
care children were adopted, an increase of nearly 65 percent since 1996. 
This puts us well on the way to meeting my goal of doubling the number 
of adoptions from 28,000 in 1996 to 56,000 by 2002. I commend the States 
for accepting the challenge to more rapidly move children from foster 
care into permanent homes and the many loving families who have opened 
their hearts and their homes to adopt children from the foster care 
rolls.
    I also want to thank the First Lady for her commitment and leadership on this issue. 
Hillary spearheaded my administration's effort to transform our child 
welfare system and promote adoption by leading the administration's 
Adoption 2002 initiative, which served as the blueprint for the Adoption 
and Safe Families Act that I signed into law in 1997. The adoption bonus 
awards were included as part of my our Adoption 2002 initiative and were 
enacted as part of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, establishing the 
first-ever financial incentives to

[[Page 1881]]

States to increase adoptions of children waiting in the foster care 
system.